The recent tragedy of INS Sindhurakshak preceded by a spate of similar incidents in the Navy has once again highlighted the utter mess in which India’s defence modernization has been neglected. What is more deeply disturbing is that Anthony as the longest serving Defence Minister and his Defence Secretary did not have the morally to share the blame and tender their resignations. Not that their moral fibre in this context was not on test earlier including when we periodically lost scores pilots in multiple crashes of the ‘flying coffins’ (the MiGs), while MoD ducked under cover of serving officers saying they were fit for combat. Interestingly, on the ongoing court case by Wing Commander Sanjeet Kaila against HAL and the MoD, the officer has submitted a 3D animation of 2005 MiG-21 crash to Delhi High Court to demonstrate how the accident took place, and how he saved a village on the ground, while the burning plane with more than 3,500 litres of fuel could have burnt off the entire village.
…CNS resigned 15 months before his due date not just because of the accidents over which he could have had no control but also out of deep frustration of not enough being done to modernize the aging and over flogged fleet.
The media is agog with both the PMO and MoD sitting over a 2010 secret navy report highlighting the aging naval fleet, particularly criticality of the Kilo Class submarines. Yet, Anthony refuses to share moral responsibility despite the fact that the CNS resigned 15 months before his due date not just because of the accidents over which he could have had no control but also out of deep frustration of not enough being done to modernize the aging and over flogged fleet.
No doubt the military hierarchy has also shown loss of spunk over the years because anyone upright would be ruthlessly done away with; Vishnu Bhagwat, VK Singh and now DK Joshi. Incidentally, former CNS Vishnu Bhagwat had disclosed in confidence many weeks before his dismissal that he would most likely be shown the door since he was pressing for joint development of submarines with South Korea whereas the bureaucracy linked arms mafia wanted to buy the HDW submarines. But hitherto something more sinister is being talked about in hushed tones. During the mishap of INS Sindhuratna in August last year where 18 officers died, the CNS had then stated that sabotage cannot be ruled out, which gave a sinister ring and air on that count has still not been cleared. What naval sources wonder is the visuals of Sindhuratna with double hulls could hardly have fire sprouting outside if the fire was inside a closed compartment. In the case of INS Sindhurakshak too, the visuals appeared on electronic media simultaneous to the accident that occurred 200 nautical miles away at sea. Who took those visuals is what naval officers are wondering.
The alacrity with which the resignation of the CNS was accepted paved the way for knocking off another equally clean officer who was to become the next CNS should DK Joshi had completed his normal tenure as CNS; another ‘line of succession’ established as was done in the Army sending Generals VK Singh and KT Parnaik packing off? Significantly, while most of the mishaps in the Navy during last six months occurred in Western Naval Command, including sinking of INS Sindhuratna where 18 sailors died, the Flag Officer-in-Chief neither resigned last year nor received admonishment from Anthony. The news of his resignation now appeared briefly and has been blacked out altogether. Reportedly, he was promoted to Flag Officer-in-Chief rank when the CNS had not recommended him for such appointment. Reminds you of the Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command quietly flown to Delhi in an ARC aircraft and adorned with ranks of CNS by MoD while the then CNS Vishnu Bhagwat was still in office – the power of the bureaucratic mafia!
What is even more disturbing is the manner in which national security is being played about through actions and activities that border the anti-national. There is an attempt to colour perceptions that the IM is no more linked to ISI.
What is even more disturbing is the manner in which national security is being played about through actions and activities that border the anti-national. There is an attempt to colour perceptions that the IM is no more linked to ISI. If this perception building is not under pressure from ISI, what is? We have been bending backwards in our foreign policy particularly with respect to China and the Home Minister goes soft on terror cases, revealed by a former Home Secretary, and discriminates between segments of society who should be let off early and who should not. So when former R&AW officers state that our political hierarchy is under blackmail of the ISI, nothing can be more on mark. In this context, the furore over the disbandment of the Technical Support Division (TSD) could well have been because of ISI blackmail since it had excellent capability to reach across borders.
Linking it with the import of mobile interceptors, which was undertaken by the DG DIA (not under the Army but directly under the Defence Minister) was deliberately created. But even if served the purpose of vilification of VK Singh, there was no reason to disband the TSD as such capabilities are required along borders with both China and Pakistan. Past two years, the PMO-NSA orchestrated the India-Pakistan Track II dialogue in making the veteran military heavy Indian delegation propose that we withdraw from Siachen, all under aegis of the Atlantic Council of Ottawa that has nothing to do with Ottawa University but inexorably linked with Atlantic Council of the US, latter being a Pakistani think tank. Fortunately, the cat was out of the bag last moment revealing that the strategic importance of Siachen was sacrificed, as was Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan, Chinese designs in eastern Ladakh, lack of fall back defence line and opening the floodgates for infiltration. For first time readers, none in the nine military members of the Indian delegation had ever visited leave aside served in Siachen, more importantly not even visiting the area despite months of parleys in exotic locales abroad. Neither did they make any efforts to get briefed at HQ Northern Command, the Corps HQ at Leh or the Siachen Brigade HQ. When questions were raised post exposure of the plot, the strategic importance of Siachen was grudgingly acknowledged.
Interestingly, the proposal to withdraw from Siachen was concluded in the last meeting at Lahore, none of the meetings having held in India by design to keep the plot under cover. Apparently, something similar is again brewing; similar dialogue with Pakistan under the mysterious title of ‘Stabilizing the LoC’, whatever that means. Significantly, of the military members on this dialogue, only one has served on the LoC. No other military member has been anywhere close the LoC and four of them are those who had also signed on the proposal to withdraw from Siachen, three out of whom were reportedly personally briefed by the NSA. The current dialogue meetings have already been held at Bangkok and Colombo. The underlying need is for the Indian public to know what is brewing (meaning and scope of ‘Stabilizing the LoC, why such composition of military veterans, why no meeting in India, what is being shielded from the public etc) especially at a time when radicalization is reaching its nadir in Pakistan, rabid mullah Masood Azhar of JeM has re-emerged in Pakistan holding open anti-India rallies akin to his equally jaundiced bedfellow Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan is training some two score Mujahid battalions to operate like and in conjunction Taliban besides increasingly inducting drugs, fake currency etc into India.
Take the Army, no worthwhile artillery or air defence equipment for decades, infantry without modern and adequate weapons, night vision, surveillance equipment, communications or even bullet proof vests to name a few, accumulated equipment and ammunition shortages standing at an incredible Rs 1,41,000 crores.
The fact that Anthony as the longest serving Defence Minister has brought the armed forces equipping at its lowest ebb is no secret, sitting on proposals, banning firms at the drop of a hat and presiding over scams galore without a single bureaucrat ever punished. Why our indigenous submarine plans have been glutted were well explained by Manibhai Naik headin L&T in a letter to the Prime Minister in 2011 saying, “Defence Production (MoD) Joint Secretaries and Secretaries of Defence Ministry are on the Boards of all PSUs — sickest of sick units you can think of who cannot take out one conventional submarine in 15 years now with the result that the gap is widening between us and China and bulk of the time we resort to imports out of no choice. The defence industry which could have really flowered around very high technological development and taken India to the next and next level of technological achievement and excellence is not happening.” Then take the Defence Acquisition Council. It is chaired by the Defence Minister and manned by his brood of MoD bureaucrats.
The finances are completely controlled by bureaucrats. Services Chiefs are only advisors in case of procurements and service officers only members. The Services keep projecting needs but in face of inordinate delays, have no option but to risk lives of their command with obsolete and worthless equipment. Take the Army, no worthwhile artillery or air defence equipment for decades, infantry without modern and adequate weapons, night vision, surveillance equipment, communications or even bullet proof vests to name a few, accumulated equipment and ammunition shortages standing at an incredible Rs 1,41,000 crores. The common man asks why Chiefs not representing. Well they do so very periodically, the leaked letter of VK Singh to Manmohan Singh being just a small glimpse. But when it comes to taking responsibility, the Defence Minister, the Defence Secretary and their brood are God’s own. Anthony’s monumental culpability in degrading the Navy’s capability and equipment in sitting on every proposal, not acting despite being constantly reminded by the Chiefs about the state of readiness of the armed forces to meet the challenges confronting the nation can hardly be denied. About time the self installed impunity of bureaucrats is discarded. The immunity against questioning bureaucrats by intelligence agencies only ‘with’ government approval needs to be equally discarded as it leads to more corruption, as has apparently happened in the case of the Augusta Westland helicopter deal and even the BAE Systems M 777 howitzers, latter on the verge of collapse.
The finances are completely controlled by bureaucrats. Services Chiefs are only advisors in case of procurements and service officers only members.
Then is the question of border defence, which is in atrocious state. If some 400 square kms of territory has been lost in Ladakh over the years over and above Aksai Chin, we have not learned any lessons. The President has recently hinted at the business of ‘Paid Media’. But then MK Dhar, former Joint Director IB wrote in his book ‘Open Secrets – India’s intelligence unveiled’, “The susceptibility of the fourth estate to the intelligence community had tied our hands down. They are one of the too many holy Indian cows. Some of them, as described by a senior member of the fourth estate, ‘taxi on hire.’ any paymaster can hire this particular brand.” The question here is who can most optimize this paid media if not the ruling dispensation especially when they have no compunctions in using the intelligence agencies to blackmail heads of various political parties to remain in tow other than doing down the opposition. A glaring example was the brashness of former diplomat KC Singh revealing openly in a TV debate that the five trashy articles in a Chandigarh daily denigrating VK Singh were approved by the PMO itself, significantly while VK Singh’s case was still sub-judice in Court. So the rot of the mafia is resident in the PMO itself and therefore the President at best can make perfunctory remarks. Then was the famous case of the purported ‘army coup’ where the concerned editor’s misdemeanor was not even inquired into because the journo was obviously briefed by the mafia himself. The fact remains that a plan to target the armed forces through media has been in place since past so many years and nedds to be undone by the next government.
Please wait...
Bye-bye India. See you divided between Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. All that will be left of India will be in the hands of its enemies. Maybe some central districts will be left to the Maoists, who are Indians. The result of all types of corruption is this. Apparently, the enemies have won and India has lost. Somebody has to lose. In fact, the enemy already rules India.
What if it happens other way around.
Bangladesh joins India and Pakistan is divided between Sindh, Balochistan & Pakhtoonistan and remaining joins India.
We want Sri Lanka to be independent so that we could pass our ships by them and thumb at them.
Very factual, revealing and interesting article. The changes in the approach and functioning of the Government and especially that of the MOD, is urgently desired otherwise the future of India is – for all of us to visualize.
Not really everything what General Katoch says is true. He is generally right in saying that AK Anthony took more advice from Babus than military chiefs. I would say military was not always right in not prioritizing in $40 billion a year Defence budget into what is needed today and what is needed tomorrow. General VK Singh has been the first to take on the Babus who were holding on the purchase of ammunition for artllery. What happened to him is a common knowledge. General Singh was not wrong. In the end he was dumped in favor of a more obedient General. The latter would have to go as soon Anthony, Defence Secretary pack up their bags this year.
You cannot buy everything you see in the brochures and hear about from marketing vizards. India is not facing the world as an enemy. It has to deal with highly motivated Pakistani Army, although modestly equipped or hypothetically large army of China with 2 million men under arms with dubious origin arms or copies (very poor) of guns developed elsewhere. They cannot deploy all the 2 million men in Tibet and Himalayas and leave everything open for invasion from Taiwan, Japan or elsewhere. They have 240,000 men in Tibet now and could increase to 400,000 at a short notice. India has built a similar force in the Himalayas. There is not much to fear from them except the fear of 1962 defeat. That is also Chinese fear. In the next encounter if they did not succeed as well as they did in 1962 then their aura of invincibility would be gone. That fear scares the Chinese. Possibility of them not succeeding are much greater now. That much discussed Strike Corp is supposed to scare them into staying put but maintain pressure.
Hence I am making these points.
1. AK Anthony, Babus etc. are to go.
2. You cannot buy everything. You are not facing the world as an enemy.
3. Chinese are smarter, they will not attack. They wish to scare you. They know your armed capability.
4. Deal strongly with Pakistan. They are overdue for a lesson.
Hari you got your figures mixed up someplace – we don’t have that many troops in the Himalayas. We are no where near to the Chinese. We don’t have infrastructure up in the mountains to support high level of troop concentrations in case of an eventuality. What we would end up fielding is underfed, unequipped and tired troops against the Chinese. Those bastards have got roads under your noses. They pushed a rail line into Tibet and are now going to push it through Aksai Chin. They are developing large farms in Sinkiang by excellent water management facilities to produce food locally. They have upgraded 10 airfields in Tibet to 10000 ft runways. Theres a lot more they are doing. While we play cricket and get over awed by Bollywood.
THE ARMED FORCES LEADERSHIP IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY . MOSTOF AGGRESSIVE , LEARNED , CAPABLE PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS ARE SIDE TRACKED BY THE TIME THEY ARE BRIGS OR EQUIVALANT. EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE ARE SOME AND HERE NAVY WAS SINGULARLY LUCKY THAT DESPITE THE BABUS MEDDLING, OUTSTANDING FLAGRANKS HAVE HONED THE SKILLS AND LED THE NAVY. THE PRESENT LOT WAS THE RESULT OF SEEDS SOWED TEN SCORES YEARS BACK.THE ARMED F FORCES MUST NOW FIGHT AND GET THE REVENUE OR RUNNING BUDGET OF THE SERVICES DELEGATED TO THE CHIEFS , PSOS , C INC , FLEET AND ADMIRALS MANNING DOCKYARDS .THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED TO RUN TO THE BABUS FOR SANCTIONS . WITH INTEGRATED CIVILAN FINANCAL ADVISERS THIS CAN EASILY BE ACHIEVED . A TIME HAS COME WHEN PUNATIVE FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS BE GIVEN TO BABUS SITTING ON FILES
FOR RENT SEEKING AND ASKING QUESTIONS OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS WITHOUT TAKING DECISIONS . INFACT MANY NEED TO BE SENT TO SINGAPORE , HONGKONG TO LEARN THE WORK CULTURE OF BABUS .FINALLY THE YOUNG OFFICERS AND SAILORS AND OTHERS FROM ARMY AND AIRFORCE MUST GET THE RIGHT TO REFUSE TO SAIL OR WORK WITH DANGEROUS , OUTDATED EQUIPMENT AND NO THING SHOULD BE HELD AGAINST THEM . THE EXSERVICE ORGANISATIONS MUST HELP THE PARENTS OF THE TWO OUTSTANDING OFFICERS KILLED IN THE SUBMARINE TO FILE CASES IN COURTS FOR 10 CRORES EACH TO BE RECOVERED FROM THE PAY AND PENSIONARY BENEFITS OF THE CONCERNED BABUS FROM THE LOWERMOST TO THE SENIORMOST ESPECIALLY FROM THE FINANCE SIDE WHO SAT ON THE FILES FOR REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR YEARS .
Sir,
The Sindhurakshak submarine tragedy makes one wonder if even routine standard equipment maintenance procedures are being ignored.
1. Batteries used on non nuclear submarines are the very heart of the submarines. The lead acid batteries that are used on these installations have very limited service life. Their efficiency suffers with age and usage. Normally very specific criteria are laid down to regularly monitor the efficiency of such batteies as a routine maintance procedure. And finally decide the time for replacementof a battery that has been in service for some time. It is not clear as how such procedures are compromised and at whose orders.
2. Lead acid batteries give off hydrogen gas during their operations and the quantity of this hydrogen gas is very big explosion hazard. Modern designs of lead acid batteries incorporate systems to adsorb the hydrogen released by the batteries and prevent any exlosion hazard . Is this technique not being installed on our submarine batteries?
3. That reminds me about one of the very simple findings of Gen. Handerson Brook report. It was discovered by him that our field elephones of border scouts were fitted with very substandard telephone cords with the result that they were not able to speak audibly to communicate with rear lines about enemy movements.
Such very ordinory things get brushed under the carpet and result in catestrophic disasters.
Some Mistakes in the article :-
INS Sindhurakshak sank killing 18 sailors and not INS Sindhuratna
IMDT was enacted in 1983 and not 1995
The bane of Indian security framework lies in the adage “Civilian Control”. One wonders, since independence, how often and how many service chief’s have attempted to add the word “Accountability” and modified the adage to “Civilian Control and Accountability”. The problem lies in the system and inability of defence hierarchy to seek accountability from civilians. Over the years there has been a systematic tinkering with the stature, status and position of Service Chief’s under the garb of civilian supremacy which the successive Chief’s have failed to arrest. What we see today to an extent is manifestation of lethargy which service HQ’s themselves have displayed over the years while the bureaucrats in connivance with politicians made hay. What ails the system and our national security needs are well known to everyone, however, how to get back to the point from where the slide began and become relevant is what is important. It definitely is no rocket science and is achievable provided the Defence HQ’s start churning officers of the caliber of Bhagwat, Joshi and VK Singh’s. The solution to the problem lies within the Defence Forces provided, they are willing to address them. What would have happened, if the Commander who ordered INS Sindhurakshak to sail would have refused to do so and Admiral Joshi instead of seeing it as an act of disobedience had red flagged the issue to RM and subsequently resigned? The effect may still would have been same albeit, without the loss of precious lives.
Sir
The folly is not completely in the IAS guys of d MoD. Interestingly some of our Generals in the AHQ behave in a worse manner. The type of sycophancy displayed by our guys is not hidden. We need to check this too. Each service chief trying to get maximum budgetary allotment in d favour of his service by going to the extent of sabotaging modernisation plan of the other. How about massive corruption in services like ASC Ord Engrs and now siphoning off grants in the Arms.
In my opinion the new govt has to order a complete overhaul of d armed forces and the MoD or else v run the risk of getting the old wine in new bottle.