Snippets of Maj Gen RZ Kabraji, AVSM

As is well known, he was a keen Ham. Another keen ham was Gen Umrao Singh,(US VU2) known as Uncle Sam. He was my wife's late uncle. According to him- I was then posted in Mhow in 1971/72- the worst signal was put out by the Signal School, and the only Ham in Signals was KAB.

When he was a brigade commander, his sparrow was RK Chopra. He was doing SODE 20 when I was doing SODE 22. He lived opposite me in CME. I often saw Gen Kabraji visiting Chopra on Sundays. Chopra, of course, was a legendary character who rarely wore shoes to class - he was usually in Chappals. He told me the story about the line that was constructed by him when he was in Kabraji's brigade. I have written about it in Sam Manekshaw's biography in my book LEADERSHIP IN THE IiNDIAN ARMY - BIOGRAPHIES OF TWELEVE SOLDIERS. It is reproduced below.

In December 1963, Sam was appointed GOC-in-C Western Command. He remained there for only a year, before moving to Eastern Command as Army Commander in November 1964. During one of his visits to Mizo hills, he found that the communications were very bad. When he asked the reason, he was told that the Post and Telegraph Department had been asked to provide the telephone line, but it was likely to take at least 4-5 years since the distance was over 200 Kms. " That is too much, " said Sam. " Can't we do it ourselves ?" He was told that according to the Telegraph Act, only the Post and Telegraph Department could own telephone and telegraph lines and the Army had to hire it from them. This conversation was taking place over a glass of beer in the brigade officers mess. Brigadier R.Z. Kabraji was the brigade commander. He called his Signals officer and Sam asked him how long it would take to lay the line.
"Two months," replied the officer, "provided I have the stores."
"Where can we get the stores?" asked Sam.
"The P&T has a big dump at Silchar," replied the officer.
"Then go and get it," said Sam. "But don't get caught."
Sam had said this as a joke, but the Signals Officer, who was young, immature and impetuous, took it seriously. He took a fleet of lorries to Silchar and went straight to the P&T Department stores. When the official in charge protested, he brought him along with the stores and released him only after a week. The P&T Department raised a hue and cry and reported the 'theft' and kidnapping of their officer to the Ministry. Soon the matter reached Army HQ. The COAS ordered disciplinary action to be taken against the officer, as well as the brigade commander. By now the line was almost complete and the Army Commander was informed of the case. Though Sam had forgotten about the incident, he immediately wrote to the Chief assuming full responsibility for the officer's actions, saying that he had acted on his specific orders.

Maj Gen VK Singh (Retd)