New Delhi: Lieutenant General Raj Mohan Vohra, a 1971 war hero, died of Covid-19 Sunday at the base hospital in Delhi Cantonment. He was 88.
Lt Gen. Vohra, who was known among friends and colleagues as “Googie” Vohra, was a decorated Army officer who was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India’s second highest military honour, for his role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. He was part of the first batch of the National Defence Academy, then the joint services wing of the Indian Military Academy, that started its training in 1949.
Among military historians and colleagues, Lt Gen. Vohra is described as a daredevil in the battlefield as well as an officer who “took care of his men”.
“He took care of his men, their welfare and promotion, and was among the officers credited for picking up the good values of the erstwhile British Indian Army and discarding the less desirable things about them,” military historian Mandeep Bajwa, also a friend of the officer, told ThePrint.
“He and the others from the 1940s and 1950s kept the Army free of politics… He was also given a free hand by politicians to deliver. And he delivered throughout,” Bajwa added. “He was among the best of the Indian Army.”
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‘Conspicuous gallantry and inspiring leadership’
Commissioned into the Army in 1952, Vohra came from a family where the military was almost a way of life. All his brothers served in the Army and were all cavalry officers.
In 1960-61, Vohra was a member of the Indian contingent that served in the Congo as part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation meant to prevent a civil war after the country’s independence from Belgium. In 1965, he participated in the India-Pakistan war in the Punjab sector.
Vohra served in the Scinde Horse regiment in the initial years of his career, and later commanded 4th Horse, a decorated tank regiment that played an active role in the Battle of the Basantar River in 1971. It was for his role in this battle that he was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra and his regiment the Basantar battle honour.
According to the citation for Vohra’s Maha Vir Chakra, it was here “where his regiment, inspired by his personal example and courage, stood fast against repeated attacks by the enemy armour and destroyed 27 enemy tanks with minimal casualties to the unit”.
“Throughout the operations, Lieutenant Colonel Vohra displayed conspicuous gallantry and inspiring leadership in keeping with the highest traditions of the Army,” the citation adds.
After his tenure with 4th Horse, Vohra commanded a corps that took part in multiple counterinsurgency operations in the northeast.
“When he was posted in Nagaland, one of his posts was raided by the insurgents and they took away the weapons. He was such a daredevil that he proposed to take a helicopter and drop grenades on the fleeing insurgents,” said Bajwa.
However, Bajwa added, he “was talked out of it by his staff as they didn’t want the Army commander to expose himself to such risk”.
The officer took charge of the crucial Eastern Command in the late 1980s, a year after Chinese intrusions at Sumdorong Chu, near Tawang, in 1986. It is from here that he retired in 1990.
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