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Ashali Varma's memoir is a moving tribute to her parents, Prem and Mohini Bhagat. It is introduced to the reader as a narrative of courage and love. Well, the love story works at many different levels. Lt Prem Bhagat was the first Indian officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in World War II. His Commanding Officer described his action of clearing 55 miles of a mined road in 96 hours as "the longest continued feat ... of sheer cold courage." From the battlefield (North Africa, 1940-41), Prem would write letters to his beloved Mohini: "I have been congratulated for being blown up twice... Though, personally it does not make any sense to me. After all there were some people killed, and I was the lucky one to escape."
Though Lt-Gen Bhagat was considered the natural choice for the post of the Army Chief, he was superseded. "Rumour has it that Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram and some senior bureaucrats had convinced Mrs Gandhi that Prem was too well regarded in the Army and would not be a politician's General." He became Chairman of the Damodar Valley Corporation, wherein he turned around a moribund organisation in months. Ironically, the soldier who survived landmines and a car crash, died of medical malpractice when a sore throat and fever saw him admitted in a hospital. The author weaves the story around her mother's memories of life with Prem. Despite having been struck down by painful terminal cancer, Mohini’s desire to have her husband's legend live on and her fortitude through her illness give a new dimension to the words courage and love.
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Memoir that transcends personal history
Interestingly, Prem is
said to have remarked that his greatest feat was to have obtained
permission from Mohini's father to marry her. The book describes the
lives of Mohini and Prem together; first, as they faced the tragedy of
India's Partition and then his career as an up-and-coming soldier in
independent India. It touches upon the Bangladesh War, building of the
world's highest motorable road in Ladakh, and also a Hindu-Muslim riot
in Calcutta. It talks about the India-China war —Prem was devastated
by what the brave Indian soldiers were reduced to and unnecessary
casualties. The Henderson Brooks/Bhagat report is understood to be a
scathing indictment of the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and
his then Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon, for a poorly strategised
"forward policy" towards Tibet and interference in the
Indian Army's operational affairs. The report, till date, is a closely
guarded secret. In his book Wielding of Authority in Emerging
Countries, Prem describes the problems of authority in India. As
Ashali puts it, he himself defied red tape whenever it came in the way
of getting things done, especially if it meant delays in the welfare
of his men. It is frightening that the bureaucratic problems Prem
writes about in 1974 are even more acute today. 