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'It's safe to do what your juniors advice'

Josy Joseph in Bombay

The high-profile International Maritime seminar on Friday was mostly high-voltage action with several lighter moments and some quirky asides.

The seminar started with defence minister pulling out. But that did not dampen the spirits of Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar, who made some spirited introductory remarks.

He named all the chiefs of delegations from the 30 countries. He paused a couple of moments to give the list a touch of personal memories and some little informality.

After reading out Kenyan Navy Chief Major General A A Rafrouf's name, Admiral Kumar said he had a special affection towards him. "In 1977 we were together at the staff college," he said. And they were meeting for the first time after that.

When he reached Poland delegation chief Captain Zdzislaw Zmuda, he rememebered that both of them trained together sometime in the 1970s.

While reading out the French delegation chief Vice Admiral Jean-Louis Battet, vice-chief of French naval staff, the Admiral said after a brief pause, "My sources tell me that he is the chief-designate".

Admiral (retd) RH Tahiliani, former navy chief, who was the chairperson for the morning session, carried on the informality. He said he readily agreed to accept the invitation to be the chairperson for the session, because "it is safe to do what your juniors advice you to do."

While introducing the first speaker, former foreign secretary J N Dixit, he said, "Mani has written six books, one for every year of retirement," while wishing him well to keep up the pace

Prof Bharat Karnad began his speech by pointing out that for countries for their big dreams need global navies, "like all little girls need frontal support to grow up."

But the seminar was not all camaraderie and bonhomie. A senior Iraqi naval official stood up during question answer session to find out if the presence of Western navies, especially the US navy, in the Gulf waters "was maritime diplomacy or piracy?"

Just five seats away, Vice Admiral James Metezger, commander of America's 7th fleet, sat silently.

Several Western naval ships are patrolling the waters off Iraq shores to block any illegal oil exports by Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi question was tactfully tackled by Dixit.

But another episode created a ruckus.

A Commander from the Indian Navy stood up during the question-answer session and insisted on giving his version of things. As he went overboard with his observations on maritime diplomacy, Dixit tried in vain to shut him up.

The Commander was persuaded by his colleagues to leave the hall. But once outside, the scene turned ugly. Heated arguments and expletives ensued between the officer and his colleagues. At one stage, an agitated officer pulled him by the uniform threatening to take that off and throw him out.

But all that failed to kill his spirit.

During the second session he returned. This time, after advising on the need to use survey ships for fast attacks, he read out a garble of words, which he insisted was a poem.

It took a group of bored journalists to clap him down.

The Complete Coverage | Naval sites

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