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He planned, conducted, and won the 1971 war

There is a saying that “victory has many parents, defeat is an orphan.”

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Depinder Singh

There is a saying that “victory has many parents, defeat is an orphan.” So the 1971 victory has many claimants, of being its architect, but the fact of the matter is that it was Sam Manekshaw’s strategic vision and character which ensured that we didn’t enter the war prematurely.

And we only started when we were ready. And thus made the enemy play to your tune rather than you play to enemy’s tune.

Correlated with that, one must give credit to Mrs Gandhi, who despite all political pressures had the audacity to accept the advice of a professional, and not to hustle him into doing anything prematurely. The operations of 1971 were planned by him, conducted by him, and won by him.

The war days were a relaxed atmosphere in the headquarters, there was never tension and the mornings would start with me going around getting details of what had happened in the last 24 hours. I would brief him when he came into the office around 9 or little earlier. He would then push off to the PM, everyday, brief her, come back, and then the defence minister would walk across to his office, get briefed. Then there would be a chiefs of staff meeting, and orders would be issued for 24 hours. Very relaxed!

That time even though he gave that impression of being relaxed, internally there was a lot of tension. So his natural wit was at a premium, I remember.

Many stories have been spawned over by many, but the fact is that when Mrs Gandhi was first briefed about incursions in the military operations room, she asked, “Can we do something to ease pressure?” He turned to her: “Prime Minister, you never allowed me to enroll goondas into the Army, so there is nothing that I can do at the moment.” She just smiled, and said, “OK.”

The day after that or so there was the cabinet meeting at which the Field Marshal was invited, where everyone was insisting that we must go in right away. That is where he said, “I am glad that you all are playing Hamlet without the prince.”

Then he got after the finance minister saying, “I asked for tanks you haven’t given me money for that.” And another minister, complaining about some other pending sanction. “How can you now tell me to start right away? I will only start operations when I am ready,” he said. Since the PM had already accepted the advice, it was left to his professional judgment.

It was his human qualities that really attracted people to him, his abilities to be gracious, to be kind, to be giving and not demanding anything in return except hard work. And hard work is what we are paid for. That is what sort of earned him all that charisma he generated, and it made people following him loyally.

When finally Bangladesh was liberated, and the moment for accepting Pakistan’s surrender in Dhaka came, he said, “(Lt General) Jagjit Singh Arora (then chief of the army’s eastern command) fought this battle, it is but right that he accept this surrender.” He was ready to give due, equally ready to accept blame.

One remembers him happily, always a light hearted spirit. Sadness, as in this moment, was never attached to his character.

(As told to Josy Joseph.) Lieutenant General Depinder Singh, who was military assistant to Manekshaw during the 1971 war, has written the official biography Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Soldiering With Dignity.

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