Simple things that anybody will understand, things which don’t need great genius, politicians will miss. One of my friend was commander-in-chief of the Indian Army. When Pakistan invaded India, this man – his name was General Chaudhari – asked permission of the Prime Minister to counter attack; it was needed, just being defensive would not help. That’s a simple military strategy; if you become defensive you are already defeated. The best way is to be aggressive.
If Pakistan had invaded one part of Kashmir, Chaudhari’s idea was that we invade Pakistan from four or five fronts. They will be confused, they will run amok, they will not be able to decide where they have to send their armies. Their attack will become a failure because they have to defend all the borders of their country.
But politicians! The Prime Minister, Nehru, informed him – ‘Wait till 6 ‘o’ clock in the morning.’
General Chaudhari told me that he was thrown out of the army – not publicly. Publicly he retired honorably, but he was kicked out. He was told – ‘either you resign or we will throw you out.’
The reason was that he attacked Pakistan at 5 ‘o’ clock in the morning – one hour before the order. That was the right time, by 6 ‘o’ clock, it would be sunrise, people would be awake. 5 ‘o’ clock was the perfectly right time – everybody was asleep – to drive them crazy. And he did what he was saying – he made the whole of Pakistan tremble. He was just 15 miles from Lahore – Pakistan’s biggest city.
The whole night Nehru and his cabinet were discussing this way or that way – to do it or not to do it. And even by 6 ‘o’ clock in the morning they had not come to any conclusion. They just heard on the radio – ‘General Chaudhari is entering Lahore.’
That was too much for the politicians. They stopped him just 15 miles before Lahore. And I can see that was sheer stupidity. If the man had taken Lahore, the problem of Kashmir and India would have been solved forever. It is not ever going to be solved, the problem of the territory of Kashmir which Pakistan has occupied – and it was because General Chaudhari was told to come back, ‘because India is a non-violent country and you did not wait for the order.’
He said to them – ‘I do understand military strategy, you don’t. Even by 6 ‘o’ clock where was your order? Pakistan has already occupied a certain territory, the most beautiful part of Kashmir – and you were just discussing the whole night. This is not a question to be discussed – this has to be decided on the war-field. If you had allowed me to take over Lahore then we would have been in a position to bargain. Now we are not in a position to bargain. You pulled me back. I had to come back.’
The UN decided for a ceasefire line. So now for 40 years, UN armies have been there patrolling, on the other side Pakistani armies are patrolling, on this side Indian armies are patrolling. For 40 years – just nonsense! And in the UN they go on discussing and nothing comes out of it. And the territory that has been taken by Pakistan you cannot take back because of the ceasefire. They have decided in their Parliament that the territory occupied by them is combined into Pakistan. Now they show it on their maps. It is no longer occupied territory, it is Pakistani territory.
I had told General Chaudhari – ‘This was such a simple thing that you had to be in a bargaining position. If you had taken Lahore, they would have immediately agreed to leave Kashmir because they could not lose Lahore. Or if a ceasefire was to come, okay, then Lahore remains with us when we ceasefire. Either way there will be something to bargain. India doesn’t have anything to bargain with – why should Pakistan bother?’
But politicians certainly don’t have brains.” -OSHO
