As a student in my teens, I had the good fortune of hearing Mahat-ma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru address public meetings in Patna. We revered the Mahatma, adored Nehru and admired Patel. During the 1937 Assembly elections Nehru came to address an election rally in a large open ground not far from my school. He came some three hours late.
As he arrived, the waiting crowd burst into a tremendous applause, shouting “Inqilab Zindabad” and “Panditji ki Jai”. Nehru spoke about the evils of imperialism and fascism. War clouds had started gathering in Europe. I wrote a letter to Nehru asking for his autograph. I received a reply on his letter pad with “Anand Bhavan, Allahabad” printed at the top. It had just his signature in the middle.
The next time I saw Nehru was in Singapore. I was then a captain serving in Indonesia and had gone there for selection for permanent commission. After the Japanese surrendered to us in Burma, we were moved to Indonesia. We had to take the surrender of one lakh Japanese soldiers on the islands, put them in PoW (prisoner of war) camps and repatriate them to Japan. They had handed over their weapons to the Indonesian Revolutionary Army of Soekarno. There were rumours that Soekarno had invited Nehru to Indonesia.
While we were fighting insurgency in Indonesia, British troops dynamited the Indian National Army (INA) memorial in Singapore. The Indian community in Singapore invited Nehru to lay the foundation of a new INA memorial at the same site. Nehru, not holding any official position, had accepted in his personal capacity. Singapore was then, as now, a predominantly Chinese city.
Nehru was known to be very friendly with Chiang Kai-shek, the then ruler of China. I went in a taxi driven by a Chinese to Changi airport. My Chinese driver asked me the rank of Nehru, saying his leader, Chiang Kai-shek, was a marshal. I told him that Nehru was also a marshal. We later heard that Nehru was charmed by Mountbatten. That was the first time they met. Both had studied at Harrow. Mountbatten was much junior to him. He persuaded Nehru not to lay the foundation stone for the INA memorial nor go to Indonesia. He told him that India would soon be independent and he should not do anything which may politicise the Indian Army or undermine its discipline.
In September 1946, as a captain I was posted to South Block in New Delhi. Nehru was now vice-president of the interim government and was a de-facto Prime Minister. I used to see him not using the lift to go to his office on the first floor, sometimes even running up the steps. The Kashmir war started in September 1947. I was now a major holding an important Operations Staff appointment of Lt. Gen. K.M. Cariappa who had taken over as Western Army Commander. In November 1948, I was deputed as liaison officer at 77 Para Brigade to report the progress of operations. In a military operation unprecedented in the world, we had used tanks to break through the 10,000-foot-high Zojila Pass.
We had to get to Kargil before the pass got blocked by snow. On the evening of December 9, 1948, I was at Matayan, across Zojila Pass while we were frantically constructing a road to take up vehicles, guns and ammunition for further advance. I got a frantic message to report to the Army commander the next morning. I walked 12 miles that night in below freezing temperature, crossing numerous icy streams, to Baltal, and then drove by jeep to catch an Air Force plane next morning to Delhi. When I reported to Gen. Cariappa, he asked me to accompany him. As we went up to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat I was overawed standing at the door to the Prime Minister’s room. When we entered I saw Nehru sitting in his office.
He looked so very different from his youthful look that I had seen many times before. He was not wearing his cap and was completely bald. He asked Cariappa why it was taking so long to reach Kargil. Cariappa replied that the construction of a difficult hill road from Baltal to Matayan across the pass was taking time. The distance was 22 miles. Nehru interrupted, saying the distance is only 10 miles.
Cariappa, pointing towards me, said that I had walked that distance last night. Nehru looked towards me. I said that the distance of the mountain track by foot was 12 miles while the road winding through the hills was about 22 miles. Cariappa briefed him further and we left his room. He asked me to find out how the Prime Minister was so precise about the distance. I learnt that in 1913 Nehru had gone from Baltal to Matayan for his honeymoon on a pony.
No doubt Nehru was one of the great world leaders of his time. Nehru ignored matters military. He lacked requisite military strength to support his peace initiatives. A man of peace, he was more of an idealist than practical in dealing with national security issues. His Kashmir and China policies proved disastrous.
Sixty years have elapsed. They continue to be a festering problem defying solution. The 1962 debacle broke the infallibility of our foreign policy, the impregnability of the Himalayas and the invincibility of our Army. Unlike Churchill after Dunkirk, Nehru after Sela was a broken man and died not long after. At times I feel that Nehru was a god who failed.
The writer, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir
