The quantity 1962 is etched deeply within the Indian psyche, not merely because the 12 months of a devastating defeat in warfare, but in addition as a metaphor for nationwide humiliation. One thing that reminds the nation of the perils of political hubris and nepotism within the army. The sixtieth anniversary of the India-China warfare, thus, is a good alternative for Indian politicians, army leaders, strategic thinkers and commentators to as soon as once more take inventory of what went improper and plan to stop one other ‘Himalayan blunder’.
The sixtieth anniversary of the India-China warfare is a good alternative for our flesh pressers, army leaders and strategic thinkers to take inventory of what went improper.
The Tribune has been publishing a collection of articles commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the warfare and a few of our readers discovered it revealing that even in defeat, Indians in uniform displayed extraordinary fortitude. Former Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill was so thrilled to learn of the courageous Sikhs preventing until the final man and the final bullet, not permitting their posts to be run over, that he phoned in for extra tales of particular person valour; and, letting out his attribute chuckle, Gill sahib additionally wished us to chronicle the story of a member of an outdated colonial-collaborator household who ran away from the battlefield, leaving his turban behind. Nicely, let the cowards lie and the fearless be remembered.
PM Jawaharlal Nehru, defence minister VK Krishna Menon, Army chief Gen PN Thapar, defence secretary O Pulla Reddy, Intelligence Bureau Chief BN Mullick, Corps Commander Lt Gen BM Kaul and others are, rightly, blamed and remembered for his or her respective roles in sending India’s matchless troops to demise on the icy heights of the Himalayas with out even fundamental winterwear, to say nothing of war-winning materiel. None of them is spared for the dearth of preparedness and for getting conclusively fooled — politically, diplomatically and militarily. Now, after each incident within the north and east — be it at Doklam or Ladakh — Indians are reminded of the 1962 debacle, making policy-makers conscious that no variety of army workout routines with the US on the jap border will ever be sufficient to stay ready towards the neighbour’s ambition to be a world chief.
Examine the Indians’ sombre remembrance of their defeat with that of the Pakistanis’. The fiftieth anniversary of the 1971 Battle fell a 12 months in the past. Not a lot was heard from the omnipotent Pakistani military-intelligence institution, which had been exulting over the People handing over Afghanistan again to them: Why look again when the long run seems to be rosy, with a $450-million army grant, getting dropped from the FATF watchlist and getting reinvited to the tango at Pentagon! But, the Pakistani army management did the unthinkable not too long ago, which was one half ridiculous and one half scary.
Former military chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, on his retirement tour to army items, blamed the political management for the 1971 defeat. As if that was not sufficient, he claimed that solely 34,000 troops fought the warfare for Pakistan towards 2.5 lakh Indian and two lakh Mukti Bahini fighters. It’s a well-documented indisputable fact that simply 3,000 Indian troopers defeated 30,000 Pakistani troops within the closing battle for Dhaka. After all, everyone however Bajwa is aware of that 92,000 Pakistani officers and males had been captured as prisoners of warfare and that India handled them with honour and returned them graciously whilst Indian pilots had been languishing in Pakistani prisons. The Pakistani authorities had even issued a postage stamp in April 1973, in search of the return of 90,000 PoWs.
Worse, Bajwa appears to have forgotten that Pakistan was dominated by Yahya Khan, a army Common, who claimed to be a descendent of Nadir Shah, the medieval invader who sacked Delhi. The debauched dictator was feted in Washington for facilitating Nixon’s Nationwide Safety Adviser Kissinger’s assembly with Mao, thus opening the US-China strategic partnership lasting for about 40 years. Yahya Khan had chosen an equally brutal Common, Tikka Khan — the Butcher of Balochistan — to be the governor of East Pakistan and one other Common, AAK Niazi, to be the army commander. The three Generals had been chargeable for the worst post-WW-2 genocide which the western media forgot to report. The official Bangladeshi depend of the deaths in the course of the battle that ended within the Liberation Battle is 3 million useless — half the variety of the victims of the Jewish holocaust. Formally, Pakistan admits that 26,000 civilians had been killed.
Of the three million killed, at the least half may very well be Hindus, however Indira Gandhi (whom Nixon cherished to name ‘that b***h’) didn’t have a political agenda to depend or categorise the our bodies of the harmless useless. Over one crore refugees poured into India. Whereas Hollywood nonetheless has not made a film on the Bengali holocaust, the American management celebrated Yahya in the course of the holocaust and Tikka quickly after. Tikka succeeded Yahya because the chief of military employees. The US, in fact, didn’t suppose it proper to disclaim visas to the butchers of Bangladesh. The demise of a whole bunch of 1000’s, if not three million, by no means appeared to have overwhelmed the predecessors of those that denied the Gujarat chief minister a US visa over a communal riot that was investigated for 10 years by his political rivals.
The fatalities of the 13-day warfare that India received had been few in comparison with the civilian deaths. However western-funded organisations like Amnesty Worldwide, which sought the commutation of the demise sentences of the foot troopers of the outdated US allies, by no means actually investigated the 1971 warfare crimes or established the murders and rapes dedicated on the express orders of Yahya, Tikka and Niazi. Had their crimes been established, and their political careers uncovered and visas denied to them, their successors wouldn’t have launched their Islamist misadventure in Kashmir that resulted within the exodus of Hindus from the Valley, nor the Kargil incursion, nor the assault on Mumbai.
After each failure, the Pakistani military offers itself a fig leaf of lies, blaming a non-existent political management. There was solely a army management, in alliance with the US, in Pakistan in 1971, simply as there may be one now, too. Marvel what mischief the brand new one is as much as.
