Page 372 - Leadership in the Indian Army

area, as was the custom in the Armoured Division before Hanut assumed
command.
During his tenure, an operational discussion was held at the Corps HQ.

General K. Sundarji, GOC-in-C Western Command, was also attending,
along with most of the senior commanders. Exercise ‘Chetak’, a large scale
exercise with troops, had just finished, and had thrown up a large number of
concepts regarding the employment of the Armoured Division. Hanut did
not agree with these concepts, and though the main theme of the discussion
was slightly different, he decided to take advantage of the gathering and
raise the issues that were bothering him.

When Hanut expressed his reservations, Sundarji invited the other
divisional commanders to also give their views. Though most of them had
agreed with Hanut in private discussions, no one dared to admit this openly,
since most of the issues raised had been advocated by Sundarji or had his
endorsement. This led to a verbal duel between Sundarji and Hanut. Finally,
Hanut ended the argument by making it clear that as long as he was in

command of the Armoured Division, he would fight the battle in the way he
thought best.
Having said this, Hanut sat down. There was a stunned silence. Sundarji
was the Army Commander, and his promotion and appointment as the
Army Chief was almost a certainty. Crossing swords with him was
tantamount to professional suicide, and Hanut seemed to have done just
that. Soon afterwards, someone remarked: ‘After this, Hanut may as well

plan his retirement and start growing roses.’
But as usual, the prophets of doom were proved wrong. Sundarji was one
of the few senior officers in the army, who would not only tolerate a
professional difference of opinion, but appreciate it, provided it was backed
by sound reasons. In December 1984, Hanut was posted to the MO
Directorate at Army HQ. This was his third tenure in MO, and it was

expected that he would soon be promoted Lieutenant General and given
command of a corps. At this time, General A.S. Vaidya was the COAS.
Though he was also from the Armoured Corps and Hanut had served under
him earlier, the two did not see eye to eye on many matters. Fortunately,
Sundarji had by now taken over as Vice Chief of Army Staff, and he acted
as a buffer between them. After a year in MO, Hanut was promoted
Lieutenant General, but side-stepped as Director General of Armoured

Corps, in December 1985. His promotion was not without impediment.