How PM Nehru mishandled China and the Indo-Sino War of 1962
Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s first and the most favorite Prime Minister of India who was in power for around 17 years in India. He was a dominant person and he was also the pillar of Indian Democracy and also the pillar of India’s Independence movement. He was also an ‘ ahimsawadi’ person who was against fighting, waging wars on countries, and not making people beat but making them understand through his polite language. Under him, the Indo-Sino war of 1962 was fought and he was PM of India then. India lost that war because there were 12,000 Indian soldiers against 1,20,000 Chinese soldiers. Let’s take a look at how Jawaharlal Nehru mishandled China:-
1- He was been deceived by the Chinese Premier by a single line of slogan:-
“Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”
The line given above was the only Hindi line learned by the Chinese in order to trap India in the pretext of Peace.
2- Constant warnings ignored by Prime Minister Nehru
There is archived information regarding the Indo-Sino War of 1962. The Chinese President Liu Shaoqi ordered Sri Lanka to bring India to its knees written in the article by RS Kalha.
“The then Chinese President Liu Shaoqi told the Sri Lankan leader Felix Bandaranaike that the 1962 conflict was ‘to demolish India’s arrogance and illusions of grandeur. China had taught India a lesson and would do so again and again.’ Mao Zedung confirmed this line of thinking when he told a Nepalese delegation in 1964 that the ‘major problem between India and China was not the McMahon Line, but the Tibetan question’. In 1973, Zhou Enlai was to tell Kissinger that the conflict took place because Nehru was getting ‘cocky’.”
President Nehru got this message earlier that India is soon going to be attacked by China but he ignored the warning and left for Commonwealth Conference.
3- The diplomatic failure to arrive at a solution with China.
Until the early 1950s, India was blissfully ignorant of Chinese claims. Maps published in 1954 by Beijing showed the Northeastern edge of Jammu and Kashmir (the Aksai Chin region) as Chinese territory, ringing alarm bells in New Delhi. Instead of raising the issue with China forcefully and taking the country into confidence, the Jawaharlal Nehru government chose to remain quiet.
4- The strategic folly of engaging in a “forward policy”
Creating military posts in a disputed zone that could not be supplied properly with food, equipment, arms, and ammunition. Beginning in 1957 — after unilaterally deciding where its borders lay with China — India began establishing these posts in areas that China considered its territory, further inflaming what was a fraught situation.
5- PM Nehru’s wrong decision to not use India Air Force
General B.M. Kaul, the commander of the IV Corps in NEFA, alleged in his memoirs that the IAF was not used in close support of the Army. This was disputed by IB chief B.N. Mullik, who said that Kaul had not asked for air support. The question of air support had anyway been considered at the headquarters and the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) arrived at the conclusion that the positions were so interlocked that airstrikes would have endangered the safety of India’s own troops.
Hence PM Nehru chose not to use the Indian Air Force to fight in the 1962 War due to big beef between them
