NEW DELHI AK Antony has left the Indian Navy headless and caused irreparable damage to the armed forces: A blue water navy or a fighting force trapped in a blue funk? Defence Minister AK Antony may attest to the first descriptor, but to his critics, including several former navy chiefs, the UPA governments Mr Clean has left the Indian Navy in the latter state, headless and demoralised, and with no end to its predicament in sight. Antony has come under unprecedented attack from a battery of former navy chiefs, who accuse him of dithering by not appointing a successor to former Admiral DK Joshi who quit last month. Besides being headless for almost a month, in itself an unprecedented state of affairs, Antony, his critics say, is yet to move the file to appoint a new chief of naval staff (CNS). People say that Antony is honest, but then he has to discharge his duties too. He allowed things to come to such a pass that the navy chief had to resign, said former navy chief RH Tahiliani, who blames the defence minister for what he calls an unfortunate and unprecedented situation that the navy finds itself in. Tahiliani, who is also the founder member of the India chapter of Transparency International, and other former chiefs accuse Antony of causing irreparable damage to the armed forces, especially the navy, by dithering on important decisions. Joshi quit on February 26 taking moral responsibility for a series of accidents on board warships. Joshi had resigned taking moral responsibility for a series of accidents and incidents on board naval warships and submarines in the past few months. The proximate trigger for his resignation was the mishap on board submarine INS Sindhuratna in which two naval officers were killed. Before that, the navy lost a submarine last August while it was docked in Mumbai and has seen a spate of other accidents. Another former navy chief, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, accused the government of running the navy like a taxi service. The defence secretary can run the navy. Anyway, under the government Rules of Business, the defence secretary has authority over the naval chief. The mandate to defend the country lies with him and not the armed forces, said Admiral Bhagwat, who was unceremoniously and controversially sacked from his post during the NDA era. The dignity of the post of CNS has been reduced...It is a pity that the government forced a fine officer as Admiral Joshi to quit. He was exasperated because he could not get things done for his force in the ministry, Bhagwat added, whose ouster some 16 years ago was forced by the then defence minister George Fernandes. When Bhagwat was sacked on December 30, 1998, his successor Admiral Sushil Kumar was flown overnight into Delhi from Kochi by a special aircraft of the Research and Analysis Wing so that the post of CNS was not vacant even for a day. “This is the way it ought to be. The force should not remain headless even for a day. It adversely affects the morale of the force. CNS is an institution and represents the entire navy. The government must decide as soon as possible. It should be treated as an emergency, said another former naval chief, who did not wish to be identified. economictimes.indiatimes/news/politics-and-nation/ak-antony-has-left-indian-navy-headless-and-caused-irreparable-damage-to-armed-forces-former-defence-men/articleshow/32441552.cms
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:49:13 +0000
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