A failed admiral, a bitter general gone, Saint Antony lives on

mangaloretoday.com/ India Today

New Delhi, Feb 27: When Indian Navy chief Admiral DK Joshi quit office following the fire on submarine INS Sindhuratna which killed two officers and injured seven, he became the first Navy chief to resign from service.

In his resignation letter, Admiral Joshi said that it was becoming untenable for him to continue as the head of the maritime force in terms of accountability.

While accountability is a cherished entity in offices, because certain high echelons have been marked above it of late, it feels heartening to see its comeback in official parlance.

 

However, a mention here of those high echelons is obligatory.

Like Caesar’s wife, the Prime Minister remained supremely free from accountability tag all through graft inquests in the infamous 2G Spectrum and Coal Block allocation scams. Even the Supreme Court did not go beyond "Respondent No. 3 and "the PMO" for the sake of constitutional sanctity of the chair.

The same can be said of Defence Minister AK Antony.

The Defence Minister was canonised Saint Antony by media for maintaining probity in political life as well for his frugal means of life.

Despite an ugly row with an Army chief, a Navy chief quitting office for accountability and a spate of scams in defence, nothing seems to even remotely besmirch the Holiness.

When the General was caught in a labyrinth

In January 2012, General VK Singh had told then Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, who is now the Controller and Auditor General of India, that he (General Singh) believed he was being treated in a manner as if he were the army chief of Pakistan.

This was for the first time in Independent India that an army chief had made such a harsh statement.

General Singh, a decorated Army officer, had a bitter exit following an ugly age row with the defence ministry.

That was not all.

General Singh had also alleged that an equipment lobbyist had offered him a bribe of Rs.14 crore, which he reported to the Defence Minister. The General’s allegation provoked outrage in Parliament and Antony promised an investigation. He acknowledged the General had come to him with the allegation more than a year earlier and asked for a written complaint.

The General did not put the complaint in writing and both men seemed to have dropped the matter.

Two days after the interview came out, a letter from Gen Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complaining that India’s defences were largely obsolete and woefully inadequate was leaked, provoking more outrage in Parliament.

In April 2012 came the shocker when a news report in The India Express claimed that Indian Army had moved two units towards New Delhi without notifying the government on January 16. The report claimed that the incident took place hours after Gen Singh had moved the Supreme Court over his age controversy.

While both Gen Singh and the Defence Ministry denied the news report, a fresh controversy erupted recently on the issue two years after the incident when the then DGMO Lt Gen A K Choudhary told the same newspaper that there may have been "distrust" between the Army and government on the issue.

How scams felled India’s defence

Sukna land scam 2009: In October 2009, the Army had ordered a Court of Inquiry into allegations that a developer was favoured and given clearances for construction on a 70-acre plot of land valued at Rs.300 crore that was located adjacent to the 33 Corps HQ. The scam exposed alleged links between two top Generals and a property developer.

Lt Gen P K Rath, then 33 Corps Commander and the seniormost serving officer facing a court martial, was found guilty on three charges.

Adarsh Society scam 2011: The society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, was converted into a 100-metre-tall building and flats were given to relatives of politicians as well as defence officials.

Tatra trucks scam, 2012: Former Army chief General VK Singh alleged that he was offered Rs.14 crore as bribe to clear a the purchase of Tatra trucks. Questions were also raised about the quality of the trucks.
AgustaWestland bribery scandal 2013: The defence ministry is caught in a serious controversy over allegations of bribery in a Rs.3,600 crore VIP helicopter purchase deal, after the Italian police arrested the chief executive officer of defence company Finmeccanica.

Several politicians and military officials have been accused of accepting bribes from AgustaWestland for the supply of 12 AW101 helicopters.

No sacrilege against the saint

If seven accidents involving warships can force a naval chief to quit office, how many scams and how many rows would be good enough for a Defence Minister to quit? There is no answer to this and no limit to the numbers asked. That’s where the canonisation comes into play.

In an era of perception-based politics, nothing sullies a saint’s image.

No matter how many days he has left in office.