CHACHA KAHINI

 

CHACHA KAHINI

A STRONG ARMED FORCES WASTED.

A medallion too far.

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

The funniest thing is--- Chacha was not to do much! Only Prioritize.

Our bad luck that we didn’t get BOSE as P.M., who understood the importance of a strong ARMED FORCE, required for a budding nation, surrounded by small countries, and to face CHINA, and Pakistan. GEO-POLITICALLY, and from MILITERY INTELLIGENCE point of view— Nehru was just pretty ordinary, and NAIVE( and that is what Stalin also thought of him) but politically he was an air bag with very high ambition.

When the British left the country, India inherited the most powerful army in the continent. A battle hardened force that had tested its blade successfully against the best in the world,. Strength of the Indian Army in August 1947 was 4,00,000 men along with 6 GORKHA REGIMENTS. But the political leadership was keen to reduce the strength to save defence expenditure and hence it was decided to bring  down the strength of the Army to 2,00,000 men after the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Operations which would involve the disbandment of many units. What a foolish idea!

 India inherited  an air force, which,  small European nations, including FRANCE, and ITALY would give an arm to possess in 1947. The principal components of the RIAF after partition were Nos. 3,4,7,8 and 10 Squadrons with Tempests, No. 2 Squadron with Spitfires and No. 12 Squadron with C-47s, plus No. 1 Air Observation Flight, the establishment of which with AOP Auster 4s, 5s, and 6s, coincided with independence, and about 15,000 + Officers, Pilots, and other personnel. Despite the skepticism on the part of the US and British advisers concerning the feasibility of the scheme, the first half-dozen HAL-reconditioned B-24s were ready by November 1948 and, on the 17th of that month, No. 5 Squadron was formed with these heavy bombers. Later, in early 1950, No. 6 Squadron was to reform at Poona also with B-24s, while No.16 Squadron was to be established to provide back-up training on the type. To supplement the Tiger Moths, Prentice basic trainers were delivered to the RIAF during the course of 1948, eventually to see service at Jodhpur, Tambaram and Ambala. But truly epoch-making in so far as the Service was concerned, was the arrival in India of three Vampire F.Mk.3 jet fighters on 4 November 1948. These were the precursors of more than 400 Vampires of various types that were procured by the Service over the following years. The achievement of operational status on the Vampire FBMk.52 by No. 7 Squadron in the following year was to give the RIAF the distinction of becoming the first Asian air arm to operate jets. There were some more to this went on getting added —but we stop here on IAF, which left “R” prefix after 26/01/ 1950.

The NAVY, perhaps was a bit lagging. On India attaining Independence, the Royal Indian Navy consisted of 32  vessels suitable  for coastal patrol, along with 11,000 officers and men. The senior officers were drawn from the Royal Navy, with R. Adm. ITS Hall, CIE, being the first Post-independence Commander-in-Chief. The prefix 'Royal' was dropped on 26 January 1950 with India being constituted as a Republic. The first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy was Adm. Sir Edward Parry, KCB, who handed over to Adm. Sir Mark Pizzey, KBE, CB, DSO in 1951. Adm.  Pizzey also became the first Chief of the Naval Staff in 1955, and was succeeded by V. Adm. SH Carlill, CB, DSO.

We, however, got 70% of the TOTAL  FLEET of RIN, 30% only going to Pakistan with same, or lower, and smaller class of Vessels..

On 22 April 1958 V. Adm. RD Katari assumed office as the first Indian Chief of the Naval Staff.

 The best in the sub-continent, JAPAN’s NAVY was disseminated by USA in 2^nd  World War. Considering that, we were well off. And we have 3 Integrated steel plants, and 5 shipyards to build Naval Vessels of our need, and CHOICE.

The above was the scenario, at the time of Independence—kept hidden from People of India by Congress. We could beat Pakistan, and China Pants Down, in 49-, and 62.  

But, by the time Nehru was 10 years down the line of his PREMEARSHIP, he reduced the INDIAN ARMY to a bunch of Boy Scouts, being commanded by a few JOKERS!.

And he dreamed, and  he  had a very solid reason for that DREAM, with Mr. Gandhi out of the way. He was SCHEAMING of being the first Indian, nay Asian- to win the Nobel for peace. He thought a strong army would be detrimental to realize this dream. So he proceeded to reduce it into a group of parade marchers,  starving them from arms, equipment, and to even proper uniforms. And if this wasn't enough, he decided to remove army heads capable of fighting and replaced them with cry babies like BIZZY KAUL.

When forced into the FIRST WAR with Pakistan, he ensured that there wasn't a decisive victory. He never wanted to be perceived as an “AGGRESOR”.  When the Pakis were abandoning everything and retreating,  a ceasefire was declared, leaving a large part of Kashmir to Pakistan, and taking the case for negotiation at UN security council. While Chinese were making a mincemeat of our soldiers, he ensured that our Airforce (which was still the most potent  Air Force in Asia and could decimate the Chinese misadventure in a day, or two) remained in the hangars.

In POK, we lost 72,935sq. km. In Aksai Chin—we lost 38,000sq. km. Our total loss of land area is more than area of BIHAR (94,163km2)

All for THE MEDALLION  which never became his…. and  he died a broken man However, he was nominated 11 times, but not awarded..

The irony is--Hitler, Mussolini, (Both,1939) and Stalin (1945, 1948) were all nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, at some time or other. None Got it.

HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT INDIA WILL NEVER PARDON HIM FOR THIS LOSS.

Sources:-

1.0 https://www.spslandforces.com/story/?id=433

2.0  https://indianairforce.nic.in/history/

3.0 https://www.indiannavy.nic.in/content/genesis-indian-navy

4.0 I have researched lot more. Shared above list only for reference. There could be some minor conflict on data at various sources, in the net; which you should ignore.