Having had a quick look at the FULL dossier myself, I have penned a few words regarding it towards the end of a second blog I just uploaded on menon.
Menon was never without failings, he has however left a legacy that we can savour..I hope we can leave it at that and focus on todays politican's and their deeds & misdeeds.
Being an undoubted leftist, V.K.Krishna Menon distorted India's neutral foreign policy at all international forums. He misguided Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on China, causing a humiliating military defeat for us by that country, which eventually resulted in the death of Nehru.
Rude, arrogant and sarcastic, Menon was foisted on Bombay City by Nehru, election year after election year. But he was overwhelmingly defeated when Nehru's support was no longer available. Utter dislike for him as an outsider by Bombayites eventually led to the birth of the Shiv Sena.
Menon's tenure at London was notorious for the "jeep" scandal. His marathon speech on Kashmir at the U.N was a boring waste, as it did little or nothing for appreciation of India's position. Writing a forward to Nehru's book also brought Menon no prestige, as Nehru was well known for supporting many a crooked person. It is no secret that Nehru had to face the resignation of his whole cabinet which demanded the dismissal of Menon.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhai Patel were highly suspicious of Menon, whilst Maulana Azad considered Menon to be dishonest and untrustworthy. Menon was definetely without parallel in his unpopularity, abroad as well as in his own country.
Apart from understanable blind admiration by some people from his State, and exaltation by leftists, the Congress party also praises Menon as it lacks the courage to admit that it was mistaken in backing an individual who was a total tragedy for India.
So, the British Security Service opinion of Menon is not at all surprising!
I beleive we should not attach much importance to the MI5 report. like someone is saying, 'the snake is assesing the scorpion'. we should analyse menon from our perspective. the fact is he was the cause of our humiliation with china. it assumes all the more significance, because, the chinese army was very weak. and, if india would have crushed them at that time, then history would have changed on its head. communism would have been thrown away in china within 10-20years, and china would have never attained such demonic proportions as it has today. by handing china its 1st major victory, we made them powerfull and confident. and today china is bleeding us thro pakistan since last 20 years. likewise nehru. if menon failed the nation with regards to china, nehru failed the nation as regards china as well as POK. all good work has no meaning in the face of such monumental blunders, which has cost the nation, and is costing the nation innumerable lives, by the day, and money in billions, which could have been spent in more vital issues. the fact is, without the headache of both pakistan, and china, and now, bangladesh, india would have been a 'developed country' atleast, around 20 years back.
MI5's analysis of krishna menon must be seen in the background of the cold war and McCarthyism where anything remotely communist was completely looked down upon in the west.
The west did not like menon and nehru for that reason and all their opinions in general are coloured by these assumptions. Menon also was probably the wrong man for the job of defense minister for he did not understand the importance of having a strong defense, just like nehru. The (and I think the whole of india in general) learnt their lesson in the 1962 war.
But he has some very creiditable contributions to our freedom struggle, and he is definitely not dishonest. That is just MI5 paranoia.
I am dismayed by some of the reactions given by people here and elsewhere on the MI5 releases.
Let me say something in menon's defense.
the Times of india article claims to have seen the files, but quotes mainly bits from the MI5 website release, just like the rediff report does here.
1. Menon did use Luminal, presumably for arthritis which he suffered from all his life. Stating it recreational use is malicious.
2. The mi5 did try & get an agent Joan miller to befriend menon and stay on in the british HC as secrtary, she failed.
3. the jeep scandal has been blown out of proportion - if u really want to know what happened, check out my blogsite next week. I have one article already on krishna menon there. http://maddy06.blogspot.com/2006/11/vk-krishna-menon-1896-1974-undiplomatic.html. The next one is going to cover the indo china war & the jeep scandal.
4. Acc to times of Inidia - the reason why Menon was spied upon was - Within five years of Indian independence, Britain also suspected and hated Krishna Menon for masterminding an attempt "to publicise the African cause for independence", thereby bringing about the complete collapse of arguably the greatest empire the world has ever seen, according to the remarkable revelations - So decide if the perpetuator or menon is right before you judge him.
5. Talking of how intelligence is 'bent'you know by now what happened in the iraq war...pity that we choose to believe MI5 reports, but not the records we ourselves have on Menon and his work for India.
Dont heap abuse callously on a man you don't even know. Try to understand his selfless work for the nation, an Independent & prosperous India that you and me are now proud of.
Thanks to VK, Nehru and "Gen" Kaul, the Indian army faced its most humiliating defeat in the 1962 war. Thanks to Menon, the defence factories were busy producing espresso coffee machines. The jawans did not have even the rudimentary winter clothing, and brigades of the Indian army were killed by the weather and the Chinese. Added to this was the perfidy of the erstwhile USSR -- when asked for help,they shunned us, telling that their brother (Chinese) were dearer their friends (India).Gulping pride, India had to request the U.S for arms. Menon was not only a cheat but a hypocrite as well. Jay Ravi Toronto, Canada
RE:Krishna Menon
by CG NAIR on Mar 04, 2007 09:38 PM
To the best of my knowledge it was the then Finance Minister Mr. T.T. Krishnamachary who made the defence factories produce household applicances to the detrement of the Country. Though Mr. VKK is also not an angel, the insuniations of British Inteligence Agency is far fetched.
RE:RE:Krishna Menon
by on Mar 04, 2007 10:57 PM
I think the finance minister during Menon's days was Morarji desai, am i right? i read that he routinely shot down every request from menon for funds.
RE:Krishna Menon
by Amit Kumar Sharma on Mar 05, 2007 02:13 AM
We WON the war as far as I know, but it is still wise to declare ourself as a victim og agression.If you are interested in reading more about 1962 please read(Neville Maxwell's research) .Link is here--http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard/uploads/1962war.htm
Besides the label desciption of MI5 which we can hardly take at face value is there any thing specific in these files that point out instances of dishonest or immoral behaviour by VK Menon. And why should this be relevant , I am sure the British Intelligence's interests' are not greatly aligned with the Indian Forieign Office even today.. can we expect a snake to call a mongoose "fair".
RE:VK Menon
by on Mar 04, 2007 10:48 PM
absolutely, my friend...and it is malicious to leave that 'tunnard' relationship hanging at the end..in the Mi5 release, and in all press reports. none of them even know who tunnard is. FYI Tunnard worked with Krishna Menonm at the Indian League London.
RE:British security service reviled V K Krishna Menon
by on Mar 04, 2007 10:54 PM
To answer your question, he was one of the greatest thorns in the British flesh. If you read your history books carefully you will find out that he (menon) was a huge reason for India's independence. He obtained supported within UK to grant India independence, by working within the labour party. Also despite what Indian Military HQ will say, he was the one who established almost every factory that today make armaments & equipment for the indian armed forces. It was unfortunate that the finance ministry never provided him funds when he was defense minister. That is one of the main reasons why we were underprepared for the Chinese Skirmish!!
RE:RE:RE:British security service reviled V K Krishna Menon
by ullattil manmadhan on Mar 05, 2007 03:59 AM
Due to low perceived threat, the defence allocation was only about 1.8% of GNP between 1949 and 1956. From 56-58 it rose to 2.4% under menon, he was indeed trying to beef the army up, but it took time, i guess to set up all the backbone factories, on the other hand it tells you why we were under prepared. I think it is comparatively double these days.
RE:RE:RE:British security service reviled V K Krishna Menon
by ullattil manmadhan on Mar 05, 2007 03:27 AM
I am probably naive in cabinet matters. however from my research, this is what i read at this site & others (incl books on menon). http://sinoindianwar.50megs.com/
The already grave situation was made worse by a personal feud between the then Finance Minister Morarji Desai and the Defense Minister Krishna Menon. This had resulted in an obstructive finance ministry that did not allow the release of essential foreign exchange to buy what little equipment that had been sanctioned. Consequently, the Army's equipment was allowed to become obsolete. Desai claimed that supplies were deliberately withheld from Indian troops in the affected areas. There was considerable unhappiness about this in the Army, both at this and against Menon in general. Because of the playing off of different sections of the military as a result of political manovering and infighting, along with the supply crisis, morale was very low. Menon went to Ladakh personally in 1960 to appease dissent
Please dont shed any tears for this gentleman, because, he is a major chapter from india's humiliating past. It was he who gave air to the phrase 'hindi chinni bhai bhai', due to which the indian army was caught napping, and were over run by the very inferior chinese army. nehru, who again is another such dark chapter from our past, beleived him blindly, and increased his arrogance, when the chinese wanted to talk 1st before going to war. already a very arrogant person by nature, nehru, virtually insulted the chinese proposal depending on menon's reports that chinese didnt have the guts to do anything, and that he was in regular touch with his chinese freinds. the chinese were more incensed with nehru's attitude which was based on menon's advise, and, went to war with india with a vengeance, just to teach nehru a lesson. and, today we have to deal with a permanent chinese threat because of these 2 people.
RE:Krishna Menon
by john kannattu on Mar 04, 2007 04:41 PM
This is quite unfair. India even without Menon would have gone on war with China. That is our attitude. We have problems with all our neighbours. Menon or any person dont have antyhing to do with that. The atttitude of those sitting in the Delhi Durbar is colonial. That is the main problem that we are not even able to solve even internal problems instead keep on blaming ISI. So please do not blame a distingiuished person.
RE:RE:Krishna Menon
by Paula Joseph on Mar 04, 2007 07:18 PM
We went to war with China??? Wow, new historical discovery. It proves that your attitude is worse. You communist dodgy rascals, spoiled this country.
RE:RE:RE:Krishna Menon
by Amit Kumar Sharma on Mar 05, 2007 02:18 AM
Yes ,We went to war with China and we WON the war as far as I know, but it is still wise to declare ourself as a victim of agression.If you are interested in reading more about 1962 please read(Neville Maxwell's research) .Link is here--http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard/uploads/1962war.htm
RE:RE:RE:Krishna Menon
by Supratik Chaudhuri on Mar 04, 2007 09:11 PM
There are several books and articles that can be found regarding the India-China war including declassified documents of the militaries of other countries.
As I recall, while India did not "go to war" with China, it is generally agreed by neutral observers that India did break the status quo of the McMahon line and went ahead building outposts on the other side (NEFA and other regions). China did protest regarding those and when nothing happened they sent their troops in large numbers.
Again, these are the opinions as stated by several third country documents/authors.
If you are interested more, please read Brig. JP Dalvi's Himalayan Blunder and Neville Maxwell's India-China War. I have also read Lt. Gen. BM 'Biji' Kaul's autobiography. I also recall reading some portions of declassified documents from American and other military archives on the web.
Whatever be the truth the fact remains that we were caught with our pants down.
All said and done, perspectives always distort history, while Indians view China as the aggressor, Chinese view Indians as the instigators.
Interestingly enough the Henderson-Brooks Report on why we lost the war has never beeen declassified by the India military and the government. Considering that there could be so much of information in that report, I wonder why!
While writing this piece I did a simple google search and came across this interesting piece: http://www.stratmag.com/issue2Dec-1/kargil.htm
My only comment to other readers is that there is no nation in the world that is perfect, that also does not mean that you have to stop being proud of your country if it makes mistakes. For example, an American will not stop loving his/her country just because Dubya is leading them down the disaster path.
