ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

'When a service chief defies the Cabinet, how can the government not assert its authority?'

Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd)

The Cabinet appointments committee is the highest decision making body in the government. It is headed by the prime minister. When a service chief defies the Cabinet, how can the government not assert its authority?

If the Cabinet's decision was not acceptable to Admiral Bhagwat, he should have resigned. But it was not correct of him not to have implemented the government's decision for six months.

Service officers going to court has the most serious implications for the Indian Union. What happens if a soldier refuses to go into battle, and wants to take the matter to the Supreme Court?

This was the only option left to the government, to uphold its authority.

In the early fifties US President Harry Truman had no option but to sack General Douglas Macarthur. General Macarthur was a hugely popular officer, someone who was once given a ticker tape reception in New York. There were calls for Truman to be impeached after he sacked Macarthur, but nothing happened.

A government cannot live with attempts to flout its authority.

Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd), former Chief of the Naval Staff, spoke to Rediff On The NeT.

Tell us what you think of this report