Why we gave up??

Recent revelations of the Henderson Brook-P.S. Bhagat report have put many people, including the then Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in the dock with many allegations which are pretty serious. As far as I am concerned I believe that the whole ware was a bureaucratic, strategic and political defeat which was banged on our face. It’s intoto true that at that time India was not having enough ammunitions and arms but authentically speaking war was more a strategic failure rather than being a defeat due to non-availability of ammunitions and arms. The war in itself was an unfortunate setback for the whole nation which made the whole nation fall into despair. This war made the whole nation cry, weep and lament the demise of those soldiers who made themselves immortal by dying for the welfare of the motherland. The war also shattered the excessively robust confidence that Pt. Nehru had in China and still today the war continues to be serve as a paradigm of why we should not confide in others and still edifies us to maintain some parameters to restrain ourselves from transcending the limits of confidence as whenever there is excess of something, an astoundingly sever accident takes place which mutates our life to a detestable grief.

It was the year 1950 when India had its first tryst with China when Kavalam Madhava Panikkar was appointed as the first Indian ambassador to People’s Republic of China. For the next five years, India and China enjoyed a peaceful and tranquil relationship but India committed an egregious blunder during these years. At that time Pt. Nehru followed the principle of “Give and forgive” and erected a relationship with China which nevertheless being mutually beneficial bore fruits for China only. India, under the leadership of Pt. Nehru helped China increment and ameliorate its horizons as a significant panjandrum in world politics and demanded nothing as government at that time thought that China as a promising nation which could help India strengthen its foundation and leadership role in the world politics in the long run but haplessly that time never came when China bolstered India in doing anything.

India assisted China in different ways and proved to be a worthy and dependable friend. India opposed the United Nations resolution which blamed China of being an aggressor in Korean War and further helped China by advocating its United Nations membership. Afterwards too India helped Beijing relentlessly. Delhi even acknowledged Taiwan as a faction of Beijing. In these years everything went well. China was just exploiting India to its full hardiness and India was finding a China and reliable friend.

The deterioration of the relationship of both the nations commenced in the year 1955 when China started deeming India as an inferior and timid partner. The first clash originated when India vociferously protest against China’s act of including a part of Northeastern India in its own map as a Chinese province. After this one, some more clashed came into existence which further led to the devastation of the ties between the two nations.

The dragon again vexed the tiger after three years, i.e. in 1958 when it again flouted the rules of peaceful coexistence when China showed some parts of NEFA and Assam as its own territory in its pictorial map. Then again in the year 1959, Zhou Enlai, the then Chinese Premier, claimed 40,000 sq. Km of Indian territory as Chinese territory.

China and India had got the boundary dispute in legacy. Britishers went away but bequeathed us with the despicable boundary conflict with China. British rule and Tibet regime had conceded to consider the McMahon line as the line of control(LoC) but when China took over Tibet, it proclaimed that McMahon line is not correct and China would not follow it and cited and Tibet had no rights to take decision on its boundary matters as it was inferior to China. The tensions hiked further when India granted asylum to Dalai Lama.

Finally in the year 1960, India adopted an astringent stance towards China when it promulgated the “Forward Policy”. Under the forward policy India troops were directed to patrol, show the flags and establish posts as far forward possible from the then existing posts. Forward policy had two sides just like a coin. A good one as well as a bad one!

Forward policy was a good plan as it tried to curb the Chinese influence and attempts to declare Indian land as its own. For a long time Chinese soldiers had been making regular excursion in the Indian Territory and forward policy was aimed at mitigating the Chinese pressure and influence at the border.

The main problem with Forward Policy was that it was not an ingenious plan. It was just an unplanned measure taken up sans considering the consequences that were going to ensue it. It was a completely based on flawed premises. Intelligence Bureau (IB) director chief of that time B.N. Mullick said very foolishly that Chinese would not react to the forward policy and that they were not liable to use the military force against any of Indian posts entrenched under the forward policy, even if the Chinese were in a position to.

The army also didn’t function smoothly and intellectually at that time and didn’t pay heed to the needs of that time. To implement the forward policy, NEFA wanted an additional 12,000 troops but army believing on IB and deeming Chinese forces as blind didn’t fulfill the requirement. Around 60 posts were established under the Forward Policy and astonishingly there were even less than 10 soldiers on each post and when Chinese invaded with more than 30 soldiers attacking on one post, all the posts were shattered to the ground, many soldiers were mowed down while some were made prisoners of war.

All this explicitly shows the lack of concern that the whole system showed at that time and afterwards the whole nation had to suffer the consequences. India’s vulnerability was exposed in the whole world.

We talk about our great victory in the 1971 war but

Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

We still have learnt cipher from our previous goof-ups. Still there has been no progress at the border. Still the regions of north-east and Ladakh observe the illegitimate excursion of Chinese forces. Still a lot more needs to be done.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat

Jai Ma Bharti