Need to review role played by much-maligned Menon, Nehru

IT has been 61 years since the India-China war. However, the role of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon is unlikely to be objectively assessed anytime soon. Both continue to be slammed as convenient punching bags by all and sundry and are wholly held responsible for the appeasement of China, which resulted in its unprovoked aggression and India’s battlefield humiliation.

What’s notable is the consistent perpetuation of a one-sided narrative — one that is based on a purportedly secret document called the Henderson Brooks report, which is supposed to have looked into the causes of India’s debacle at the hands of China, then led by dictator Mao Zedong. It’s time for a relook, howsoever brief.

The report is still out of bounds for Indians, being so ‘sensitive’ that the mandarins will sanctimoniously advise the uninitiated and curious alike that it won’t be in public interest to reveal its content even decades after the horrid happenings because it may open a Pandora’s box, jeopardising national security and political stability. Unfortunately, this logic sounds overwhelmingly perverse, pernicious and yet so persuasive that nobody would dare challenge the bizarre stand of successive governments. Consequently, democratic India has failed to uphold the rule of law, thereby giving rise to suspicion that there could be more to it than meets the eye. By keeping the matter under wraps, it could be perpetuating the status quo narrative of culpability and responsibility for the debacle — limiting it to only two men (Nehru and Menon) and exonerating a few others equally responsible for their acts of omission and commission.

Nevertheless, let at least fair-minded Indians hear what Menon said, thereby following the pivotal principle of jurisprudence known as ‘natural justice’, before holding someone culpable. Natural justice is the fulcrum of any judicial process, especially in a democracy. No suspect can be punished or held guilty without being given a chance to explain his/her actions or decisions. Regrettably, India has hardly ever tried to follow this principle or even bothered to hear what Nehru or Menon had to say about the state of affairs leading to India’s ignominy.

After the 1962 war, Nehru candidly narrated the facts of the fiasco several times on the floor of Parliament, yet there were few takers owing to toxicity in political circles and paucity of principles. Virtually no one was interested in hearing the version of the ‘vanquished villains’.

Still, we can give the much-maligned Menon a hearing by taking note of his post-debacle statement: “In spite of all goodwill and services, both in friendship and international solidarity, China betrayed us… Prior to our independence, as early as 1944, China had recognised her customary boundaries with India, which is alone what we assert… In 1954 and 1955, then Chinese PM Zhou Enlai, in his communications to our PM, acknowledged the boundaries which are boundaries of the Union of India.”

Menon further said: “In 1954-55, China said in answer to our queries about expansionist Chinese maps, which included Union Territories as Chinese, that they were old maps and they would correct those. In 1958, however, China began to make claims to India’s territory.” Do these lines appear true or false? Are these the words of an ill-informed Defence Minister? Is he resorting to perjury or falsity? Is there an attempt to defend the indefensible? Or does it expose the vulnerability or gullibility of a so-called villain?

Six decades later, the world today knows what China actually is. It has done a good job for itself, no doubt, but it has also undone many others by grabbing and seizing territory. Indeed, territorial expansion at any cost has been the first and foremost priority of the Communist Party of China (CPC) since the days of Mao Zedong — the first foreign victim was independent Tibet, followed by India.

Time passed. The maps didn’t change, as promised by Zhou Enlai. Menon said: “We were not at war with China. But incursions by her were frequently taking place in different parts of India and she remained in several parts of our territory.”

Did Menon sound ignorant and clueless, as is being emphatically exclaimed even today? Is there any similarity between the two eras (mid-20th century and the present century), separated by six decades? Has China changed its colours and actions one bit? What has changed after 1962? The 1950-1960s were restricted to territorial claims and occupation by China. Today, the territory has expanded to non-territorial sectors, but China is putting the border dispute on the back burner. Hence, the Chinese have the audacity to humiliate India with increased vengeance and tell it to focus on bilateral convergence and ignore divergence.

The meaning is simple: Don’t enter territory captured by us, or else you will be branded as villains tomorrow by your countrymen, who will curse you and consign you to the dustbin of history. Creating and recreating the history of its enemies has been bread and butter for the CPC and its militia, the People’s Liberation Army, for the past almost seven decades.

So, for now at least, let’s not brand Nehru and Menon as the sole villains of 1962. You can challenge their decisions, but not their honest intentions.