Lieutenant General S.K. Sinha, who passed away on Thursday, will be long remembered for his sterling contribution as a soldier, scholar and statesman of rare vintage.
Considered one of the most outstanding generals of the Army, he was also among the last of the World War II veterans and had served in Burma and Indonesia in the last stages of the war.
Witness to India’s tumultuous history in 1947, he had a ringside seat of the Kashmir operations in October of that year as a young officer. An astute understanding of matters military and the interface with the political dynamic was one of his special attributes — and perhaps he paid a price for his pol-mil analysis, candour and professional competence.
Brought to Army Hq. in 1983 as the Vice-Chief, it was widely expected that he would succeed the Chief, General Krishna Rao, who was to lay down office in July-end. However, the Indira Gandhi government chose to appoint Lt. General A.S. Vaidya as the Chief — and one recalls the dignified exit made by Lt. Gen. Sinha who chose to resign in June 1983 — though he was due to retire only in early 1984.
Various reasons were advanced for this surprise choice, but the received wisdom was that Indira Gandhi did not want an officer of his profile as the Army Chief. Canards were spread about his hidden political leanings and Delhi’s whisper circuit murmured words like ‘coup’ — which one had heard personally in the corridors of South Block at the time.
However to his credit, Gen. Sinha chose to fade away with great dignity in the summer of 1983 to Patna — despite various pleas by the government asking him to withdraw his resignation. But the shabbiness of his departure was summed up in a remark he shared years later, when he wryly recalled that 40 years in the Army and being elevated to Vice-Chief did not qualify him for a cup of tea with the RM (R. Venkataraman) when he paid his farewell call on the Minister.
However his career as a statesman came to the fore when he was appointed Ambassador to Nepal in 1990 when that nation was going through a tectonic transition. Later appointed Governor of Assam (1997–2003) and then J&K (2003–08), he made a visible difference to both States.
Civil-military relations and its many distortions in India was a subject he wrote about extensively. The Modi government would benefit from the sagacious counsel that Srinivas Sinha recommended to the political apex during his lifetime — but alas, in vain. An upright soldier, he recognised the mendacity of the system — but refused to be part of it.
(The author is Director, Society for Policy Studies)
