Horizon too far, memorial too costly

June 25: Just yesterday, hope was floating; and so was the Vikrant. Today, all the tall promises of converting the great warship into a Rs...

June 25: Just yesterday, hope was floating; and so was the Vikrant. Today, all the tall promises of converting the great warship into a Rs 76 crore maritime museum-cum-war memorial seem like a dream as distant as her finest hour in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. A glorious moment in time when the blazing guns of INS Vikrant had destroyed three major ports of East Pakistan, ensuring the surrender of 90,000 Pakistani troops and helped in the creation of Bangladesh.

Now she is also set to sail to Bangladesh to meet its watery grave at a ship breaking yard; because the Indian government could not pool in enough money and resources to save the country’s pride, INS Vikrant.

The Indian Express had yesterday reported that the Directorate of Naval Procurement has asked the Metal Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) to invite tenders from ship-breakers in Bangladesh for the sale and disposal of the aircraft carrier.

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An angry Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today sharply reacted to the news and told Mumbai Newsline: “Last year the Sena-BJP alliance had stalled the auction by granting a cheque of over Rs 6 crore for the refitting and refurbishing of Vikrant. I want to ask the navy admirals as well as the current state government what have they done of the six crores.”

“We are a nation of fools if we don’t appreciate what Vikrant has done for us. Would we also discard our old mothers because they don’t serve any purpose now? I think it is not at all difficult to raise Rs 100 crore for the maritime museum, you only need political will,” said Thackeray.

A shocked Narayan Rane, former chief minister, did not have the right words to express his reaction to the scrapping of Vikrant. He, however, said he will be issuing a stinging letter to the state government in order to stop the ship’s auction.

In July last year, Rane in his capacity as CM had stood on the deck of Vikrant and announced to mediapersons the granting of a cheque of over Rs 6.10 crore to stall its imminent auction to a Haryana-based ship-breaking company. Thackeray, who was also present that day, was instrumental in saving the warship.

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“Today the fate of Vikrant is just like those of our jawans who are discarded when the war is over,” said a retired naval officer. He wondered why the ship is being sold to Bangladesh and not in India. “Something does not sound right about this Bangladesh deal. What if the buyer of Vikrant does not really break the ship there but further sails to the Karachi Harbour? Pakistan would then show Vikrant as a trophy, just as we display their captured army tanks,” he said.

The USS Lexington, a historic aircraft carrier that fought for the US Navy in the Second World War has been preserved as a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. The ship is on the tourist map of US and already generates a staggering 62 million dollars (over Rs 2,700 crore) annually. Even if the Vikrant could generate a fraction of this cost, it could pay back the estimated Rs 5 crore required for its annual maintenance and running of the ship.