The digitisation of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s archives has enabled researchers to easily access correspondence related to the defence services and crucial national security events.

Two such documents pertain to a scathing semi-showcause letter with the subject ‘allegations’, written by the officiating Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen PN Thapar, to Lt Gen S P P Thorat, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Central Command, on April 23, 1961, and the reply of Thorat on the very next day. While these have been referred to by historians in the past, it is worthwhile to revisit them in detail in light of the archives having been digitised.

The inquisition against Thorat was launched at the fag end of his career, when he was about to retire in about two weeks, and it smacked of the int

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