Sam on Leadership and Discipline - fantastic humor and wisdom in a serious speech

[devrishi singhal]

FIELD MARSHAL SAM MANEKSHAW¹S LECTURE
AT DEFENCE SERVICES COLLEGE, WELLINGTON
ON LEADERSHIP AND DISCIPLINE
11TH NOVEMBER, 1998



Commandant, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am fully conscious of the
privilege, which is mine, to have been invited here to address the college.
A while ago, I was invited to a seminar where the subject was youth, and
people said that the youth of this country was not pulling its weight, that
society generally was not satisfied with how the young were functioning.
When I was asked what I thought about it, I said that the youngsters of this
country are disappointed, disturbed and confused. They cannot understand why
all these untoward things are happening in this country. They want to know
who is to blame. Not them. If they want to study at night and there is no
power, they want to know who is to blame. Not them. If they want to have a
bath, there is no water; they want to know who is to blame. Not them. They
want to go to college and university and they are told there are not any
vacancies; they want to know who is to blame. Not them. They say - here is a
country which was considered the brightest jewel in the British Crown. What
has happened to this Bright Jewel?

No longer are there excuses with the old political masters saying
that the reason why we are in this state is because we were under colonial
rule for 250 years. They turn around and say that the British left us almost
fifty years ago. What have you done? They point to Singapore, they point to
Malaysia, they point to Indonesia, and they point to Hong Kong. They say
that they were also under colonial rule and look at the progress those
countries have made.
They point to Germany and to Japan who fought a war for four and a
half years- whose youth was decimated and industry was destroyed. They were
occupied, and they had to pay reparations; Look at the progress those
countries have made. The youngsters want an answer. So, Ladies and
Gentlemen, I thought I should give you the answer.

The problem with us is the lack of
leadership.

Commandant, Ladies and Gentlemen, do not misunderstand me, when I
say lack of political leadership. I do not mean just political leadership.
Of course, there is lack of leadership, but also there is lack of leadership
in every walk of life, whether it is political, administrative, in our
educational institutions, or whether it is our sports organizations.
Wherever you look, there is lack of leadership. I do not know whether
leaders are born or made. There is a school of thought that thinks that
leaders are born. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a population of 960 million
people and we procreate at the rate of 17 million-equaling the total
population of Australia-each year, and yet there is a dearth of leadership.
So, those of you who still contribute to the fact that leaders are born, may
I suggest you throw away your family planning, throw away the pill,throw
away any inhibiting factor and make it free for all. Then perhaps someday a
leader may be born.
So, if leaders are not born, can leaders be made? My answer is
yes. Give me a man or a woman with a common sense and decency, and I can
make a leader out of him or her. That is the subject which I am going to
discuss with you this morning.
What are the attributes of leadership? The first, the primary,
indeed the cardinal attribute of leadership isprofessional knowledge and
professional competence. Now you will agree with me that you cannot be born
with professional knowledge and professional competence even if you are a
child of Prime Minister, or the son of an industrialist, or the progeny of a
Field Marshal. Professional knowledge and professional competence have to be
acquired by hard work and by constant study. In this fast- moving
technologically developing world, you can never acquire sufficient
professional knowledge.
You have to keep at it, and at it, and at it. Can those of our
political masters who are responsible for the security and defence of this
country cross their hearts and say they have ever read a book on military
history, on strategy, on weapons developments. Can they distinguish a mortar
from a motor, a gun from a howitzer, a guerrilla from a gorilla, though a
vast majority of them resemble the latter.
Ladies and Gentlemen, professional knowledge and professional
competence are a sine qua non of leadership. Unless you know what you are
talking about, unless you understand your profession, you can never be a
leader. Now some of you must be wondering why the Field Marshal is saying
this, every time you go round somewhere, you see one of our leaders walking
around, roads being blocked, transport being provided for them. Those,
ladies and gentlemen, are not leaders. They are just men and women going
about disguised as leaders ­ and they ought to be ashamed of themselves!
What is the next thing you need for leadership? It is the ability
to make up your mind to make a decision and accept full responsibility for
that decision. Have you ever wondered why people do not make a decision? The
answer is quite simple. It is because they lack professional competence, or
they are worried that their decision may be wrong and they will have to
carry the can. Ladies and Gentlemen, according to the law of averages, if
you take ten decisions, five ought to be right. If you have professional
knowledge and professional competence, nine will be right, and the one that
might not be correct will probably be put right by a subordinate officer or
a colleague. But if you do not take a decision, you are doing something
wrong. An act of omission is much worse than an act of commission. An act of
commission can be put right. An act of omission cannot. Take the example of
the time when the Babri Masjid was about to be destroyed. If the Prime
Minister, at that stage, had taken a decision to stop it, a whole community
­ 180 million would not have been harmed. But, because he did not take a
decision, you have at least 180 million people in this country alone who do
not like us.
When I was the Army Chief, I would go along to a formation, ask the
fellow what have you done about this and I normally got an answer, ³Sir, I
have been thinkingŠ I have not yet made up my mind,² and I coined a
Manekshawism. If the girls will excuse my language, it was Œif you must be a
bloody fool - be one quickly¹. So remember that you are the ones who are
going to be the future senior staff officers, the future commanders. Make a
decision and having made it, accept full responsibility for it. Do not pass
it on to a colleague or subordinate.
So, what comes next for leadership? Absolute Honesty, fairness and
justice ­ we are dealing with people. Those of us who have had the good
fortune of commanding hundreds and thousands of men know this. No man likes
to be punished, and yet a man will accept punishment stoically if he knows
that the punishment meted out to him will be identical to the punishment
meted out to another person who has some Godfather somewhere. This is very,
very important. No man likes to be superceded, and yet men will accept
supercession if they know that they are being superceded, under the rules,
by somebody who is better then they are but not just somebody who happens to
be related to the Commandant of the staff college or to a Cabinet Minister
or by the Field Marshal¹s wife¹s current boyfriend. This is extremely
important, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We in India have tremendous pressures- pressures from the Government,
pressures from superior officers, pressures from families, pressures from
wives, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and girlfriends, and we lack the
courage to withstand those pressures. That takes me to the next attribute of
Leadership- Moral and Physical Courage.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not know which of these is more
important. When I am talking to young officers and young soldiers, I should
place emphasis on physical courage. But since I am talking to this
gathering, I will lay emphasis on Moral Courage. What is moral courage?
Moral courage is the ability to distinguish right from wrong and having done
so, say so when asked, irrespective of what your superiors might think or
what your colleagues or your subordinates might want. A Œyes man¹ is a
dangerous man. He may rise very high, he might even become the Managing
Director of a company. He may do anything but he can never make a leader
because he will be used by his superiors, disliked by his colleagues and
despised by his subordinates. So shallow­ the Œyes man¹.
I am going to illustrate from my own life an example of moral
courage. In 1971, when Pakistan clamped down on its province, East Pakistan,
hundreds and thousands of refugees started pouring into India. The Prime
Minister, Mrs. Gandhi had a cabinet meeting at ten o¹clock in the morning.
The following attended: the Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh, the
Defence Minister, Mr. Jagjivan Ram, the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin
Ali Ahmed, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Rao, and I was also ordered to
be present.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a very thin line between becoming a
Field Marshal and being dismissed. A very angry Prime Minister read out
messages from Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. All of them
saying that hundreds of thousands of refugees had poured into their states
and they did not know what to do. So the Prime Minister turned round to me
and said: ³I want you to do something².
I said, ³What do you want me to do?²
She said, ³I want you to enter East Pakistan².
I said, ³Do you know that that means War?²
She said, ³I do not mind if it is war².
I, in my usual stupid way said, ³Prime Minister, have you read the
Bible?²And the Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh (a Punjabi Sikh), in
his Punjabi accent said, ³What has Bible got to do with this?², and I said,
³the first book, the first chapter, the first paragraph, the first sentence,
God said, Œlet there be light¹¹ and there was light. You turn this round and
say Œlet there be war¹ and there will be war. What do you think? Are you
ready for a war? Let me tell you ­³it¹s 28th April, the Himalayan passes are
opening now, and if the Chinese gave us an ultimatum, I will have to fight
on two fronts².
Again Sardar Swaran Singh turned round and in his Punjabi English
said, ³Will China give ultimatum?²
I said, ³You are the Foreign Minister. You tell me².
Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said, ³Prime Minister, last
year you wanted elections in West Bengal and you did not want the communists
to win, so you asked me to deploy my soldiers in penny pockets in every
village, in every little township in West Bengal. I have two divisions thus
deployed in sections and platoons without their heavy weapons. It will take
me at least a month to get them back to their units and to their formations.
Further, I have a division in the Assam area, another division in Andhra
Pradesh and the Armoured Division in the Jhansi-Babina area. It will take me
at least a month to get them back and put them in their correct positions. I
will require every road, every railway train, every truck, every wagon to
move them. We are harvesting in the Punjab, and we are harvesting in
Haryana; we are also harvesting in Uttar Pradesh. And you will not be able
to move your harvest.
I turned to the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, ³If
there is a famine in the country afterwards, it will be you to blame, not
me.² Then I said, ³My Armoured Division has only got thirteen tanks which
are functioning.²
The Finance Minister, Mr. Chawan, a friend of mine, said, ³Sam,
why only thirteen?²
³Because you are the Finance Minister. I have been asking for money
for the last year and a half, and you keep saying there is no money. That is
why.² Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said, ³Prime Minister, it is
the end of April. By the time I am ready to operate, the monsoon will have
broken in that East Pakistan area. When it rains, it does not just rain, it
pours. Rivers become like oceans. If you stand on one bank, you cannot see
the other and the whole countryside is flooded. My movement will be confined
to roads, the Air Force will not be able to support me, and, if you wish me
to enter East Pakistan, I guarantee you a hundred percent defeat.²
³You are the Government², I said turning to the Prime Minister,
³Now will you give me your orders?²
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have seldom seen a woman so angry, and I am
including my wife in that. She was red in the face and I said, ³Let us see
what happens². She turned round and said, ³The cabinet will meet four
o¹clock in the evening².
Everyone walked out. I being the junior most man was the last to
leave. As I was leaving, she said, ³Chief, please will you stay behind?² I
looked at her. I said, ³Prime Minister, before you open your mouth, would
you like me to send in my resignation on grounds of health, mental or
physical?²
³No, sit down, Sam. Was everything you told me the truth?²
³Yes, it is my job to tell you the truth. It is my job to fight
and win, not to lose.²
She smiled at me and said, ³All right, Sam. You know what I want.
When will you be ready?²
³I cannot tell you now, Prime Minister², I said, but let me
guarantee you this that if you leave me alone, allow me to plan, make my
arrangements, and fix a date, I guarantee you a hundred percent victory².
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, as I told you, there is a very thin line
between becoming a Field Marshal and being dismissed. Just an example of
moral courage. Now, those of you who remembered what happened in 1962, when
the Chinese occupied the Thag-la ridge and Mr. Nehru, the Prime Minister,
sent for the Army Chief, in the month of December and said, ³I want you to
throw the Chinese out². That Army Chief did not have the Moral courage to
stand up to him and say, ³I am not ready, my troops are not acclimatized, I
haven¹t the ammunition, or indeed anything². But he accepted the Prime
Minister¹s instructions, with the result that the Army was beaten and the
country humiliated.
Remember, moral courage. You, the future senior staff officers
and commanders will be faced with many problems. People will want all sorts
of things. You have got to have the moral courage to stand up and tell them
the facts. Again, as I told you before, a Œyes man¹ is a despicable man.
This takes me to the next attribute: Physical courage. Fear, like
hunger and sex, is a natural phenomenon. Any man who says he is not
frightened is a liar or a Gorkha. It is one thing to be frightened. It is
quite another to show fear. If you once show fear in front of your men, you
will never be able to command. It is when your teeth are chattering, your
knees are knocking and you are about to make your own geography- that is
when the true leader comes out!
I am sorry but I am going to illustrate this with another example
from my own life. I am not a brave man. In fact, I am a terribly frightened
man. My wife and I do not share the same bedroom. ³Why?² you will ask.
Because she says I snore. Although I have told her, No, I don¹t. No other
woman has ever complained².
I am not a brave man. If I am frightened, I am frightened of wild
animals, I am frightened of ghosts and spirits and so on. If my wife tells
me a ghost story after dinner, I cannot sleep in my room, and I have to go
to her room. I have often wondered why she tells me these ghost stories
periodically.
In World War II, my battalion, which is now in Pakistan, was
fighting the Japanese. We had a great many casualties. I was commanding
Charlie Company, which was a Sikh Company. The Frontier Force Regiment in
those days had Pathancompanies. I was commanding the Sikh Company, young
Major Manekshaw. As we were having too many casualties, we had pulled back
to reorganize, re-group, make up our casualties and promotions.
The Commanding Officer had a promotion conference. He turned to me
and said, ³Sam, we have to make lots of promotions. In your Sikh company,
you have had a lot of casualties. Surat Singh is a senior man. Should we
promote him to the rank of Naik?² Now, Surat Singh was the biggest Badmaash
in my company. He had been promoted twice or three times and each time he
had to be marched up in front of the Colonel for his stripes to be taken
off. So I said, ³No use, Sir, promoting Surat Singh. You promote him today
and the day after tomorrow, I will have to march him in front of you to take
his stripes off². So, Surat Singh was passed over. The promotion conference
was over, I had lunch in the Mess and I came back to my company lines. Now,
those of you who have served with Sikhs will know that they are very
cheerful lot- always laughing, joking and doing something. When I arrived at
my company lines that day, it was quite different, everybody was quiet. When
my second-in-command, Subedar Balwant Singh, met me I asked him, ³What has
happened, Subedar Sahib?² He said, ³Sahib, something terrible has happened.
Surat Singh felt slighted and has told everybody that he is going to shoot
you today².
Surat Singh was a light machine gunner, and was armed with a
pistol. His pistol had been taken away, and Surat Singh has been put under
close arrest. I said, ³All right, Sahib. Put up a table, a soap box, march
Surat Singh in front of me². So he was marched up. The charge was read out-
Œthreatening to shoot his Commanding officer whilst on active service in the
theatre of war¹. That carries the death penalty. The witnesses gave their
evidence. I asked for Surat Singh¹s pistol which was handed to me. I loaded
it, rose from my soap box, walked up to Surat Singh, handed the pistol to
him then turned round and told him, ³You said you will shoot me². I spoke to
him in Punjabi naturally. I told him, ³Have you got the guts to shoot me?
Here, shoot me². He looked at me stupidly and said, ³Nahin, Sahib, galtee ho
gayaa². I gave him a tight slap and said, ³Go out, case dismissed².
I went around the company lines, the whole company watching what
was happening. I walked around, chatted to the people, went to the Mess in
the evening to have a drink, and have my dinner, but when I came back again
Sardar Balwant Singh said, ³Nahin Sahib, you have made a great mistake.
Surat Singh will shoot you tonight².
I said, ³Bulao Surat Singh ko².
He came along. I said, ³Surat Singh, aj rat ko mere tambu par tu
pehra dega, or kal subah 6 bjay, mere liye aik mug chai aur aik mug shaving
water lana². Then I walked into my little tent.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I did not sleep the whole night. Next
morning, at six o¹clock, Surat Singh brought me a mug of tea and a mug of
shaving water, thereafter, throughout the war, Surat Singh followed me like
a puppy. If I had shown fear in front of my men, I should never have been
able to command. I was frightened, terribly frightened, but I dared not show
fear in front of them. Those of you, who are going to command soldiers,
remember that. You must never show fear.So much for physical courage, but,
please believe me, I am still a very frightened man. I am not a brave man.
What comes next? The next attribute of leadership is loyalty. Ladies
and Gentlemen, you all expect loyalty. Do we give loyalty? Do we give
loyalty to our subordinates, to our colleagues? Loyalty is a three way
thing. You expect loyalty, you must therefore, give loyalty to your
colleagues and to your subordinates. Men and women in large numbers can be
very difficult, they can cause many problems and a leader must deal with
them immediately and firmly. Do not allow any non sense, but remember that
men and women have many problems. They get easily despondent, they have
problems of debt, they have problems of infidelity- wives have run away or
somebody has an affair with somebody. They get easily crestfallen, and a
leader must have the gift of the gab with a sense of humor to shake them out
of their despondence. Our leaders, unfortunately, our ³so-called² leaders,
definitely have the gift of the gab, but they have no sense of humor. So,
remember that.
Finally, for leadership; men and women like their leader to be a
man, with all the manly qualities or virtues. The man who says, ³I do not
smoke, I do not drink, I do not (No, I will not say it)¹, does not make a
leader. Let me illustrate this from examples from the past. You will agree
that Julius Caesar was a great leader- he had his Calphurnia, he had his
Antonia, he also had an affair with Cleopatra and, when Caesar used to come
to Rome, the Senators locked up their wives. And you will agree that he was
a great leader. He was known in Rome as every woman¹s husband and he was a
great leader. Take Napoleon, he had his Josephine, he had his Marie
Walewska, he had his Antoinette and Georgettes and Paulettes. And you will
agree he was a great leader. Take the Duke of Wellington- do you know that
the night before the battle of Waterloo, there were more Countesses,
Marchionesses and other women in his ante-chamber than staff officers and
Commanders. And you will agree he was a great leader. Do you know, Ladies
and Gentlemen, a thought has just struck me. All these leaders- Caesar,
Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington- they had one facial feature in common,
all had long noses.
So much, Ladies and Gentlemen, for leadership, but no amount of
leadership will do this country much good. Yes, it will improve things, but
what this country needs is discipline. We are the most ill-disciplined
people in the world. You see what is happening- you go down the road, and
you see people relieving themselves by the roadside. You go into town, and
people are walking up and down the highway, while vehicles are discharging
all sorts of muck. Every time you pick up a newspaper, you read of a scam or
you read of some other silly thing. As we are the most ill-disciplined
people in the world, we must do something about discipline.
What is discipline? Please, when I talk of discipline, do not think
of military discipline. That is quite different. Discipline can be defined
as conduct and behavior for living decently with one another in society. Who
lays down the code of conduct for that? Not the Prime Minister, not the
Cabinet, nor superior officers. It is enshrined in our holy books; it is in
the Bible, the Torah and in the Vedas, it is in the teachings of Nanak and
Mohammad. It has come down to us from time immemorial, from father to son,
from mother to child. Nowhere is it laid down, except in the Armed Forces,
that lack of punctuality is conduct prejudicial to discipline and decent
living.
I will again tell you a little story about that. Some years ago, my
wife and I were invited to convocation at a university. I was asked to be
there at four o¹clock. I got into the staff car with my wife, having chased
her from about eleven o¹clock in the morning. Don¹t forget, darling, you
have got to be on time. Get properly dressed; you have to leave at such and
such time¹. Eventually, I got her into the car. I told the driver, ³Thoda
aayisthe, thoda jaldi², but we got to the university and the convocation
address place at four o¹clock. We were received by the Vice Chancellor and
his Lady. We were taken into the convocation hall, and the Vice Chancellor
asked me to get on the platform, asking my wife to do so, too. She
gracefully declined, and said she much rather sit down below as she seldom
had an opportunity of looking up to her husband. Anyway, on the platform,
the Vice Chancellor sang my praises. As usual there were 2000 boys and girls
who had come for the convocation. There were deans of university, and
professors and lecturers. Then he asked me to go to the lectern and address
the gathering. I rose to do so and he said (sotto voce), Field Marshal, a
fortnight ago we invited a VIP from Delhi for the same function. He was
allowed to stand on the same lectern for exactly twenty seconds. I wish you
luck. ³I said to myself, had the Vice Chancellor mentioned this in his
letter of invitation, I wonder, if I should have accepted.
Anyway, I reached the lectern, and I addressed the gathering for my
allotted time of forty minutes. I was heard in pin drop silence, and at the
end of my talk, was given terrific ovation. The Vice Chancellor and his
lady, the Dean, the professors and lecturers, the boys and girls, and even
my own wife, standing up and giving me an ovation. After the convocation was
over, we walked into the gardens to have refreshments. And I, having an eye
for pretty girls, walked up to a pert little thing wearing a pair of tight
fitting jeans and a body hugging blouse, and I started a conversation with
her. I said, ³My dear, why were you so kind to me, I not being an orator nor
having the looks of Amitabh Bachhan, when only the other day you treated a
VIP from Delhi so shamefully². This pert little thing had no inhibitions.
She turned round and said, and I quote, ³Oh, that a dreadful man! We asked
him to come at four o¹clock. He came much later and that too accompanied
with a boy and a girl, probably his grand children. He was received by the
Vice Chancellor and his lady and taken to the platform. He was garlanded by
the Student Union President, and he demanded garlands for those brats too.
So, the Union President diverged with the garland that was meant for the
Vice Chancellor and gave it to the brats. Then the Vice Chancellor started
singing the worthy¹s praises. Whilst he was doing so, this man hitched up
his dhoti, exposing his dirty thighs, and scratched away. Then the Vice
Chancellor said, ³This man has done so much for the country, he has even
been to jail². And I nearly shouted out, ŒHe should be there now¹. Anyway,
when the Vice Chancellor asked him to come to the lectern and address the
convocation, he got up, walked to the lectern and addressed us thus, ŒBoys
and girls, I am a very busy man. I have not had time to prepare my speech
but, I will now read out the speech my secretary has written¹. We did not
let him stand there. Without exception, the whole lot of us stood and booed
him off the stage.²
Now, you see, Ladies and Gentleman, what I mean by discipline. Had
this man as his position warranted come on time at four o¹clock, fully
prepared and properly turned out, can you imagine the good it would have
done to these 2000 young girls and boys? Instead of that, his act of
indiscipline engendered further indiscipline. I thanked my lucky stars,
having been in the Army for so many years, that I arrived there on time,
that I had come properly dressed, that I didn¹t wear a dhoti to show my
lovely legs, that I didn¹t exacerbate an itch or eczema, to hurt the
susceptibilities of my audience, by indulging in the scratching of the
unmentionables.
Now, Ladies and Gentleman, you understand what I mean by discipline.
We are the most ill-disciplined people in the world. So far, all of you have
been very, very disciplined. Will you bear with me for another two minutes?
Having talked about leadership, having talked about discipline, I want to
mention something about Character. We Indians also lack character. Do not
misunderstand me, when I talk of character. I don¹t mean just being honest,
truthful, and religious, I mean something more- Knowing yourself, knowing
your own faults, knowing your own weaknesses and what little character that
we have, our friends, our fans, the Œyes-men¹ around us and the sycophants,
help us reduce that character as well. Let me illustrate this by an example:
Some years ago, Hollywood decided to put up the picture of great
violinist and composer, Paganini. The part of Paganini was given to a young
actor who was conversant, somewhat, with the violin. He was drilled and
tutored to such an extent that when the little piece, the Cadenza, was
filmed, it was perfect. When the film was shown, the papers raved about it,
and the critics raved about it. And this man¹s fans, Œyes-men¹, sycophants,
kept on telling him that he was as good a violinist as Heifetz or Menuhin.
And do you know that I took eight months in a psychiatric home to rid him of
his delusion?
Do you know, Commandant, that the same thing happened to me? After
the 1971 conflict with Pakistan, which ended in thirteen days and I took
93000 prisoners, my fans, the Œyes-men¹ around me, the sycophants, kept on
comparing me to Rommel, to Field Marshal Alexander, to Field Marshal
Auchinleck, and just as I was beginning to believe it, the Prime Minister
created me a Field Marshal and sent me packing to the Nilgiris. A
hard-headed, non-nonsense wife deprived a psychiatric home (what we in India
call a lunatic asylum), of one more inmate.
I thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
Question: In 1962 war, what was your appointment, were you in a position to
do something about the situation?
FM: In the 1962 war, I was disgrace. I was a Commandant of this
Institution.
Mr. Krishna Menon, the Defence Minister, disliked me intensely.
General Kaul, who was Chief of General Staff at the time, and the budding
man for the next higher appointment, disliked me intensely. So, I was in
disgrace at the Staff College. There were charges against me ­ I will
enumerate some of them ­ all engineered by Mr. Krishna Menon.
I do not know if you remember that in 1961 or 1960, General
Thimayya was the Army Chief. He had fallen out with Mr. Krishna Menon and
had sent him his resignation. The Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru, persuaded
General Thimayya to withdraw his resignation. The members of Parliament
also disliked Mr. Krishna Menon, and they went hammer and tongs for the
Prime Minister in Parliament.
The Prime Minister made the following statement, ³I cannot understand
why General Thimayya is saying that the Defence Ministry interferes with the
working of the Army. Take the case of General Manekshaw. The Selection Board
has approved his promotion to Lieutenant General, over the heads of 23 other
officers. The Government has accepted that.²
I was the Commandant of the Staff College. I had been approved for
promotion to Lieutenant General. Instead of making me the Lieutenant
General, Mr. Krishna Menon levied charges against me. There were ten
charges, I will enumerate only one or two of them ­ that I am more loyal to
the Queen of England than to the President of India, that I am more British
than Indian. That I have been alleged to have said that I will have no
instructor in the Staff College whose wife looks like an ayah. These were
the sort of charges against me.
For eighteen months my promotion was held back. An enquiry was
made. Three Lieutenant Generals, including an Army Commander, sat at the
enquiry. I was exonerated on every charge. The file went up to the Prime
Minister who sent it up to the Cabinet Secretary, who wrote on the file, Œif
anything happens to General Manekshaw, this case will go will down as the
Dreyfus case.¹ So the file came back to the Prime Minister. He wrote on
it, ³Orders may now issue², meaning I will now become a Lieutenant General.
Instead of that, Ladies and Gentleman, I received a letter from the Adjutant
General saying that the Defence Minister, Mr. Krishna Menon, has sent his
severe displeasure to General Manekshaw, to be recorded. I had it in the
office where the Commandant now sits. I sent that letter back to the
Adjutant General saying what Mr. Krishna Menon could do with his
displeasure, very vulgarly stated. It is still in my dossier.
Then the Chinese came to my help. Krishna Menon was sacked, Kaul
was sacked and Nehru sent for me. He said, ³General, I have a vigorous
enemy. I find out that you are a vigorous General. Will you go and take
over?²
I said, ³I have been waiting eighteen months for this
opportunity,² and I went and took over.
So, your question was 1962, and what part did I play, none
whatsoever, none whatsoever.
I was here for eighteen months, persecuted, inquisitions against me
but we surviveŠ.I rather like the Chinese.
Question: The Army has changed and progressed. Do you find any difference in
the mental makeup of the young officers compared to your time?
FM: Over the years, things have changedŠŠ there is a lot of difference,
dear. In my time, my father used to support me until I became a Lieutenant
Colonel. I used to get an allowance to be able to live. Today, the young
officer has not only to keep himself but has to send money home.
In my time, we did not have all these courses. The only course I
ever did, (of course, we had the four rounds of courses that every officer
had to do), but we had mules there so I had to do a course in training
mountain mules. Today the young officer hardly stays in his regiment. He is
sent from one place to another to do this course and that course, and he
does not get a chance of knowing his men.We knew our men. Also there wasn't
so much work in those days. We got up in the mornings, did Physical Training
for half an hour , came back ,dressed, had breakfast , then went to our
company lines and spent all our time avoiding the Commanding Officer.
Those Commanding Officers were nasty chaps. They did not give a damn
for anybody. I will give an example of the Commanding Officer. I was made
quartermaster of my battalion. The Commanding Officer sent for the Adjutant
and myself. He said, I want to take the battalion out tomorrow morning for
an exercise. ³We did not have motor cars, we had to indent for mules, so, I
as quartermaster intended for a company of mules. He said we were going to
leave for the exercise at 6:30, so I ordered the company of mules to arrive
at six. At eleven o¹clock at night, the commanding officer changed his mind.
He said, ³I will not go at 6:30, we will go at nine o¹clock. ³There was
nothing I could do. I got on my bicycle, went off to the lines, where the
mules had arrived. I told them to unsaddle, and go into the shade, when who
should arrive on a horse but the Cavalry Officer with his daughter!
I touched my hat. He said, ³What are those animals doing here,
young man?² I said that we were going out on an exercise.
³When are you going?²
³Nine o¹clock.²
He tore strips off me ­ ³going at nine o¹clock and you have the
animals waiting here at six o¹clock². He was riding with his daughter on a
horse. What could I say to a General officer, I had two pips on my shoulder.
Suddenly, who should be coming on a bicycle, but the Commanding Officer! He
touched his hat, said, ³Morning, General.²
Turning to me, he said, ³What is the matter, Sam?²
I said, ³Sir, the General is angry with me because we are going
out at nine o¹clock and the mules are here at six.²
He turned round to face the General, and said, I will thank you
General to know who commands this regiment. Me, and not this young man. I
will not have you ticketing him off in front of your daughter.²
He turned back to me and said, ³Have you had your breakfast,
Sam?²
³No.²
³Go along. Have your breakfast.²
I was delighted to go off. But when we came back from the
exercise, at about eight o¹clock in the evening, in my letter rack, was a
letter from the General¹s wife, inviting me to tea the next day. Now, I did
not want to have tea with the General¹s wife! But that¹s the sort of thing
that happens.
When I became the field Marshal, I was the guest of her majesty in
England. I had given a reception at India House, where the Commanding
Officer with his wife were also invited. He came in, shook hands with my
wife, shook hands with me, and walked off. Everybody was drinking. After
about half an hour, when everybody had arrived, I walked up to him with a
glass of whisky in my hand, and he turned round to me, ³May I call you Sam?²
³Please do, Sir. You used to call me Œbloody fool¹ before. I
thought that was my Christian name!²
The difference between the officer now and then ­ my first
confidential report written by him. Before you went in to sign your
confidential report, you had to go in front of the Adjutant, beautifully
turned out. We did not have any medals in those days. We had to have a sword
to go into the CO¹s office then. I walked in there, saluted the Adjutant, he
looked me up and down and said, ³You are going to see the Colonel, now? Look
at you! Your bloody strap is filthy dirty, look at your belt, it is
disgusting. Go on, go and get dressed.² I walked out, waited for five
minutes and came back.
He looked me up and down, ³Much better.²
Then he said, ³You are going in there. Do you have a fountain
pen?²
I said, ³Yes.²
³The CO will read your report. You will initial on the left
hand corner. Is that understood?²
³Yes.²
I walked in there, saluted the Colonel, ³Mr. Manekshaw
reporting, Sir.²
He looked me up and down, thrust the report on me online- ³This
officer, I beg his pardon, this man, may someday become an officer.²
I initialed it and walked out.
Khalid Sheikh, another officer from my regiment, who became the
Foreign Minister of Pakistan and a Governor there, came out. ³Khaled, what
report have you got?² I said. He said ³Online- this officer tends to be
irresponsible². I said, ³That¹s a bad report, Khalid.² He said, Uh! Last
year the bugger said I was irresponsible.²
But we did not mind. Today, if the commanding Officer writes and says this
officer is irresponsible, the officer wants to appeal to the President of
India saying he is more responsible than the Commanding Officer.
That was the difference, dear. We simply did not give a cuss.
Anything else?
Thank you Gentlemen, thank you for your kindness. Thank you for
your patience and your discipline. I am delighted to see you all here.