KUMARAMANGALAM

GENERAL PP KUMARAMANGALAM

The Chief who Overcame the Ministry of Defence

By Lt Col CR Sundar, psc, MSc(Defence Studies)

          One of the greatest Generals of modern India was General Paramasiva Prabhakara Kumaramangalam whose 106th Birth Anniversary falls on 01 July 2019. General PP Kumaramangalam was the 7th Chief of the Army Staff from June 1966 to June 1969.

He took over an Army which had received a bloody nose in the Sino- Indian War of 1962 and had barely held its own against Pakistan in 1965. It was in all respects a mediocre Army. During his tenure he built it into the strongest force in Asia. No one should have dared challenge that Army. Pakistan made that mistake in 1971. By that time Kumaramangalam, fondly referred to as 'Kay', had handed over the Army to his protégée General Sam Manekshaw who wielded it so brilliantly that within the blink of an eye Pakistan was dismembered and Bangladesh came into existence.

          Kay who was commanding the Defence Services Staff College in 1959 was urgently called up by the then Chief, General KS Thimmayya to come to the Army Headquarters, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and made the Adjutant General. This was a continuation of his long and eventful service at the Army Headquarters during which he learnt the ways of the Ministry of Defence and by keeping them at arms length away succeeded in remodelling, reshaping and reequipping the Indian Army.

          When Kay reached the Army Headquarters as Adjutant General he was directly concerned only with personnel planning. Though he had very little to do with the Defence Minister, Ministry of Defence and the three Armed Forces Headquarters what he saw at that time was that there was a great deal of lack of coordination. Of that period he had said, "There was perpetual conflict between the Defence Minister and the three Chiefs. The bureaucrats of the Ministry of Defence did not or would not do anything to improve relations. In fact they added to the problem and the bureaucracy were as much to be blamed for the 1962 Debacle as the politicians."

          It was only after Krishna Menon was unceremoniously removed from the post of Defence Minister that things began to improve. Mr Chavan started a change by giving the three Chief their respect. The Chiefs began to get hearings from the Defence Minister, hesitantly at first, and on a regular basis by the time of Mr Swaran Singh who even started giving due weightage to the opinions of the three Chiefs.

          One of the ploys of the bureaucracy was to create a plethora of committees with the sole purpose of putting hurdles on the way of each other's progress to the detriment of overall defence preparedness. For example, there was the Cabinet Sub Committee on Defence, the Chiefs of Staff Committee, the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Defence Minister's Committee etc.. These were often working at cross purposes.

          Before declaration of Emergency in 1962 the Defence Committee of the Cabinet dealt with Defence Matters including the Emergency. After declaration of Emergency the Emergency Committee of the Cabinet dealt with all matters including Defence.

          The newly introduce Emergency Committee, though not perfect, appeared to work because of the personalities of the new Defence Ministers. "But", felt Kay, "you can't have a system depending on personalities because a person like Krishna Menon could once again make the same mistakes."

          Kay was the eldest son of a Premier of Madras Presidency. A few years after he reached Delhi his father who was a Parliamentarian was appointed Governor of Maharashtra. We can infer from this that Kay would have had sufficient political connections to have his way. But as luck would have it his father died in the closing months of 1962. From then on he was on his own and it was the force of his personality which helped the nation to rearm itself.

          He knew that the next round with Pakistan was imminent either during his tenure as Chief or soon after he handed over. In preparation he felt there was an urgent need to obtain and train the men with T-34 tanks and BTR-60BP wheeled amphibious armoured personnel carriers. He wanted 155 mm howitzers. He wanted an extensive Air Defence Ground Environment System along the borders. With Soviet aid India established a modern early warning radar system, including low level radar linked to 'SA-2 Guideline' missiles and a large number of anti-aircraft guns.

          His plans called for the IAF to reach 45 squadron status. HAL was to hasten up production of HF Maruts. All this led the IAF to evaluate and purchase Sukhoi Su-7BM and many squadrons worth of MiG-21Fl.

          Overcoming the machinations of the Ministry of Defence Kumaramangalam set out on 16 September 1966 on a 12-day visit to the Soviet Union. Knowing that he had come to discuss purchases the Russians took him to all their manufacturing plants. Kumaramangalam had taken with him a team of evaluators and negotiators. He also had with him a group of planners and designers and they were able to decide what could be produced under license in India and what could be procured as completely knocked down (CKD) to assemble in India.

          In the annals of our military history after independence this visit by Gen Kumaramangalam will certainly stand on record as a visit by a Chief that had the most long standing strategic effect on our Armed Forces.

          What he achieved on those twelve days ensured our success against Pakistan in 1971.

NOTE: "GENERAL PP KUMARAMANGALAM His Life and Times" is available at Amazon.in. Please get your copy today.s

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Lt Col CR Sundar,

Plot No. 43, 24th Cross Street,

Padmavathy Nagar, Madambakkam,

Chennai - 600126

80561 63792

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