Let's salute to our Indian Army together, We are proud to be Indian.
Let's salute to our Indian Army together, We are proud to be Indian.
Lieutenant General Kunhiraman Palat Candeth (23 October 1916 – 19 May 2003) was a Three Star General in the Indian army. In 1961, the then Major General Candeth led Operation Vijay to annexe Goa from the Portuguese colonial rule and served briefly as the Lieutenant Governor of the state. Subsequently, he rose to Deputy Chief of Army Staff at the time of the 1965 war and commanded the Western Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
He was born in Ottapalam, Madras Presidency (now Kerala) in British India (now India) to MA Candeth, being the grandson of the landlord and writer Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar. His maternal grandfather was Sir C. Sankaran Nair, who was the President of the Indian National Congress.He told a reporter during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that “I am a Nair from Kerala. I am a Kshatriya”.He had done his training at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College, Dehradun, where he was highly rated in the classroom and on the playing field. Candeth was commissioned in the British Indian Army on 30 August 1936 in 28 Field Brigade of the Royal Indian Artillery.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that led to East Pakistan breaking away to become Bangladesh, Candeth (at that stage a lieutenant-general), was the Western Army commander responsible for planning and overseeing operations in the strategically crucial regions of Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan where the fiercest fighting took place.
Lt. Gen. Kunhiraman Palat Candeth was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and also the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the 1990s and was appointed a member of the Party’s Executive Committee. He remained a bachelor till the end.
