Excerpts
from Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw's lecture at Defence Services College, Wellington
in 1998
What is moral courage?
Moral courage is the ability to distinguish right from wrong and
having done so, say so when asked, irrespective of what your superiors might
think or what your colleagues or your subordinates might want. A ‘yes man’ is a dangerous man. He may rise
very high, he might even become the Managing Director of a company. He may do
anything but he can never make a leader because he will be used by his
superiors, disliked by his colleagues and despised by his subordinates. So
shallow– the ‘yes man’.
I am going to illustrate from my own life an
example of moral courage. Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a very thin line
between becoming a Field Marshal and being dismissed. In 1971, when Pakistan
clamped down on its province, East Pakistan, hundreds and thousands of refugees
started pouring into India. The Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi had a cabinet
meeting at ten o’clock in the morning. The following attended: the Foreign
Minister, Sardar Swaran Singh, the Defence Minister, Mr. Jagjivan Ram, the
Agriculture Minister, Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the Finance Minister, Mr.
Yashwant Rao, and I was also ordered to be present.
A very angry Prime Minister read out messages
from Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. All of them saying that
hundreds of thousands of refugees had poured into their states and they did not
know what to do. So the Prime Minister turned round to me and said: “I want you
to do something”.
“Yes, it is my job to tell you the truth. It
is my job to fight and win, not to lose.”
I said, “What do you want me to do?”
She said, “I want you to enter East Pakistan”.
I said, “Do you know that that means War?”
She said, “I do not mind if it is war”.
I, in my usual stupid way said, “Prime
Minister, have you read the Bible?” And the Foreign Minister, Sardar Swaran
Singh (a Punjabi Sikh), in his Punjabi accent said, “What has Bible got to do
with this?”, and I said, “the first book, the first chapter, the first
paragraph, the first sentence, God said, ‘let there be light’’ and there was
light. You turn this round and say ‘let there be war’ and there will be war.
What do you think? Are you ready for a war? Let me tell you –“it’s 28th April,
the Himalayan passes are opening now, and if the Chinese gave us an ultimatum,
I will have to fight on two fronts”.
Again Sardar Swaran Singh turned round and in
his Punjabi English said, “Will China give ultimatum?”
I said, “You are the Foreign Minister. You
tell me”.
Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said,
“Prime Minister, last year you wanted elections in West Bengal and you did not
want the communists to win, so you asked me to deploy my soldiers in penny
pockets in every village, in every little township in West Bengal. I have two
divisions thus deployed in sections and platoons without their heavy weapons.
It will take me at least a month to get them back to their units and to their
formations. Further, I have a division in the Assam area, another division in
Andhra Pradesh and the Armoured Division in the Jhansi-Babina area. It will
take me at least a month to get them back and put them in their correct
positions. I will require every road, every railway train, every truck, every
wagon to move them. We are harvesting in the Punjab, and we are harvesting in
Haryana; we are also harvesting in Uttar Pradesh. And you will not be able to
move your harvest.
I turned to the Agriculture Minister, Mr.
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, “If there is a famine in the country afterwards, it will
be you to blame, not me.” Then I said, “My Armoured Division has only got
thirteen tanks which are functioning.”
The Finance Minister, Mr. Chawan, a friend of
mine, said, “Sam, why only thirteen?”
“Because you are the Finance Minister. I have
been asking for money for the last year and a half, and you keep saying there
is no money. That is why.”
Then I turned to the Prime Minister and said,
“Prime Minister, it is the end of April. By the time I am ready to operate, the
monsoon will have broken in that East Pakistan area. When it rains, it does not
just rain, it pours. Rivers become like oceans. If you stand on one bank, you
cannot see the other and the whole countryside is flooded. My movement will be
confined to roads, the Air Force will not be able to support me, and, if you
wish me to enter East Pakistan, I guarantee you a hundred percent defeat.”
“You are the Government”, I said turning to
the Prime Minister, “Now will you give me your orders?”
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have seldom seen a
woman so angry, and I am including my wife in that. She was red in the face and
I said, “Let us see what happens”. She turned round and said, “The cabinet will
meet four o’clock in the evening”.
Everyone walked out. I being the junior most
man was the last to leave. As I was leaving, she said, “Chief, please will you
stay behind?” I looked at her. I said, “Prime Minister, before you open your
mouth, would you like me to send in my resignation on grounds of health, mental
or physical?”
“No, sit down, Sam. Was everything you told me
the truth?”
“Yes, it is my job to tell you the truth. It
is my job to fight and win, not to lose.”
She smiled at me and said, “All right, Sam.
You know what I want. When will you be ready?”
“I cannot tell you now, Prime Minister”, I
said, but let me guarantee you this that if you leave me alone, allow me to
plan, make my arrangements, and fix a date, I guarantee you a hundred percent
victory”.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, as I told you, there
is a very thin line between becoming a Field Marshal and being dismissed. Just
an example of moral courage.
Remember, moral courage. You, the future
senior staff officers and commanders will be faced with many problems. People
will want all sorts of things. You have got to have the moral courage to stand
up and tell them the facts. Again, as I told you before, a ‘yes man’ is a
despicable man.
