ON ZULFIQAR ALI BHUTTO

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits about Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from an article Remembering a Governor by V.K.Kapoor (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040817/edit.htm -- AUG 17, 2004). Mr.Kapoor was ADC to Mr.B.N.Chakravorty who was the Governor of Punjab at that time.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi was on her way to Shimla for a conference with Mr ZA Bhutto. On landing at Chandigarh she was informed by the IAF that her helicopter can’t take off due to bad weather and she’ll have to wait for 3-4 hours. The Governor persuaded her to come to Raj Bhavan for a cup of tea. On the way to Raj Bhavan Mr Chakravorty related to Mrs Gandhi when Bhutto had used the expression “Indian Dogs” in the UN. Mr Chakravorty was then India’s permanent representative to the UN. Mr Chakravorty recounted that Mr Bhutto had conveniently forgotten that he had an Indian “Hindu” mother. And by using this expression he had qualified himself to what the Americans gleefully call ‘S O B’. Mrs Gandhi clapped her hands and laughed heartily.

Many years later when I went to Lahore I heard another story about Bhutto. Bhutto’s mother Nirmala, a Hindu dancing girl, who became Khurshid after marrying Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, was extremely worried about her very sick child’s survival. She asked a Hindu astrologer to cast Bhutto’s horoscope. The astrologer after reading the horoscope told her that for the coming 50 years there was lot of brightness and sunshine but after that there was complete darkness. The relieved mother remarked that she would not be around after 50 years. After 50 years General Zia-ul-Haq put Bhutto in a dark cell from where he never came out.