Know why Krishna Menon wanted to sack Manekshaw from Army

New Delhi: Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw was one of the most illustrious Generals of the Indian Army. He was popularly called Sam Bahadur.He was a key architect of the glorious military victory over Pakistan in the 1971 War, which led to the birth of Bangladesh. Sam Bahadur was the Chief of the Indian Army from 1969 to 1973 and has been a role model for several generations as an able military leader.A new biography on Manekshaw by his long-serving military aide, Brigadier (Retd) Behram Panthaki and his wife Zenobia, brings out his character traits, sense of humour, moral and professional courage and the enigma that made up his personality. Titled Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, The Man and His Times, the biography also discloses that his career was almost over as a major general after he rebuffed Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon's attempt to rope him in a bid to isolate the then Indian Army Chief, General K.S. Thimayya, with whom the Defence Minister openly had differences.Menon was widely considered responsible India's defeat at the hands of China in 1962, had sought to undermine General Thimayya, after he cautioned the Nehru government against the military adventurism without adequate preparation. Thimayya offered to resign, but was convinced by Nehru to stay on. But this did not deter Menon from attempting to subvert Thimayya. The Manekshaw biography paints a grim picture of the Defence Minister trying to create divisions within the Army in the run up to the 1962 War, and even canvassing directly with generals against the Army Chief. In a first, detailed account of the sparring between Menon and Manekshaw, then a major general commanding 26 Division on the Ceasefire Line in the Jammu region, the biographers suggest that Menon sought to probe Manekshaw during a visit to his formation by seeking his opinion on the then Army Chief. "Mr Minister, I am not allowed to think about him. He is my Chief. Tomorrow, you will be asking my (subordinate) brigadiers and colonels what they think of me. It's the surest way to ruin the discipline of the Army. Don't do it in future," responded Manekshaw.Menon flew into a rage and told Manekshaw to abandon his British ways of thinking and declared that "I can get rid of Thimayya if I want to!" Undeterred, Manekshaw acknowledged that the Defence Minister could indeed sack the Chief, but that would still not shake his resolve not to comment on the next appointee as well. Manekshaw also refused to carry out Menon's orders to use soldiers as labourers for constructing deficit accommodation.A scorned Menon turned hostile to Manekshaw, and teamed up with the then Major General B.M. Kaul, to fix him by cooking up evidence to back up frivolous charges. A court of inquiry was ordered against Manekshaw on allegations of being an unabashed Anglophile, too Western and, by implication, anti-Indian, of restoring and putting up in his office portraits of Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, and insulting Shivaji by saying (allegedly) that the painting of Shivaji riding a stallion was misleading because Shivaji only rode taattoos (ponies).The charges were dismissed by a court of inquiry by the Western Army Commander, Lt General Daulet Singh, but Menon did not relent in his effort to get Manekshaw dismissed. Manekshaw's career survived this vicious assault after both Krishna Menon and Kaul met their nemesis in the 1962 War.The book also discloses how a furious Sardar Patel hustled a reluctant Jawaharlal Nehru into sending the Army to Kashmir and saved the valley from Pakistani raiders in 1947. Nehru, according to this version, wanted to consult with the UN before sending in troops, even after the Maharaja of Kashmir had signed the Instrument of Accession to India.