Page 194 - Leadership in the Indian Army

predecessors. No more was heard from the Ministry on the subject. When
Lieutenant General N.C. Rawlley’s name was proposed to take over as
GOC-in-C Eastern Command, the file came back from the Ministry, asking

Army HQ to propose another name. Sam sent the file back, with the
remarks that there was no officer more suitable for the appointment.
Ultimately he had his way, and Navin Rawlley became an Army
Commander.
Another of Sam’s habits that others considered odd was his practice of
addressing Indira Gandhi as ‘Prime Minister’ instead of ‘Madam’. Some
bureaucrats were shocked and complained to the Cabinet Secretary about

the disrespect being shown to the Prime Minister. When the Cabinet
Secretary mentioned this in Sam’s presence at a meeting of the Committee
of Secretaries, he got a reply that left him speechless. ‘I hope you know that
the term is reserved for certain ladies who are in charge of houses of ill
fame.’
Soon after the end of the war, Indira Gandhi decided to promote him as

Field Marshal and also appoint him the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
However, the bureaucracy was not in favour of this. The CDS would
become part of the Ministry of Defence and perform most of the tasks
presently being done by bureaucrats from the Indian Administrative Service
(IAS). However, since the decision was personally taken by the Prime
Minister, no one opposed it openly. His promotion had to be cleared by the
Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, but once it was known what

Indira Gandhi wanted, this was a formality. There was a hitch when Y.B.
Chavan, the Defence Minister, recorded his opinion that he felt that the
effect of Sam’s promotion on the other two services should also be
considered. This delayed his promotion but could not stop it since Indira
Gandhi had already made up her mind.
Though his promotion to the rank of Field Marshal was cleared, the

proposal to appoint Sam the Chief of Defence Staff was torpedoed, by the
time-honoured strategy of ‘divide and rule.’ Since the CDS was to exercise
control over the Army, Navy and the Air Force, the views of all the three
were solicited. As expected, the Air Force strongly objected. Air Chief
Marshal P.C. Lal, who was the Chief of Air Staff, had been unhappy with
the manner in which Sam had functioned during the war. In his book, My
Years With The IAF , he writes: