Govt sacks Navy chief, wife says it’s communal

NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Ground Zero on a cold afternoon was over the eastern end of South Block as the Government dismissed Chief of Naval Sta...

NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Ground Zero on a cold afternoon was over the eastern end of South Block as the Government dismissed Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. In attempting to be impartial, Defence Secretary Ajit Kumar was transferred out of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The sacking of the Navy chief, the first since Independence, has brought the curtain down, at least for now, on what has also been an unprecedented spat between Naval Headquarters and the Defence Ministry.

For the first time, the country is now going to have two new chiefs on the last day of the year as Air Marshal Tipnis takes over the Air Force. With this development, Admiral Bhagwat would have the shortest tenure as Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, taking over from the retiring Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen only on December 28. Gen VP Malik, the Army Chief, will now take over as the Chairman, but sans the traditional handing over of the baton.

The new head of the Navy is Admiral Sushil Kumar, till recently the chief of thetraining Southern Command. And in a swap, the new Defence Secretary is to T R Prasad, currently Secretary, Industrial Development and Promotion.

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In a statement issued this evening, the MoD declared that “adequate, careful and serious consideration was given to the matter at the highest levels of Government. It had been noted that, for some time, the officer (Admiral Bhagwat) has been taking a series of actions in deliberate defiance of the established system of Cabinet control over the Defence forces.”

The statement went on to say: “There is a need to preserve a balance between the interests of national security and the right of the people of this country to be informed of the compulsions which have led to Government to take such a decision… It also needs to be emphasised that in our democratic country, it is the Central Cabinet which has the responsibility of ensuring that our Armed Forces function effectively, objectively and with their traditional neutrality, within the democratic set up.”

Itis not known, however, if any decision has been taken on Vice Admiral Harinder Singh, the officer over whose appointment the simmering crisis erupted into a storm. Despite making communal allegations against his senior officers, and taping telephone conversations with them, there has yet not been any action taken. As the Fortress Commander, Andamans, he is now, ironically, playing host to the Prime Minister on holiday there.

What led to all this

The rift between Admiral Bhagwat and the MoD dates back to the beginning of the year when new appointments were being made in the Navy.

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Vice Admiral Harinder Singh in Port Blair put in a request to be posted to Naval Hqs in Delhi; Navy Chief recommended Vice Admiral Madanjit Singh to be Deputy Chief. MoD did not agree and asked him to reconsider. He stuck to his recommendation.

Naval Hqs expressed displeasure with Vice Adm Harinder for making the President fly in a helicopter with a crew, both ineligible to ferry VVIPs. No action on this yet.n Vice Adm Harinder put up a redressal of grievance peppered with communal allegations against Bhagwat’s wife. Naval Hqs slapped him with a show-cause.

Vice Adm Harinder went to Calcutta High Court which said appointments are the purview of competent authorities but agreed that the show-cause should be handled only by MoD.

Bhagwat slapped a case on the MoD bureaucracy for colluding with Vice Adm Harinder, which the court threw aside.

MoD sent a note to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet sponsoring the name of Vice Adm Harinder as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff — Operations, which was approved by the Government on December 9. Adm Bhagwat refused to implement the order, thus sealing his own fate.

What They Feel

Former chief of Naval Staff Admiral J G Nadkarni: It’s a sad thing but this was the only solution because the government’s authority has to be upheld at all cost. However high a person is in the armed forces, he must learn to obey the orders of hissuperiors.

Lt Gen. V K Madhok (retd): Just because a chief holds a certain view regarding promotion and transfer, it’s absolutely unjustified to sack him. Now senior officers will not be obeyed. And then is the Supreme Court and the MoD going to command the armed forces? The person who should be sacked is Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Gen. V N Sharma, former Chief of Army Staff: This knee-jerk decision is not the right way to handle such high-level appointments… the government should have settled the matter in a more amicable and mature manner.

Lt Gen. A S Kalkat, former Army Commander: A sad development for the armed services and the nation as a whole. Perhaps the government wanted to drive home the message that political authority is supreme.

Lt Gen. Satish Nambiar, former Commander of the UN Peacekeeping force in Yugoslavia: It’s sad but now that the government has taken a tough decision, it should follow this with measures to rectify the whole system which led tothis.

Congress spokesperson Girija Vyas: It is unfortunate but no comment.

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