Page 129 - Leadership in the Indian Army

But Thorat did not get much time to savour the delights of Lucknow, as he
was kept fairly busy with operational and administrative matters. The
Eastern Command was very large—it covered almost the whole of eastern

and central India. The Naga tribes were in rebellion, and the border
problems with the Chinese in the North East had begun. Thimayya and
Thorat were both perturbed at the state of defences in the North East
Frontier Agency (NEFA), and tried their best to improve them. However,
this was not to be. At about the time when Thimayya took over as Chief of
Army Staff, V.K. Krishna Menon had become the Defence Minister.
Differences soon developed between Menon and Thimayya, leading to the

latter’s resignation, which was later withdrawn. Thorat, too, fell out with
Menon due to a sharp difference of opinion over the question of how the
defence of the Sino–Indian border was to be organised. At this time, the
defence of NEFA was the responsibility of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary
force which functioned under the Central Government. Technically, the
army had no responsibility or authority in the matter. But Thorat realised

that if there was trouble, the army would have to step in since it was
responsible for the defence of the entire nation. He therefore requested that
the defence of NEFA be included in the operational tasks of the Eastern
Command. When Thorat saw that Nehru and Menon were not taking the
problem seriously, he decided to put it in writing. On 8 October 1959
Thorat produced a paper on the defence of NEFA and sent it to the COAS.
It was forwarded to the Ministry of Defence, but Krishna Menon did not

show it to Nehru, accusing Thorat of being an alarmist and a warmonger.
Subsequently, an exercise code-named LAL QUILA was held in Lucknow
in March 1960, which was attended by the Chief and all Principal Staff
Officers in Army HQ. The exercise clearly showed that with the troops,
weapons and equipment available at that time, a Chinese attack could not be
contained or defeated, and that the ‘forward policy’ being advocated by

Menon and Kaul was not practicable. Thorat also came up with a timetable
to show how the defences would fall day by day in case the Chinese
attacked. Kaul, who attended the exercise as QMG, had different views. By
that time, Thimayya’s position had already been undermined and he had
lost all authority. In May 1961, both Thimayya and Thorat retired and Kaul
was appointed CGS. With Thapar as Army Chief, Kaul had a free hand to
implement his ideas.