During discussion, Jawaharlal Nehru, the future Prime Minister of India, doubted if the agreement should cover only 'administrative' matters.
A States Negotiating Committee was formed to discuss both the agreements, consisting of ten rulers and twelve ministers.
Jammu and Kashmir at the far north of the Indian subcontinent had contiguous borders with both India and Pakistan, and was theoretically in a position to accede to either of them.
Ostensibly, he assessed that the State's Muslims would be unhappy with accession to India, and the Hindus and Sikhs would become vulnerable if he joined Pakistan.
[10][9] The new prime minister, Major Janak Singh, sent telegrams to both India and Pakistan on 12 August expressing the State's intention to sign standstill agreements with them.
[d] Years later, the state's political leader Sheikh Abdullah offered the explanation that the Government of India did not consider that any agreement would be valid unless it had the approval of people's representatives.
On 15 August, when Pakistan became independent, Pakistani flags were hoisted on most of the post offices until the Maharaja's government ordered them to be taken down.
[16] On 11 October, Hyderabad sent a delegation to Delhi with a draft Standstill agreement, which was characterised as "elaborate" by V. P. Menon, the secretary of the States Department.
The States minister Vallabhbhai Patel rejected any agreement that would not completely cede Defence and External affairs to the Government of India.
Upon the advice of Governor General Louis Mountbatten, Menon prepared a new draft agreement which was sent back with the Hyderabad delegation.
[17] Soon the Nizam came under pressure from Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (Ittehad), the Muslim nationalist party that was active in the state, and backed off from the agreement.
[17] On the morning of 27 October, Qasim Rizvi, the leader of Ittehad, organised a massive demonstration of several thousand activists to blockade the delegation's departure.
[21] It laid down that all agreements and administrative arrangements then existing between the British Crown and the Nizam would continue with the Government of India.
[28] More seriously, the Ittehad promoted vast armed bands of razakars who threatened communal peace inside the state as well as along the border.
After multiple rounds of negotiations, the government of India delivered an ultimatum on 31 August 1948, demanding a ban on the razakars and the stationing of Indian troops in the state to keep law and order.