It was some time in 1970 when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla near Pune, that some of us, then cadets under training there, got to see her up close. On our course, we were attending the early morning physical training period in separate squads at the gymnasium, where we saw her walking past us with as military a gait as the commandant and officers escorting her and viewing all the activity with quite the quick observant eye of a field commander. Thereafter, she impressed us with her speech in the cadets’ mess during the guest lunch in her honour. Her speeches during the 1971 India-Pakistan War were inspiring too and worth giving a second hearing.
Years later, after her assassination, during an interaction with former Air Chief, Air Chief Marshal (then Squadron Leader) Fali Major, who had often piloted the VIP squadron helicopter transporting Mrs Gandhi, I recall him recounting how particular she used to be about the general welfare and billeting arrangements for the air-crew while on tours. Mrs Gandhi’s first instance of assertiveness on national security was when the Chinese People’s Libera-tion Army (PLA) began upping the ante on the Line of Actual Control at Nathu La, in Sikkim in 1967 — five years after the Chinese aggression. Brig. M.M.S. Bakshi, who commanded the brigade at Nathu La then, related the incident to this writer.
While the Indian Army had strict orders about opening of fire, Brig. Bakshi explained: “Local commanders were authorised to open fire with small arms only in self-defence. As for heavier weapons, such as artillery, even high-ranking field commanders had not been delegated the authority to employ such weapons. It transpired that this authority was vested only in the Prime Minister. Such a control has some logic of limiting a local incident from escalating into a clash of serious proportions in normal times.”
Although border-fencing had been agreed to at the level of the two armies’ formation commanders, to avoid frequent bickering which the politically-motivated PLA soldiers resorted to, they continued to do so when fencing work began. Eventually, the situation reached a boiling point. Brig. Bakshi continued: “They (PLA) opened up with all the weapons they had, including their mortars and even artillery. Our troops were taken by surprise in the open and many fell in cold blood. The commanding officer of the battalion was severely wounded by a burst of machinegun in his stomach and had to be evacuated. There was utter panic and confusion when two more officers — a captain and a major — were killed as they led their troops in the open.” Deciding that an artillery response must be given, Brig. Bakshi requested for it.
He described: “Apparently the divisional commander passed on the request for artillery fire to the Corps commander located in Siliguri who in turn asked the Army commander (GOC-in-C, Easte-rn Command) in Calcutta. It so happened that the Army commander was in Delhi those days, standing in for the Chief of the Army Staff, who had gone abroad on an official visit to France. But it was astonishing that even the Chief was helpless without the express permission from the PM who was in Parliament at that time and could not be disturbed. Eventually, when appro-ached she (Indira Gandhi) gave the go-ahead instantly. When we did get the permission to use artillery, we went in with a vengeance and gave them as well as we got. The firefight went on for five days in all its fury. Mercifully, neither side made any effort to make an incursion into the other side’s territory and both sides began to realise the futility of this misadventure. We started getting orders to de-escalate, but before that our medium guns destroyed a convoy of trucks bringing Chinese reinforcements moving up the road through Chumbi Valley to reach the Pass.”
In one fell stroke Mrs Gandhi undid the humiliation by China which her father was responsible for and sent a message to the Chinese that they could forget about repeating 1962. On April 8, 1975, Indian tanks and soldiers surrounded the palace the King of Sikkim and placed him under Indian observance. In the process of this annexation one member of the Sikkim guard was shot dead. It was delightful to hear late Field Marshal (FM) S.H.F.J. Manekshaw, recall his discussion with Mrs Gandhi, when he was the Army Chief in 1971. “I have seen several angry women, including my wife. But never one like Mrs Gandhi,’’ said the Field Marshal while releasing the book, Liberation and Beyond: Indo-Bangladesh Relations by J.N. Dixit, former foreign secretary, in the capital.
In early 1971, when the problem of the great influx of East Pakistani refugees entering India was being discussed in a Cabinet meeting, Mrs Gandhi had asked for Sam, then Army Chief to be present. When asked by her as to what he had done about this influx he had replied that he was doing nothing about it as doing anything about it would amount to an act of war. At the end of the meeting, when she asked him to stay on, he admitted during some interviews with the media that he had prepared himself to tender his resignation. However, when she resumed the discussion with him in private, he gave her all the reasons why he felt India should not go to war at that point of time. She then asked him to suggest the date and in sign language conveyed that he should pen it down on a piece of paper. He wrote December 4, 1971. If the war began on December 3, it was thanks to Pakistan. One of the versions of the discussion between Mrs Gandhi and Field Marshal Manekshaw with quotes which this writer accessed while researching on the 1971 India-Pakistan war is: It was the afternoon of April 29, 1971. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had called an urgent Cabinet meeting. Those present were defence minister Jagjivan Ram, agriculture minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, finance minister Y.B. Chauhan, external affairs minister Sardar Swaran Singh, and a special invitee, Army Chief Gen. Sam Manekshaw. “What are you doing?’’ a fuming Mrs Gandhi asked the general, throwing reports of the refugee influx from East Pakistan sent by the-then West Bengal chief minister Siddartha Shankar Ray on the table, Field Marshal Manekshaw recalled.
‘’I want you to walk into East Pakistan,’’ Mrs Gandhi told her Army Chief. ‘’That means war,’’ the General said. ‘’I don’t mind if it is war,’’ was Mrs Gandhi’s characteristic reply. Field Marshal Man-ekshaw was unruffled by the outburst. “Have you read the Bible?’’ he asked the Prime Minister in his usual breezy manner. ‘’What has the bible got to do with this?’’ Swaran Singh intervened. ‘’In the beginning there was darkness. God said let there be light and there was light. He then divided light from the darkness,’’ Field Marshal Manekshaw quoted the Genesis to impress upon the ministers that the Army was not prepared for a sudden war.
“I have only 30 tanks and two armoured divisions with me. The Himalayan passes will be opening anytime. What if the Chinese give an ultimatum? The rains will start now in East Pakistan. When it rains there the rivers become oceans. I guarantee 100 per cent defeat,’’ Field Marshal Manekshaw told Mrs Gandhi, disapproving the idea of an immediate attack. Mrs Gandhi, who adjourned the meeting to 4 pm, held back Field Marshal Manekshaw, who was the last man to leave the room. ‘’Shall I send in my resignation, on grounds of health, mental or physical?’’ he asked. Mrs Gandhi finally gave her Army Chief the time he wanted to elaborate his strategy. It was Mrs Gandhi’s decision, for the first time since Independence and in the third war with Pakistan, that it was properly planned and the Indian Navy was used and with telling effect.
The end result was Pakistan getting dismembered with 13 days and Bangladesh getting liberated. In 1984, Mrs Gandhi ordered the Army to fight its way into the main shrine where Khalistani with quotes militants had established their headquarters. The occupiers refused to depart from their holiest shrine and a firefight ensued, with 83 soldiers and 493 occupiers, including the leaders, killed, and many more injured. While Operation Blue Star had some negative effects on the Army, it cost Mrs Gandhi her life.
Her speeches and notes/writings related to national security must be heard and read time and again by our country’s decision-makers.
Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi