All at sea with Vishnu Bhagwat

Its been a busy two years since Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat''s services as chief of naval staff (CNS) were terminated by the government. The Kargil War, its fallouts and the Indian Airlines hijack being some of the major events. But two years on, Bhagwat has finally penned down all he has to say in a book, Betrayal of the Defence Forces. It must be mentioned here itself that if the book was aimed at making any explosive or startling revelation, then the reader is sure to be disappointed.To those in the media and the defence community who followed the controversy, there is little in the book''s contents that comes as a surprise or a revelation except for the odd tid-bit. In a nutshell, the book is an expanded reiteration of Bhagwat''s press conference in Capital in February 1999 during which he explained his side of the story, often laced with sweeping allegations against the government. But to those who know nothing about the controversy, the book will probably come across as alarming. While his `facts'' fluctuate between truth and fiction, his emotions and interpretations of events have, on occasions, often bordered on paranoia. This is unfortunate because one would have thought that two years on, Bhagwat would have provided a more dispassionate and scholarly account of the events that led to his eventual dismissal and thereby added to a serious debate on the subject. But the tone, tenor and language of his book reveals that Bhagwat remains as embittered and vitriolic as the day he held his news conference two years ago. At the macro level, Bhagwat has reflected on two well-known but important points that should concern any serious citizen and student of defence issues: the unfortunate divide and suspicions within the ministry of defence (MoD), and the near ignorance and relative unimportance accorded to naval matters within the ministry. He has pointed to how relations between the services and the ministry remained generally sour, estranged and suspicion-ridden. But it is here that Bhagwat is devoid of an historical perspective on the issue. The issue of estranged civil-military relations and for that matter attempted politicisation of the armed forces date back to the 1950s when Nehru was Prime Minister. Gen Thimaya''s aborted resignation as Commander-in-Chief of the army and Lt Gen BM Kaul''s promotion on Nehru''s insistence in the late 1950s are only two such examples. Instead Bhagwat makes the civil-military estrangement appear as a phenomenon related with the present BJP-led regime. Much of this selective vision has to do with his summary dismissal as Navy chief and his ideological differences with the present regime. In effect his book is centred around his sense of perceived injustice at the hands of defence minister George Fernandes, against whom he has made several disparaging remarks and levelled a long list of allegations ranging from being on the take of foreign intelligence agencies and supporting terrorists to indulging in corruption and being involved with arms agents. He is equally vitriolic against former defence secretary Ajit Kumar and also former army chief General VP Malik, whom he accuses of having been double-faced. Bhagwat is scathing in his criticism of his successor, Admiral Sushil Kumar, who, in his view, was not fit to become Navy chief. After Fernandes, the other person who has come in for maximum bashing has been Vice Admiral Harinder Singh, who had first filed a statutory complaint and then a case in the Calcutta high court after being opposed by Bhagwat for the post of deputy chief of naval staff. While he accuses all these officers and more of being politicised and pandering to a coterie, he is immodest in projecting himself as the only `honest'', `upright'' and `patriotic'' `professional. The only person whom he sides with is Air Chief Marshal SK Sareen, who coincidentally had had a no less controversial tenure as air chief. In the book, Bhagwat makes several valid arguments on the importance of maritime security, on energy security and the need for improved intelligence gathering and coordination. Towards the end, he makes several pertinent suggestions including the need for declassifying the Arun Singh Committee report, to acquire force multipliers and have two ministers of state for defence. Bhagwat has a grouse against the media, which is reflected in personalised attacks against individual journalists. But Bhagwat can be forgiven for his lack of understanding about the functioning of the media. Like most officers of the armed forces, Bhagwat''s accusations and misgivings about these journalists reflect little understanding of the functioning of the media since services the world over are oriented to view issues in black and white, friend and foe, enemy and own. This explains why Bhagwat''s entire view of the issue comes across as simplistic.