Word: menon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...subcontinent against Chinese aggression. As they pointed out, four divisions of crack Indian troops had been tied down along the cease-fire line; Red China was trying to play Pakistan off against India by offering the Pakistanis a non-aggression pact. No longer counseled by ousted Defense Minister Krishna Menon, who obsessively regards Pakistan as India's main enemy, Nehru finally agreed to write Pakistan's President Ayub Khan, suggesting top-level talks on Kashmir. Ayub promptly assented. This, of course, was no assurance that the two foes would ever come to an accord in the bitter dispute...
...infinite testiness, Menon was soon squabbling with independent-minded generals. Lieut. General Shankar Thorat and Commander in Chief General K. S. Thimayya appealed to Nehru against Menon's promotion policies. When Nehru, who has long scorned the British-trained officers as men who "did not understand India," refused to listen to complaints about Menon, both generals retired from the army in disgust. Menon named as new commander in chief P. N. Thapar, a "paperwork general...
Needed Intellect. Though India-like the U.S. after Pearl Harbor-could not yet afford scapegoats and recrimination, Defense Minister Krishna Menon was almost universally blamed for the inadequacy of Indian arms, the lack of equipment and even winter clothing. His fall from grace not only finished his own career but brought a turning point in Nehru's. The Prime Minister had tried to pacify critics by taking over the Defense Ministry and downgrading Menon to Minister of Defense Production, but Nehru's own supporters demanded Menon's complete dismissal...
...Nehru attended an all-day meeting of the Executive Committee of the parliamentary Congress Party and made a final plea for Menon, whose intellect, he said, was needed in the crisis...
Nehru was dumfounded. It was he who was used to banging tables and making peremptory refusals. Taking a different tack, he accurately said that he was as much at fault as Menon and vaguely threatened to resign. Always before, such a threat had been sufficient to make the opposition crumble with piteous cries of 'Tanditji, don't leave us alone!" This time, one of the leaders said: "If you continue to follow Menon's policies, we are prepared to contemplate that possibility." Nehru was beaten and Menon thrown out of the Cabinet. Joining him in his exit...