This year’s Naval Commander's Conference comes at a time when
the Indian Navy is seeing a low. Many things have gone wrong. INS
Trishul collided with a merchant ship a few months ago off Mumbai
and a naval ship's weapon system gets a terrible jolt in alignments,
by a hit taken in the midhsips and the Krivack was the Navy's pride.
Then came the much publicised War Room Leak episode followed
by the expose of the Scorpene deal, and a former CNS went to the
Supreme Court with a PIL to torpedo the deal. Some higher ranking
Admirals wrangled with each other. Some officers, even a Vice
Admiral suffered due to the war room leak case, which the CBI now
claims is deeper with honey pots thrown in. A petty issue is being
blown up out of proportion and we are intrigued and fail to see the
Navy connection in the Scorpene deal, as arms dealers get involved.
The CBI has never taken less than a few years to solve any case, so
this one too will be a long drawn out drama with warrants, witnesses
and travel by CBI officials all over the world no doubt and will
hound many in the Navy. The HDW deal saw so many hounded in the
Navy, though the people who took the commission were never tracked
down. It was like the Tehelkha expose, where armed forces officers
were dismissed and the bureaucrats and politicians went Scot free!
As if all this was not enough for the Navy's woes, came news
of the sinking of missile corvette INS Prahar off Goa on the night
of 24 May, luckily with no loss of life and there were no liquid
fuelled P 20 missiles loaded in the tubes which apparently got
knotted into MV Rajiv Gandhi. It has taken the Defence Minister
Pranab Mukherjee at the Commanders Conference to ask the Navy to
look inwards and the press release is posted below.
We are constrained to say that it is mainly poor HRD which is
to blame –– the Indian Navy is still one of the finest services in
the world but HRD has been neglected since the late 80s, and if not
looked into could sink its massive plans. A service runs on morale.
First the Supply branch was disbanded –– to improve some
senior officers’ promotion prospects and the poor substitutes
who fill in fail to read and follow the rules given in Regs Navy,
Navy Act and the plethora of Navy Instructions and Orders. Senior
Chief Petty Officers of the writer branch did that for a while but
they too have lost the art, as the good ones leave early for more
lucrative civil jobs. This needs correction perhaps by an in depth
study and we have ideas if approached.
The JAG branch has also become a tool in the hands of the
senior officers and even Art 310 of the Constitution is being used
without adequate thought or study about what it is actually meant
for. Therefore the Court is now seized with two cases against the
Navy in the War Room leak case and CNS has said a Tribunal will be
established. A common code of rules for the three services collects
dust in South Block. This is a sad commentary as even the rules for
conduct of Boards of Enquiry are disparate in the three services. In
fact with no threat of war many say the Armed Forces can run in auto
and so the Leadership has to attend to HRD and good housekeeping and
go on tours. Pilots too are fleeing the IAF and will do so in the
Navy too as opportunities are vast outside. If technical officers
leave the Navy in numbers a big void will have to be filled with
replacements and it can be done with HRD plans.
Historically the Navy flouted rules from the late 80s when a
CNS decided to make a template for the future of all senior officers
of the Navy and Vice Admiral Sukmal 'Tony' Jain was asked to wait to
become CNS and many say he agreed. Admiral JG Nadkarni VCNS was
given an extension by Rajiv Gandhi as recommended by CNS Tahiliani
just before retirement to enable him to become CNS. That opened up
the chances for also ran term mate Admiral L Ramdas and the Navy saw
the anointing of Ramdas as CNS after a bitter fight, and later the
Vishnu Bhagwat episode of a 400 page writ in court against many
other contenders.
The Navy was then too at a low but appeared to bounce back.
Admiral Jain of the First Course of NDA/JSW had to retire, and the
episode left its legacy when Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked in
December 1998, again by use of the draconian Art 310. The Navy
should have learnt to play by the rules and attended to HRD and
house keeping but it seems it failed as it was riding a high.
Recently the High Court promoted a Commodore to Rear Admiral as
rules for promotion were blatantly violated. In
India the court
protects rules and now the case is in the Supreme Court.
The Navy has not learnt from the IAF's Air Marshal Masand
case, when Chief ACM S Kishnaswamy arbitrarily adopted a 20% up or
down grading of points in confidential reports. Even a novice HRD
man would have said it was unfair and untenable but senior IAF
officers knowing the power of a Chief did not raise a voice and
surprisingly MOD acquiesced –– ultimately the IAF had to back down.
In any case a service (system) is always stronger than the
people in it who are not worthy and a few bad eggs will always
exist. The Navy today has a fine band of senior officers with rich
experience, who if they can "pull together" (a naval term derived
from boat pulling), the storm can be easily weathered. HRD means
Human Resource Development not just vying for promotion and perks of
office. The Navy must be helped to overcome this little low.
PRESS RELEASE
The Defence Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee expressed grave
concern at the number of accidents taking place at sea and in the
air during the past few months, some of them involving loss of life.
Inaugurating the three-day Conference of Naval Commanders here
today, he urged the top brass to deliberate on a strategy to ensure
that such incidents are prevented and there is a sense of
accountability and responsibility fixed at higher levels to contain
these incidents. “I am deeply concerned at the sinking of INS Prahar
in Arabian
Sea near Goa. Appropriate measures should be undertaken forthwith to
ensure that the stipulated Standard Operating Procedures are
followed by the personnel involved in the operations of ships.
Deviations shall be treated seriously and appropriate punishment
should be awarded to the erring personnel”, Shri Mukherjee said. The
minister also noted with concern the incident of leakage of
classified information that took place in the Naval War Room. “The
leaked out information has the potential to put the national
security at peril. Serious efforts should be undertaken so that such
incidents are not repeated in future. A zero defect system has to be
devised to ensure secrecy and security of sensitive defence
information. Related to this is the need for counter espionage
measures and sensitization campaign among the lower formations. The
Naval Commanders need to sensitise the personnel under their command
to plug all possible loopholes in this regard”, he said.
Mr Mukherjee also brought out that over the years his
Ministry has been emphasizing transparency, the need for enhancing
probity and integrity in defence acquisitions. Touching upon the
emerging global security scenario, he stated that the world expects
India to
play a major role in the region, given the economic growth the
country has made in the last one and a half decades. “The transfer
of a patrol vessel to Seychelles last year and the recent handing
over of similar crafts to Maldives and Sri Lanka are steps in the
positive direction in inter-weaving of mutual security
requirements”, he said. The Minister appreciated Navy’s initiative
in conduct of bilateral exercises with friendly navies and the
multi-lateral exercises like 'Milan' and labelled them as important
moves to enhance inter-operability and build mutual confidence in
our region.
He lauded the commendable work being done by the Navy’s
hydrographers, whose skill and professional acumen have placed them
in great demand from the countries of Indian Ocean Region. “The
excellent work done by them in
Mauritius,
Seychelles and Maldives in the recent past have earned the country
much goodwill and also strengthened diplomatic relations”, he said.
Earlier addressing the conference, the Naval Chief Admiral
Arun Prakash emphasized a ‘shift in focus from autonomous, open sea
operations like sea control or blockade to a direct linkage with
land battle/littoral operations’. The concept, termed as the
'Operational Manoeuvre from the Sea', can favourably influence the
progress of land-air battle. Besides, two other doctrinal themes
that dominated his address were the concept of ‘Maritime Domain
Awareness’, that focuses on being fully aware of all entities that
are operating within our area of maritime interest and ‘Network
Centric Operations’, which would enable sharing of this information
within the force, in real time. The three concepts, when applied in
unison, would empower the naval forces to achieve spatial and
temporal dominance over the adversary in any conflict, whether
between nation states or otherwise. Referring to last the
Commander’s conference when he had talked about augmenting Navy’s
heavy sealift capability, the Admiral stated that amphibious ship
Trenton
would be inducted into the Navy by this time next year.
Charting a course for the Navy of the future, revaluation of
threats and focus on certain vital warfare areas are some of the
other important issues that would be deliberated upon over the next
three days. The Chief of the Air Staff and the Chief of the Army
Staff would also address and interact with the Naval Commanders on
03 and 04 May respectively.
The conference is the highest decision making body of the
Navy that deliberates upon major operational issues with regard to
the defence of maritime interests, operational planning, coastal
security, defence of national assets at sea, naval strategy and
review of weapons and platforms towards achievement operational
plans.
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