Bhagwat launches direct attack on Fernandes,
accuses him of sheltering separatists
Tara Shankar Sahay and Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Dismissed naval chief Vishnu Bhagwat today claimed that Samata Party politician George Fernandes had refused to join the government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee unless he was given the defence portfolio.
Addressing a crowded press conference, his first since the dismissal, at the Press Club of India, during which Bhagwat made no secret of his bitterness, the ex-admiral wondered why Fernandes wanted the crucial portfolio.
He claimed that Vajpayee's first choice to head the department was Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde, but Fernandes refused to join the government unless he was made defence minister.
"Why defence?" Bhagwat asked. "What does he know of defence anyway? The NSCN [National Socialist Council of Nagaland], ULFA [United Liberation Front of Asom], Burmese rebels, they all operate from his house," he alleged.
The angry Bhagwat launched a virtual war not only on Fernandes, but also former naval chief Admiral S M Nanda, former defence secretary Ajit Kumar, Punjab Kesari's resident editor in Delhi Ashwini Minha, and some others at the press conference.
At one point, Chand Joshi, secretary-general of the Press Club, had to request Bhagwat to stick to the ground rules after he loudly asked a persistent reporter to sit down. Joshi said only he could ask the reporters to sit down or ask questions.
"Who is this guy Ashwini Minha?" Bhagwat demanded. "If he is here I should like to meet him. It is this guy who was behind Vice-Admiral Harinder Singh. George once told him that his man [Harinder Singh] would be posted in naval headquarters. I believe Minha carried money in bags."
Seeking to emphasise the nexus between the minister, retired defence officers, and journalists that had resulted in his dismissal, Bhagwat said the conspiracy came to light gradually. "I would like to know what is the nexus between former naval chief Admiral S N Nanda and the present defence minister? I would like to know how the former naval chief has [earned] thousands of crores of rupees? Where did the money come from?" the agitated ex-admiral wanted to know.
Bhagwat said the defence minister is supposed to hold a meeting of the three service chiefs every morning, but Fernandes has held just six meetings in the last six months. This shows his indifference to the services, he said.
He sought to underscore that while the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet could make appointments, it could not dismiss the appointees. "I will not let them [those responsible for his dismissal] go like this," he warned. "I have kept all options open."
Asked why he had not approached the Supreme Court, Bhagwat said, "I could have gone to court earlier, but then these people would have said, look, this man has a habit of going to the court. Besides, I wanted them to say whatever they had to say. Now I have decided to take them on. For three months this man [George Fernandes] has been carrying on a campaign against me. I might be wounded, but I am certainly not vanquished," he thundered.
Continuing his tirade, Bhagwat said he was made to wait four or five days for an appointment with Fernandes, which he found humiliating. Normally, the naval chief is granted an audience with the minister within half an hour of the request, he said.
Bhagwat also claimed that when he sought an early appointment with Prime Minister Vajpayee, he was asked to meet his principal secretary, Brajesh Mishra. "I did not want to lower the dignity of the uniform. When a service chief wants to meet the prime minister, it has to be the prime minister and no one else."
Questioning Ajit Kumar's credentials, he wondered who was behind his appointment as defence secretary.
He offered to face an inquiry by a parliamentary committee or a Supreme Court judge to clear his name. "Let the government order either a parliamentary probe or an inquiry by a judge of the Supreme Court. I have been told by former civil servants, including former Cabinet secretaries, that no attorney general will produce fabricated documents in a court of law to justify my dismissal," he said.
As for his pension, which has been withheld, Bhagwat said he would not beg for it. "For Fernandes I might be just a sailor, but I am an admiral who has a distinguished record of service as an officer of the Indian Navy. I may not get a pension ever, but I am not going to beg for it."
Asked why he had timed the press conference to coincide with the opening of the budget session of Parliament, Bhagwat retorted that he was not a conspirator to indulge in such things. "I was invited by the president of the Press Club of India to meet the media and they fixed the day, not me," he said.
In a voice choked with emotion, he recalled, "On Navy Day, the prime minister tells me, 'How can I let a good man like you go,' and two weeks later the same prime minister signs my dismissal order on the pretext of a threat to national security."
He charged the Government of India with having ordered a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) inquiry against him last October. "The two officers who came and met me said they were ashamed of what had happened to me," he said.
According to Bhagwat, "The complaint of one of the [naval] officers is that I am against turbaned men. I am a secular man, but not secular of the BJP kind. What shocked me more than anything else was that the officer concerned even used a body like the SGPC [Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee] to advocate his case."
"Chandigarh's telephone department has tape recordings of these conversations," he added. This, however, can be construed as a confession that Bhagwat had ordered Vice-Admiral Harinder Singh to be kept under surveillance.
The Bhagwat Dismissal
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