Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Independent India, and its longest-serving till date, being in office for more than 16 years. Nehru was a barrister by profession, and played a key role in India’s freedom movement. He is often called the architect of modern India, laying the foundations of a free, independent and modern India. Nehru is also celebrated for his charisma, and huge crowds used to turn up to hear him speak.
Born into a privileged, educated family, he was sent to England at age 15 to study. He returned with democratic and liberal values. Nehru was a socialist at heart, and his policies reflected that. Nehru promoted a pluralistic multi-party democracy in India. He implemented moderate socialist economic reforms and committed India to a policy of industrialisation. In foreign affairs, he played a leading role in establishing the Non-Aligned Movement. Under Nehru’s leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning elections in 1951, 1957 and 1962.
Some of the highlights of his tenure as prime minister included the India-Pakistan war of 1947-48, the India-China war of 1962, the reorganisation of states along linguistic lines, the Five-Year plans setting up of IITs, IIMS, ISRO, DRDO, among others. Nehru died while in office, serving as the PM for the fourth time.
1962 conflict was so insignificant even when it happened that the by-election in West Bengal went per schedule. Jyoti Basu in fact wondered if this whole episode was a hoax by Congress to polarize voters against his party which opposed Forward Policy and friendly with China. Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report blames incompetence of Indian Army and Indian Air Force squarely. Brooks-Bhagat had no authority to investigate political decisions nor did they even interview Nehru, Krishna Menon, any minister nor politician. So, any claim of dirt on Nehru or Krishna Menon in that report is false and wishful thinking. Claim that Nehru should have deployed Air Force is a failure to comprehend that China had Air Force too. The only “diplomatic points” India could win would be if Chinese Air Force destroyed Indian Air Force and then went on to bomb Indian cities and civilians. On one hand Chari accuses Nehru of buying wrong aircrafts and then claims those same wrong aircrafts could defeat mighty China! He claims Army was NOT ready but somehow (miraculously) Air Force was TOTALLY READY to take on mighty China and defeat it. Air Force could not even successfully drop food, supplies and ammunition to soldiers. If Nehru really deployed the (Uttar Kumar) Indian Air Force, they too would be decimated like Army and Pakistan would walk away with Kashmir in 1965 or even sooner. Chari ji should know that even the Army bragged about “teaching China a lesson” until Nehru actually deployed them. Suggestions that Indian Army could have won if they had few more weapons is laughable. Chariji’s claims on indigenous production are completely uninformed. Under Krishna Menon, India manufactured HF-24 Supersonic fighters, Avadi Tanks, Shaktiman Trucks and AVRO light Aircraft. Krishna Menon setup 15 new Arms and Ammunition factories. Krishna Menon bought Gnats, MIGS, INS Vikrant, Submarines and Helicopters that won 1965 and 1971 Wars.
China never claimed victory nor even acknowledges any war ever taking place. When enemy retreats, any other nation would claim victory while only Indians can INSIST of “defeat, debacle and humiliation”. Despite Indian Army abandoning posts and running away, Jawaharlal Nehru stood like a man he was. Despite China’s threat to invade Assam if their possession of NEFA is not recognized, Nehru declined the Ceasefire and vowed to fight. By November 1962, Nehru forced China retreat to pre-war positions and recovered every inch of NEFA lost by the Army. Where was the need to deploy Air Force? Nehru never fell short of “diplomatic points” as entire world rallied around him as soon as Cuban Missile Crisis got diffused. Even Taiwan which insisted India should stay away from Tibet and Aksai Chin, committed its armies to support India. Seshadri Chari ji does not know Nehru nor his Resilience and should refrain from cheap claims like “Nehru’s shaky voice” or BJP’s favorite claim of “Nehru dying of broken heart”. When things were at their worst, Nehru was at his best. While Nehru may not have “played fiddle” as armies fought, he knew “realities of modern world” long before 1962. Nehru steered the country through largest mass migration in history of mankind. India went through “Direct Action” in 1946 and Partition in 1947 with 1 million deaths each. He went through great personal losses, lathi-charges and 10-year prison. Nehru / Krishna Menon government defeated NATO member Portugal and liberated Goa just 10 months earlier despite warnings from JFK himself. Chari ji does not explain why his BJP governments never released the “secretive” Henderson Brooks Report but freely (mis)quotes it. Chari ji quotes Vajpayee but fails to mention writing Tibet off to China in 2003. Why didn’t Vajpayee cross LoC in 1999 while Pakistan had no problem doing so? Nehru’s priorities of building dams, feeding hungry, employment, industrialization, empowerment of weak, science, technology etc are MISPLACED!??
Those who writing about, 1962 like this author were child when India faced war with China. People like Chari and many others like are tutored to read history are taught to blame Nehru rather than to learn from the mistakes. What about Dokalan. It is time for authors like Chari to broaden their outlook when they write about yesteryear leaders
It is a favourite journalistic game to blame Nehru/Menon/Kaul for 1962 China disaster at SELA Pass in Arunachal Pradesh. It is all based on pirated copy of the Part 1 of The Henderson Brooke report by the British – Australian journalists who was more of a political analyst than a military thinker.
Yes, appoint Kaul as a Corp Commander was a big mistake. Yes, rushing plains troops to the mountains without proper gear was wrong. Yes, Thagla Ridge incident could be avoided same way as Doklam incident avoided turning into a war was avoided by presenting an iron fist. But all these conclusions reached out after reading only the first part of the Herserson Brooks report is purely wrong.
Indian Army at SELA was sitting well entrenched and waiting. Chinese with light arms had travelled on foot on falling snow for three days prior and most likely thirsty and hungry were in no position to offer a fight to a well entrenched force even if the enemy had appeared behind them. They were hungry too. For Indian troops, there were 10 days of supplies at SELA. Had the Indians held on for two more days, the hungry and thirsty enemy troops would be surrendering to Indians. Chinese were in no position in two feet of snow on trails they used to rush supplies. They were dependent on supplies they capture, which they did after SELA was vacated. Route started after retreat order was given and totally undefended and in the open, troops fell easy prey to the Chinese who had blocked the road and set up a strong point at and near Bomdila. Panic started when retreating SELA soldiers related their retreat their tales to others.
No large scale fight took place. Chinese were lightly equipped as trails do not carry heavy weapons but the retreat order was the killer. Chinese killed a few Indian soldiers. Cold and lack of supplies killed more. Surrender was the only alternative. Surrendering soldiers lead the enemy to hidden supply dumps.
All this is in Part 2 of the Henderson Brook report, which has not seen light of the day. If that portion becomes public then, a huge blame for mismanagement will fall on Indian Army commanders like Lt. Gen. LP Sen, Umrao Singh and many other very senior officers in charge along with Kaul. That is one reason that Part -2 is still state secret.
BM Kaul had nothing to do with combat operations. Kaul’s job was to build infrastructure and even his worst critics could not deny him doing a stellar job. Kaul was rushed to the front in first week of October 1962 only when Umrao Singh refused to fight and refused to carryout orders. Kaul happened wander into office in Delhi at that very moment although he was officially still on leave. His so-called Corps IV did not even exist but to be raised in next 2 years. Pains were taken to avoid Umrao Singh feeling that he is being replaced. Intent was to give impression of smooth implementation of Forward Policy as entire India was on edge “waiting for the news of eviction of China from Aksai Chin”. Opposition already gave ultimatum to Nehru to evict China before the winter session! The narratives you read and cite don’t consider the impact of irresponsible democracy which Nehru himself created. After defeating Britain, French (Pondicherry) and Portugal (Goa), Chinese looked small and Indians were restless, and hence the impatience!