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Parliamentary panel's strictures may aid PIL against Bhagwat's ouster

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The announcement on Tuesday by Lt Gen (retd) P N Hoon to file a public interest litigation against the dismissal of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat as the naval chief, partly draws inspiration from a recent report of the parliamentary standing committee on defence.

According to senior officials in the ministry of defence, who appear to be sharply divided over Admiral Bhagwat's ouster as the chief of naval staff, the government is bound to cut a sorry figure when the strictures against it in the parliamentary committee's report is made public.

In its conclusion and recommendations after going through the intricacies of the naval establishment, the parliamentary committee has taken grave exception to the "frivolous proceedings and unsubstantiated allegations" among senior officers of the Indian navy. According to a veteran Lok Sabha MP who is on the committee, decision-making in the top-most echelons and affects badly the endeavour to procure vital equipment as bickerings and charges are traded among senior officers.

The standing committee's report has emphasised that senior naval officers often suffer adversely when doubts are cast on their personal and institutional integrity. It has regretted the government's inability to stop such bickerings among the senior naval officers and recommended that immediate measures need to be taken to restore discipline among them.

The committee member and Lok Sabha MP said in the light of the committee's findings, the allegations levelled by Niloufer Bhagwat, wife of Admiral Bhagwat, against the government have taken on a new meaning.

The committee has regretted that "the Indian navy, which was built into a three-dimensional maritime force since independence, commenced a rundown from 1984 onwards with no plans or resources for replacements and additions".

It has noted that the operational capability of the fleet has substantially declined due to lack of spares and ageing maritime hardware.

In an uncanny resemblance of Niloufer Bhagwat's allegations against the government, the committee noted that every naval project is being approved or cleared after being subject to a multi-agency cum multi-tier decision-making apparatus, "thus leading to inordinate and unaffordable delay". It has emphasised that such delay causes time and cost overruns and sometimes results in technological obsolescence.

The committee has noted that such delay also gives advantage to the navies of other countries in the Indian Ocean for making leaps in modernisation efforts. Referring to the force levels of various countries in the Indian Ocean region and other countries which have a stake in the region, the committee mentions Australia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the US.

MoD officials in this context referred to the ongoing and burgeoning naval presence of China in the Indian Ocean region. Significantly, Indian defence planners have been having sleepless nights as Chinese naval personnel are reported to be setting up electronic eavesdropping facilities in Coco Islands and Hianggyi which are not far from India's Andaman Islands. According to MoD figures, China today has 50 destroyers and frigates, 205 minor warships and 41 submarines out of which seven are nuclear-powered.

Senior Congress leader and committee member from the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia declined to say anything about the controversy surrounding Admiral Bhagwat's ouster as naval chief but emphasised that "the present government must ensure that the country's security is in no way threatened".

Already, several senior officers from the armed forces, including the former naval chief R H Tahiliani, former air force chief S K Sareen and others have termed Bhagwat's ouster as "unfortunate" and are understood to have extended their support to Hoon's PIL in the matter.

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