Thackeray stalls Vikrant auction

MUMBAI, JUNE 12: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray intervened on Friday to stall the July 8 auction of the Navy's aircraft carrier Vikrant....

MUMBAI, JUNE 12: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray intervened on Friday to stall the July 8 auction of the Navy8217;s aircraft carrier Vikrant. According to sources, the Sena chief spoke to Defence Minister George Fernandes and requested him to defer the auction so that the warship could be converted into a museum and war memorial. The defence minister agreed to the request for more time.

Thackeray8217;s intervention follows a meeting he had with convenors of a social work organisation Rashtra Chetna, in the city on Wednesday, where he was apprised of the impending auction of the ship. Chief Minister Narayan Rane was also present at the meeting.

8220;Today the fate of Vikrant is just like those of our jawans who are discarded when the war is over,8221; said renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Nitu Mandke, convenor of the Rashtra Chetna, alluding to the warship8217;s role in ensuring the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani troops in Bangladesh, 28 years ago.

As reported by this newspaper, the decommissioned warship was to be sold asscrap by the Metal Scrap Trading Corporation MSTC following the failure of the Maharashtra Government to convert it into a Rs 76 crore floating museum, the first of its kind in Asia. Except an initial Rs 5 crore which the State Government was to have paid to refurbish the ageing ship8217;s hull in a dry-dock, the money was to have been entirely raised from private sector.Rashtra Chetna had successfully approached several companies to help with the project. 8220;We already have companies coming forward to contribute to the project, including for painting and refurbishing the ship,8221; Mandke said. 8220;But people have excuses for everything,8221; he said, referring to the opposition to converting the ship.

The brainchild of former chief minister Manohar Joshi, the project to preserve the ship fell out of favour with the State Government as soon as he relinquished office earlier this year. The new Chief Minister, Narayan Rane, apparently fearing an adverse electoral fallout of parking the ship in South Mumbai, quietlyshot down the proposal. 8220;The State Government does not have Rs 100 crore,8221; Rane told presspersons last month.

Senior naval officials said that the state government had never been asked to foot the entire project cost. The plan, from the very outset, had been for this to be an entirely private funded project with the Navy and State Government acting as facilitators, they said. This was also formalised by a meeting of industrialists, State Government officials and naval brass on board the ship last year.

8220;In return for a small sum from the sale of the ship as scrap, we are losing an opportunity to tell our future generations about the greatness of our national heritage,8221; Mandke said referring to the USS Lexington, a historic aircraft carrier that fought for the US Navy in the Second World War and has been preserved as a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. The ship is on the tourist map of the US and already generates a staggering 62 million dollars over Rs 2,700 crore annually.

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Even if the Vikrantcould 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.

Kiran Paigankar, co-convenor of the Chetna said that the organisation would devote two years towards setting up the museum, with zero remuneration. 8220;We want the government to immediately set up a trust dedicated to the Vikrant comprising representatives from our organisation, the State Government and the Navy.8221;

He said that his organisation had a project proposal to implement the project causing minimum harship to the local residents.