Indian Navy Chief and human rights activist Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas passed away on Friday at the age of 90. In the Indian Navy for several decades, the admiral was an important figure in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war. During the 1971 war, in which the Indian Navy played a crucial role, Admiral Ramdas was then the commander of INS Beas, a modern gunnery ship of its time. During this time, INS Beas, under Ramdas, played a crucial role in the blockade of East Pakistan. The ship was at the Andamans when the war broke out on December 3, and on December 4, then Captain Ramdas ordered his ship to go to “Action Stations”. “Some of the highlights of our action were bombardment and amphibious landings at Cox’s Bazar, interception of gun boats, encounter and boarding of Pakistani vessels masquerading as foreign merchant vessels, and anti-submarine operations,” said Ramdas to The Indian Express in a 2021 interview. Their bombardment of Cox’s Bazar airport was a major success, and for his for his grit, courage and determination in the war, he was awarded the Vir Chakra. However, fifty years on, Ramdas said he is a man of peace, “Wars don’t solve anything. We should do a better job of neighbourhood management.” As a teenager, Ramdas joined the Navy in 1949, he said in a write-up for human rights body People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) for the 75th anniversary of the International Human Rights Day last year. From his position as a cadet at 15 years old, Ramdas had become the Indian Navy chief November 30, 1990. He finally retired in 1993. Additionally, Ramdas had written that he had done “active work in building people to people dialogues between India and Pakistan”. Ploughshares Fund, a body focused on reducing global nuclear threat, in their profile of Admiral Ramdas, shared that during his life, the Admiral worked significantly towards global nuclear disarmament. It wrote, "Admiral Ramdas turned his energies to the cause of nuclear disarmament, traveling around the world calling on governments to take steps to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world's nuclear arsenals." The human rights body further noted that though the Admiral was not the first Indian Army leader to push for nuclear disarmament, his voice stood out louder and greater than others from the nation.
