Page 376 - Leadership in the Indian Army

perturbed by this reaction, since he knew the reason from which it
stemmed, and did not hold it against the concerned officers.
Hanut’s last assignment was as the Commandant of the Armoured Corps

Centre and School at Ahmednagar, where he moved in July 1988. It was
expected that he would be made an Army Commander, but this was not to
be. By now, General Sundarji had retired and General V.N. Sharma, who
was also from the Armoured Corps, had taken over as COAS. With a
faultless service record, there was no reason for Hanut to be considered
unsuitable for commanding a field army. Yet he was. There were two
reasons put forward for this. The first, that he was a bachelor and shunned

social life, was valid, but the second, concerning his religious beliefs, was
not. He was branded a ‘religious bigot’, a charge that was blatantly untrue
and unfair. Though he was a deeply religious man, Hanut could by no
stretch of the imagination be called a bigot. He was extremely broad-
minded and never interfered with those practising other religions. The fact
that troops of all religious denominations literally worshipped him, should

have been enough to give the lie to this insinuation made by one of his own
ilk.
When a suboridinate informed Hanut of his having been passed over, and
expressed his sorrow, his reply was typical. ‘Why should you be sorry? It is
the army which should be sorry. If they don’t want me, the loss is theirs.’
Not many officers in uniform would take their supersession so
philosophically. Hanut knew it was not a reflection on his professional

competence, and felt no need to represent against it. He continued to do his
job with the same dedication and loyalty till he retired on 31 July 1991.
In the final analysis, Hanut would like to be remembered as a ‘soldier’s
General’. He always felt, and told other officers: ‘We as officers do not
deserve the men we command. We do so little for them, and they give us so
much more in return.’ Wherever he went, he tried to ameliorate and

improve the working and living conditions of the common soldier. Often, a
JCO, NCO or jawan would walk up to him and introduce himself, saying:
‘You will not remember me, but I was serving in so and so unit under your
command. I heard that you were around, and came to pay my respects.’
(The word they usually used was ‘ darshan ’, which really has no
equivalent in the English language.) In fact, one of Hanut’s most treasured
memories is of the soldier who walked upto his driver and asked him: ‘ Yeh

wohi general sahib hain jo ki jawanon ka itna khayal rakha karte the?