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Bhagwat claims government sacked him without consulting President

Former navy chief Vishnu Bhagwat today alleged that the President, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces, was not consulted before the government decided to sack him.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, he said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet merely informed the President that he [Bhagwat] had been dismissed.

Bhagwat claimed to have learnt of this when he went to meet President K R Narayanan on December 30, the day he was sacked. The action of the ACC was unconstitutional and illegal, he added.

He said he was revealing this for the first time because the principle of natural justice was denied to him.

Strongly repudiating the charges made by Defence Minister George Fernandes, Bhagwat said, "Who is he to sack me? There is the Cabinet Committee, the prime minister and the President who is the supreme commander..."

Bhagwat also expressed surprise that the President's consent was not taken for the appointment of his successor, Admiral Sushil Kumar.

He said Adm Kumar does not have the experience to command the navy and is merely a hydrographer.

Describing all the charges made by Fernandes as "lies", he said the accusation that he had leaked information to the press about the advance technology vessel project were baseless as several articles had appeared in the press and the information was also available on the Internet.

Justifying the recall of a naval officer, Commander Bandopadhyay, from the Indian embassy in Moscow, Bhagwat said he had wanted to station an officer who would not in any way be linked with arms dealers.

He alleged that the defence minister had wanted to station a man of his own choice at the post.

Repeating his charges, he said the conspiracy to remove him was hatched a long time ago.

But he said he would not stoop low "like the defence minister" and wanted the matter to be taken to the highest levels.

Bhagwat claimed that any joint parliamentary committee would take less than four weeks to probe the whole issue.

UNI

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