Page 262 - Leadership in the Indian Army

and well-being of the men, and no expenditure was too much to achieve
this.
When he was in Northern Command, work had started on building

residential accommodation for officers at Udhampur. The land used for the
project had still to be acquired, but Prem nevertheless ordered the
construction to commence, since there was an acute shortage of
accommodation. In 1972, as part of the general stringency measures after
the 1971 war, the government imposed several restrictions on new projects.
This placed a ban on all new construction. For projects which had already
commenced, only those which had reached roof level were to be completed;

the rest were to be aborted.
Prem was informed by his staff that construction of the officers’
accommodation would also have to be stopped, since only the foundation
had been laid. When he heard about the roof-level stipulation, he gave a
reply that became legendary and is still quoted. ‘Make out a certificate that
it has reached roof level, and I will sign it. Nobody can tell an Army

Commander that he is a liar.’
There is no doubt that his methods were unorthodox, and sometimes
legally untenable. But there is also no denying the fact that the troops have
to thank Prem Bhagat for making them more comfortable. If it were not for
him, the accommodation at Udhampur, aptly named Bhagat Enclave, would
not have come up, since the proceedings for land acquisition were never
completed.

The Army Chief, General G.G. Bewoor, was due to retire on 11 April
1974 (at that time, the retirement age for the Chief was 58, and 56 for
Lieutenant Generals). Since Prem was the seniormost officer, and was
going to be 56 years old only on 13 October 1974, he was almost certain to
become the next Chief. But the bureaucrats in the Defence Ministry had
other ideas. Having dealt with an intractable Chief like Sam Manekshaw for

four years, they did not want another strong Chief on their hands. Officers
due to retire are usually sent a routine letter advising them of their
retirement about six months in advance. This was done in Prem’s case as
well. In order to pressure him to resign, news of the letter was leaked to the
press, which speculated that he would now seek premature retirement. Prem
was furious, and made it clear that he had no intention of doing so.
The government now realised that the only way to deny Prem the post of

COAS was to supersede him. However, by now he had become immensely