SECTION 2   - (CHAPTER 8)

REPLY TO DEBATE ON NEFA ENQUIRY AND
OUR DEFENCE PREPAREDNESS

Lok Sabha, 21 September 1963

Mr. Speaker Sir, I am indeed grateful to this hon. House for discussing in detail the two statements that I submitted before this House. I had an opportunity to reply to the debate in the other House,   where some of the points were so closely common that I may be pardoned if I am required to repeat some of the points.

I can say that when I submitted these documents I too was not very proud of them. As some of the Members said it was a sad document. I can also say that I submitted these documents to this House with a very heavy heart, I find that these documents were discussed not only in the two Houses but since these were published these have been discussed in different newspapers. I think it has been good for the country to have discussed these documents. Really speaking that was the purpose of having this enquiry made and that was the main object of sharing some of the important conclusions of this inquiry with this house and the country.

What I have found is that there is very grave concern over the problems of defence in this country. It is very natural. Even today when I heard the speeches, I sensed that. Some of the speeches were very constructive; some of them were very emotional and some of them admittedly, were very bitter, but I must grant them all that behind all this emotion, behind all this bitterness and behind all the constructive criticism, there was concern for the defence of the country.

When this document was placed here the main idea was to consider a certain situation in an objective manner. From my own personal experience I can say one thing. I have worked for eight or nine months and I cannot say that I have become an expert in defence problems, but I have started knowing something about them. I find that in this country of ours fortunately or unfortunately there is very little background or knowledge about the defence problems. Either there is some wishful thinking about them or there is some romantic idea about the defence problems. It was therefore necessary to assess a certain experience which was a major experience for our army and for our country in the rather furious and rushing events that took place last October November. 

When I say “ our major experience”, I do mean to say’ that our army leaders or officers had no experience of war. I made that point yesterday and it was rather misunderstood by the last speaker who spoke. I mentioned the period of sixteen years. It is only since independence that the Indian Army is being directed with a certain political purpose of our own. It became an instrument of the Indian people since 1947. So, the experience that the army had last year was, really speaking, the major experience. Of course, they had some experience before as I said, of the Police Action on Hyderabad, of a similar action in Goa and, perhaps, of a more important nature in Kashmir. But the type of experience that our army had last October-November was a major experience from one point of view and it was essential that this experience must be properly assessed. So, though I made a reference to the bitterness and the emotional attitude about it, I must claim I must plead for objectively which is necessary’ to examine this report because its main purpose is that.