In October 1950 Communist China launched their full scale invasion of Tibet.The Indian Prime Minister Mr Jawaharlal Nehru ,failed to gauge the implications of this Communist takeover of Tibet.Tibet had long historical,cultural and religious ties with India but Nehru refused to stand up for Tibet in that critical moment in Tibet’s history. Prime Minister Nehru tried to justify the Communist invasion of Tibet on the ground that the Chinese were only trying to enforce their age-old suzerainty over Tibet.He advised Tibet’s leadership to engage Communist China in dialogue to retain whatever vestige of autonomy they could preserve under overall Chinese suzerainty.Pandit Nehru failed to judge the implications of the sudden arrival of Chinese troops on India’s borders,blinded as he was to Chinese duplicity. It is therefore imperative to recall more so in the light of 1962 and subsequent events, a letter written by one of India’s greatest patriots,Sardar Patel to the Prime Minister in Oct 1950.In this letter he spells out to the last dot what is going to happen in the years ahead to India as a result of this invasion.He sets out the steps that need to be taken to safeguard our boundaries.He clerly spelt out the Chinese claims on large chunks of Indian territory and also that for the first time in centuries,India needed to plan for defence on multiple fronts---Pakistan in the west and China in the north and north-east.I quote from this letter “In my judgement,therefore,the situation is one in which we cannot afford either to be complacent or vacillating” The Sardar listed out the series of steps that need to be taken to bolster our defence preparedness and intelligence gathering.He suggested that a special Cabinet meeting be called to discuss the emerging situation in Tibet and its implications for India.The PM did not even think it important enough to reply to the letter nor did he convene such a meeting. TO THE ETERNAL TRAGEDY OF INDIA ,SARDAR ALSO PASSED AWAY IN ABOUT A MONTHS TIME……..
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:10:17 +0000
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