By Raju Mansukhani
“We have acted with the greatest restraint so far, but the sands of time are running out,” Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri stated in Parliament on May 3, 1965 He reiterated that there could be no cease-fire in the Rann of Kutch without a simultaneous agreement on the restoration of the status quo ante. There was a day-long debate in Rajya Sabha extensively covered by the Indian media.

Shastri’s words, articulated fifty-seven years ago, seem to have set the tone of the Indo-Pak discourse. “The threat to our freedom is real, continuing and immediate. We have to meet this threat with all our resources and with all our might,” the speech was reported in The Times of India (New Delhi edition, dated May 4, 1965).”Mr Shastri was cheered by all sections of the House,” the daily reported, “when he said that the threat of total war would not deter the Government of India from its rightful duty. No Government would be worth its name if it allowed its territories to be annexed by forced by an aggressive
neighbour.”

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The “Prime Minister spoke with great confidence and firmness but without sounding bellicose in anyway. Even while warning Pakistan of the grave consequences if it persisted in its aggression, he did not fail to extend his hand of friendship to the people of Pakistan. Shastri said that India wanted a true and lasting understanding with Pakistan and an honourable settlement of all the problems now bedeviling the relations between the two countries,” the report added.

In the Lok Sabha, the Defence Minister, Y B Chavan commented on the broadcast of President Ayub Khan’s broadcast in Pakistan, “Words do not break bones. We do not get threatened by words.” President Ayub had threatened total war against India in his broadcast a few days earlier. Answering a question by Madhu Limaye (of the Samyukta Socialist Party), Chavan made it clear that while the Government did not want to interfere in operational matters and the Army had the final say in regard to them, a decision on policy matters had to be taken by the civil authorities.

Prime Minister Shastri, and India’s stance on peace and bilateral talks, was lauded by the Soviet Union through the tumultuous months of 1965. InfactThe Times of India (New Delhi edition, dated May 4, 1965) reported “Soviet leaders fully
sympathise with and appreciate the peaceful approach of the Prime Minister to the border problem. They remain firmly opposed to attempts at a military solution of border issues. There is a growing conviction in the Soviet Union that the Pakistani action was instigated by third parties…The Soviet leaders are convinced that neither the people of India nor the people of Pakistan want war.” So far, the daily reported, the Soviet attitude been one of neutrality between India and Pakistan.


Over the decades, the Indo-Pak discourse on border conflicts, and ensuing diplomatic negotiations, have maintained a certain degree of continuity, keeping room for tactical changes. The newly-opened Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya, at Teen
Murti Bhavan complex in New Delhi, presents fascinating exhibits on Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and the 1965 war. For foreign policy experts, and the millennial generation ina unipolar world, it is a walk through the corridors of
diplomacy.

Use of US military equipment: In the 1965 pre-war months, India did not spare any effort to convince the US foreign policy establishment that its military equipment to Pakistan was being used against India. Brig-General Tibbets and Col Williams of the US Military Aid Mission in New Delhi visited the forward areas on the Kutch-Sind border to check on India’s allegations. They were understood to have been convinced of the Indian charge that the Pakistanis were using American tanks, the media reported.

Undoubtedly Prime Minister Shastri acted with characteristic confidence and unassuming firmness; he was being true to his Gandhian legacies and never wanted to sound bellicose or belligerent in Parliament or outside of it. On the issue of peace, Shastri is best understood as a Gandhian, a firm believer in non- violence; but in foreign policy issues, he was a Nehruvian and a loyal Congressman.


In the long meetings between Prime Minister Shastri and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Moscow in the summer of 1965, the Indian Prime Minister made it clear, time and again, that Pakistani aggression (whether along the Kutch border or on the subject of Kashmir) was “a threat to non-alignment.” The Indian Prime Minister did not limit his dialogue with the Soviet leaders to merely the conflicting problems on the Indo-Pak border. He included Vietnam and disarmament in the talks. The big picture for Shastri was of ‘global peace’ and multilateral means to achieving peace for all humanity.

Focus on global peace: Prime Minister Shastri hosted a luncheon for the Soviet Premier at the Indian Embassy on May 13th, 1965 wherein Kosygin acknowledged that India and the Soviet Union had a common approach to many international problems and that both were in favour of peaceful solutions. Shastri went on to say that the combined will of the people of Russia and India constituted a powerful force for the promotion of world peace.

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Readers may note these were days when the US war on Vietnam was escalating. Not only were US warplanes carpet bombing and destroying life in the North Vietnamese countryside, the number of US paratroopers in Saigon was increasing
by the day. The forthright attitude demonstrated by Shastri and his government during the build-up to the Indo-Pak war of 1965 is worthy of praise. Global diplomatic parleys, in-depth coverage in the Indian media also exemplify the goodwill he enjoyed as the Prime Minister, equally shared by his senior Cabinet colleagues, Sardar Swaran Singh (as Foreign Minister) and Y B Chavan (as Defence Minister).

It was late night on September 4th, 1965 the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) called for an immediate cease-fire in Kashmir and urged India and Pakistan to respect the cease-fire line in the territory and “have all armed personnel of each party withdrawn to its own side” of the cease-fire line. India had formally demanded of the UNSC to condemn Pakistan as aggressor and instruct it to withdraw from all parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 11-nation council meeting’s emergency session on Kashmir, as reported by National Herald (Lucknow edition, dated September 6, 1965), the Indian delegate MrG Parthasarthi said: “The council must not allow itself once again to put out of
action by any excuses, by the deceitful conduct of Pakistan. It is the duty of the council to bring Pakistan to her senses…the India-Pakistan question as it was euphemistically called, had been on the council’s agenda for seventeen years without a satisfactory solution. The council refuses to face the simple fact of aggression by Pakistan.” (The UNSC archives refers to the Resolution 209 of September 4, 1965 as a precursor to the Resolutions 210, 211 and 214.)

On the front pages of Indian media, the Indo-Pak war did not cast its ominous cloud on September 5th, commemorated as Teachers’ Day in the honour of President Dr S Radhakrishnan’s birthday. The eminent philosopher-statesman assured the teachers, in his message, that “we will win in the end”. He expressed his faith in the United Nations, and its Secretary-General U Thant, whose report made it clear that the present trouble in Kashmir was due to the massive infiltration of intruders by Pakistan. India, the report stated, did not cause this trouble but was only replying to a situation that had been brought about by Pakistan.

Fifty-seven years after the war, it pays to be read through the resolutions and reports, speeches and declarations to realize the magnitude of change and continuity in the diplomatic and military discourse.

In the lead story, carrying the byline of senior journalist S Viswam (in The Times of India, New Delhi edition, dated May 13 th 1965), a snippet details: “Mr Shastri began the second day of his visit to Moscow by paying homage to Lenin in the historic Red Square. Driving through the famous Spas Gate of the Kremlin, Mr Shastri stood for a minute outside the granite mausoleum to look at the Red Square. A wreath of Russian tulips, carnations and lilacs were placed against the mausoleum wall in his name with the legend: ‘To the eternal memory of the great V.I. Lenin, true friend of India from the Prime Minister of India’.”

The author is a researcher-writer specializing in history and heritage issues, a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya.

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