The recent tragedy of INS Sindhurakshak preceded by a spate of similar incidents in the Navy has once again highlighted the utter mess in which India’s defence modernization has been neglected. What is more deeply disturbing is that Anthony as the longest serving Defence Minister and his Defence Secretary did not have the morally to share the blame and tender their resignations. Not that their moral fibre in this context was not on test earlier including when we periodically lost scores pilots in multiple crashes of the ‘flying coffins’ (the MiGs), while MoD ducked under cover of serving officers saying they were fit for combat. Interestingly, on the ongoing court case by Wing Commander Sanjeet Kaila against HAL and the MoD, the officer has submitted a 3D animation of 2005 MiG-21 crash to Delhi High Court to demonstrate how the accident took place, and how he saved a village on the ground, while the burning plane with more than 3,500 litres of fuel could have burnt off the entire village.
...CNS resigned 15 months before his due date not just because of the accidents over which he could have had no control but also out of deep frustration of not enough being done to modernize the aging and over flogged fleet.
The media is agog with both the PMO and MoD sitting over a 2010 secret navy report highlighting the aging naval fleet, particularly criticality of the Kilo Class submarines. Yet, Anthony refuses to share moral responsibility despite the fact that the CNS resigned 15 months before his due date not just because of the accidents over which he could have had no control but also out of deep frustration of not enough being done to modernize the aging and over flogged fleet.
No doubt the military hierarchy has also shown loss of spunk over the years because anyone upright would be ruthlessly done away with; Vishnu Bhagwat, VK Singh and now DK Joshi. Incidentally, former CNS Vishnu Bhagwat had disclosed in confidence many weeks before his dismissal that he would most likely be shown the door since he was pressing for joint development of submarines with South Korea whereas the bureaucracy linked arms mafia wanted to buy the HDW submarines. But hitherto something more sinister is being talked about in hushed tones. During the mishap of INS Sindhuratna in August last year where 18 officers died, the CNS had then stated that sabotage cannot be ruled out, which gave a sinister ring and air on that count has still not been cleared. What naval sources wonder is the visuals of Sindhuratna with double hulls could hardly have fire sprouting outside if the fire was inside a closed compartment. In the case of INS Sindhurakshak too, the visuals appeared on electronic media simultaneous to the accident that occurred 200 nautical miles away at sea. Who took those visuals is what naval officers are wondering.
The alacrity with which the resignation of the CNS was accepted paved the way for knocking off another equally clean officer who was to become the next CNS should DK Joshi had completed his normal tenure as CNS; another ‘line of succession’ established as was done in the Army sending Generals VK Singh and KT Parnaik packing off? Significantly, while most of the mishaps in the Navy during last six months occurred in Western Naval Command, including sinking of INS Sindhuratna where 18 sailors died, the Flag Officer-in-Chief neither resigned last year nor received admonishment from Anthony. The news of his resignation now appeared briefly and has been blacked out altogether. Reportedly, he was promoted to Flag Officer-in-Chief rank when the CNS had not recommended him for such appointment. Reminds you of the Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command quietly flown to Delhi in an ARC aircraft and adorned with ranks of CNS by MoD while the then CNS Vishnu Bhagwat was still in office – the power of the bureaucratic mafia!
What is even more disturbing is the manner in which national security is being played about through actions and activities that border the anti-national. There is an attempt to colour perceptions that the IM is no more linked to ISI.
What is even more disturbing is the manner in which national security is being played about through actions and activities that border the anti-national. There is an attempt to colour perceptions that the IM is no more linked to ISI. If this perception building is not under pressure from ISI, what is? We have been bending backwards in our foreign policy particularly with respect to China and the Home Minister goes soft on terror cases, revealed by a former Home Secretary, and discriminates between segments of society who should be let off early and who should not. So when former R&AW officers state that our political hierarchy is under blackmail of the ISI, nothing can be more on mark. In this context, the furore over the disbandment of the Technical Support Division (TSD) could well have been because of ISI blackmail since it had excellent capability to reach across borders.
Linking it with the import of mobile interceptors, which was undertaken by the DG DIA (not under the Army but directly under the Defence Minister) was deliberately created. But even if served the purpose of vilification of VK Singh, there was no reason to disband the TSD as such capabilities are required along borders with both China and Pakistan. Past two years, the PMO-NSA orchestrated the India-Pakistan Track II dialogue in making the veteran military heavy Indian delegation propose that we withdraw from Siachen, all under aegis of the Atlantic Council of Ottawa that has nothing to do with Ottawa University but inexorably linked with Atlantic Council of the US, latter being a Pakistani think tank. Fortunately, the cat was out of the bag last moment revealing that the strategic importance of Siachen was sacrificed, as was Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan, Chinese designs in eastern Ladakh, lack of fall back defence line and opening the floodgates for infiltration. For first time readers, none in the nine military members of the Indian delegation had ever visited leave aside served in Siachen, more importantly not even visiting the area despite months of parleys in exotic locales abroad. Neither did they make any efforts to get briefed at HQ Northern Command, the Corps HQ at Leh or the Siachen Brigade HQ. When questions were raised post exposure of the plot, the strategic importance of Siachen was grudgingly acknowledged.
Interestingly, the proposal to withdraw from Siachen was concluded in the last meeting at Lahore, none of the meetings having held in India by design to keep the plot under cover. Apparently, something similar is again brewing; similar dialogue with Pakistan under the mysterious title of ‘Stabilizing the LoC’, whatever that means. Significantly, of the military members on this dialogue, only one has served on the LoC. No other military member has been anywhere close the LoC and four of them are those who had also signed on the proposal to withdraw from Siachen, three out of whom were reportedly personally briefed by the NSA. The current dialogue meetings have already been held at Bangkok and Colombo. The underlying need is for the Indian public to know what is brewing (meaning and scope of ‘Stabilizing the LoC, why such composition of military veterans, why no meeting in India, what is being shielded from the public etc) especially at a time when radicalization is reaching its nadir in Pakistan, rabid mullah Masood Azhar of JeM has re-emerged in Pakistan holding open anti-India rallies akin to his equally jaundiced bedfellow Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan is training some two score Mujahid battalions to operate like and in conjunction Taliban besides increasingly inducting drugs, fake currency etc into India.
Take the Army, no worthwhile artillery or air defence equipment for decades, infantry without modern and adequate weapons, night vision, surveillance equipment, communications or even bullet proof vests to name a few, accumulated equipment and ammunition shortages standing at an incredible Rs 1,41,000 crores.
The fact that Anthony as the longest serving Defence Minister has brought the armed forces equipping at its lowest ebb is no secret, sitting on proposals, banning firms at the drop of a hat and presiding over scams galore without a single bureaucrat ever punished. Why our indigenous submarine plans have been glutted were well explained by Manibhai Naik headin L&T in a letter to the Prime Minister in 2011 saying, “Defence Production (MoD) Joint Secretaries and Secretaries of Defence Ministry are on the Boards of all PSUs -- sickest of sick units you can think of who cannot take out one conventional submarine in 15 years now with the result that the gap is widening between us and China and bulk of the time we resort to imports out of no choice. The defence industry which could have really flowered around very high technological development and taken India to the next and next level of technological achievement and excellence is not happening.” Then take the Defence Acquisition Council. It is chaired by the Defence Minister and manned by his brood of MoD bureaucrats.
The finances are completely controlled by bureaucrats. Services Chiefs are only advisors in case of procurements and service officers only members. The Services keep projecting needs but in face of inordinate delays, have no option but to risk lives of their command with obsolete and worthless equipment. Take the Army, no worthwhile artillery or air defence equipment for decades, infantry without modern and adequate weapons, night vision, surveillance equipment, communications or even bullet proof vests to name a few, accumulated equipment and ammunition shortages standing at an incredible Rs 1,41,000 crores. The common man asks why Chiefs not representing. Well they do so very periodically, the leaked letter of VK Singh to Manmohan Singh being just a small glimpse. But when it comes to taking responsibility, the Defence Minister, the Defence Secretary and their brood are God’s own. Anthony’s monumental culpability in degrading the Navy's capability and equipment in sitting on every proposal, not acting despite being constantly reminded by the Chiefs about the state of readiness of the armed forces to meet the challenges confronting the nation can hardly be denied. About time the self installed impunity of bureaucrats is discarded. The immunity against questioning bureaucrats by intelligence agencies only ‘with’ government approval needs to be equally discarded as it leads to more corruption, as has apparently happened in the case of the Augusta Westland helicopter deal and even the BAE Systems M 777 howitzers, latter on the verge of collapse.
The finances are completely controlled by bureaucrats. Services Chiefs are only advisors in case of procurements and service officers only members.
Then is the question of border defence, which is in atrocious state. If some 400 square kms of territory has been lost in Ladakh over the years over and above Aksai Chin, we have not learned any lessons. The President has recently hinted at the business of ‘Paid Media’. But then MK Dhar, former Joint Director IB wrote in his book ‘Open Secrets – India’s intelligence unveiled’, “The susceptibility of the fourth estate to the intelligence community had tied our hands down. They are one of the too many holy Indian cows. Some of them, as described by a senior member of the fourth estate, ‘taxi on hire.’ any paymaster can hire this particular brand.” The question here is who can most optimize this paid media if not the ruling dispensation especially when they have no compunctions in using the intelligence agencies to blackmail heads of various political parties to remain in tow other than doing down the opposition. A glaring example was the brashness of former diplomat KC Singh revealing openly in a TV debate that the five trashy articles in a Chandigarh daily denigrating VK Singh were approved by the PMO itself, significantly while VK Singh’s case was still sub-judice in Court. So the rot of the mafia is resident in the PMO itself and therefore the President at best can make perfunctory remarks. Then was the famous case of the purported ‘army coup’ where the concerned editor’s misdemeanor was not even inquired into because the journo was obviously briefed by the mafia himself. The fact remains that a plan to target the armed forces through media has been in place since past so many years and nedds to be undone by the next government.