The Tough General- Field Marshal Gen.Sam Maneshaw

#ashokasays Did you know 277:

Most of you might know this particular fact, but it is always nice to recollect a few facts to cherish the heroisms of our brave and splendid Indian Army.

“Sam, what are you doing?”
“Sitting in my office and having tea, Madam.”
“Come to my office, I’ll give you tea here.”
This is what PM Indira Gandhi told Chief of Army Staff Gen. Sam Manekshaw one fine morning during the days that Indira Gandhi was not-so-popular amongst her party and opposition for being a one-woman ruler!
“Everybody says you are taking over. When are you taking over?” Gandhi asked.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think you would.”
“You’re right Madam Prime Minister. My daughter, when she comes from the convent sings the nursery rhyme, ‘you mind your business, I mind mine; you kiss your own sweetheart, I kiss mine’. You have a long nose. So have I. But I don’t poke my nose into other people’s affairs. I do not interfere with politics and politicians.” Sam Maneskshaw even offered to quit on grounds of mental instability.
This wasn’t the first time the Prime Minister had the taste of Sam Maneskshaw. One day in April 1971, when India was becoming the home to millions of refugees from the East Pakistan, Indira Gandhi wanted to attack East Pakistan and get rid of the problem of West Pakistan’s bias to East. She called up the cabinet along with Sam Bahadur and told them about her plan. Sam declared that if we attack now, India would lose the battle as the Army was not ready.
Soon after the Cabinet members retired from the meeting, Sam offered his resignation; “There is a very thin line between being dismissed and becoming a field-marshal,” as he recalls but again Gandhi refused and asked him to prepare.
And so he did.
As war drew closed, Indira Gandhi asked her army chief if he was ready for the fight. Gen. Manekshaw replied with the chivalry, flirtatiousness and utter boldness for which he was famous: “I am always ready, sweetie.”
And ready he was; winning Dhaka in two weeks.
Gen. Manekshaw truly became immortal in the history of India for his brave acts and the way he stood up to his political bosses for his soldiers as he once said, “I wonder whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of the defence of the country can distinguish a mortar from a motor; a gun from a howitzer; a guerrilla from a gorilla, although a great many resemble the latter.”

INCREDIBLE BHARATHIYA