But for the timely support of the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru the career of General Manekshaw would have been ruined by the Raksha Mantri (RM) V. K. Krishna Menon. Menon, the second most important politician in India after Nehru, tried to politicize the Indian Army seeking personal loyalty. Since the Army Chief General K.S. Thimayya could not get along well with Menon, he preferred to write directly to the President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the Supreme Commander of the Indian Defence Forces and even to the PM Nehru. Krishna Menon at one stage made General Thimayya resign. The PM, however, convinced him to withdraw his resignation but did not give an ear to what he advised leading to 1962 debacle in war with China. Of course, by that time General Thimayya had already retired. Menon-favorites General P.N. Thapar was brought in as Gen. Thimayya’s successor and Lt. Gen. B.M. Kaul as Chief of General Staff.
“Then the Chinese came to my help,” Gen. Manekshaw is quoted by Lt. Gen. Depinder Singh in his book “Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Soldiering with Dignity” adding, “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.’ Manekshaw took over 4 Corps in the North Eastern Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh, on November 28, 1962, after promotion as Lt.Gen.
In another biography “Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, The Man and His Times”, Brigadier Behram Panthaki (Retd) and his wife Zenobia, bring out graphically how Manekshaw refused to be disloyal to his chief, and stood up to Menon, who then tried to fix him on frivolous grounds. Menon, widely considered responsible for pushing India to its military defeat at the hands of China in 1962, had sought to undermine General Thimayya, after he cautioned the Nehru government against the Menon line of military adventurism against China without adequate preparation. Thimayya offered to resign, but was persuaded by Nehru to stay on. But this did not deter Menon from attempting to subvert Thimayya. The Manekshaw biography paints a grim picture of the Defence Minister trying to create divisions within the Army in the run up to the 1962 War, and even canvassing directly with generals against the Army Chief.
In a first, detailed account of the sparring between Menon and Manekshaw, then a major general commanding 26 Division on the Ceasefire Line in the Jammu region, the biographers suggest that Menon sought to probe Manekshaw during a visit to his formation by seeking his opinion on the then Army Chief. "Mr Minister, I am not allowed to think about him. He is my Chief. Tomorrow, you will be asking my (subordinate) brigadiers and colonels what they think of me. It's the surest way to ruin the discipline of the Army. Don't do it in future," responded Manekshaw.
Menon flew into a rage and told Manekshaw to "abandon his British ways of thinking", and declared that "I can get rid of Thimayya if I want to!" Undeterred, Manekshaw acknowledged that the Defence Minister could indeed sack the Chief, but that would still not shake his resolve not to comment on the next appointee as well. Manekshaw also refused to carry out Menon's orders to use soldiers as labourers for constructing deficit accommodation. He insisted that soldiers under his command would only train to fight the enemy and not be used as cheap labour.
A scorned Menon turned hostile to Manekshaw, and teamed up with the then Major General B.M. Kaul, to fix him by cooking up evidence to back up frivolous charges. A court of inquiry was ordered against Manekshaw on allegations of being an "unabashed Anglophile", too Western and, by implication, anti-Indian, of restoring and putting up in his office portraits of Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, and insulting Shivaji by saying (allegedly) that the painting of Shivaji riding a stallion was misleading because Shivaji only rode taattoos (ponies).
The charges were dismissed by a court of inquiry by the Western Army Commander, Lt General Daulet Singh, but Menon did not relent in his effort to get Manekshaw dismissed. After he was cleared, the file was sent to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who passed it to the Cabinet Secretary. He wrote on it that if anything happened to Manekshaw, it would go down as the (Alfred) Dreyfus case (officer's conviction for treason, political scandal that divided France from 1894 to 1906). The PM gave his nod for promotion to the lieutenant general, but Menon sent his severe displeasure to Manekshaw to be recorded. In his address at the DSSC, Wellington, Field Marshal Manekshaw elaborated" "Then the Chinese came to my help. Krishna Menon was sacked, Kaul was sacked, and Nehru sent for me."
Both father and daughter suspected the Army Chief of military take over and worried about their premiership. PM Nehru had got the wind that “General Thimayya was to attempt a military takeover”, wrote S. S. Khera who was a Principal Defence Secretary and thereafter a Cabinet Secretary between 1962 and 1964. Even PM Indira Gandhi suspected and did convey such suspicion to Gen. Manekshaw. Of course, he did convey her, “No, Sweetie, so long as you do not interfere in my work, I do not intend to get involved in yours.” He was given free hand to prepare for the 1971 war. General Manekshaw was the hero of the 1971 war against Pakistan which gave birth to Bangladesh. When he was to retire in June 1972, his term was extended by a period of six months and on 3 January 1973, he was conferred with the rank of Field Marshal.
Next Column: Kamala Patel: A Charotar Lady on a Mission to Lahore
Photo Line:
(1)Krishna Menon and Pandit Nehru
(2)Indira Gandhi with Manekshaw
