Snapshot of the lecture :
Commandant, Ladies and
Gentlemen, I am fully conscious of the privilege, which is mine, to have been
invited here to address the college. A while ago, I was invited to a seminar
where the subject was youth, and people said that the youth of this country was
not pulling its weight, that society generally was not satisfied with how the
young were functioning. When I was asked what I thought about it, I said that
the youngsters of this country are disappointed, disturbed and confused. They
can not understand why all these untoward things are happening in this country.
They want to know who is to blame. Not them. If they want to study at night and
there is no power, they want to know who is to blame. Not them. If they want to
have a bath, there is no water; they want to know who is to blame. Not them.
They want to go to college and university and they are told there are not any
vacancies; they want to know who is to blame. Not them. They say – here is a
country which was considered the brightest jewel
in the British Crown. What has happened to this Bright Jewel?
No longer are there excuses with the old
political masters saying that the reason why we are in this state is because we
were under colonial rule for 250 years. They turn around and say that the
British left us almost fifty years ago. What have you done? They point to
Singapore, they point to Malaysia, they point to Indonesia, and they point to
Hong Kong. They say that they were also under colonial rule and look at the
progress those countries have made.
They point to Germany and to Japan who fought
a war for four and a half years- whose youth was decimated and industry was destroyed.
They were occupied, and they had to pay reparations; Look at the progress those
countries have made. The youngsters want an answer. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I
thought I should give you the answer.
The problem with us is the lack of
leadership.
Commandant,
Ladies and Gentlemen, do not misunderstand me, when I say lack of political
leadership. I do not mean just political leadership. Of course, there is lack
of leadership, but also there is lack of leadership in every walk of life,
whether it is political, administrative, in our educational institutions, or
whether it is our sports organizations. Wherever you look, there is lack of
leadership. I do not know whether leaders are born or made. There is a school
of thought that thinks that leaders are born. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a
population of 960 million people and we procreate at the rate of 17
million-equaling the total population of Australia-each year, and yet there is
a dearth of leadership. So, those of you who still contribute to the fact that
leaders are born, may I suggest you throw away your family planning, throw away
the pill,throw away any inhibiting factor and make it free for all. Then
perhaps someday a leader may be born.
So,
if leaders are not born, can leaders be made? My answer is yes. Give me a man
or a woman with a common sense and decency, and I can make a leader out of him
or her. That is the subject which I am going to discuss with you this morning.
What are the attributes of
leadership? The first, the primary, indeed the cardinal attribute of leadership
is professional knowledge and professional competence. Now you will agree with
me that you cannot be born with professional knowledge and professional
competence even if you are a child of Prime Minister, or the son of an
industrialist, or the progeny of a Field Marshal. Professional knowledge and
professional competence have to be acquired by hard work and by constant study.
In this fast- moving technologically developing
world, you can never acquire sufficient professional knowledge.
You have to keep at
it, and at it, and at it. Can those of our political masters who are
responsible for the security and defence of this country cross their hearts and
say they have ever read a book on military history, on strategy, on weapons
developments. Can they distinguish a mortar from a motor, a gun from a
howitzer, a guerrilla from a gorilla, though a vast majority of them resemble
the latter.
Ladies and
Gentlemen, professional knowledge and professional competence are a sine qua
non of leadership. Unless you know what you are talking about, unless you
understand your profession, you can never be a leader. Now some of you must be
wondering why the Field Marshal is saying this, every time you go round
somewhere, you see one of our leaders walking around, roads being blocked,
transport being provided for them. Those, ladies and gentlemen, are not
leaders. They are just men and women going about disguised as leaders – and
they ought to be ashamed of themselves!
What is the next
thing you need for leadership? It is the ability to make up your mind to make a
decision and accept full responsibility for that decision. Have you ever
wondered why people do not make a decision? The answer is quite simple. It is
because they lack professional competence, or they are worried that their
decision may be wrong and they will have to carry the can. Ladies and
Gentlemen, according to the law of averages, if you take ten decisions, five
ought to be right. If you have professional knowledge and professional
competence, nine will be right, and the one that might not be correct will
probably be put right by a subordinate officer or a colleague. But if you do
not take a decision, you are doing something wrong. An act of omission is much
worse than an act of commission. An act of commission can be put right. An act
of omission cannot. Take the example of the time when the Babri Masjid was
about to be destroyed. If the Prime Minister, at that stage, had taken a
decision to stop it, a whole community – 180 million would not have been
harmed. But, because he did not take a decision, you have at least 180 million
people in this country alone who do not like us.
When I was the Army Chief, I would go along to a formation, ask the fellow what
have you done about this and I normally got an answer, “Sir, I have been
thinking… I have not yet made up my mind,” and I coined a Manekshawism. If the
girls will excuse my language, it was ‘if you must be a bloody fool – be one
quickly’. So remember that you are the ones who are going to be the future
senior staff officers, the future commanders. Make a decision and having made
it, accept full responsibility for it. Do not pass it on to a colleague or
subordinate.
So, what comes next for leadership? Absolute Honesty, fairness and
justice – we are dealing with people. Those of us who have had the good fortune
of commanding hundreds and thousands of men know this. No man likes to be
punished, and yet a man will accept punishment stoically if he knows that the
punishment meted out to him will be identical to the punishment meted out to
another person who has some Godfather somewhere. This is very, very important.
No man likes to be superceded, and yet men will accept supercession if they
know that they are being superceded, under the rules, by somebody who is better
then they are but not just somebody who happens to be related to the Commandant
of the staff college or to a Cabinet Minister or by the Field Marshal’s wife’s
current boyfriend. This is extremely important, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We in India have tremendous pressures- pressures from the Government,
pressures from superior officers, pressures from families, pressures from
wives, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and girlfriends, and we lack the courage
to withstand those pressures. That takes me to the next attribute of
Leadership- Moral and Physical Courage.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not know which of these is more important.
When I am talking to young officers and young soldiers, I should place emphasis
on physical courage. But since I am talking to this gathering, I will lay
emphasis on Moral Courage. What is moral courage? Moral courage is the ability
to distinguish right from wrong and having done so, say so when asked,
irrespective of what your superiors might think or what your colleagues or your
subordinates might want. A ‘yes man’ is a dangerous man. He may rise very high,
he might even become the Managing Director of a company. He may do anything but
he can never make a leader because he will be used by his superiors, disliked
by his colleagues and despised by his subordinates. So shallow– the ‘yes man’.
I am going to illustrate from my own life an example of moral courage.
In 1971, when Pakistan clamped down on its province, East Pakistan, hundreds
and thousands of refugees started pouring into India. The Prime Minister, Mrs.
Gandhi had a cabinet meeting at ten o’clock in the morning. The following
attended: the Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh, the Defence Minister, Mr.
Jagjivan Ram, the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the Finance
Minister, Mr. Yashwant Rao, and I was also ordered to be present.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a very thin line between becoming a Field
Marshal and being dismissed. A very angry Prime Minister read out messages from
Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. All of them saying that
hundreds of thousands of refugees had poured into their states and they did not
know what to do. So the Prime Minister turned round to me and said: “I want you
to do something”.
I said, “What do you want me to do?”
She said, “I want you to enter East Pakistan”.
I said, “Do you know that that means War?”
She said, “I do not mind if it is war”.
I, in my usual stupid way said, “Prime Minister, have you read the
Bible?”And the Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh (a Punjabi Sikh), in his
Punjabi accent said, “What has Bible got to do with this?”, and I said, “the
first book, the first chapter, the first paragraph, the first sentence, God
said, ‘let there be light’’ and there was light. You turn this round and say
‘let there be war’ and there will be war. What do you think? Are you ready for
a war? Let me tell you –“it’s 28th April, the Himalayan passes are opening now,
and if the Chinese gave us an ultimatum, I will have to fight on two fronts”.
Again Sardar Swaran Singh turned round and in his Punjabi English said,
“Will China give ultimatum?”
I said, “You are the Foreign Minister. You tell me”.
Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said, “Prime Minister, last year
you wanted elections in West Bengal and you did not want the communists to win,
so you asked me to deploy my soldiers in penny pockets in every village, in
every little township in West Bengal. I have two divisions thus deployed in
sections and platoons without their heavy weapons. It will take me at least a
month to get them back to their units and to their formations. Further, I have
a division in the Assam area, another division in Andhra Pradesh and the
Armoured Division in the Jhansi-Babina area. It will take me at least a month
to get them back and put them in their correct positions. I will require every
road, every railway train, every truck, every wagon to move them. We are harvesting
in the Punjab, and we are harvesting in Haryana; we are also harvesting in
Uttar Pradesh. And you will not be able to move your harvest.
I turned to the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, “If
there is a famine in the country afterwards, it will be you to blame, not me.”
Then I said, “My Armoured Division has only got thirteen tanks which are
functioning.”
The Finance Minister, Mr. Chawan, a friend of mine, said, “Sam, why only
thirteen?”
“Because you are the Finance Minister. I have been asking for money for
the last year and a half, and you keep saying there is no money. That is why.”
Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said, “Prime Minister, it is the end of
April. By the time I am ready to operate, the monsoon will have broken in that
East Pakistan area. When it rains, it does not just rain, it pours. Rivers
become like oceans. If you stand on one bank, you cannot see the other and the
whole countryside is flooded. My movement will be confined to roads, the Air
Force will not be able to support me, and, if you wish me to enter East
Pakistan, I guarantee you a hundred percent defeat.”
“You are the Government”, I said turning to the Prime Minister, “Now
will you give me your orders?”
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have seldom seen a woman so angry, and I am
including my wife in that. She was red in the face and I said, “Let us see what
happens”. She turned round and said, “The cabinet will meet four o’clock in the
evening”.
Everyone walked out. I being the junior most man was the last to leave.
As I was leaving, she said, “Chief, please will you stay behind?” I looked at
her. I said, “Prime Minister, before you open your mouth, would you like me to
send in my resignation on grounds of health, mental or physical?”
“No, sit down, Sam. Was everything you told me the truth?”
“Yes, it is my job to tell you the truth. It is my job to fight and win,
not to lose.”
She smiled at me and said, “All right, Sam. You know what I want. When
will you be ready?”
“I cannot tell you now, Prime Minister”, I said, but let me guarantee
you this that if you leave me alone, allow me to plan, make my arrangements,
and fix a date, I guarantee you a hundred percent victory”.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, as I told you, there is a very thin line
between becoming a Field Marshal and being dismissed. Just an example of moral
courage. Now, those of you who remembered what happened in 1962, when the
Chinese occupied the Thag-la ridge and Mr. Nehru, the Prime Minister, sent for
the Army Chief, in the month of December and said, “I want you to throw the
Chinese out”. That Army Chief did not have the Moral courage to stand up to him
and say, “I am not ready, my troops are not acclimatized, I haven’t the
ammunition, or indeed anything”. But he accepted the Prime Minister’s
instructions, with the result that the Army was beaten and the country
humiliated.
Remember, moral courage. You, the future senior staff officers and
commanders will be faced with many problems. People will want all sorts of
things. You have got to have the moral courage to stand up and tell them the
facts. Again, as I told you before, a ‘yes man’ is a despicable man.
This takes me to the next attribute: Physical courage. Fear, like hunger
and sex, is a natural phenomenon. Any man who says he is not frightened is a
liar or a Gorkha. It is one thing to be frightened. It is quite another to show
fear. If you once show fear in front of your men, you will never be able to
command. It is when your teeth are chattering, your knees are knocking and you
are about to make your own geography- that is when the true leader comes out!
I am sorry but I am going to illustrate this with another example from
my own life. I am not a brave man. In fact, I am a terribly frightened man. My
wife and I do not share the same bedroom. “Why?” you will ask. Because she says
I snore. Although I have told her, No, I don’t. No other woman has ever complained”.
I am not a brave man. If I am frightened, I am frightened of wild
animals, I am frightened of ghosts and spirits and so on. If my wife tells me a
ghost story after dinner, I cannot sleep in my room, and I have to go to her
room. I have often wondered why she tells me these ghost stories periodically.
In World War II, my battalion, which is now in Pakistan, was fighting
the Japanese. We had a great many casualties. I was commanding Charlie Company,
which was a Sikh Company. The Frontier Force Regiment in those days had Pathan
ompanies. I was commanding the Sikh Company, young Major Manekshaw. As we were
having too many casualties, we had pulled back to reorganize, re-group, make up
our casualties and promotions.
The Commanding Officer had a promotion conference. He turned to me and
said, “Sam, we have to make lots of promotions. In your Sikh company, you have
had a lot of casualties. Surat Singh is a senior man. Should we promote him to
the rank of Naik?” Now, Surat Singh was the biggest Badmaash in my company. He
had been promoted twice or three times and each time he had to be marched up in
front of the Colonel for his stripes to be taken off. So I said, “No use, Sir,
promoting Surat Singh. You promote him today and the day after tomorrow, I will
have to march him in front of you to take his stripes off”. So, Surat Singh was
passed over. The promotion conference was over, I had lunch in the Mess and I
came back to my company lines. Now, those of you who have served with Sikhs
will know that they are very cheerful lot- always laughing, joking and doing
something. When I arrived at my company lines that day, it was quite different,
everybody was quiet. When my second-in-command, Subedar Balwant Singh, met me I
asked him, “What has happened, Subedar Sahib?” He said, “Sahib, something
terrible has happened. Surat Singh felt slighted and has told everybody that he
is going to shoot you today”.
Surat Singh was a light machine gunner, and was armed with a pistol. His
pistol had been taken away, and Surat Singh has been put under close arrest. I
said, “All right, Sahib. Put up a table, a soap box, march Surat Singh in front
of me”. So he was marched up. The charge was read out- ‘threatening to shoot
his Commanding officer whilst on active service in the theatre of war’. That
carries the death penalty. The witnesses gave their evidence. I asked for Surat
Singh’s pistol which was handed to me. I loaded it, rose from my soap box,
walked up to Surat Singh, handed the pistol to him then turned round and told
him, “You said you will shoot me”. I spoke to him in Punjabi naturally. I told
him, “Have you got the guts to shoot me? Here, shoot me”. He looked at me
stupidly and said, “Nahin, Sahib, galtee ho gayaa”. I gave him a tight slap and
said, “Go out, case dismissed”.
I went around the company lines, the whole company watching what was
happening. I walked around, chatted to the people, went to the Mess in the
evening to have a drink, and have my dinner, but when I came back again Sardar
Balwant Singh said, “Nahin Sahib, you have made a great mistake. Surat Singh
will shoot you tonight”.
I said, “Bulao Surat Singh ko”.
He came along. I said, “Surat Singh, aj rat ko mere tambu par tu pehra
dega, or kal subah 6 bjay, mere liye aik mug chai aur aik mug shaving water
lana”. Then I walked into my little tent.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I did not sleep the whole night. Next morning, at
six o’clock, Surat Singh brought me a mug of tea and a mug of shaving water,
thereafter, throughout the war, Surat Singh followed me like a puppy. If I had
shown fear in front of my men, I should never have been able to command. I was
frightened, terribly frightened, but I dared not show fear in front of them.
Those of you, who are going to command soldiers, remember that. You must never
show fear.So much for physical courage, but, please believe me, I am still a
very frightened man. I am not a brave man.
What comes next? The next attribute of leadership is loyalty. Ladies and
Gentlemen, you all expect loyalty. Do we give loyalty? Do we give loyalty to
our subordinates, to our colleagues? Loyalty is a three way thing. You expect
loyalty, you must therefore, give loyalty to your colleagues and to your
subordinates. Men and women in large numbers can be very difficult, they can
cause many problems and a leader must deal with them immediately and firmly. Do
not allow any non sense, but remember that men and women have many problems.
They get easily despondent, they have problems of debt, they have problems of
infidelity- wives have run away or somebody has an affair with somebody. They
get easily crestfallen, and a leader must have the gift of the gab with a sense
of humor to shake them out of their despondence. Our leaders, unfortunately,
our “so-called” leaders, definitely have the gift of the gab, but they have no
sense of humor. So, remember that.
Finally, for leadership; men and women like their leader to be a man,
with all the manly qualities or virtues. The man who says, “I do not smoke, I
do not drink, I do not (No, I will not say it)’, does not make a leader. Let me
illustrate this from examples from the past. You will agree that Julius Caesar
was a great leader- he had his Calphurnia, he had his Antonia, he also had an
affair with Cleopatra and, when Caesar used to come to Rome, the Senators
locked up their wives. And you will agree that he was a great leader. He was
known in Rome as every woman’s husband and he was a great leader. Take
Napoleon, he had his Josephine, he had his Marie Walewska, he had his
Antoinette and Georgettes and Paulettes. And you will agree he was a great
leader. Take the Duke of Wellington- do you know that the night before the
battle of Waterloo, there were more Countesses, Marchionesses and other women
in his ante-chamber than staff officers and Commanders. And you will agree he
was a great leader. Do you know, Ladies and Gentlemen, a thought has just
struck me. All these leaders- Caesar, Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington- they
had one facial feature in common, all had long noses.
So much, Ladies and Gentlemen, for leadership, but no amount of
leadership will do this country much good. Yes, it will improve things, but
what this country needs is discipline. We are the most ill-disciplined people
in the world. You see what is happening- you go down the road, and you see
people relieving themselves by the roadside. You go into town, and people are
walking up and down the highway, while vehicles are discharging all sorts of
muck. Every time you pick up a newspaper, you read of a scam or you read of
some other silly thing. As we are the most ill-disciplined people in the world,
we must do something about discipline.
What is discipline? Please, when I talk of discipline, do not think of
military discipline. That is quite different. Discipline can be defined as
conduct and behavior for living decently with one another in society. Who lays
down the code of conduct for that? Not the Prime Minister, not the Cabinet, nor
superior officers. It is enshrined in our holy books; it is in the Bible, the
Torah and in the Vedas, it is in the teachings of Nanak and Mohammad. It has
come down to us from time immemorial, from father to son, from mother to child.
Nowhere is it laid down, except in the Armed Forces, that lack of punctuality
is conduct prejudicial to discipline and decent living.
I will again tell you a little story about that. Some years ago, my wife
and I were invited to convocation at a university. I was asked to be there at
four o’clock. I got into the staff car with my wife, having chased her from
about eleven o’clock in the morning. Don’t forget, darling, you have got to be
on time. Get properly dressed; you have to leave at such and such time’.
Eventually, I got her into the car. I told the driver, “Thoda aayisthe, thoda
jaldi”, but we got to the university and the convocation address place at four
o’clock. We were received by the Vice Chancellor and his Lady. We were taken
into the convocation hall, and the Vice Chancellor asked me to get on the
platform, asking my wife to do so, too. She gracefully declined, and said she much
rather sit down below as she seldom had an opportunity of looking up to her
husband. Anyway, on the platform, the Vice Chancellor sang my praises. As usual
there were 2000 boys and girls who had come for the convocation. There were
deans of university, and professors and lecturers. Then he asked me to go to
the lectern and address the gathering. I rose to do so and he said (sotto
voce), Field Marshal, a fortnight ago we invited a VIP from Delhi for the same
function. He was allowed to stand on the same lectern for exactly twenty
seconds. I wish you luck. “I said to myself, had the Vice Chancellor mentioned
this in his letter of invitation, I wonder, if I should have accepted.
Anyway, I reached the lectern, and I addressed the gathering for my
allotted time of forty minutes. I was heard in pin drop silence, and at the end
of my talk, was given terrific ovation. The Vice Chancellor and his lady, the
Dean, the professors and lecturers, the boys and girls, and even my own wife,
standing up and giving me an ovation. After the convocation was over, we walked
into the gardens to have refreshments. And I, having an eye for pretty girls,
walked up to a pert little thing wearing a pair of tight fitting jeans and a
body hugging blouse, and I started a conversation with her. I said, “My dear,
why were you so kind to me, I not being an orator nor having the looks of
Amitabh Bachhan, when only the other day you treated a VIP from Delhi so
shamefully”. This pert little thing had no inhibitions.
She turned round and said, and I quote, “Oh, that a dreadful man! We
asked him to come at four o’clock. He came much later and that too accompanied
with a boy and a girl, probably his grand children. He was received by the Vice
Chancellor and his lady and taken to the platform. He was garlanded by the
Student Union President, and he demanded garlands for those brats too. So, the
Union President diverged with the garland that was meant for the Vice
Chancellor and gave it to the brats. Then the Vice Chancellor started singing
the worthy’s praises. Whilst he was doing so, this man hitched up his dhoti,
exposing his dirty thighs, and scratched away. Then the Vice Chancellor said,
“This man has done so much for the country, he has even been to jail”. And I
nearly shouted out, ‘He should be there now’. Anyway, when the Vice Chancellor
asked him to come to the lectern and address the convocation, he got up, walked
to the lectern and addressed us thus, ‘Boys and girls, I am a very busy man. I
have not had time to prepare my speech but, I will now read out the speech my
secretary has written’. We did not let him stand there. Without exception, the
whole lot of us stood and booed him off the stage.”
Now, you see, Ladies and Gentleman, what I mean by discipline. Had this
man as his position warranted come on time at four o’clock, fully prepared and
properly turned out, can you imagine the good it would have done to these 2000
young girls and boys? Instead of that, his act of indiscipline engendered
further indiscipline. I thanked my lucky stars, having been in the Army for so
many years, that I arrived there on time, that I had come properly dressed,
that I didn’t wear a dhoti to show my lovely legs, that I didn’t exacerbate an
itch or eczema, to hurt the susceptibilities of my audience, by indulging in
the scratching of the unmentionables.
Now, Ladies and Gentleman, you understand what I mean by discipline. We
are the most ill-disciplined people in the world. So far, all of you have been
very, very disciplined. Will you bear with me for another two minutes? Having
talked about leadership, having talked about discipline, I want to mention
something about Character. We Indians also lack character. Do not misunderstand
me, when I talk of character. I don’t mean just being honest, truthful, and religious,
I mean something more- Knowing yourself, knowing your own faults, knowing your
own weaknesses and what little character that we have, our friends, our fans,
the ‘yes-men’ around us and the sycophants, help us reduce that character as
well. Let me illustrate this by an example:
Some years ago, Hollywood decided to put up the picture of great
violinist and composer, Paganini. The part of Paganini was given to a young
actor who was conversant, somewhat, with the violin. He was drilled and tutored
to such an extent that when the little piece, the Cadenza, was filmed, it was
perfect. When the film was shown, the papers raved about it, and the critics
raved about it. And this man’s fans, ‘yes-men’, sycophants, kept on telling him
that he was as good a violinist as Heifetz or Menuhin. And do you know that I
took eight months in a psychiatric home to rid him of his delusion?
Do you know, Commandant, that the same thing happened to me? After the
1971 conflict with Pakistan, which ended in thirteen days and I took 93000
prisoners, my fans, the ‘yes-men’ around me, the sycophants, kept on comparing
me to Rommel, to Field Marshal Alexander, to Field Marshal Auchinleck, and just
as I was beginning to believe it, the Prime Minister created me a Field Marshal
and sent me packing to the Nilgiris. A hard-headed, non-nonsense wife deprived
a psychiatric home (what we in India call a lunatic asylum), of one more inmate.
I thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
Question: In 1962 war, what was your appointment, were you in a position
to do something about the situation?
FM: In the 1962 war, I was disgrace. I was a Commandant of this
Institution.
Mr. Krishna Menon, the Defence Minister, disliked me intensely. General
Kaul, who was Chief of General Staff at the time, and the budding man for the
next higher appointment, disliked me intensely. So, I was in disgrace at the
Staff College. There were charges against me – I will enumerate some of them –
all engineered by Mr. Krishna Menon.
I do not know if you remember that in 1961 or 1960, General Thimayya was
the Army Chief. He had fallen out with Mr. Krishna Menon and had sent him his
resignation. The Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru, persuaded General Thimayya to
withdraw his resignation. The members of Parliament also disliked Mr. Krishna
Menon, and they went hammer and tongs for the Prime Minister in Parliament.
The Prime Minister made the following statement, “I cannot understand
why General Thimayya is saying that the Defence Ministry interferes with the
working of the Army. Take the case of General Manekshaw. The Selection Board
has approved his promotion to Lieutenant General, over the heads of 23 other
officers. The Government has accepted that.”
I was the Commandant of the Staff College. I had been approved for
promotion to Lieutenant General. Instead of making me the Lieutenant General,
Mr. Krishna Menon levied charges against me. There were ten charges, I will
enumerate only one or two of them – that I am more loyal to the Queen of
England than to the President of India, that I am more British than Indian.
That I have been alleged to have said that I will have no instructor in the
Staff College whose wife looks like an ayah. These were the sort of charges against
me.
For eighteen months my promotion was held back. An enquiry was made.
Three Lieutenant Generals, including an Army Commander, sat at the enquiry. I
was exonerated on every charge. The file went up to the Prime Minister who sent
it up to the Cabinet Secretary, who wrote on the file, ‘if anything happens to
General Manekshaw, this case will go will down as the Dreyfus case.’ So the
file came back to the Prime Minister. He wrote on it, “Orders may now issue”,
meaning I will now become a Lieutenant General. Instead of that, Ladies and
Gentleman, I received a letter from the Adjutant General saying that the
Defence Minister, Mr. Krishna Menon, has sent his severe displeasure to General
Manekshaw, to be recorded. I had it in the office where the Commandant now
sits. I sent that letter back to the Adjutant General saying what Mr. Krishna
Menon could do with his displeasure, very vulgarly stated. It is still in my
dossier.
Then the Chinese came to my help. Krishna Menon was sacked, Kaul was
sacked and Nehru sent for me. He said, “General, I have a vigorous enemy. I
find out that you are a vigorous General. Will you go and take over?”
I said, “I have been waiting eighteen months for this opportunity,” and
I went and took over.
So, your question was 1962, and what part did I play, none whatsoever,
none whatsoever.
I was here for eighteen months, persecuted, inquisitions against me but
we survive….I rather like the Chinese.
Question: The Army has changed and progressed. Do you find any
difference in the mental makeup of the young officers compared to your time?
FM: Over the years, things have changed…… there is a lot of difference,
dear. In my time, my father used to support me until I became a Lieutenant
Colonel. I used to get an allowance to be able to live. Today, the young
officer has not only to keep himself but has to send money home.
In my time, we did not have all these courses. The only course I ever
did, (of course, we had the four rounds of courses that every officer had to
do), but we had mules there so I had to do a course in training mountain mules.
Today the young officer hardly stays in his regiment. He is sent from one place
to another to do this course and that course, and he does not get a chance of
knowing his men.We knew our men. Also there wasn’t so much work in those days.
We got up in the mornings, did Physical Training for half an hour , came back
,dressed, had breakfast , then went to our company lines and spent all our time
avoiding the Commanding Officer.
Those Commanding Officers were nasty chaps. They did not give a damn for
anybody. I will give an example of the Commanding Officer. I was made
quartermaster of my battalion. The Commanding Officer sent for the Adjutant and
myself. He said, I want to take the battalion out tomorrow morning for an
exercise. “We did not have motor cars, we had to indent for mules, so, I as
quartermaster intended for a company of mules. He said we were going to leave
for the exercise at 6:30, so I ordered the company of mules to arrive at six.
At eleven o’clock at night, the commanding officer changed his mind. He said,
“I will not go at 6:30, we will go at nine o’clock. “There was nothing I could
do. I got on my bicycle, went off to the lines, where the mules had arrived. I
told them to unsaddle, and go into the shade, when who should arrive on a horse
but the Cavalry Officer with his daughter!
I touched my hat. He said, “What are those animals doing here, young
man?” I said that we were going out on an exercise.
“When are you going?”
“Nine o’clock.”
He tore strips off me – “going at nine o’clock and you have the animals
waiting here at six o’clock”. He was riding with his daughter on a horse. What
could I say to a General officer, I had two pips on my shoulder. Suddenly, who
should be coming on a bicycle, but the Commanding Officer! He touched his hat,
said, “Morning, General.”
Turning to me, he said, “What is the matter, Sam?”
I said, “Sir, the General is angry with me because we are going out at
nine o’clock and the mules are here at six.”
He turned round to face the General, and said, I will thank you General
to know who commands this regiment. Me, and not this young man. I will not have
you ticketing him off in front of your daughter.”
He turned back to me and said, “Have you had your breakfast, Sam?”
“No.”
“Go along. Have your breakfast.”
I was delighted to go off. But when we came back from the exercise, at
about eight o’clock in the evening, in my letter rack, was a letter from the
General’s wife, inviting me to tea the next day. Now, I did not want to have
tea with the General’s wife! But that’s the sort of thing that happens.
When I became the field Marshal, I was the guest of her majesty in
England. I had given a reception at India House, where the Commanding Officer
with his wife were also invited. He came in, shook hands with my wife, shook
hands with me, and walked off. Everybody was drinking. After about half an
hour, when everybody had arrived, I walked up to him with a glass of whisky in
my hand, and he turned round to me, “May I call you Sam?”
“Please do, Sir. You used to call me ‘bloody fool’ before. I thought
that was my Christian name!”
The difference between the officer now and then – my first confidential
report written by him. Before you went in to sign your confidential report, you
had to go in front of the Adjutant, beautifully turned out. We did not have any
medals in those days. We had to have a sword to go into the CO’s office then. I
walked in there, saluted the Adjutant, he looked me up and down and said, “You
are going to see the Colonel, now? Look at you! Your bloody strap is filthy
dirty, look at your belt, it is disgusting. Go on, go and get dressed.” I
walked out, waited for five minutes and came back.
He looked me up and down, “Much better.”
Then he said, “You are going in there. Do you have a fountain pen?”
I said, “Yes.”
“The CO will read your report. You will initial on the left hand corner.
Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
I walked in there, saluted the Colonel, “Mr. Manekshaw reporting, Sir.”
He looked me up and down, thrust the report on me online- “This officer,
I beg his pardon, this man, may someday become an officer.”
I initialed it and walked out.
Khalid Sheikh, another officer from my regiment, who became the Foreign
Minister of Pakistan and a Governor there, came out. “Khaled, what report have
you got?” I said. He said “Online- this officer tends to be irresponsible”. I
said, “That’s a bad report, Khalid.” He said, Uh! Last year the bugger said I
was irresponsible.”
But we did not mind. Today, if the commanding Officer writes and says
this officer is irresponsible, the officer wants to appeal to the President of
India saying he is more responsible than the Commanding Officer.
That was the difference, dear. We simply did not give a cuss.
Anything else?
Thank you Gentlemen, thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your
patience and your discipline. I am delighted to see you all here.
