'Force will be met with force'

But friendly words cannot tame a serpent. There is but one way to do it - to remove the serpent's fangs.

Even before the ink with which they had signed the Kutch agreement dried up, Pakisthan raised its hood to strike again. Pakistani soldiers entered Kashmir in disguise. In September 1965 there was a large-scale invasion of the territory by Pakistani soldiers in the Chhamb area. War broke out all along the Cease-fire Line on the Kashmir border.

The 1965 war with Pakistan He appeared very modest but was a man of steel. He had the ability to take quick decisions. It was demonstrated on August 31, 1965. On that day he came home for an early dinner. One of his secretaries told him that the three chiefs of the defence services had come to see him. He immediately left for his office next door at 10, Janpath. The three chiefs visited him to inform him that the Pakistan army had crossed the international border with 100 battle tanks in the Chamb sector of Jammu. They told him that in a short span of time the Pakistan army would cut off Kashmir from the rest of India.
 

Without losing time he asked for the opening of a new front including Lahore. Retaliate with full force, he said. What I remember is that the historic meeting lasted less than five minutes. Arjan Singh, the then chief of the air force was present. He is the only surviving member from that meeting. He told them, "Be prepared for war." He called Defence Minister Y B Chavan and informed him of the decision. He responded positively and expressed his support. He didn't wait for international reactions. The next day, newspapers reported that the Indian army was marching towards Lahore. It was a big morale booster for the country.

The enemies who had managed to enter Kashmir were cunning and mischievous. Pakistan also tried to incite Indian Muslims. The Pakisthan army was engaged in forcibly occupying areas, which belonged to India. There was the danger of the fighting spreading to the eastern border also. In addition to this, there was the threat posed by the Chinese on the northern borders of India. Lal Bahadur Shastri faced all these problems with a will of iron. It was at this time that the country understood the greatness of Lal Bahadur Shastri. He decided that was the time to teach Pakistan a lesson. He gave full freedom to the Commander of the Army. 'Go forward and strike' was Shastriji's command to the generals.

To mobilize the support of country during the war he coined the slogan of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan". Addressing the nation on 13th August 1965 Shastriji referred to Pakistan's threats and said, "Force will be met with force." Two days later, during the celebration of Independence day, he declared from the ramparts of the Red Fort: "It does not matter if we are destroyed. We will fight to the last to maintain the high honor of the Indian nation and its flag."

His toughness was evident at Tashkent. When Russian Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin (left: Shastri with Kosygin and Indian's then external affairs minister Swaran Singh) wanted Shastri to sign the agreement for peace with General Ayub Khan of Pakistan after the 1965 war, Shastri insisted on adding the assurance, "never again will weapons be used to sort out problems between India and Pakistan."

Ayub was maintaining a vague stance by quoting UN resolutions. "Then you will have to find another PM," said Shastri during the arguments. In the final agreement General Ayub Khan had not mentioned those words but Shastri continued to press for it. Ayub finally wrote it at the very last moment. General Ayub's handwritten assurance is still preserved in the Indian archives. Shastri was a slight person but with a strong mind.

The war had established the supremacy of India and brought Ayub Khan on to his feet. The United Nations passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire. The Russian Prime Minister, Kosygin, offered to mediate and Shastri and Ayub Khan started negotiations at Tashkent. A `no-war' agreement was signed between the two countries on January 10, 1966, and peace was restored.