yoginder sharma says:

Hi Surjit,
Great post- stimulating and thought-provoking.
AV format is interesting but does not necessarily supercede the merits of the written word- my view? As to its quality I second Col Chaturvedi’s comments.
But the most fascinating part of your post is the philosophical poser at the end. Not many have cared to engage with that or its implications, except Rishi and a few oblique comments. Some have indulged in judgment even here about 71 war, incl political/mil dispensations! Indeed it is in human nature to do so and often part of one’s job/role! Presently it has acquired odious proportions- the net stinks with it!
Let me start with the Biblical injunction ‘Judge not lest thee be judged’ and the parable about the stoning of the fallen woman’let him cast the first stone etc…’. All things created are loaded with ‘pairs of opposites’ incl good and evil, courage and cowardice. Either side can emerge in a human’s lifetime- THIS IS FUNDAMENTAL!
Hence your thesis-’tiger vs jackal’ is insoluble. It is just that some are blessed or cursed for one or the other side (head or tail) to come out more prominently in a lifetime. But judgment is still valid when it pertains to an incident or point in time. Similarly appraisal, which is a form of judgment, is valid on comparative-merit parameters as applicable, during that time frame- but NOT in perpetuity/career-time or to the person as a whole-his being!

Commodore Bibhu Mohanti says:

Hi Gen,

Thanks.

Am sure you must have read Blood Telegram which covers 1971 War eloquently & Niazi does figure in it.Blood & Niazi were both made sacrificial goats.Nixon & Kissinger made use of them to meet their ends to enter China.

We too got the wrong end of the stick when our pension was reduced in 1973 trophy for 1971 war & we are still fighting the babus for OROP.

BKMohanti

Amit Sharma says:

Dear Sir,

I can recall the poem “Patriot” by Robert Browning in this regard. Hope you will like it.

AN OLD STORY.

I.
It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.
II.
The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, “Good folk, mere noise repels—
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”
III.
Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun
To give it my loving friends to keep!
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.
IV.
There’s nobody on the house-tops now—
Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles’ Gate—or, better yet,
By the very scaffold’s foot, I trow.
V.
I go in the rain, and, more than needs,
A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year’s misdeeds.
VI.
Thus I entered, and thus I go!
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
“Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
“Me?”—God might question; now instead,
‘Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.

Robert Browning

Regards,

Amit

Zal Kabraji says:

Dear General,

Very aptly described but considering the great political interference in his Eastern Ops, I don’t think he had much of a choice & the same thing , eventually cooked his goose !!!

Bit of a shame for a professional soldier who started of so well.

Thanks for sharing.

Warm Regards,

Zal Kabraji.

madan says:

Fine resume. Thank you .It was interesting to learn that Gen Niazi was ordered to surrender to save West Pakistan !Cant recall the situation on the Western Front around 16 December. I need to look up Sukhwant Singh’s book again.
That Bhutto himself was hanged later…… and so on is possibly the real commentary on life.There is no way to judge its course. Regards. Madan