Moral courage is essential. Now since you wanted to know some examples of moral courage from my past, I will give you a little story.
In 1970, when General Yahya Khan put all the pressure on East Pakistan as it was then and refugees started coming to India, there was a cabinet meeting. I remember the date very well—28th of April. I was summoned. I had a very strong Prime Minister in Mrs Gandhi, who ranted and raved at me, said, what are you doing about it? I’ve got so many refugees. The Chief Minister of Bengal has just sent me a telegram. The Chief Minister of Tripura has done this. The Chief Minister of Assam is writing that there are more Bengalis there than their own population. What are you doing about it?
And I said, nothing. Got nothing to do with me. And she said, I want you to go in and take action.
And I said, do you know what that means, Prime Minister? She said, no. I said, it means war. And she said, I don’t mind if there’s war.
So I said, may I please quote from the Bible, the first book, the first chapter, the first verse: God said, let there be light. And there was light. And you say, let there be war. There’ll be war.
Are you ready? I’m not ready. I’m not prepared. It is not the right time to go in. The monsoon will break very shortly. And the whole of East Pakistan will be a swamp. I will not be able to operate.
The Air Force will not be able to operate. April is a month when we gather, glean the harvest. And the Agriculture Minister was Mr Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad. And I said, I will require every railway wagon, I will require every train, I will require all the road space to move my troops. And you will not be able to move your harvest. And then if there is a famine, don’t blame me.
And I said, the passes in the Himalayas start opening now, the snow melts. And then if the Chinese give us an ultimatum, I will have to fight on two fronts. Then the External Affairs Minister, Khalsa, Sardar Swaran Singh said, do you think China will give ultimatum? And I said, you are the foreign minister, you tell me.
And then my own minister, Jagjivan Ram, who couldn’t call me Sam, he used to call me Shyam. He said, Shyam, maan jao na. I said, yeh koi maan ne ki baat hai? I am telling you what the facts are.
And I said, if you want me to do this, Prime Minister, I guarantee you 100% defeat. Now, Prime Minister, give me your orders.
And there was dead silence.
And she turned around and said, the Cabinet will meet at 4 o’clock. This happened at 10.30 in the morning. So, as the Cabinet ministers walked out, I being the junior most man there, was the last to go.
She said, Chief, will you stay behind? So I shut the door, and I said, Prime Minister, before you speak, do you wish me to send in my resignation on grounds of health, mental or physical? She said, oh, sit down. She said, everything you told me, correct? I said, it’s my job to fight. It’s my job to tell you.
If your father, in 1962, had me as his Commander-in-Chief, the country would not have been disgraced. The army would not have been beaten. But the Army Chief did not have moral courage of turning around and telling him he wasn’t ready.
So, she said, all right, you know what I want? And I said, yes, I know what you want. And, I must be allowed to do it my own way. And she said, all right, you know what I want.
So, ladies and gentlemen, there’s a very thin line between becoming a field marshal and being dismissed. I just gave you an illustration of moral courage. Of course, I didn’t worry very much because my wife had money if I had gone. She would have looked after me. So much for moral courage.
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.