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Informative
The Forward Policy and
‘Operation ONKAR’continues....
The politically-motivated ‘forward’ military deployment in Arunachal Pradesh (‘Operation ONKAR’) was militarily unsound. The appropriate deployment had already been spelt out after a war-game at
HQ Eastern Command (‘Exercise LAL QILA’ conducted in 1960 to study the Chinese threat) in the thorough formal military appreciation prepared by Lt. Gen. S.P.P. Thorat, GOC-in-C Eastern Command.
Gen. Thorat had earlier been corps commander of 33 Corps, and was
familiar with the ground. 33 Corps till October 4, 1962, was the senior headquarters directly responsible for the area, with its HQ at Shillong.
The GOC 33 Corps in 1962, Lt. Gen. K. Umrao Singh, was
completely against ‘Op ONKAR’, and had indicated that a forward
deployment would require a proper administrative build-up, and thus
time.
This was inconvenient for the Prime Minister, probably due to his
wish to announce in Parliament on 20th November 1962, when
Parliament re-assembled, that a successful military check to Chinese
‘encroachments’ had been accomplished. In order to facilitate this, Lt.
Gen. Umrao’s responsibility for the area was terminated by truncating
the area of responsibility of his command, the 33 Corps Zone. The NEFA, Assam and Nagaland sector was given to a new, suddenlcreated 4 Corps, leaving 33 Corps responsible thereafter only for the
Indo-Tibet border in Sikkim and Bhutan (in the latter of which no Indian troops were meant to be deployed, but for the defence of which India had a treaty obligation)
To be continued...