Author: Brigadier (Retired) Victor
Longer
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: October 20, 2004
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/041020/139/2hf1w.html
China's 1962 invasion of India was
indeed a very unhappy event not only for the civilian population, but also
for the members of the defence services, some of whom even today describe
it as "a sad day" for the Indian Army.
The Chinese attacks on Indian positions
in what was then called NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) and a part of what
is now present day Ladakh left behind many a bruised soul and a memory
of wanting to remove "this black mark on our forehead."
What, however, defied all logic
at that point of time and even now on the 42nd anniversary of that unfortunate
invasion that resulted in the loss of several thousand kilometers of precious
territory, was the stark contrast in the behavior and responses between
the foreign and Indian media.
This writer, who was then the Chief
Public Relations Officer of the Indian Army and was based at Tezpur, was
absolutely amazed by the reaction of the local press to an event that had
for all practical purposes grabbed world headlines.
Even as the Army was making a concerted
effort to transport the civilian populace out of areas under fire, Indian
journalists, who had come from various parts of the country to cover the
military operation surprisingly were in a hurry to hop on the next plane
out. When I asked them about news coverage, the reply that was given was
" To hell with it. In any case what do they (journalists) get for it. Who
would protect their (journalists) families."
The news room was all but empty,
except for the foreign media, who expressed their desire to stay on, waiting
in hope for the elusive yet big news-The entry of the Chinese into NEFA.
Tezpur for all practical purposes became an erie town, save for a couple
of cats and a few dogs.
When the conflict was on, a number
of soldiers of the Fourth Division broke lines and fled helter-skelter.
When I interviewed some of them later at the Corp Headquarters in Tezpur,
I was surprised to discover that not one of the soldiers who had escaped
from the front, had eve seen a Chinese soldier.
"They did not know what a Chinese
soldier looked like." When they were asked what they had run away from?,
they had no answer except that everyone had said "Bhago" or "Run".
That the aggression was eventually
brought to end by a unilateral cease-fire by China, wanting to avoid further
international condemnation, had its fall out on the Indian Army's top brass
as is known to all. (ANI)
