Newsmaker: Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi

The navy's fall guy?

Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi's reputation in the Indian Navy is formidable. He is known to be forthright to the point of bluntness. He is markedly deficient in tact, unlike his far more diplomatic predecessor, Admiral Nirmal Verma (retd). He has the reputation of being scrupulously honest. And, he fell foul of the media, partly because of all these qualities, thus failing in perception management, a talent that is rated very high in the present day and age.

This is the assessment of navy veterans about one of the most sorry episodes in the history of the Indian Navy, which believed it had recovered from the shame of one of its chiefs being asked to resign from his post for defying the government, a major espionage scandal and the overall deficiencies and shortages that are endemic to the Indian armed forces.

Joshi's resignation is a direct fallout of two episodes: one, a public rap on the knuckles by Defence Minister A K Antony at the bi-annual Naval Commanders' Conference in December 2013, where he asked the navy not to fritter away valuable "national resources"; and the second, at the naval exercise, 'Milan', in which 17 navies of the world participate. At the exercise, two weeks ago, Antony read out the riot Act to Joshi over the accidents which had been taking place in ships belonging to the Indian Navy.

Thus, when the kilo class submarine, INS Sindhuratna, met with a major mishap 50 nautical miles (80 km) off the coast of Mumbai on Wednesday, Antony lost his patience. There is no clarity whether a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security was actually held or whether the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, President Pranab Mukherjee, was consulted. Joshi is unaware of the sequence of events, he told a confidant. He handed in his resignation as the captain of the ship, and, to add insult to injury, it was accepted by a low-ranking 'babu' in the ministry of defence.

All this matters a lot to the armed forces. The argument is that during the tenure of Admiral Arun Prakash, the accidents were no fewer. Worse, the Naval War Room leak occurred on his watch. He was not asked to go by the defence minister. Former chief of army staff Gen V K Singh took the government to court over his retirement age. He was not asked to quit either. What Joshi has been asking for - for the last three years - is the dredging of the Bombay Harbour, arguing that ships are running aground because of this. The government has taken no action.

Like the other armed forces, the navy has internal health problems: there is shortage of personnel; there is lack of budgetary support; and cheaper retrofit equipment is preferred. Because of this, and the demand for zero error, commanding officers (COs) are no longer ready to take risks. Five COs have been stripped of their rank after accidents in the last 18 months.

The current Long Term Perspective Plan (which ends in 2027) sees the navy with 160 ships and 500 aircraft, though the force gets only an 18 per cent share in the defence budget. Despite this, the navy has been soldiering on: it does its own warship design and it owns dockyards. In that sense, it is more self reliant than the air force and the army.

Joshi's record in the navy is unsullied. He is the first non-NDA officer to become the navy chief - he passed out from the Naval Academy and later went to the Indian Military Academy. He is an expert on anti-submarine warfare. He commanded the eastern fleet and has been the deputy chief of naval staff, has commanded aircraft carrier INS Viraat, guided missile corvette INS Kuthar, and guided missile destroyer INS Ranvir.

The Indian armed forces are sullen. This episode takes the sheen off the announcement of one rank one pension and will deepen the distrust between the forces and the elected government.