You have got to give it to our Babus. They burn with so much jealousy and malice that they are capable of causing harm to a genuine hero of our country. A man revered by thousands of people both in the armed forces and civilians. The hero himself was such a gentleman that this is the first time that the story has come out. He himself never made a fuss about it! What a man!
It was the First Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw Memorial Lecture on National Security: J&K Perspective on 16 Aug 2008, at the India International Centre, New Delhi, organised by the Conclave of Defence Services Veterans.
Lt. General (Retd) S. K. Sinha, till recently, the Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, in his keynote address, mentioned that he met Field Marshal Manekshaw in 2007 when he was critically ill and on life support system in Wellington Military Hospital. A little earlier at the intervention of the then President, he had received over Rs. one crore, as arrears of pay of a Field Marshal for the past 35 years. At last the bureaucracy had relented and given him his dues, which had been denied to him for all these years!
The army had taken up the case in 1972 when he was promoted Field Marshal. When Lt Gen Sinha congratulated him for this, he smiled and said “A Babu came from Delhi to give me the cheque which I have sent to my bank. I am not sure if the cheque will be honoured!”
Shame on our Babus.