Page 133 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Thorat was appointed a member of the council, which was chaired by the
Prime Minister himself. It also included some senior cabinet members and
the chief ministers of different states. Surprisingly, neither Krishna Menon

nor Kaul, the two defence experts on whom Nehru had relied the most,
were nominated as members. In the event, the Council did not achieve
much, but Thorat felt that his honour had been vindicated. He had been
accused by Krishna Menon and Kaul of not implementing the forward
policy, which they had been advocating, and which had proved to be a
miserable failure.
In 1967, Thorat was persuaded by Chavan to stand for election to

Parliament as a Congress Party candidate. Soon after he had filed his
nomination, the Maharani of Kolhapur also announced that she would
contest from the same constituency. Chavan advised him to change his
constituency and offered him the ticket for the Satara seat, but Thorat
refused. Since he had filed his papers earlier, he felt that it was up to the
Maharani to change her constituency. In the event, he lost the election and

decided not to contest again.
Thorat was liberal and cosmopolitan in his views and this was mirrored in
his family life. He was a Maharashtrian, while his wife was a Punjabi. His
son Yashwant married a South Indian Aiyyar girl. His two daughters,
Kusum and Kumud, also married outside the state: one chose her life
partner from Punjab, and the other from Bengal. The Thorats’ home in
Kolhapur, called ‘Indu Niketan’, soon came to epitomise gracious living

and was always humming with tongues from every part of India. Although
Thorat had always been a good sportsman, he had never played golf, which
he took up at the age of 73. For the next 12 years, he was a regular on the
golf course. While he went round his nine holes, Leela sat in the clubhouse,
reading a book or knitting, or sometimes strolling in the lawns.
Thorat’s strong character and sterling qualities were inherited by the

entire family. In 1986, his granddaughter Kanchan got married. The
ceremony was held in Kolhapur and there were about 300 guests at the
function which was held on the lawns of Indu Niketan. Leela was running a
high fever, with her temperature touching 105 degrees. But she insisted on
receiving the guests as they entered the porch of the house. Her daughters
then took her inside and put her to bed. Soon after this, she went into a
coma. Not wanting to mar the occasion, the entire family put up a smiling

front throughout the evening, till the last guest had departed. At midnight,