Thread by @sheshapatangi1

#GeneralThimayya is not born in every generation. The likes of him there will seldom be a soldier. The General is a man's man, the Army his soul and his soul the Army.
It’s a rich tribute, nevertheless, I SILENTLY WEPT, while preparing this thread/post.. No veteran must suffer

this humiliation, but Nehru was a …

Remembering #KodenderaSubbaiahThimmayya the Chief of Army Staff bt 1957-61 & the only Bharatiya to command an Infantry Brigade during WW2 & regarded as the most distinguished Combat Officer the Bharatiya Army produced.
Gen K S Thimmayya was

born on this day on 1906 at Madikeri and came from a family of veterans.
Like the mighty Himalaya’s, the blunders of Nehru was Himalayan too, in 1959, Gen Thimmayya Resigned after a fight with the then defence minister & Nehru's close aide Krishna Menon, Nehru didn't approve

the resignation & also never heeded to the valid Concerns raided by Gen Thimmayya.

On 2 Sept 1959, the Nehru once again rose in Parliament to make a statement. He told the Lok Sabha that he had persuaded the chief to withdraw his resignation. He then went on to speak about the

supremacy of the civilian authority over the military and then, had surprisingly, proceeded to castigate Thimayya, saying the issues that led to his resignation were ‘rather trivial and of no consequence’, and that they arose ‘from temperamental differences’. He then chided the

chief and reproached him for ‘wanting to quit in the midst of the Sino-Indian border crisis’.
Even today, the contents of Thimayya’s resignation letter remain a highly guarded secret. Instead, vague stories about Thimayya’s resignation were routinely floated where it was said

that Timmy had resigned out of pique because of the manner in which Krishna Menon treated him. On careful scrutiny, that doesn’t hold water.
The much adored PM, who could do no wrong in the eyes of the public, had betrayed General Thimayya. Trapped in this bad situation, the

chief had no option but to quietly endure the humiliation and get on with the job of trying to prepare the army to face the Chinese when the need arose.
This was not the first confrontation happened between the veteran & dumb PM, it all started a decade back when Independence

was achieved & Thimmaiah was made Major General.
As the time for Independence approached, Field Marshal Sir Claude Achinlek asked Thimmayya to return back to Bharat & was appointed as Major General.
Once in Bharat, Thimmayya immersed in various works, from weapon procurement to

refugee handling & battle against Pakistan.
The First Bitter Fight Between Nehru & Thimmayya Happened Then,
Thimmayya Asked For 3 Months To Clear Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pleaded Nehru not to approach United Nations, but Nehru went ahead & also transferred him to head IMA.

In his book 1962 - THE WAR THAT WASN’T, Author Shiv Kumar Verma gives another insight into the Himalayan Blunder caused by Nehru…
An excerpt from the book..
Nehru was waiting for Thimayya and for the first time, the normally reticent Timmy exchanged angry words with the PM.

He told Nehru that his arbitrary decision of making NEFA [North-East Frontier Agency] the responsibility of the army, made in Parliament, was preposterous and completely against Indian interests. Thimayya felt that Nehru had completely compromised the army.
Without providing the

additional resources required, handing over the borders to the army was a meaningless gesture; this would allow the Chinese the opportunity to claim that the Indians were the aggressors, for they always went to great pains to describe their own troops as border guards. Thimayya

asked Nehru to find a way out of the mess in the next couple of weeks, after which he departed. Immediately after Thimayya’s departure, the shaken prime minister summoned Krishna Menon to Teen Murti.
Both Nehru & Menon knew that Nehru was in serious trouble. He had got away with

the admission in Parliament earlier in the day only because the triple whammy—ongoing clashes on the border, the construction of NH G219 across the Aksai Chin & Khenzemane, Longju incidents had come as a shock to the members of the House. At any rate, it was unlikely that any of

the parliamentarians knew the terrain or understood matters pertaining to the military to raise any meaningful questions. Thimayya wanted Nehru to undo the mistake; but should the PM formally withdraw his statement about deploying the army and revert to the previous arrangement,

he would be committing political hara-kiri. The threat of Thimayya taking over the reins of government, at least in Nehru’s mind, was very real.
Politics is full of subterfuge, and survival, when the chips are down, is perhaps the biggest challenge. Not only did the Nehru-Menon

team now have to survive, they had to neutralize Thimayya.
3 days later, Menon sent for Thimayya in ‘a highly excited state of mind’, vented his anger at the chief for having approached Nehru directly, suggesting instead that the matter should have been resolved at his level.

Threatening Thimayya of ‘possible political repercussions if the matter became public’ Krishna Menon ended the meeting. A seething Thimayya returned to his office, and after a brief conversation with his wife, Neena, promptly sent in his resignation letter.

The letter which was

received by Teen Murti on the afternoon of 31 Aug, was put up to Nehru who promptly sent for Thimayya in the afternoon. By now Nehru was far more assured in his manner, using his authority & personal charm to good effect. After a long conversation in which he persuaded the army

chief to withdraw his resignation letter in the larger interest of the nation, especially since problem with the Chinese had flared up, the matter of the resignation was deemed closed.
However, after Thimayya’s departure, news of his resignation was deliberately leaked to the

media while the subsequent rescinding of the letter was held back.
Quite expectedly, the Thimayya resignation made banner headlines the next morning. Through the day, there was no formal reaction from the government, as the prime minister was preoccupied with Pak President

Gen Ayub Khan, who was in transit through Delhi.
By the evening the PTI had announced that Krishna Menon had also resigned, only to withdraw its report a short while later.

Nehru’s attitude towards Thimayya was damaging to the chief as well as the army. A whispering campaign

started that speculated on the ‘rather trivial’ reasons 4 Thimayya’s resignation. That the chief was unhappy with the defence minister’s insistence on promoting certain officers was a well known fact & pre-dated the Longju incident. It was hinted that ‘temperamental differences’

were a direct result of this difference of opinion.

General Thimayya was, by all accounts, a seasoned, disciplined soldier who would hardly have made issues over trifles. Only overriding national interests could have provoked him to take this step.

Further, as a disciplined

soldier he had accepted his prime minister’s assurance and withdrawn his resignation. From the day he had taken charge, Thimayya had been focused on redressing the various problems that faced the Indian Army, especially the evolving civil-military equation where the army seemed

quite removed from the decision-making process on matters relating to defence. However, he found himself up against a wall in the form of the Ministry of Defence, which was either indifferent or hostile to his moves.
After the resignation drama Thimayya was seen as an alarmist

and a defeatist. Having thus weakened the office of the army chief, the prime minister now placed his hope in the man he believed had all the answers. In the corridors of power in New Delhi, it was Lieutenant General B. M. ‘Bijji’ Kaul whose star was on the rise.

On 07th May 1961, after 35 years of Uncompromising Service, General K S Thimmayya retired from service, while the country he served didn’t notice him, the world knew his value..

The United Nations invited him to head its peacekeeping force in Cyprus where he passed away

on 18-12-65.

#ForgottenHeroes
#VANDEMATARAM