Page 233 - Leadership in the Indian Army

than-life personality.

From Germany, Herta Schemdl wrote: ‘Raj always wanted people to be
happy and he invariably succeeded.’ For Anne Wright, who had once been
a tenant at the Batras’ farmhouse, Raj was…‘one of the world’s great
gentlemen, and there are so few of them.’
G.D. Gokarn, who had been Engineer-in-Chief of the Overseas

Communications Service, felt that:

So wide was General Batra’s vision and scientific temper, that in those days, in my humble
opinion, he was in the same class as Dr Homi Bhabha, Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr Satish
Dhawan…. Raj ‘Bahadur’ was indeed the Field Marshal of Indian Telecommunications.

Captain Martin Howard of the Royal Navy and his wife Anne had first
met Raj and Priyo on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhawan, when they were
among the extras used in the shooting of the film, ‘Mountbatten, the Last
Viceroy’. Martin was the British Naval Adviser in New Delhi at that time,

and what was a chance meeting later turned into a lifelong friendship. In his
opinion:

It was either very deft appointing or the hand of God that turned him into a communications or
signals officer, giving him thereby the very best career possible in the army, and one in which
his rise to the top of his branch was unstoppable.

There were a large number of letters from the ‘Zunts’, both from India and
Pakistan, recalling the wonderful association they had with Raj. There were
letters from people who had served with him in the army, as well as in

industry, in a similar vein. Perhaps the most wonderful letter came to Priyo
from David Horsfield’s wife, Sheelah, who wrote:

What a joy Raj was. So full of life, bubbling over…. But what a sparkling memory. What a
jewel to keep in one’s room of happy times.
Rajinder Nath Batra was among the top-notch soldiers produced by the

Indian Army. After a brilliant record in school, college and at the IMA, he
had an outstanding career in the army. A human dynamo, he was always
full of energy and enthusiasm. He was also blessed with a contagious sense
of humour and joie de vivre. He had a magnetic personality, with the ability
to develop and sustain human bonding. It was providential that he became a

communicator, and was thus able to achieve what he did. Though his
contributions in the sphere of military communications are stupendous, he
is equally well known for his skill at communicating with people. He had a