A story about the army chief Sam Manekshaw is told often in India. In April 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the army to move into East Pakistan. Manekshaw told her the army was not ready and offered to resign. The war came in December 1971.
Some writers doubt the story. Jairam Ramesh notes that there is “no documentary evidence to support this claim.” The diplomat and scholar Chandrashekhar Dasgupta has argued that the Prime Minister had no intention of going to war in April.