1962 war report: #Nehrus ill conceived Forward Policy led to humiliation. The conventional narrative in India about the 1962 war has largely revolved around portraying the Chinese as the unbridled aggressors, who ripped apart the nascent Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai construct forever. The reality is slightly different. True, China was nibbling away at what India perceived to be its territory both in Ladakh and North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), as Arunachal Pradesh was then called, to consolidate its hold on Tibet. But what provoked Mao-led China to launch a full-blown military invasion into India on October 20, 1962 was the Nehru governments ill-conceived and poorly executed Forward Policy, set in motion almost a year ago in November-December 1961. Already smarting from the Dalai Lamas escape to India in early 1959 and the bitter exchanges over the Mc-Mahon Line, which it considered to be a legacy of British imperialism, China decided to teach India a lesson it would never forget through the one-month war. The Henderson Brooks-P S Bhagat report on the 1962 military debacle, kept firmly under lock and key by the Indian government for the last 50 years, makes it clear the unsound Forward Policy — directing Indian troops to patrol, show the flag and establish posts as far forward as possible from the then existing positions —precipitated matters, sources say. Read : bit.ly/1g9i6d9
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:30:00 +0000
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