Sam Bahadur is Bharat's Ratna

[Those of us who served under the Sam Bahadur will remember him for ever. But will the nation remember? Here is an article by Major General Ashok Mehta suggesting that the Bharat Ratna be conferred posthumously on Sam Manekshaw, India's only Field Marshal.]

By Ashok K Mehta

Around Independence Day each year, military heroes are remembered mainly due to the prodding by the media (one news channel did a special show, remembering the armed forces). Grudgingly the Government commemorates Vijay Diwas and only the Army celebrates the victory in Kargil, one of the most difficult and self-disadvantaged Infantry battles won by our soldiers. Yet warriors are forgotten quickly.

Cricketers on the other hand, are adulated 24x7, making cricket the de facto national sport and its players the idols of the country. Government Ministers, officials and others yearn to be associated with the game and its heroes as it brings fame, money and power. Cricket has been besmirched with corruption and market forces have overwhelmed the game. A young first time politician and potential Foreign Minister became its first hit-wicket casualty.

The disproportionate time and space provided to cricket has disoriented the priorities of the nation to the detriment of other sports and activities. One name that has gained folklore status is Sachin Tendulkar who is chasing his hundredth hundred. A campaign to make him a Bharat Ratna has been launched prematurely before other more deserving cases are recognised. The stunning series defeat of the Indian Test team in England should bring them down to earth. It’s time to rethink cricket.

The nation and Government have been particularly ungrateful to soldier and gentleman Sam Manekshaw who conferred on the country, in 1971, its first military victory in more than a thousand years. While Sam was made Field Marshal in 1973, he was sent home unceremoniously.

Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram, with whom he had differences, ordered that no one would go to see off the special train taking Sam and his wife Silloo to Coonoor in the Nilgiris.

The civil service had done the first Field Marshal of India a signal dishonour by placing him number 12 in the Warrant of Precedence, clubbed with the Chiefs of Staff holding the rank of full General or equivalent rank. At the very least, he ought to have been above the Cabinet Secretary, if not in Block 11 with Ministers of State.

But this slight was deliberate. His pension was fixed at Rs 1,200 and a measly Rs 400 allowance was given for being Field Marshal. When terminally ill at Wellington Military Hospital, Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt went to cheer him with his arrears of enhanced pension amounting to about Rs 1 crore. Typically Sam, he looked at the cheque and told Mr Dutt: “I hope the cheque won’t bounce.”

The biggest ignominy was reserved when the Field Marshal died. At the funeral ceremony the Government was not adequately represented. Nor were the Services, the slip-up being attributed to “confusion in Warrant of Precedence”. The Ministry of Defence failed to put out an obituary matching the contribution of Sam Manekshaw: Winning decisively a war and creating a new country, Bangladesh.

Mrs Indira Gandhi was fond of Sam and went out of her way at least twice to get him elevated to Chief of Defence Staff. But the nexus between civil bureaucracy and the IAF killed the proposal on both occasions. She then tried to get him as Member (Defence) in the Planning Commission, but this appointment did not take off. In 1978, the then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, called on Sam to head the Sports Authority of India but nothing came of it.

The Government’s loss was the corporate world’s gain. He was invited to become a member of the boards of a dozen companies across India and a director of several others. Being a member of the Oberoi Group, he had his chosen room in all Oberoi hotels as well as, courtesy the Army, a vintage car in Kolkata complete with five stars, the Field Marshal’s flag and driver Yum Bahadur. His intense association with the Gurkhas earned him the legendary title of Sam Bahadur and a lifetime’s passion for them.

Sam’s lectures on leadership and man-management were unrivalled. In one, he talked about chronic shortages, power cuts, corruption, bribery, smuggling and said: “People ask me, why is this happening? The answer is: Lack of leadership, not just political but administrative, in industry… everywhere.” He enumerated his famous nine attributes of leadership to which he added: “He must have manly qualities” (at another place he had said, “He must be a bit of a lad”).

At another lecture he said: “A lot has changed in the 60 years since I joined the Army, including the English language. When in my days someone said that Captain Manekshaw was gay, he meant that he laughed and joked. If an officer was queer, it meant he would rather read Milton than join his friends for a hunt. And General Officers were the only ones who had Aides.”

The military, which still commands the top slots in probity, integrity, dedication and continues to put its life on the block, feels it has been unfairly marginalised. Civil servants have ensured the post-retirement exclusion of valuable military expertise, even in appointments dealing with defence and national security. Why is it that National Security Advisers and their deputies are only from the police, foreign and administrative services ? In the US 80 per cent of these appointments are held by serving or retired Armed Forces officers. The need for CDS was felt in 1972. We are still dodging the inevitable.

Sam Manekshaw told cadets at a passing out parade at the Military Academy in Dehradun shortly before he died at the ripe young age of 95: “In war, there are no runners-up and the nation has no room for losers. If you are defeated, and should you come back, you would be a disgrace to the nation. Even your gharwali (wife) will despise you,” he growled.

You can be thrashed in a cricket series and sulk. The scars of defeat in war do not heal easily. The country carries a collective guilt for the self-inflicted national shame of 1962. Victor China has maintained its psychological domination and fear till this day.

Soon after taking over the ill-fated 4 Corps in Tezpur after the Chinese drubbing, Lt-Gen Sam Manekshaw told his staff: "I have arrived. There will be no withdrawals.” He went on to lead the Army to a resounding victory in 1971.

It’s time for the Government to make up with Sam Bahadur by posthumously awarding him the Bharat Ratna ‘in recognition of public service of the highest order.’ Sachin Tendulkar should propose his name. 

Coutresy: The Daily Pioneer, Wednesday, August 17, 2011