Kunhiraman Palat Candeth Kunhiraman Palat Candeth ( 23 October 1916 – 19 May 2003 ) was a Major General in the Indian army when he led the operation to annex Goa from the Portuguese colonial rule and served briefly as the Lieutenant Governor of the state . Subsequently , he rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army . He was the Deputy Chief of Army Staff at the time of the 1965 war and commanded the Western Army during the Indo - Pakistani War of 1971 . Early life . He was born in Ottapalam , Madras Presidency ( now Kerala ) in British India ( now India ) to MA Candeth , being the grandson of the renowned barrister and writer Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar . His maternal grandfather was Sir C . Sankaran Nair , who was the President of the Indian National Congress . He was very proud of his Nayanar ancestry . " I am a Nair from Kerala . I am a Kshatriya " , he had told this reporter at the time of the interview during the Indo - Pakistani War of 1971 . 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 . Military career . Pre - independence . Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1936 , Candeth saw action in West Asia during the Second World War . And , shortly before India ' s independence from colonial rule , he was deployed in the North West Frontier Province , bordering Afghanistan , to quell local tribes . The mountainous terrain gave Candeth the experience for his later operations against Nagaland separatists in the North East . He attended the Military Services Staff College at Quetta , capital of Baluchistan in 1945 . Kashmir 1947 . After Independence , Candeth was commanding an artillery regiment that was deployed to Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistan - backed tribesmen attacked and captured a third of the province before being forced back by the Indian Army . Thereafter , Candeth held a series of senior appointments , including that of Director General of Artillery at Army Headquarters in Delhi Goa . Following Indian independence from British rule , certain parts of India were still under foreign rule . While the French left India in 1954 , the Portuguese , however , refused to leave . After complex diplomatic pressure and negotiations had failed , finally on December 18 , 1961 the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru ' s patience ran out and he sanctioned military action . Kunhiraman Candeth earned his name in Operation Vijay — the Liberation of Goa , Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule . As 17 Infantry Division commander , Candeth took the colony within a day and was immediately appointed Goa ' s first Indian administrator ( acting as the Military Governor ) , a post he held till 1963 . North East . After relinquishing charge as Goa ' s Military Governor in 1963 , Candeth took command of the newly raised 8 Mountain Division in the North - East , where he battled , although with little success , the highly organised Naga insurgents . The insurgency in Nagaland and the North East has not been quelled completely to this day . Indo - Pakistani War of 1971 . 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 . Awards . Lt . General Kunhiraman Palat Candeth was awarded the PVSM 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 .