EDITORIAL NOTE
Y. B. Chavan Pratishthan has undertaken a project to publish selected speeches of Shri Chavan in the Parliament. First phase of the Project includes publication of his speeches as Defence Minister of India and as Union Home Minister in two Volumes, covering a period between November 1962 to December 1970.
Volume I contains speeches as Defence Minister and selected speeches concerning the law and order as the Union Home Minister. Volume II contains speeches as Home Minister on constitutional matters, mainly those covering the role of office of the Governor and imposition of President’s Rule under Article 356 of the Constitution.
Shri Y. B. Chavan became Defence Minister on 21 November, 1962 at a time when the Indian Army was facing a major debacle in the North-east. During his stewardship of Defence Ministry upto November 1967, his main achievements were to expand and reorganise the Armed Forces, modernise their equipment and establish new productive capacities for Defence.
Shri Y. B. Chavan’s contribution to India’s Defence is well covered in the three speeches that he delivered for seeking budgetary grants for the Defence Ministry. During those, speeches, he shared with the Parliament and the country his perception of the nature of threat on borders and his own approach to reorganising and reestablishing proper relationship between the political system and leadership of the Defence Forces. These speeches also represent development of Shri. Y. B. Chavan from a State level politician to a national leader and therefore these represent his evolution as the Defence Minister.
The handling of the Report on the debacle in NEFA popularly known as the Henderson - Brookes Report was a challenge that he ably faced in the Parliament. The Statement that he made and the spirited manner in which he defended the Government, represent a high water mark of his Parliamentary career. With his masterly handling of the debate, he put an end to the witch-hunt into the NEFA debacle and reaffirmed proper relationship between the political authority and the Defence
services.
As Union Home Minister, Shri Y. B. Chavan assumed office after a serious law and order incident near about the Parliament House following which his predecessor had to resign. Shri Y. B. Chavan with this vast administrative experience and skills in management, firmly reestablished law and order. He also proved himself a forward looking Home Minister by reorganising and giving legislative basis to the functioning of several Central paramilitary forces, including the Border Security Force. He handled complex problems in the South arising out of the reorganisation of States on linguistic basis. He ably handled the legislation to provide for three - language formula to establish proper balanced relationship between the South and the Hindi speaking States of the North and at the same time reaffirming the role of Hindi as national language. He made a great contribution in handling the problems of the reorganisation of Assam in a sensitive manner.