A life less ordinary

The former IPKF chief looks back at his remarkable career in the Army

By Lt Gen as Kalkat

(March 03, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) I was in the UK, on an International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) fellowship. One day, Gen Sundarji’s office informed me that the Chief wanted me in Delhi. How soon, I asked. Yesterday, that soon, came the reply. I rushed back and was told I was being sent to lead the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. It was a challenging job. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was worried as there had been one or two mishaps earlier and he was travelling again. We had two opportunities to capture Prabhakaran but he gave us the slip. But we decimated his headquarters and after that the Sri Lanka government called elections. We returned with honour and dignity.

Long before that assignment, there is the story of how I came to join the Army. My father, Balwant Singh Kalkat, was a civil servant who moved to Delhi from Hoshiarpur in 1947. I went to Modern School, Delhi but could not appear for the higher secondary exam as I got selected for the Academy.

I had relatives in the Army – an uncle and his son, who retired as General Omkar Singh Kalkat. He wrote a book about how he foiled plans by a tribal in Bannu district of undivided India to invade Kashmir. I saw a lot of him. We played squash regularly.
The Academy was then in Clement Town, in Dehradun. We spent two years in the Joint Services Wing, after which those joining the Army went to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Prem Nagar, Dehradun for another two years. In JSW, the Commandant was Gen Habibullah, father of Wajahat Habibullah. In 1955, I joined the Infantry, with the Gorkha Regiment.

When I was a cadet, my father was posted in Washington and while I was on holiday there I met our military attaché, Brigadier PC Gupta. He got me sent to West Point as a cadet for a week so that I could see life there. It had the same ethos and approach, the same honour system, everything was similar. On my instructors’ suggestion, I wrote an article on life at West Point for the IMA magazine.

The other thing about those years is that I was fond of sports. I was in the school hockey and boxing teams. My father had played for the Government College, Lahore football team. Later, he played tennis. So sports was in my genes. My first posting was to the 5/8 Gorkha Rifles in Pune. It was the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Army and covered almost two-thirds of India. My battalion moved to Poonch very soon. I spent three years there as Second Lieutenant and Lieutenant. We lived with the troops, becoming one with them and learning their language. Then I was sent for a three-month course to infantry school, Mhow. I did well and was posted to my regimental centre in Dehradun –the 58 Gorkha Training Centre. After two years, I went back to Mhow as a Captain. A year later, I became a Major. After three years in Mhow, I returned to the battalion in Pune but only for eight months. Infiltrators came into Kashmir and we were shifted to Chamb. War began on September 1, 1965, Pakistan attacked Chamb. I was wounded and hospitalized. Afterwards, I was posted to another battalion in Kashmir.

I was now eligible for the Staff College exam and was among the top five. I was sent to the Australian Staff College for a year. On return, I was posted at Barrackpore, near Kolkata, for three years. Then I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. The Eastern Command chief was Gen Manekshaw, who was also from my regiment.

Then I went to command the battalion in Darbuk, the easternmost corner of Ladakh. The average height is 12,000- 14,000 feet. Darbuk is the hottest and coldest city in India. From there we moved to Pampur, near Srinagar, where saffron is grown. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, the battalion was again in Chamb. There was very heavy fighting and our battalion was commendable. The enemy got around the brigade, so we counterattacked from behind.

I had a miraculous escape. I was on patrol along with two jawans. Suddenly, a Pakistani soldier who was hiding shouted, “Hands up!” One of my men attacked him with a kukri and killed him. Later, when Gen Manekshaw came to meet us, we presented the kukri to him. The jawan was awarded Vir Chakra.

I learnt two important lessons in 1971. One, you have to prove to the men that you are prepared to face the same danger. You have to be on the frontline. Two, your sense of self-respect should be more than your fear.

After the war, I spent two years at Staff College, Wellington as an instructor. Then I was selected for a higher commanders’ course. My next tenure was in Army Headquarters, Delhi. Soon after, I became a Brigadier.

While I was Brigade Commander in Meerut, there was a mutiny by the CRPF. The mutiny was India-wide. The CRPF’s national centre was in Jhadodan Kalan. In Delhi, the families of officers were surrounded by agitators. The roads in front of Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s residence were blocked. The CRPF is a premier paramilitary force, so the police can’t be engaged. I brought my brigade overnight from Meerut. We did an early morning operation. Within three hours, we had captured them. The mutiny was over. After that, the government decided to keep the 35 Brigade permanently in Delhi cantonment.

THEN I was posted as Brigadier General Staff in Siliguri at 33 Corps – the top post. I was there for two years. From there I was posted to Delhi in MO Directorate; however, Gen Krishna Rao was the Chief. He decided to have one Brigadier permanently assigned to Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). The IDSA head was K Subramanium. So he was my civil boss while my military boss was Director, Military Operations. That’s where I learnt a lot about politico-strategic issues. But I got promoted and posted to command the mountain division in Bareilly. Gen Sundarji’s office asked me to go for the IISS fellowship. I asked if they still wanted me, a General now, to go. They conveyed that Sundarji had said, “So what? Learning does not stop.” So I went and then was called back.

I waited for the Sri Lanka assignment as a Major General in Pune. Then the mishap took place in Jaffna. Harkirat Singh was posted there. Our troops were surrounded. It was a critical situation.

Soon after, I was appointed the IPKF Commander and the force became much larger. I served till the end. I was the last man to board the ship on March 24, 1990 when the force returned.

For my work in Lanka, I became the first winner of the highest award –the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal (SYSM). It had been instituted three or four years earlier. I was going to be Army commander so I was posted as Director General, at Defence Planning Staff, Delhi. This was the brain child of Rajiv Gandhi and Defence Minister Arun Singh. It is the joint headquarters of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The VP Singh government was in power and it asked me to do a Strategic Threat Environment Assessment (STEA). I completed two years there and was appointed G-o-C of Army Training Command.

My turn for promotion came. New thinking had come in as the First Gulf War ended. The Americans had a fourstar general command called Trade Doc (trading and doctrine) command. In this command, the doctrine of warfare is formulated as the environment changes. The government decided to form an Army Trading Command. I was appointed G-o-C. It was raised in Mhow. After one year, I returned to Pune as Army Commander, Southern Command. A month later, problems like the Babri Masjid demolition, the Bombay riots, the bomb blasts cropped up. There was also trouble in Kerala and the Gujarat riots.

Then, after seven to eight months of respite, the Latur earthquake happened. I was the first man on the spot. I was walking from my house when the ground shook. Somebody said, “Sir, there’s been an earthquake somewhere.” I said, “Let’s take off and see.” I got my helicopter and saw Latur village flattened. The Army did very good rescue work.