Shabz Nist
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Excerpts from "India after gandhi ~ Ramachandra guha".
The Indian army is a professional and wholly non-sectarian body. It is also apolitical. Almost
from the first moments of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru made it clear to the army top brass that inmatters of state both large and small they had to subordinate themselves to the elected politicians.
At the time of the transfer of power the army was still headed by a British general, who had ordered that the public be kept away from a flag-hoisting ceremony to be held on the day after Independence.
As prime minister, Nehru rescinded the order, and wrote to the general as follows:
While I am desirous of paying attention to the views and susceptibilities of our senior officers,
British and Indian, it seems to me that there is a grave misunderstanding about the matter. In any policy that is to be pursued, in the Army or otherwise, the views of the Government of India and the policy they lay down must prevail. If any person is unable to lay down that policy, he has no place in the Indian Army, or in the Indian structure of Government. I think this should be made perfectly clear at this stage.
A year later it was Vallabhbhai Patels turn to put a British general in his place. When the government decided to move against the Nizam, the commander-in-chief, General Roy Bucher, warned that sending troops into Hyderabad might provoke Pakistan to attack Amritsar. Patel told Bucher that if he opposed the Hyderabad action he was free to resign. The general backed down, and sent the troops as ordered.
Cariappa
Shortly afterwards Bucher retired, to be succeeded by the first Indian C-in-C, General K. M. Cariappa. At the beginning of his tenure Cariappa restricted himself to military matters, but as he grew into the job he began to offer his views on such questions as Indias preferred model of economic development. In October 1952 Nehru wrote advising him to give fewer press conferences, and at any rate to stick to safe subjects. He also enclosed a letter from one of his Cabinet colleagues, which complained that Cariappa was giving so many speeches and holding so many Press Conferences all over the country, giving the impression that he was playing the role of apolitical or semi-political leader
The message seems to have gone home, for when Cariappa demitted office in January 1953, in
his farewell speech he exhorted soldiers to give a wide berth to politics. The armys job, he said,
was not to meddle in politics but to give unstinted loyalty to the elected Government. Nehru knew, however, that the general was something of a loose cannon, who could not be completely trusted to follow his own advice. Within three months of his retirement Cariappa was appointed high commissioner to Australia.
. The general was not entirely pleased, for, as he told the prime minister, by going away from home to the other end of the world for whatever period you want me in Australia, I shall be depriving myself of being in continuous and constant touch with the people. Nehru consoled the general that as a sportsman himself he was superbly qualified to represent India to a sporting nation. But the real intention, clearly, was to get him as far away from the people as possible.
As the first Indian to head the army, Cariappa carried a certain cachet, which lost its lustre with every passing month after he had left office. By the time he came back from Australia Cariappa was a forgotten man. Nehrus foresight was confirmed, however, by the statements the general made from time to time. In 1958 he visited Pakistan, where army officers who had served with him in undivided India had just effected a coup. Cariappa publicly praised them, saying that it was the chaotic internal situation which forced these two patriotic Generals to plan together to impose Martial Law in the country to save their homeland from utter ruination
Ten years later, he sent an article to the Indian Express, in which he argued that the chaotic internal situation in West Bengal demanded that Presidents Rule be imposed for a minimum of five years. The recommendation was in violation of both the letter and the spirit of the constitution. Fortunately, the piece was returned by the editor, who pointed out to the general that it would be embarrassing in the circumstances both to you and to us to publish this article
The pattern set in those early years has persisted into the present. As Lieutenant General J. S.
Aurora notes, Nehru laid down some very good norms, which ensured that politics in the army has been almost absent. The army is not a political animal in any terms, remarks Aurora, and the officers especially must be the most apolitical people on earth!. It is a striking fact that no army commander has ever fought an election. Aurora himself became a national hero after overseeing the liberation of Bangladesh, but neither he nor other officers have sought to convert glory won on the battlefield into political advantage. If they have taken public office after retirement, it has been at the invitation of the government. Some, like Cariappa, have been sent as ambassadors overseas; othershave served as state governors.
The Indian army is a professional and wholly non-sectarian body. It is also apolitical. Almost
from the first moments of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru made it clear to the army top brass that inmatters of state both large and small they had to subordinate themselves to the elected politicians.
At the time of the transfer of power the army was still headed by a British general, who had ordered that the public be kept away from a flag-hoisting ceremony to be held on the day after Independence.
As prime minister, Nehru rescinded the order, and wrote to the general as follows:
While I am desirous of paying attention to the views and susceptibilities of our senior officers,
British and Indian, it seems to me that there is a grave misunderstanding about the matter. In any policy that is to be pursued, in the Army or otherwise, the views of the Government of India and the policy they lay down must prevail. If any person is unable to lay down that policy, he has no place in the Indian Army, or in the Indian structure of Government. I think this should be made perfectly clear at this stage.
A year later it was Vallabhbhai Patels turn to put a British general in his place. When the government decided to move against the Nizam, the commander-in-chief, General Roy Bucher, warned that sending troops into Hyderabad might provoke Pakistan to attack Amritsar. Patel told Bucher that if he opposed the Hyderabad action he was free to resign. The general backed down, and sent the troops as ordered.
Cariappa
Shortly afterwards Bucher retired, to be succeeded by the first Indian C-in-C, General K. M. Cariappa. At the beginning of his tenure Cariappa restricted himself to military matters, but as he grew into the job he began to offer his views on such questions as Indias preferred model of economic development. In October 1952 Nehru wrote advising him to give fewer press conferences, and at any rate to stick to safe subjects. He also enclosed a letter from one of his Cabinet colleagues, which complained that Cariappa was giving so many speeches and holding so many Press Conferences all over the country, giving the impression that he was playing the role of apolitical or semi-political leader
The message seems to have gone home, for when Cariappa demitted office in January 1953, in
his farewell speech he exhorted soldiers to give a wide berth to politics. The armys job, he said,
was not to meddle in politics but to give unstinted loyalty to the elected Government. Nehru knew, however, that the general was something of a loose cannon, who could not be completely trusted to follow his own advice. Within three months of his retirement Cariappa was appointed high commissioner to Australia.
. The general was not entirely pleased, for, as he told the prime minister, by going away from home to the other end of the world for whatever period you want me in Australia, I shall be depriving myself of being in continuous and constant touch with the people. Nehru consoled the general that as a sportsman himself he was superbly qualified to represent India to a sporting nation. But the real intention, clearly, was to get him as far away from the people as possible.As the first Indian to head the army, Cariappa carried a certain cachet, which lost its lustre with every passing month after he had left office. By the time he came back from Australia Cariappa was a forgotten man. Nehrus foresight was confirmed, however, by the statements the general made from time to time. In 1958 he visited Pakistan, where army officers who had served with him in undivided India had just effected a coup. Cariappa publicly praised them, saying that it was the chaotic internal situation which forced these two patriotic Generals to plan together to impose Martial Law in the country to save their homeland from utter ruination
Ten years later, he sent an article to the Indian Express, in which he argued that the chaotic internal situation in West Bengal demanded that Presidents Rule be imposed for a minimum of five years. The recommendation was in violation of both the letter and the spirit of the constitution. Fortunately, the piece was returned by the editor, who pointed out to the general that it would be embarrassing in the circumstances both to you and to us to publish this article
The pattern set in those early years has persisted into the present. As Lieutenant General J. S.
Aurora notes, Nehru laid down some very good norms, which ensured that politics in the army has been almost absent. The army is not a political animal in any terms, remarks Aurora, and the officers especially must be the most apolitical people on earth!. It is a striking fact that no army commander has ever fought an election. Aurora himself became a national hero after overseeing the liberation of Bangladesh, but neither he nor other officers have sought to convert glory won on the battlefield into political advantage. If they have taken public office after retirement, it has been at the invitation of the government. Some, like Cariappa, have been sent as ambassadors overseas; othershave served as state governors.
