Shekhar Gupta: Dressing up military history in fatigues

Over the decades, a spiced up, hyper-nationalist version of military history has been built: That politicians wronged the generals. No wonder PM Modi got his facts all mixed up

Shekhar Gupta 

Shekhar Gupta

The Prime Minister mixing up military history is between him and his aides. If only they had checked Wikipedia they would have known that (then) Gen. K M Cariappa (not Thimayya) became the first Indian Army chief on January 15, 1949, and that is the reason it is celebrated as Army Day. Cariappa was just 50 (born 1899) when he took over.

They made much younger chiefs then. That history can get you in a twist partly because of rapid developments that were taking place. For clarity: Both the Indian and Pakistani armies were led by British commanders through the 1947-48 campaign. They ...

First Published: Fri, May 04 2018. 23:55 IST