Kultar Singh expressed these sentiments while talking to reporters before he was felicitated by the Shree Punjabi Sewa Samaj on Sunday.

``It is owing to the policy of appeasement pursued by successive Indian governments towards our neighbours that India has been divided into three parts during the past 52 years,'' Kultar Singh said. Elaborating on the pitfalls of this policy, he said soon after partition, India had to pay Pakistan a whopping Rs 55 crore at the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi.

Once the country buckled under pressure, Pakistan began making all sorts of demands on India and managed to wrest not only money but also important parts of its territory, Singh said. He said while India stuck to the 1947 agreement between the two countries that communities would not be forced to shift during partition, the Pakistan government literally hounded away the Sikhs and Hindus residing there to this side of the border.

Singh also attributed the faulty policy of the government regarding Pakistan-backed militant activities in Kashmir. ``Had the Government allowed Hindu and Sikh refugees to settle in Kashmir during the Partition, the militancy infested State would not have been in ruins today,'' Singh said.

Similarly, he said, had Indian leaders refused to act under pressure from Lord Mountbatten during the Pakistan-initiated 1948 war, the brave Indian soldiers would have captured PoK.

Singh said the same was true for the 1965 war which was imposed on India by Pakistan. ``Though the Indian Army had reached Lahore during this war, the Indian Government, acting again under international pressure ordered withdrawal of troops, thus losing yet another opportunity to capture Kashmir,'' Singh said, adding, ``During the 1971 war too the Indian Government returned the Pakistani territory captured by Indian troops.''

Similarly, he said while thousands of Indian jawans and officers laid down their lives during the Kargil conflict, the Indian Government provided a safe corridor to the Pakistan troops for their safe return.