Unassuming,yet a visionary

But Stan Dawson,the dark horse at the time,was alleged to have been handpicked to steer the Indian Navy by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,who had spent a few days at sea with the Southern Naval Command in late1981 and was reportedly very impressed by the perspicacity and vision of the unassuming and stocky Admiral. In the 33 months that he was at the helm of the Navy,Admiral Dawson,better known as Stan,proved that he was indeed the wielder of a very discerning telescope.

The Navy remains the Cinderella service in the Indian military matrix and receives the smallest slice of the defence pie in comparison to the Army and the Air Force. Yet it is the only service that is truly trans-border and hence strategic in the national quiver. And if today the profile of the Indian Navy is what it is,much of the credit belongs to Stan who consolidated and built on what he had inherited from his predecessors.

The new naval establishment in Karwar,Karnataka — INS Kadamba,earlier known as Project Seabird — was Stan’s baby and he not only envisaged the need for the Navy to have an alternative base to Bombay but was also able to work the maze of the government to ensure funding support for what seemed like a pipe-dream.

Admiral Dawson was enabled to a great extent by then Defence Minister R Venkataraman. The other major project that was nurtured on the Stan watch was the setting up of a dedicated naval academy at Ezhimala.

Indian military chiefs have an onerous task in being at the apex of both staff and operational responsibilities — one long-term and strategic; the other immediate and tactical. On occasion they wear a joint hat as chairman of the COSC. Concurrently they are in the invidious position of being outside the policy loop of higher defence management,which has become the sole prerogative of the Indian politico-bureaucratic dyad. Maintaining both balance and equipoise amidst complex turf battles and institutionally ingrained domain protection can be lonely and arduous at the best of times. To his credit,Admiral Dawson maintained a fine line and his operational competence and long-term vision in the furtherance of the service interest was acknowledged in the Navy. As Director,Naval Operations,during the 1971 operations,Stan provided the appropriate support to his chief — one of the less noted feathers in his multi-splendoured cap.

As Admiral Arun Prakash,one of his successors as Chief of Naval Staff (2004-06) recalls: “A master of the ‘professional ambush’,cunningly laid to entrap the unwary or overconfident nautical poseur,Stan was feared and admired – in equal measure – by a service which found it difficult to reconcile his deep conservatism on matters of profession and of naval tradition,with flashes of out-of-the-box thinking that he was wont to display.”

Karnataka has come onto the nation’s maritime map thanks to Admiral Dawson — a man of many parts: seasoned naval professional,gifted piano player,ardent churchgoer,personal quirks and a loyal friend. India has little respect or recall of its military leaders — Sam Manekshaw being a case in point. Though uncharacteristic,it would be befitting if Karwar commemorates the memory of its most illustrious sailor in a modest but dignified manner.

The writer was formerly director,Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses