Navy Embroiled In Fresh Controversy Over Postings Once Again In

The cancellation, issued on August 30, was announced on the same evening allegedly at the behest of the new naval chief Admiral (designate) Vishnu Bhagwat. Admiral Bhagwat was not available for comments.

The cancelled postings include Rear Admiral M S Bedi as Fleet Commander (eastern fleet) and Rear Admiral O P Bansal as the Flag Officer Maharashtra Area (FOMA). While Bedi was transferred to the new posting from his current office at Naval headquarters, Bansal was transferred Kochi. Both these officers are considered to be the blue-eyed boys of Bhagwat. While these two officials have preferred to hold on to their current positions till better postings are available, another R Admiral, Madan Jeet Singh, has been transferred out to take over as the Fleet Commander - Western Fleet. He too is considered to be close to Bhagwat. Naval sources claimed that Bhagwat's appointment as Admiral-designate had a bearing on the move. Bhagwat takes over as CNS at the end of this month when the incumbent chief Shekhawat retires.

 

Sources point out that even Bhagwat's name was cleared for the top post by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet on September 2 in a haste despite several controversies surrounding the appointment. This appointment has caused resentment among the naval staff as Bhagwat's name was cleared despite a host of writs challenging his appointment. Sources say it was for the second time in recent years the appointment of the Chief of Naval Staff has caused severe heartburn among the naval staff leading to the navy being divided in two lobbies.

These lobbies are identified as pro-USA and pro-Russia. Things have come to such a pass that the battlelines were already drawn between the two lobbies as early as 1990 when the then naval Chief Admiral J G Nadkarni was to retire. Before Admiral Nadkarni was to retire a writ petition was filed by the then R Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in the Mumbai High Court leading to the scuttling the chances of V Admiral S Jain to take over as the chief. Another contender for the post then was Admiral L Ramdas.

Following the appointment of Ramdas, Bhagwat had withdrawn his writ petition in which Bhagwat had levelled serious allegations against the then Prime Minister, who also held the defence portfolio, and the then naval chief Admiral Nadkarni, vice admiral Jain among others.

Even the permission to withdraw the writ filed by Bhagwat had raised a few eyebrows. However, he succeeded in securing his promotion as vice-admiral and now he has been promoted as naval chief.

Bhagwat withdrew the earlier writ, considered to be an infamous first in the history of Indian armed forces, even before the allegations made by him against the then Prime Minister V P Singh, Nadkarni and Jain faced the trail that was to ensue.

His adversaries accuse Bhagwat of using civil courts for matters relating to his promotion as a naval officer and once the goal was achieved with the help of a certain political lobby consisting of former President R Venkatraman, the then minister of state for defence, Raja Ramanna, Karunanidhi and others, he withdrew the writ under questionable circumstances. This move left behind a rift among the naval officers forcing a number of them to leave the service prematurely.

When this was brought before the Mumbai High Court through a public interest litigation by the editor of a Marathi daily, Dilip Karambelkar, a division bench rejected it. According to sources, emboldened by the high court's order Bhagwat is now targeting all those who had resented his moves of moving a civilian court for seeking military reliefs. Sources claim that moves are on to bring Bhagwat before a court and clarify his stand on the HDW submarine kickback case. He had levelled serious allegations in his earlier writ against his superiors for having benefited from the deal that had rocked the government.

Sources maintain that going by Bhagwat's writ it appears that he is holding back information on the alleged kickbacks in the HDW submarine deal by withdrawing his earlier writ. For this reason, moves are afoot to bring him before a court.

Bhagwat may have achieved his goal but his tenure is likely to be a stormy one and if the current manoeuvrings in the matter relating to flag postings are to continue, sources fear that the Indian navy will remain a divided force.