Valmiki Faleiro fredericknoro...@gmail.com As seen last week, on the authority of Major General DK Palit, Director of Military Operations at Army HQ in 1961, India's borders in the north -- with China and Pakistan -- were serious issues, while Goa was not even a military threat to India.
Yet military action in Goa, rather than in Pak-occupied-Kashmir or the more recent China-occupied Ladakh, suited India's Defence Minister Krishna Menon. He was a China fan who painted Pakistan as the No.1 enemy, playing down China. Pakistan was relatively a pushover as the 14-day war in 1971 would demonstrate (see more under Lieutenant General Walter Pinto below). China was the mightier, more ominous enemy. But it did not suit Menon to try to wrest illegally-occupied territory in Ladakh from China. Facing difficult re-election in February 1962, Menon became the chief proponent of invading Goa before the general elections. He needed to bolster his electoral prospects by demonstrating to the voters that he had freed Goa from the clutches of a foreign power. Shridhar Telkar said in 'Goa Yesterday and Today' that "Krishna Menon influenced Nehru's decision to invade Goa" (Telkar's Feature Service, 1962, Page 124). Menon was king. He was preparing to recontest, despite stiff party resistance -- firmly put down by Nehru -- from the North Bombay constituency (where, with support of the Communists and the Congress Party, Menon would trounce a former Congress President, Acharya JB Kripalani, backed by the Swatantra Party, Jan Sangh -- today's BJP -- and the Praja Socialist Party, whose sails were punctured by the Goa victory, by a 2:1 margin). Defence Minister Vengalil Krishnan Kurup Krishna Menon bore interesting credentials. He was an articulate debater who, like Che Guevara, could talk continuously for hours on end. His marathon eight-hour long speech on the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council on 23 January 1957 is regarded as the world's longest speech. Menon's verbal prowess evidently impressed Nehru. They had been soul mates since the 1930s. Menon was India's first High Commissioner to the UK (1947-52). In 1948, he bought 4,275 cases of Scotch whisky for the Indian armed forces at a price much higher than could be justified. Jeeps were urgently needed in the 1947/48 J&K Ops. He chose a little-known UK firm, Anti-Mistantes, for the supply of 2,000 refurbished jeeps at the price of new jeeps available in the USA. Menon advanced £1,43,000 to the firm, which had a paid-up capital of £605. The firm supplied 155 unserviceable jeeps and filed for bankruptcy. The whisky and jeep scandals created a furore in the Constituent Assembly and agitated the Public Accounts Committee. Water o'er a duck's back. Recommendations of the MA Ayyangar Inquiry were ignored. In 1951, Menon again contracted for 1,007 jeeps with another little-known UK firm, at higher the previous price, and again paid a substantial advance. The firm delivered 49 jeeps. Government of India filed a claim to recover £2,54,498 from the firm. Menon waived the entire claim after Nehru made him, of all things, the Defence Minister of India on 17 April 1957. A local lingo (Konkani) adage speaks of entrusting wardenship in the hands of a thief (a softer English equivalent: a fox guards the chickens). Menon had become what many said, "The second most powerful man in India". He would soon become the chief architect of India's most humiliating defeat at the hands of China in 1962. As Defence Minister, Menon lorded over a realm of which he had only a faint idea. But he did it with a flourish as one would with an inherited fiefdom. Foreseeing the threat from China, one of India's most respected generals, Army Chief General KS Thimayya ("Timmy", May 1957 to May 1961) repeatedly asked for army upgrades. Even a simple plea to replace World War I vintage .303 single action Lee-Enfield rifles with modern Belgian FN4 rifles was dismissed because Menon did not want NATO weapons in India. Gen. Thimayya pleaded for redeployment of troops on the China border. The pleas were ignored. In his book, 'A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon' (Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2019), former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said India would not have lost the 1962 war if Nehru and Menon had listened to Gen. Thimayya. Menon promoted Major General BM ("Bijjy") Kaul to Lieutenant General over the heads of 12 senior officers. General Thimayya, aged 53, resigned on 31 August 1959 (Nehru asked him to continue, and after a drab holding on, the General officially retired on 8 May 1961, prophetically telling his men, "I hope I am not leaving you as cannon fodder for the Chinese.") Lt Gen BM Kaul, made Chief of General Staff, was Menon's henchman plotting military action in Goa. After Goa, Kaul -- who was 'destined to outsmart himself' -- was put in charge of defence against China in NEFA. Experienced voices on China strategy like General Thimayya, Lieutenant General SPP Thorat, Lieutenant General Daulet Singh, Lieutenant General Umrao Singh, Brigadier (later Lieutenant General) Premindra Bhagat and others were given a deaf ear. In his post-retirement autobiography, 'From Reveille to Retreat' (Allied Publishers, 1986, ISBN: 978-8170230779), Lieutenant General Shankarrao Pandurang Patil Thorat from Vadgaon-Kolhapur wrote: "When I met Mr. Menon in Delhi [in 1959, when Lt Gen Thorat was GOC-in-C Eastern Command], I opened the subject [of defence against China] with him. In his usual sarcastic style he said that there would be no war between India and China, and in the most unlikely event of there being one, he was quite capable of fighting it himself on the diplomatic level." (Major General DK Palit also quotes this in 'War in High Himalaya: The Indian Army in Crisis', 1962, Lancer International, 1991, Page 55.) Lieutenant General Stanley Menezes from Sangolda-Goa, the eighth Vice Chief of Army Staff (1978-80), noted in 'Fidelity and Honour: the Indian Army from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-first Century' that the editor-author Frank Moraes once wrote that Menon "suffers neither fools nor wise men gladly" (Menezes, 1999, Page 476). [Lt Gen Menezes, when a Major General, was Chief of Staff of India's only Strike Corps deployed at the Shakargarh Bulge on the western front in the 1971 war. Vice Chief of Army Staff is equivalent in rank to an Army Commander. India has six field commands and one training command. The Vice Chief and the seven GOC-in-C/Army Commanders hierarchically come second to the Army Chief. Frank Moraes from Santa Cruz/Kalapur-Goa, father of poet Dom Moraes and brother of historian Teresa Albuquerque, was an Oxford-educated lawyer who became editor of The Times of Ceylon and The Morning Standard and on returning to India in 1949, of The National Standard and soon became the first Indian-origin editor of The Times of India before the 'Doyen of Indian Journalism' headed The Indian Express. He was also Nehru's biographer.] Besides other bungling, Menon punished Lieutenant Colonel (later Lieutenant General and Army Commander) Eric Vas from Saligao-Goa for exposing the pathetic state of affairs on the China border via the famous chapati letter that rocked parliament in late 1961. [Shortages were galore at the China border -- boots, warm clothing, arms and ammunition -- and the future Army Commander decided to do something about it: protest in an offbeat way. Commanding the 1/9 Gorkha Rifles, the first Indian Army unit to be deployed on the China border at NEFA -- task until then performed by the para-military Assam Rifles, a force under the Ministry of External Affairs that was neither trained nor equipped for the role -- the prolific future writer-author of hundreds of authoritative articles and a string of books, addressed a letter to his superiors written on a dry 'chapati' when even writing paper exhausted without replenishment -- see Colonel Anil Athale in the website of Pune-based think tank INPAD (Initiative for Peace, Arms Control and Disarmament), in 'Unsung Heroes VII: The Thinking General: The Chapati Truth' and A tribute to Lt Gen Eric Vas (15 May 1923-18 Aug 2009). Col Athale co-authored the official history of the Sino-Indian war.] Another Goan, Major (later Lieutenant General and Army Commander) Walter Anthony Gustavo Pinto from Santa Cruz/Kalapur, ordered on a long-range patrol to the McMahon Line along the Subansiri River valley in 1951, exposed the woeful lack of cartographic data on India's border with China. Despite his recorded observations, the government took no steps to remedy the lacunae (Pinto, 'Bash on Regardless: A Record of a life in War and Peace', Repro India Ltd., Navi Mumbai, 2011, Pages 31-35). [Lt Gen Pinto, when a Major General, led the 54 Infantry Division (including the 47 Basantar Brigade) deep into Pakistan, fought the biggest ever tank battle, decimated Pak armour and severely depleted her ability to counter-attack, which shocked the Western world and catalysed the 1971 war ceasefire. Lieutenant General BT Pandit (Engineers) who retired as Adjutant General of the Indian Army wrote of then Maj Gen Pinto, "Operationally our commander was a hard taskmaster and had little time for armchair strategists. On a personal plane, he was brave, kind-hearted and of forgiving nature. Even in stressful situations, he retained and exhibited a unique sense of humour."] Major General Ian Cardozo (Veteran) from Candolim-Goa writes in the preamble to his latest book, '1971: Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War' that Menon wanted then Major General Sam Manekshaw to criticise army chief General KS Thimayya. Maj Gen Manekshaw refused. Menon instituted a frivolous inquiry against him and held up his promotion for eighteen months. [Menon then got Lt Gen PN Thapar to level 13 charges against Gen Thimayya and 5 charges against Lt Gen SPP Thorat, widely seen as successor, and rewarded Gen Thapar with the top job in May 1961.] Menon also terminated the services of Air Marshal PC Lal in September 1962 (Cardozo, 2021, Pages xxi-xxii). [Major General Ian Cardozo is "an iconic soldier and war hero" in the words of Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Naval Staff. He lost a leg in the 1971 war. With singular tenacity, he rehabilitated himself with a prosthetic leg. His case made Government of India change the rules and open command appointments to war disabled officers -- three of whom rose to be Army Commanders. One of India's best-known generals worldwide, Maj Gen Cardozo has authored about a dozen books on military matters post retirement.] (Goan-origin Lieutenant Generals like Lt Gen Bobby Barreto from Raia, one of the 'Famous Four Barreto Brothers' in India's armed forces whose father was dentist to Mahatma Gandhi at Wardha, Lt Gen Francis Dias from Velsao, a 1971 hero who was brother of Ivan Cardinal Dias the Vatican No.3 in 2006 after the Pope and Secretary of State, Lt Gen Kevin D'Souza from Mapusa who was Deputy Chief of Army Staff up to December 1996 and Major Generals like Maj Gen Krishnarao Rane from Sanquelim, Maj Gen Sydney Pinto from Santa Cruz/Kalapur, Maj Gen Benjamin Gonsalves from Cana-Benaulim and Maj Gen Eustace D'Souza from Velsao, both striking 1971 war heroes, Maj Gen Antonio D'Silva from Benaulim, Maj Gen Ivan D'Cunha from Curtorim and Maj Gen Eustace Fernandez from Anjuna mercifully did not come in Krishna Menon's orbit, while Major Generals like Maj Gen Anil Raikar from Siolim, Maj Gen Dinesh Merchant (Pai Raikar) from Panjim/Savoi Verem, Maj Gen Christopher Fernandes from Salvador do Mundo, Maj Gen Michael Fernandez from Saligao and Maj Gen Sumer D'Cunha from Curtorim belong to the post-Krishna Menon era.) (Incidentally, Goa also contributed at least 37 Brigadiers, 63 Colonels, 90 Lieutenant Colonels, 74 Majors, 47 Captains, 8 Lieutenants and 3 Second Lieutenants (a rank since abolished) to the Indian Army, both sides of 1947. In the Indian Navy, there were (including Surgeon ranks): 1 Rear Admiral, 1 Vice Admiral, 8 Commodores, 9 Captains, 34 Commanders, 20 Lieutenant Commanders and 19 Lieutenants. The IAF had 1 Chief -- Air Chief Marshal H. Moolgavkar or Hrushikesh Shamrao Moolgavkar -- 3 Air Marshals including two AOC-in-C, 2 Air Vice Marshals, 8 Air Commodores, 25 Group Captains, 43 Wing Commanders, 27 Squadron Leaders, 20 Flight Lieutenants, 4 Flying Officers and 4 Pilot Officers (the last rank has since been abolished). The qualification at least is because the author feels that these numbers may at best represent fifty to sixty percent of the actual number of Commissioned Officers of Goan origin in India's armed forces.) The devastating China attack from 20 October 1962 nailed Nehru's foolhardiness, Menon's culpability and Kaul's ineptitude. All of Krishna Menon's victims were reinstated after he was sacked on 31 October 1962 (allegedly "as a condition for [US] military aid in November 1962"). General Manekshaw went on to become one of India's most popular army chiefs. Air Chief Marshal PC Lal was the resolute IAF chief during the Bangladesh War. Lieutenant General Eric Vas almost became the first Goan-origin chief of the Indian Army in 1981. (That honour would go to General Sunith Rodrigues of Curtorim, who became the first Goan COAS in 1990. He graciously wrote the thought-provoking Foreword to this book in 2010. Interestingly, while the older and now departed General Vas is known as The Original Thinking General, General Rodrigues is known as The Thinking General -- two 'Thinking Generals' of the Indian Army and both of them Goan.) Let's revert to the 1961 Goa story. During the 1 to 6 September 1961 Belgrade Conference (the first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement championed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt) Pandit Nehru, the most preeminent persona in Belgrade came under pressure from the 24 member nations, particularly the newly created African states, to use force in Goa, soon. According to Goan freedom fighter Dr. Pundalik Gaitonde, Nehru was asked "to act and not just talk" (Gaitonde, 1987, Page 154). Urging Nehru not to lose his 'anti-colonial fire', African leaders told him that whatever happens in Goa affects the revolution in Portuguese Africa. On 7 October 1961, Army HQ wrote to Lieutenant General JN Chaudhuri GOC-in-C Southern Command, instructing him to take "a scrutiny of the military situation in Goa with the aim to occupy it militarily". In other words, prepare a war plan. [Lt Gen Jayanto Nath ("Muchu") Chaudhuri led the 'police action' in Hyderabad when a Major General. He shook hands, lit cigarettes and quietly talked with Major General Syed Ahmed El Erdoos, the Arab Commander-in-Chief of the Hyderabad Army, on 17 September 1948 morning, and Hyderabad became a part of India.] "There is a general election in three months and the government may want to show its critics that even if it can do nothing to throw out the Chinese, it can at least get rid of the Portuguese" (The Guardian, 1 December 1961). "[The Goa action] is a pre-election manoeuvre by the Indian communists and their sympathisers in the Government, exploiting the public dismay caused by the Chinese intrusion and Mr. Nehru's impotence to do anything about it" (The Daily Telegraph, 15 December 1961). "It seems cynically apparent that Nehru's [Goa] action was internally provoked by reasons of political expediency, among which is an election coming up in February" (New York Journal America, 18 December 1961). -- Excerpted from the 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. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-