Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
With the country engaged in the process of picking up a new set of rulers it is unlikely that the rot that has overtaken our Defence services, the Navy most glaringly, will be addressed any sooner. A minor fire in the Mazagon Docks in Mumbai last week is another reminder, albeit a feeble one, of Government’s studied inaction to set the Naval setup in order.
After all only a few weeks back we saw the sad spectacle of Admiral Joshi, the Navy Chief, resigning, virtually admitting his helplessness in losing battle not against a foreign challenge but against an apathetic Government and an unresponsive Defence Minister, A.K. Antony.
Mercifully, with a UPA defeat in the polls accepted as a given by most, the Defence Ministry will hopefully have a more energetic, a more concerned and caring man at the top, willing to take unpopular decisions, opting to address issues of the utmost concern to India’s security. The Antony years have not served the cause, with the result that our security needs have gone horribly wrong, underestimated to an extent that can only spell doom if not immediately repaired.
The Antony years, sadly he presided over the Ministry for the past eight years, have been marked by cost-cutting, poor or no procurements, including of essential needs of the three Services. Forget, how affable a man Antony is or how useful he has been to the Gandhis in managing party affairs in Kerala!
And to hell, with the claims tom-tommed time in and time out, about his honesty! An honest man need not necessarily be a wise man. He could instead be a fool, making a fetish of his so-called honesty. And to top it all he has always also chosen to be very economical in sharing information about his Ministry. Given his halting monosyllabic style of “oratory”, he most times left you yawning as he gasped for the next word.
The tragic loss of lives in submarine accidents, causing the Navy Chief to resign, owning responsibility as any honest, upright soldier would, turned the spotlight on the crisis within the Navy, beset by a whole range of problems, from non-availability of equipment, obsolescence, poor maintenance and tragic consequences of the ‘chalta hai’ trait common to our political class.
I am not at all surprised that neither the Minister, nor the top bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence or their political master, the Defence Minister, have sown any honesty in sharing responsibility for the serious lacks faced by the Navy, the Air Force and the Army, in that order.
Accountability must go to the very top, Minister downwards. Admiral Joshi may have done the honourable thing and shown the way to others but the political bosses couldn’t care less. Accountability is a word that obviously never existed in the Antony book. Remember, we will be told, he is honest. But who will shake up the security apparatus bogged down in lethargy, inordinate delays in decision-making, especially in regard to procurement of equipment.
You can’t keep the show going by cannibalizing equipment. It can only expose our men and machines to grievous losses. If the Antony effect is added to procurement of equipment including ships, aircraft and military hardware it usually takes about 10 to 15 years before signing a deal and the process can take much longer if big ticket purchases such as submarines, aircraft etc. are on the cards.
In case of the Navy refitting older ships, the Comptroller and Auditor General has had to focus even on elementary things like procuring and deploying battery monitoring systems for submarines; these systems, even when purchased have remained idle for three years and more by which time the warranty had expired (The recent submarine tragedy was caused by battery problems).
The CAG in one of its latest reports has said that 50 percent of the ships in the Navy have already surpassed their 20 years of service life. The advanced age profile of Indian Navy ships has put considerable pressure on the refit of these ships.
Ships must therefore undergo a mid-life update, if 10 to 15 years of its life are still left. Refits do cost a lot of money and given our work ethics it indeed takes much longer to have a refit carried out. Which in effect means that a ship may have just five or ten years of its life, post-refit, against an estimated 15 to 20 years.
A former Defence secretary, Yogendra Narain has told a Calcutta daily recently that the Defence Minister (Antony) has been “over cautions and too concerned with his own image”. “This has led to great loss in the speed with which purchases of defence equipment should be made”.
The security of the nation should come first and the image of honesty and integrity of the Minister second. “Within the system”, Mr. Narain told the paper, there are enough checks to ensure that purchases are made at the lowest price and only of the best equipment. In a most transparent admission of the ground realities Narain told the paper that “commission-giving” and commission-taking is a reality. “Commissions are there on every purchase once you buy the best at negotiated prices”. “Commission are there in every purchase by the government whether it be in the water department, power department or any other department”. “What I say is don’t get bogged down”.
Equipment is selected by specialist committees comprising senior military personnel, senior Defence Ministry officials and those from audit and accounts; technical aspects are looked after by the Director General of Quality Assurance. Commission is something beyond the system of purchasing because once you purchase a thing of best quality at best price the allegations should not allowed to hamper the security build up.
Interestingly, the former Secretary sees the private sector playing a stellar role in helping the growth of a vibrant domestic defence industry – L&T and Mahindras are already there and making significant contribution; he believes that the quantum of foreign direct investment in Defence should be increased to 49 percent from the existing 26. “I am completely with the Commerce Ministry that the FDI should be 49 percent in the initial stages of indigenization. I would say……. it can go up to 70 percent where we have no expertise and only as long as it is part of an Indian company. Foreign participation would automatically fall once the Indian manufacturing company gets all the expertise. An enlightened and alert civil society and the media would indeed serve as a deterrent to letting the system get corrupted. I fully, agree that the private sector should be brought into every industry in a big way. There are about 40 public sector undertakings under our Defence Production ministry, including the shipyards, HAL and Ordinance Factory Boards; they should all be made competitive. Competition would revive the sector”. And, did I have to say he is right. Undoubtedly he is right both when he talks of quickening the pace of defence purchases and strengthening of the domestic defence industry. You have to be level headed in matters involving national security. Obstinacy may be a virtue in an ass but certainly not in matter concerning the nation’s defence. The Antony type of honesty has been detrimental to the health of our security.
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