“How better can a man die than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods”
These words engraved on the Rezang La War Memorial resonate every time we think of those bravehearts who endured, served and sacrificed to defend India, during the India-China War of 1962. Places like Walong, Rezang La, Tongpen La, Bomdila and Nathula have become etched in our conscience soaked with the blood and sacrifice of the bravehearts.
I have had the stories told to me, of these young men, stoic and determined, underequipped and underprepared being flown into battles at various Advanced Land Groupings (ALGs) by air warriors of the Indian Air Force who also had to fly the wounded and dead back. They were narrated to me by one such air warrior who flew countless missions to these ALGs and was decorated for it — Flight Lieutenant M K Chandrasekhar — my father.
That war remains a defining milestone in our history — which we must never forget or forgive. It was an unforgettable chapter where thousands of bravehearts sacrificed, their families’ lives upended forever. This happened because of the political naivete and incompetence at the topmost levels of our political and military leadership of the time.
Rejecting warnings and peddling false propaganda of ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai’
China’s Marxists seized power in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Tse-Tung. Within the next decade, they annexed Tibet, forcing its religious and political head, the Dalai Lama, to seek asylum in India. The aggressive policy of Mao-led China had already been predicted by India’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In his 1950 letter to PM Jawaharlal Nehru, he referred to China as a potential enemy. Unfortunately, Nehru, possibly influenced by his left-leaning Defense Minister Krishna Menon, was enamoured with the idea of peaceful coexistence with an obviously hostile country.
A wide spectrum of political leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia, M S Golwalkar, Jayaprakash Narayan expressed concerns about China but they were ignored. The government of the day kept on living in the delusional propaganda of “Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai” while the Chinese further intruded into Indian territory.
Post-1953, China aggressively constructed highways, brazenly and repeatedly violating borders. Their maps, as early as 1954, showed the Aksai Chin region as Chinese territory. To a careful and responsible leadership, this would have sounded alarm bells, but PM Jawaharlal Nehru, wittingly or unwittingly, chose to be misled by his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai and went on to sign the Panchsheel Pact. The treaty, presented as the foundational pillar of peaceful coexistence, proved to be a meek capitulation.
The treaty formally accepted China’s control over Tibet. Three years later, the Chinese completed the construction of Highway Number 219 which connects Hotan in Xinjiang to Lhasa in Tibet. Further, it started accusing the Indian border patrol of intruding into their territory. It was the right time for our government to assert our sovereignty. Throughout that decade, Nehru and V Krishna Menon repeatedly ignored the warnings from army chiefs about increasing resources and modernising the Indian Armed Forces.
Congress’ weak leadership led to India’s humiliation
Another major hurdle arose when the Soviet Union staunchly supported its Communist ally, leaving us isolated on the international stage and compounding our idealist non-alignment posture. The Chinese army blatantly started trespassing into our territory, making it a day-to-day affair.
Nehru’s response was late and flawed — the Forward Policy, a clear strategic mistake that aimed to “reclaim” lost territories but ended up losing more land to the Chinese instead. He ordered our ill-equipped armed forces, with World War II-era weaponry, to establish military outposts in disputed areas along the Sino-Indian border. This led to a direct confrontation with the Chinese.
Making things worse, Nehru appointed “favourites” and yes-men like General P N Thapar and Lieutenant General Brij Mohan Kaul, to lead the Indian Army. He also allowed a Chinese military mission to tour India’s major defence establishments as late as 1958.
In one of the biggest bungle of this war, Nehru also chose to limit the role of the Indian Air Force — where India had clear superiority – under the inexplicable notion that IAF deployment would escalate the scale of the war. As if China’s attack and land grab wasn’t a justification to escalate and defend Indian sovereignty and pride. The war persisted for over a month, around 1,300 bravehearts made supreme sacrifices and we lost 38,000 sq km of land to the Chinese.
The cost of weak leadership was borne by our bravehearts
In one of the most extraordinary displays of fighting to the last man, Major Shaitan Singh led his 120 men of the Kumaon Regiment against a numerically superior enemy on the heights of Rezang La. Over 1,000 Chinese soldiers were killed by his unit before making the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of Ladakh. Subedar Joginder Singh, serving as the platoon commander, led a gallant stand with 29 men from the Sikh regiment against the Chinese at Tongpen La. Every wounded soldier, including himself, fought on with bayonets affixed to their rifles. These sacrifices are forever etched deeply within every Indian.
In today’s world, strong national security is the only guarantor for our aspirations of economic growth and a poverty-free India. A strong political leadership is the only guarantor of strong national security. After decades of indecisive and weak political leadership, for the last nine years, India has had a political leader in PM Narendra Modi — a leader who boldly and unambiguously asserts his commitment to securing India and all Indians. Under his leadership, the armed forces have embarked on a path marked by organisational restructuring and modernisation of weapons, infrastructure and capabilities.
As we look to our future as “Viksit Bharat”, let us never forget the cost incurred by our country and people due to weak leadership. May the memories of every braveheart who served and sacrificed in this conflict burn bright. Let the sacrifices of the past be the beacon for our path and actions of our future.
The writer is Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology
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