Page 181 - Leadership in the Indian Army

hills, he found that the communications were very bad. When he asked the
reason, he was told that the Post and Telegraph Department had been asked
to provide the telephone line, but it was likely to take at least 4–5 years

since the distance was over 200 kilometres. ‘That is too much,’ said Sam.
‘Can’t we do it ourselves?’ He was told that according to the Telegraph Act,
only the Post and Telegraph Department could own telephone and telegraph
lines and that the Army had to hire them from it. This conversation was
taking place over a glass of beer in the brigade officers’ mess. Brigadier
R.Z. Kabraji was the brigade commander. He called his Signals officer and
Sam asked him how long it would take to lay the line.

‘Two months,’ replied the officer, ‘provided I have the stores.’
‘Where can we get the stores?’ asked Sam.
‘The P&T has a big dump at Silchar,’ replied the officer.
‘Then go and get it,’ said Sam. ‘But don’t get caught.’
Sam had said this as a joke, but the Signals officer, who was young,
immature and impetuous, took it seriously. He took a fleet of lorries to

Silchar and went straight to the P&T Department stores. When the official
in charge protested, he brought him along with the stores and released him
only after a week. The P&T Department raised a hue and cry and reported
the ‘theft’ and kidnapping of their officer to the Ministry. Soon the matter
reached Army HQ. The COAS ordered disciplinary action to be taken
against the officer, as well as the brigade commander. By now the line was
almost complete and the Army Commander was informed of the case.

Though Sam had forgotten about the incident, he immediately wrote to the
Chief assuming full responsibility for the officer’s actions, saying that he
had acted on his specific orders.
While in Eastern Command, Sam went to Jorhat. During his visit to the
hospital he found a soldier who had sustained a bullet injury in the stomach.
He was moaning with pain. When Sam asked him how many bullets he had

got, the soldier replied ‘One’. Sam pulled up his own shirt and, showing the
scar running all the way down his abdomen, asked, ‘How many do you
think I got?’ The soldier grinned sheepishly and stopped moaning, as Sam
tucked in his shirt and moved on.
On another occasion, he went to Sikkim to visit a battalion of 8th Gorkha
Rifles. The battalion was at a high altitude, holding picquets on the border
with China. The CO, in a bid to please the Army Commander, had laid on a

lavish reception. A lot of silver had been brought up from the base, as well