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New
Delhi, 19 July 2006
The fine Indian
Navy of today is getting a bad name because of a few bad eggs, who
did grave wrong by filching data from the War Room computers and
passing it on to their retired colleagues. The Navy is the guardian
of our vast coastline and the seas around us and we need to shore up
the leaking ship and it can be done easily.
It is well known
that there were those with ambitions in the Navy who leaked
selective inside information and this was not a new phenomenon. It
had happened before in the battle for the top job between Admirals
Ramdas and Jain, but in those days there were no mobile phones or
pen drives and other such technology to discover the past –– yet
today since the entire Navy is sought to be tarnished by the War
Room leak case, some damage control is called for.
The media is saying
it more juicily than is warranted and the CBI instead of getting on
with their job are indulging in press conferences and leaks to the
media. In every case whether it was HDW, Bofors, Airbus or oil
deals, the investigating agency always knows the truth about the
moneys that flow, but how seriously they try to go for the culprits
had always been a political decision –– so it seems was the case in
this War Room leak and its linking to the Scorpene deal –– where two
big arms agents seem to be going for each other. OUTLOOK magazine in
some form got the scent of it to start a ruckus. The Navy top brass
faulted in the beginning and the whole Navy is suffering a low now.
The Navy now almost admits it faulted by not courtmarshalling
the officers, like the Army did in the Tehelka case (in camera), but
let the culprits go home peacefully under article 311 of our
Constitution –– one of them is contesting that too –– and he may win
in Court if what one hears and reads is correct.
We hope the draconian Article 311 will be redefined and
refined in its usage and applicability by lawyers and constitutional
experts. A full book jointly written by a former Judge Advocate of
the Army and a former naval officer titled ‘Admiral Vishnu
Bhagwat –– Sacked or Sunk,’ devoted to this aspect does not
appear to have been studied for its ramifications. Defence Minister
George Fernandes used Art 311 cleverly to sack Admiral Vishnu
Bhagwat.
The navy case looks like it was a cover up and the
involvement of two retired officers was never followed up as they
were the front of an arms dealer and one had relations in high
position. The CBI now claim that 7000 pages of data from the War
Room computers was leaked –– for a big ship that is a big leak and
needs big damage control!
The Indian Navy was
built post Independence with the sweat and toil of many dedicated
officers but the Navy old timers never forgot what Admiral
Cunningham had said and now the Chinese Navy believes in that too ––
“It takes three years to build a ship and 100 to build a Navy”. The
officers who built Independent India’s Navy –– the Pereiras
Andersons, Fanderlindens, Hawses and Nanavatis, just to name a few
–– who all migrated to Australia and UK after retirement –– indulged
in one vital activity and that was to constantly train their juniors
and lead by example. They allowed their junior officers to run the
ships from the bridge even when the Admiral was on board, and that
is what the later Admirals who grew up had imbibed –– the inane sea
knowledge to run ships with a sixth sense, just like a good driver
of a car or truck.
Today sea time is
an eyewash just to collect a sea report, so Executive officers do
one year at sea in command or as second in command and technical
officers clock even less sea time. There is a shortage of junior
officers. The old generation taught the juniors what man management
was all about, by being firm and tough yet fair to their men in
ships and establishments and Supply Officers advised them on law and
punishment and how to deal with the bureaucrats and auditors. For
the sake of a few who wanted career progression the Indian Navy
removed a branch and there are no more Supply Officers and one
wonders who manages that function now?
Yet even today one
can boast and say the Indian Navy sailor is a cut above any other
Navy’s sailor and our technical branch Artificers have few to match
them in the world. Indian submariners are an amazing lot but accent
on aviation never allowed them to blossom as they should have. The
Aviation branch has had two Chiefs and more Admirals than the
Submarine branch, who steered their branch more for the aviation
cadre, as we emotional Indians are wont to and we should not be
surprised.
The Chinese
leadership had decided as an edict that in their Navy, only
submarine officers will be Chiefs for some time. They told us, ‘we
will look to aviation when we need to enter the Indian Ocean after
2015, but our submarine fleet will ensure
Taiwan
never gets help form the US aircraft carriers’. In fact they ask why
the Indian Navy got an aircraft carrier in 1959, ‘when you needed
submarines’, which Pakistan got before the Indian Navy. There are
lessons in this even today as money is limited.
India and its Navy
today must not forget these illustrious old timers who ran taut
ships and played rough games including hockey and beat the
Pakistanis in matches at the Jet exercises in Trincomalee and sipped
the spirit with gusto. They just need to emulate that spirit, reduce
the spit and polish, beauty parades and VIP days at sea and get on
with training. The war room leak will play itself out but India’s
seaward defence must not suffer because of a few.
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