Josy Joseph

New Delhi: In an unprecedented snub, defence minister AK Antony has refused the Navy chief, Sureesh Mehta, a chartered VVIP plane for a foreign visit, asking him to instead fly a commercial airline.

The denial is the latest in a series of political decisions that convey the government’s extreme displeasure over how the naval headquarters has been handling policy issues.

A few days ago, Antony wrote a strongly-worded rejoinder to the naval headquarters for not informing the ministry well in advance about the participation of a US warship — USS Cole — in the just-concluded Exercise Konkan 2008.

The exercise coincided with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s India visit.

According to dependable sources, Antony last week refused Admiral Mehta’s request to fly a VVIP Embraer plane of the defence ministry for his upcoming visit to Thailand.

The minister has instructed Admiral Mehta to instead take a commercial airline for the visit. MoD has four Embraer planes and it is routine for service chiefs to fly around in special planes.

The refusal comes at a time when questions are being raised in the government about Admiral Mehta’s 12-day long trip to the US when parliament was in session — he returned this weekend. Many in the government argue that it was against the democratic norms for a service chief to be absent from the country for such a long period during a parliament session.

Last week, the minister shot down the Navy’s recommendation to give a two-year extension to Commodore M Gidwani, the present judge advocate general. The ministry has now appointed captain Harinder Gupta, the senior most officer from the Navy’s legal cadre, pointing out that Gidwani was not “fully qualified” to head its legal branch. He will take charge on July 1.

Over the past weeks, there have been clear signs of the ministry’s unhappiness with the way the naval headquarters has been conducting itself.

The crack are appearing at a time when the navy chief — senior most among the heads of Army, Navy and Air Force — is the chairman, chiefs of staff committee, and the senior most contact point between the government and the military.

Antony recently wrote a strong rejoinder to the naval headquarters against pushing through proposals and appointments at the last moment, leaving the political leadership with almost no time to look at the pros and cons.

The minister's note came on a file regarding the Indo-British joint naval exercise - Exercise Konkan 2008 - that started on April 21 and ended on May 2 in Arabian Sea. USS Cole, the American ship attacked by terrorists in 2000, also took part in the exercise.

According to sources, the naval headquarters moved a file just a few days before the exercise seeking political approval for a Spanish naval ship to participate in Konkan. Antony gave the approval. But within 48 hours the file returned with the naval headquarters saying the Spanish ship was withdrawing while USS Cole would take part in the exercise, sources said.

Antony wrote a strong note on the file saying that the naval headquarters was moving files for his approval at the last moment and as if decisions were "fait accompli".

The entire flip-flop has also raised questions if the navy was doing enough long-term planning behind the joint naval exercises.

Source : DNA