A profile of courage
Valmiki Faleiro
A profile of courage
Lieutenant Colonel Vishwas Keshav Bhandare (Veteran) was born in 1942 in the historic Mhamai Kamat heritage mansion near Panjim's old Secretariat. His mother was a Mhamai Kamat from Goa's leading business family of yore that had a fleet of ships and traded internationally. His father was a renowned medical practitioner from Cumbarjua, settled in St. Cruz/Kalapur. Though a medico, Dr. Keshav Bhandare taught math at the Panjim lyceum and started a Marathi-medium school in St. Cruz. Such was his passion to impart knowledge. He was also a quintessential Goan doctor for whom healing was a vocation rather than a profession; he never quoted or demanded a professional fee. Whatever the patient gave, he accepted. Let us turn to their son, Vishwas.
The daring future soldier grew up in St. Cruz. His father wanted him to focus on studies. Imagine the father’s chagrin when, invited as Chief Guest for the football finals of the village tournament, he sees … who else but his beloved son Vishwas, instead of sitting with his books, donning colours for the Crown Club's football team – and the parish priest telling Dr. Bhandare that Vishwas was a very talented footballer! (The son did not know who the Chief Guest was, or he may have performed the vanishing trick.)
Studies were not entirely neglected and Vishwas passed SSC from Progress High School, Panjim and in 1958 enrolled at Rani Parvati Devi (RPD) College in Tilakwadi-Belgaum for a B.Sc. The lanky youth (he is over six feet tall) represented the Karnatak University in athletics, volleyball and football. Besides inter-University, he played internationally with teams from Russia etc. He cleared Inter Science and was in B.Sc when selected for the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Madras.
His experience swimming across the Mandovi during São João came in handy in a tragic episode at the OTA. The cadets had to swim across a river in full gear. When they reached the other bank, an alarm was raised for a missing cadet. Vishwas dived back into the river and after 10 minutes, found the body of his colleague in the riverbed and brought it to land.
He was commissioned into the elite Parachute Regiment in 1964 and posted to 2 Para, the main attack battalion of the famed 50 (Independent) Para Brigade. Lt. Col. Bhandare would spend an eventful 18 years of his life with 2 Para. He was a pioneer in the unit, always the first to volunteer for high-risk tasks, like trying out new parachutes (T-7, T-10) when being evaluated for induction – even at high altitude drops in Leh. Several times, he was the junior-most officer selected to command sub-units. Most of his army life, he was in operational/field areas, save two staff tenures and the peace postings, including in Goa toward the end of a long and strenuous journey in the uniform.
He was a young Lieutenant in the Rann of Kutch in 1965. Pakistan had begun flexing its muscles in the area from April that year. Just like in 1947, Pakistan infiltrated some 15,000 trained and armed Razakars, Mujahids and 7,000 disguised army regulars and paramilitary into Kashmir on 5 August 1965. India declared war on 1 September 1965. The 15 Infantry Division (of which the 50 Para Brigade was part) was tasked to open the Lahore Front.
Lt. Bhandare was barely a year and half in active service, the junior-most Young Officer in his battalion, which had three Mount Everest heroes. Yet he was selected, quickly promoted to acting Captain, and put in command of the B (Bravo) Company of the unit, comprising of South Indian jawans. Successively on 14 and 15 September 1965 he was sent, with just three men, on nightlong patrols three to four kms inside Pakistan to ascertain enemy deployment, strength, disposition and armour. He was spotted on both occasions.
On 14 Sept 1965 night, despite being detected, he and party crawled to a camouflaged but unmanned Pak tank, removed the heavy machine gun mounted on its turret and the belt of ammunition and arduously trudged with the weighty booty back to base. The gun is today displayed in front of 2 Para Quarter Guard Room and the Browning 50 mm ammunition belt duly embedded on a board and marked '2' is displayed at the 2 Para Officers Mess in Agra.
Surveying another Pak area on 15 Sept 1965 night, he and party threw stones at Pak soldiers ... just to draw enemy fire in order to locate the positioning and level of Pak armament in the area. His inputs helped higher command firm up plans for attack.
On the night of 16/17 September 1965, his Company was ordered to attack west of Dograi to provide flank protection to the main attack battalion, 3 Jat, at Jallo Bridge on Ichhogil Canal near Dograi on the GT road (Lahore) axis. Supplementing the Battalion C Coy's battle cry Bol Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai, his Bravo Coy's South Indian boys responded with Swami Ye Ayappa, attacking every enemy trench and bunker.
Suddenly, three enemy soldiers leapt out of a camouflaged trench and ambushed the young officer. It was three fully armed combat enemy soldiers versus one commanding officer armed with only a bayonetted rifle (his men were fully armed but were in action nearby). It was either he or them. On lightning-quick thinking, before the three enemy could pull their triggers, then Captain Bhandare bayoneted two of them in a swift rowing action, while the third fell at his feet and was quickly taken POW. Later, on interrogation at base, the POW was identified as Naik Munawar of 16 Baluch. He spilled the beans including the graphic story of the young officer's personal bravery.
The unit CO, the redoubtable Lt. Col. Ram Singh Yadav (later Minister of Transport in Haryana), recommended him for a Vir Chakra. Inter-hierarchal communications those days often went haywire or got mired in red tape. The VrC never materialised. Record Officer Parval documented the event in the official history of the Regiment, Paratrooper. (Lt. Col. Bhandare feels that without a Wound Medal, any gallantry award is meaningless.)
During hostilities, the enemy rained down heavy fire. Charlie Company of his Battalion suffered heavily including the loss of its commander, Major Baliram Parab from Sawantwadi, recommended for a Maha Vir Chakra, which also did not materialise. But his B Coy emerged unscathed – save with splinters and shrapnel in their backs (from exploding enemy ordnance), Capt. Bhandare included. None asked for evacuation. They fought on. Caught between heavy Indo-Pak crossfire, he saved his men ordering them to march single file (ramrod method), to minimise chances of casualties.
The main attack battalion, an undersized 3 Jat under Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier) Desmond E. Hayde, MVC, attacked from the flanks and rear, fought one of the toughest battles in the annals of Indian military history (“with guns, grenades, bayonets and bare hands”), and in a stunning advance reached the outskirts of Lahore, its International Airport within sight and range. The unit bagged 3 MVCs, 4 VrCs and 7 SMs in that single operation. Quizzically, 3 Jat was ordered to retreat (as per original battle plan). Strangely, higher command failed to appreciate the changed circumstances and rush reinforcements at least to hold on to the position if not to capture Lahore. Lt. Col. Bhandare still wakes up at times wondering why 3 Jat was ordered to fallback.
Then a Major, he was at the regiment’s home base in Agra before the 1971 war. For months, he painstakingly perfected the unit’s RV Drill – the exercise to gather airdropped troops in the shortest possible time. The unit could complete that in half an hour. 2 Para Battalion was airdropped at Tangail in the eastern front on 11 Dec 1971, the airdrop point closest to Dacca.
In 1982, he was again the junior-most officer to be approved for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel (those days it took a minimum of 18 years service to rise to that rank). But, he would have to wait some four or five years for the promotion to materialise in his unit.
He opted for 6 Bihar and was in command of the battalion, which was deployed in Sikkim, along the China border. He played a major role in Doklam. Had his recommendations for strengthening the defences by occupying the Jamferi Ridge in Bhutan been implemented, China may not have dared to interfere in Doklam in 2018 and 2019.
When commanding the battalion in Doklam, the fearless paratrooper met with a serious air accident while on duty in 1984. With a fractured pelvis, among multiple other broken bones, Lt. Col. Bhandare was hospitalised nine months and underwent a string of surgeries. He was flown for specialised orthopaedic care in Bombay. Though mobile, the surgeries continued even post retirement. (The last surgery in fact was in January, 2021.) Apt or ironic, his cousin brother is Panjim's well-known orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Deep Bhandare. The intrepid Colonel remained in command of his unit until 1987.
In 1988, he was posted as Colonel MS to XI Corps and later as Colonel MA to the Army Commander, Western Command. He thereafter went to 1 Maharashtra Bn NCC, before being posted as Staff Officer, Station HQ, 2 STC, Panjim. He was given a four-year extension while here and finally retired in 1998. Lt. Col. Bhandare lives in Goa. A person this author is obliged to and deeply respects – and not just because the author’s mother hailed from Cumbarjua like the Colonel!
A personal aside: among the many Bhandares of Cumbarjua this author is fond of (Rohan Bhandare from Bernardo da Costa Road in Margao is a friend) was the inimitable Shankar Bhandari. He was a programme officer with All India Radio. I would first say a respectful ‘hi’ to him before meeting any other person at Akashvani-Altinho where I was a rather frequent ‘casual artiste’ for the Yuva Vani youth programme.
Shankar Bhandari was a fierce defender of the Goan identity. He was not in favour of the Portuguese but was against integration with India – much like Adv. Antonio Bruto da Costa, leader of ‘The Margao Group’. Aware of Goa’s greatness, Shankar Bhandari wanted her to be autonomous.
When Goa was unilaterally annexed to the Indian Union in March 1962, he penned the poem, Ganarajya (Republic) … Ganachem Ailam Raj / Khuincho Gana Konn Zanna? When Goa was sought to be merged with Maharashtra, he famously sloganeered, Amkam naka puran poli, amkam zai Goenchi xit kodi. Shankar Bhandari was unfailingly a treat to meet. With a very fair visage and scanty grey hair frilled around the base of his head, Shankar bab looked more like a Goan St. António. His fair face was invariably pink with a lunchtime blush. Pearls flowed. On one occasion, Shankar Bhandari, who was evidently fond of this young product from Cumbarjua, told me: Goenkar rattche torrad, sokallche honrrad (sozzled at night, Goans are honourable in the morning). I don’t think I ever laughed more.
Photos:
1. Lt. Col. Vishwas K. Bhandare; and,
2. Lt. Col. Bhandare (at superimposed No.3) with his Company Commanders.
(This first appeared in the Marathi language in Goa’s daily, Gomantak, 27 November 2022, and is excerpted from revised text of the book, Patriotism In Action: Goans in India’s Defence Services by Valmiki Faleiro, first published in 2010 by ‘Goa,1556,’ ISBN: 978-93-80739-06-9. Revised edition awaits publication.)
