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5 Indiaâs Victory: The military planned, executed and won the 1971 war and when Dhaka fell, neither Indira nor Manekshaw flew in for a photo-op.
Rajesh Ramachandran
Fifty years is almost a lifetime, and the right time-span to look back at an event, particularly if the golden jubilee is that of a spectacular, unparalleled modern military victory. A poor nation of hungry millions, standing up to a warring sibling founded, armed and funded by a former Empire and a modern superpower, and yet achieving a stupendous victory against all odds is a chapter of history that we need to read many times over. With a Parsi Chief of Army Staff, Sikh and Jewish generals, a Muslim Assistant Chief of Air Staff and a predominantly Hindu force, the 1971 victory was that of a professional army completely oblivious to identity politics and its sinister sectarian manipulations. Every arm of the fledgling Indian state, be it spymaster RN Kao’s boys or BSF men and officers under KF Rustomj