Skip to main content

Sweetie Gandhi

Historical Fiction

“My force is ready, Sweetie,” said Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw on 3 Dec 1971. 

Indira Gandhi did not display her annoyance at being called Sweetie because she could not afford the display at that time, much as she loved displays.  She wanted to win the war with Pakistan and Manekshaw was the only person who could do it for her. 

It took seven months for the military leader of India to give her the assurance that his fighters were ready.  Ms Gandhi wanted immediate solutions.  Manekshaw said, “I’m a fighter.  Honest fighter.”

Seven months ago, his question to Ms Gandhi the Prime Minister was, “Have you read the Bible?”

“What has the Bible got to do with this?” asked Sardar Swaran Singh, Foreign Affairs Minister. 

“See the first pages.  ‘Let there be light,’ said God.  And there was light.  Now you say, ‘Let there be war.’  And there will be war.  Wars can take place at the whim and fancy of any ruler.  But are we prepared?  Going to war without necessary preparations is the first step to damnation.”

“But the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura are angry with me.  The Pakistanis from East Pakistan are entering their states because of what Butcher of Bengal, bloody General Tikka Khan, is doing in East Pakistan.  I am the Prime Minister of the country.  I have to safeguard every state.”

Manekshaw flared up.  “You didn’t consult me when you allowed the BSF, the CRP and RAW to encourage the Pakistanis to revolt. Now that you are in trouble, you come to me. I have a long nose. I know what’s happening.”

Indira Gandhi’s nose twitched.  Her face bent down a little for the first time.  Manekshaw didn’t like that.  He didn’t want his PM’s face bending down in front of anyone, not even before the boss of the armed forces of the country.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“I want you to enter Pakistan,” said Indira Gandhi.

“That means war,” said Manekshaw.   “Give me time.”  He knew that summer was just the wrong time to start a war in the mountains with all the rains that would come confusing the Indian Army that was not used to rains.  Snow in the winter was a good mask for fighters.

Indira Gandhi was angry.  “I can dismiss you from your post.”

“Do if you wish so,” Manekshaw’s nose twitched.

“I give you time,” said Indira Gandhi who understood the integrity of the man whose nose twitched more significantly than her own.

And Bangladesh was born in less than a year’s time.  After one of the shortest wars in history: just 13 days. 

Indira was “Sweetie” to Manekshaw and Manekshaw was a fighter who saw light even in a war.

Inspired by the following link and also by the present PM of India who has an army officer (who challenged the Indian government) as a minister in his cabinet.

http://indianeconomy.org/2007/10/12/when-manekshaw-confronted-indiras-cabinet/



Labels:

Comments

  1. VinchessoJune 1, 2014 at 1:02 PM

    Ha ha, that sounds fun.. Coming from being known as the only male voice in the cabinet to being called Sweetie, Indira Gandhi sure seems to have had a list of name tags :D .. It is pretty impressive that Manekshaw held to his ideas and decisions without yielding to pressure. And it was really impressive the way he handled the situation as well. Well I guess leaders do have a lot about them :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 1, 2014 at 5:14 PM

      Yes, good leaders command respect. Who but a person of Manekshaw's calibre could have stood up against Ms Gandhi?

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJune 1, 2014 at 2:52 PM

    Great insight, loved this post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 1, 2014 at 5:15 PM

      It came from a light-hearted comment on Asianet TV yesterday: that Manekshaw called Ms Gandhi 'Sweetie' on the occasion mentioned in the post. Thanks for the appreciation.

      Delete
  3. desi TravelerJune 1, 2014 at 3:29 PM

    Field Marshal Manekshaw was a true braveheart...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 1, 2014 at 5:15 PM

      Genuine bravery goes hand in hand with personal integrity.

      Delete
  4. Abhijit RayJune 1, 2014 at 5:12 PM

    I do not know if Bangladesh war was right or wrong for India. This may have given Pakistani's a reason to promote insurrection in Kashmir, Punjab and countless terrorisms. But certainly General Manekshaw was a great general. Indira Gandhi was a decisive leader. War certainy was good for Mrs. Gandhi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 1, 2014 at 5:17 PM

      Did Ms Gandhi have a better option at that time? I don't know. But, I agree, Ms Gandhi was responsible for some of the calamities: Bhindranwale, for example.

      Delete
  5. RajeshJune 2, 2014 at 8:23 PM

    I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownJune 6, 2014 at 10:27 AM

    How many of today's ministers' have Manekshaw's integrity?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
17 comments
Read more

Ram, Anandhi, and Co

Book Review Title: Ram C/o Anandhi Author: Akhil P Dharmajan Translator: Haritha C K Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2025 Pages: 303 T he author tells us in his prefatory note that “this (is) a cinematic novel.” Don’t read it as literary work but imagine it as a movie. That is exactly how this novel feels like: an action-packed thriller. The story revolves around Ram, a young man who lands in Chennai for joining a diploma course in film making, and Anandhi, receptionist of Ram’s college. Then there are their friends: Vetri and his half-sister Reshma, and Malli who is a transgender. An old woman, who is called Paatti (grandmother) by everyone and is the owner of the house where three of the characters live, has an enviably thrilling role in the plot.   In one of the first chapters, Ram and Anandhi lock horns over a trifle. That leads to some farcical action which agitates Paatti’s bees which in turn fly around stinging everyone. Malli, the aruvani (transgender), s...
8 comments
Read more

The Blind Lady’s Descendants

Book Review Title: The Blind Lady’s Descendants Author: Anees Salim Publisher: Penguin India 2015 Pages: 301 Price: Rs 399 A metaphorical blindness is part of most people’s lives.  We fail to see many things and hence live partial lives.  We make our lives as well as those of others miserable with our blindness.  Anees Salim’s novel which won the Raymond & Crossword award for fiction in 2014 explores the role played by blindness in the lives of a few individuals most of whom belong to the family of Hamsa and Asma.  The couple are not on talking terms for “eighteen years,” according to the mother.  When Amar, the youngest son and narrator of the novel, points out that he is only sixteen, Asma reduces it to fifteen and then to ten years when Amar refers to the child that was born a few years after him though it did not survive.  Dark humour spills out of every page of the book.  For example: How reckless Akmal was! ...
5 comments
Read more

A Curious Case of Food

From CNN  whose headline is:  Holy cow! India is the world's largest beef exporter The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is perhaps the only novel I’ve read in which food plays a significant, though not central, role, particularly in deepening the reader’s understanding of Christopher Boone’s character. Christopher, the protagonist, is a 15-year-old autistic boy. [For my earlier posts on the novel, click here .] First of all, food is a symbol of order and control in the novel. Christopher’s relationship with food is governed by strict rules and routines. He likes certain foods and detests a few others. “I do not like yellow things or brown things and I do not eat yellow or brown things,” he tells us innocently. He has made up some of these likes and dislikes in order to bring some sort of order and predictability in a world that is very confusing for him. The boy’s food preferences are tied to his emotional state. If he is served a breakfast o...
6 comments
Read more