Honour in Uniform

General K.S. Thimayya resigned in 1958 over differences with the then defence minister, V.K. Krishna Menon, on a promotion case. He was a charismatic, very respected and popular Army Chief with a brilliant war record. Pandit Nehru persuaded him to withdraw his resignation and thereafter castigated him in Parliament. General Thimayya ignored this reproach and continued to serve. He became a lame duck Army Chief during his remaining tenure. Had he chosen to resign on a more substantive issue, like neglect of defences in the Himalayas, and stuck to his resignation, he could have gone out a hero, setting the right pattern for civil-military relations. The nation would have been saved the humiliation of 1962. Nehru need not have died broken-hearted. By 1962, the institution of service chief had been so degraded that the then Army Chief, General P.N. Thapar, seems to have had little say in the decision to go to war with China. On his way to Sri Lanka, Nehru told the press at Chennai that he had given orders to the Army to evict the Chinese from the Himalayas. A joint secretary at Tezpur conveyed this order on a chit of paper to Gen. Thapar. Fortunately the position of the Army Chief was redeemed by General J.N. Chaudhuri during the 1965 war, and more so by Manekshaw in 1971.
The Bofors scam ushered in an era of ongoing rampant corruption and the most blatant coverups. Hardly any of the numerous tainted political leaders have been convicted. Corruption, like a galloping malignant cancer, has been spreading to all departments of the government and to all sections of civil society. The Army has also been affected and a few general officers got involved in corruption. This has badly tarnished the Army’s image. A redeeming feature has been that unlike in the case of civilians, the tainted generals were promptly dealt with and punishment meted out to them.

* The author SK Sinha, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir
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Honour in uniform

Applaud, don't shoot the chief

Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale (Retd) is Chhatrapati Shivaji Fellow of the USI studying insurgency, and the co-ordinator of Inpad, a Pune-based think tank.

With US breathing down its neck to close down the Jihadi factories and India deciding to forge instruments to punish proxy attacks, there is natural disquiet in Pakistan over the loss of leverage obtained through patronising terror organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba..

But what is surprising that even some Indians found this new strategy objectionable. Do they want India to suffer another Mumbai-style attack?

Ayaz Amir in the ‘News’ (of Pakistan) and Mr K Subrahmanyam, former convener of India’s National Security Council, have made more or less the same points as I have made above. But the real ‘Elephant in the room’ is the distance that we seem to have covered in acquiring the needed capability.

Thanks to the inefficiencies of the DRDO, the Indian armed forces have fought all wars with technology inferior to the enemy. This was true of 1962, 1965 and even 1971, be it the artillery, tanks, radars or even infantry weapons. Not just our adversaries, but even terrorists have had better weapons than our own soldiers. That we still held our own is a tribute to the valour and leadership of our forces.

This is not mere bellyaching, or a bad carpenter blaming his tools syndrome. We were in a situation that we did not have the necessary tools at all . The fact that we are in a position to now think of a ‘flexible response’ strategy as opposed to ‘all or nothing’ means that we have now the means to carry out the required tasks. This would not be possible without the support of the US, the leading country as far as military technology is concerned.

Perhaps wisdom has finally dawned on the West that India –not Pakistan-- is the frontline state as far as the war on terror is concerned. Strategically, with the Americans building up in Afghanistan and the Pakistanis on the backfoot, there was a possibility that the Jihadis would mount attacks on India to derail the US operations by diverting the Pakistan army to check India. It is to counter such an eventuality that the new ‘cold start’ strategy has been initiated.

Hope for peace, or `Aman ki Aasha` for the subcontinent depends squarely on the Pakistani state giving up terror as a state policy.

That being the case, this is an occasion to celebrate, not castigate the messenger.
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Applaud, don't shoot the chief

Dear Friends,
I have received this article titled "Peace with Pakistan: Chasing a mirage" click here from a friend and am passing it on to you all. It deals with a situation that affects us all, in fact even our children and grandchildren.
Regards,
Cdr K K Punchhi (Retd)

CNN- IBN to felicitate individuals working towards rehabilitation of war widows

Dear Friends,
1. CNN IBN wishes to felicitate individuals who are working towards rehabilitation of War Widows. The Channel has contacted IESM to assist them in identifying such individual, who have been silently working in the rehabilitation of War Widows and their services have not drawn the attention of the people of India. Mail received from CNN IBN is appended below.
2. All ESM are requested to please let us know the particulars (name, full address, tele number, email etc) of such individuals at the earliest for onward submission. A brief description of the work done by such individuals towards the above objective may also be given.
3. Please circulate the mail to the maximum individuals. With Kind Regards, Jai Hind Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh,
SM Vice Chairman Indian ESM Movement

From: "Srishti Shanker"
Sir, As a follow up to our conversation, here is the write up on the concept of Real Heroes on CNN-IBN. Ordinary People, extra ordinary stories. People who decided to work towards a cause larger than personal ambitions. They are making a difference to the lives of people around them in their own unique ways. India's Real Heroes straddle many different areas of work; education, public service, healthcare, saving the environment and women's welfare. The series culminates at an awards ceremony where Mukesh and Nita Ambani joined hands with CNN IBN to felicitate these real heroes and provide them financial assistance to take their good work forward. We are looking for individuals working towards rehabilitation of war widows. Please share details of unrecognised people who have been working selflessly in this field. Looking forward to a speedy response.
Regards Srishti