Chance handshake with Manekshaw

Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw, whose 108th birth anniversary was on April 3, was a quintessential soldier. Endowed with bravery, confidence, wit, flamboyance and motivational skills, he often bypassed military protocol to interact with officers and lower ranks. I had the rare honour and privilege of enjoying a few moments of his scintillating company that left a lasting impression on my mind.

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As a freshly commissioned 2/Lt in the Corps of EME, I was posted at Jelep La on the eastern side of Nathu La in Sikkim in 1971. I was the officer in charge of an Advance Workshop Detachment (AWD) located at Lungthu; 3 JAK Rifles was deployed at Jelep La.

Besides my major logistic support activities, I used to voluntarily join this infantry battalion for a weekly border patrol known as ‘Billy Patrol’. There were occasional skirmishes with PLA soldiers, involving pulling, pushing, kicking, fisticuffs, stone-throwing and hurling of abuse when they stumbled across our patrols in dense fog along the un-demarcated McMahon Line.

As in 1962, the Chinese also unleashed psychological warfare. They had installed high-powered loudspeakers at heights and played Punjabi and Bollywood songs to woo our soldiers or distract their attention. To counter them, we played Chinese songs on loudspeakers and Grundig tape recorders daily from 6 am onwards from a high feature named ‘Lal Qila’. Regular repair of these 20-kg tape recorders in our AWD, about 30 km away, on priority was a Herculean task.

One evening, we received two tape recorders for immediate repairs. The in-charge of the telecommunication repair cell, Company Havildar Major Brij Mohan, was a tough paratrooper from Himachal Pradesh. He assured me that the tape recorders would be repaired by midnight and installed by

4 am. All hell broke loose when the CO of 3 JAK Rifles asked me at 10 pm to finish the job by 5 am and come back in time as no movement would be allowed after 5.30 am for security reasons, in view of the visit of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) to Jelep La at 7 am.

Manekshaw was in Bhutan and was coming to say ‘well done’ to the alert troops of 3 JAK Rifles for capturing a Chinese Major and a Havildar who had come to snatch an LMG from their post.

When Brij Mohan and I reached the base camp barrier, the sentry would not let us go. He yielded after much persuasion. Normally, we took the help of acclimatised jawans of 3 JAK Rifles to carry these tape recorders. At Jelep La, the Company Commander’s refusal to oblige us led to a catch-22 situation.

We carried a recorder each on our heads and trudged on, panting for breath. We accomplished the mission by reaching ‘Lal Qila’ at 5 am. We were rewarded with an introduction and a hearty handshake with COAS Manekshaw.