WhatsApp 22K Shares

Losing the war with China in 1962 was the biggest embarrassment India every faced in the History. But the sad part is India did not lose the war because of our soldiers, but it lost because of the illogical decision taken by then Prime Minister Nehru.

All these years, Congress dismissed the theory that Nehru was directly responsible for losing the 1962 war with China. But now the top secret military classified documents in Henderson Brooks report blames Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Forward Policy’ and an ill-prepared army for the debacle. The information suggests that most of the reports relating to 1962 war debacle was prepared in 1963 but was kept secret all these years by the successive governments claiming that it had sensitive information and operational details which would cause threat to the country.



J N Choudhari who was then the Army Chief had asked Lieutenant General Henderson Brooks and P S Bhagat to submit a review on the 1962 war debacle. Lieutenant Henderson was then the commanding officer in the western border and P S Bhagat was commanding the military academy.

The report submitted by Brooks, stated that the Chinese control over the Indian territory had started well before 1962 and probably 5 years before, but the then government did not take the issue seriously. The sensitive documents reveal that the Chinese had strengthened their position in the region of Tibet and Indian border long back before the situation in the border turned hostile for India.

Gen Brooks writes that the Nehru government realised the threat only when it reached the peak and took hasty decision without prior preparations. He says Nehru’s ‘Forward Policy’ was the main reason which lead to a major debacle in 1962. Nehru took aggressive step of preventing Chinese domination in the areas of Ladakh and the erstwhile North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) by deploying heavy troops and patrolling teams in the border posts which lead to the increase in the conflict between the Chinese and the Indian government and the plan to go for war was executed by the military headquarters without necessary backing and deploying more troops.



On November 2, 1961, Nehru held a meeting on the Forward Policy which was attended by defence minister Krishna Menon, foreign secretary M.J. Desai, Army Chief General P.N. Thapar and Intelligence Bureau director B.N. Mullick. The military and the government put forth a complete contrary reports to tackle the Chinese at the border. “The government who politically must have been keen to recover territory,advocated a cautious policy; whilst Army Headquarters dictated a policy that was clearly militarily unsound” said Brooks.

While the Chinese had made a long term preparations, the aggressive attitude of Indian government without preparation became a blunder. Nehru had then hand picked Lieutenant General Brij Mohan Kaul for the military operation is to be blamed for throwing the military posture overboard and giving least importance to essential requirements of the troops, rushed 7 Infantry Brigade into Dohia area. He even refused to redeploy the troops, although he had the time and committed a huge blunder.



IB chief Mullick was another Nehru’s confidant who gave a very stupid advise to Nehru saying that China will never react using Armed forces for India’s Forward Policy.



The reports said that Indian troops were not prepared and were not familiar with the with Chinese tactics, their weapons, equipment and capabilities. Brooks goes on to say that General Kaul and Mullick should not have been let to take decision on the 1962 war.

Brooks suggests that the entire debacle was caused due to political and military blunder which the leaders never forethought and embarrassed the country big way. This entire story was revealed by Neville Maxwell in his blog and stated that the documents has been kept in defence ministry for years without revealing the actual truth to the world. Even now, Maxwell’s revelation is less than 200 pages of the voluminous report.

Credit and Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2583786/Ghosts-1962-Leaked-military-report-blames-Indias-leadership-ill-prepared-army-embarrassing-defeat-China.html

Aishwarya S