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Vishnu Bhagwat has done what he is best at: filing affidavits

In an ultimate act of desperation, the legally well advised former Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) has through a 51-page affidavit dated March 14, appealed to Members of Parliament to act by their conscience. This latest call on the custodians of civilian political control over the armed forces contains the previously enumerated charges against Defence Minister George Fernandes. They even point at treason. But in essence are as big a tissue of lies as his own claim about the government's reason for his dismissal. This is typical Bhagwat.

It will be a sad day for the defence of India when the country's defence minister will be forced by the supremacy of Parliament to respond on the floor of the house to the so-called charges of corruption against him by his former CNS. Bhagwat's affidavit is part of the political conspiracy by the Opposition spearheaded by the Congress to undermine national security, politicise defence and degrade further, the morale of the armed forces. Their immediate aim is to embarrass the ruling party regardless of the cost.

Bhagwat's pretence of being a nationalist, invoking the names of freedom fighters has fallen through. It is obvious he has been simply talking big: of how it takes ten years to build a ship, three hundred years to build naval traditions and just five minutes to destroy all of it. That is precisely what Bhagwat has succeeded in doing.

It does him little credit that he made his complaints and charges against the defence minister only after he was dismissed. That is certainly not the way service officers, leave alone the CNS, redress their grievances. He has hurt the navy grievously from the day his writ petition was admitted in the Bombay High Court in 1990. Since that day the navy has been rocked by its grave repercussions.

In a sudden change of strategy, Bhagwat took the extreme step of attacking the Chief of Army Staff, General Ved Malik, accusing him of being part of the politico military coup. Malik who was out of the country issued his rebuttal on return, calling Bhagwat's charges against him as 'baseless and irrational.' Those who have read these charges have called them ludicrous and are surprised that Bhagwat should have made them in the first place.

Showing even greater insensitivity Bhagwat has encouraged former Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen, to take up cudgels against George Fernandes. Now everyone knows that Sareen did not leave the service with a clean slate. Therefore, for Sareen to join the Bhagwat bandwagon on the issue of being denied an extension and his professional advice not being accepted by the minister was rather careless.

Nevertheless, Sareen did pass on information to the media not realising that Bhagwat was using him to build his own case of wrongful dismissal. Some sections of the media, sympathetic to Bhagwat, have interpreted the denial of extension to the Naval and Air Chiefs as part of the government's plan to replace the two chiefs with pliant men.

For once, officers in the armed forces say they have found a defence minister who is seen to be batting for the services. They feel this will harm not only the interest of the navy but of the armed forces as a whole especially the morale of soldiers, sailors and airmen. Unfortunately, Bhagwat has, time and again proved that for him it is self before service rather than the other way round.

After the unfortunate but inevitable dismissal of the CNS it is now possible to draw some lessons. The government failed to estimate the fallout of the dismissal just as it erred on the aftermath of the decision to carry out a nuclear test. Calling Bhagwat a security risk was as inept as naming China as the reason for the nuclear tests.

The positive fallout of this negative episode is Parliament's awakening in matters of defence and national security even if it derives from complaints of corruption against Fernandes. The Opposition has correctly called the dismissal "unprecedented" because it has not happened earlier. There is no doubt it must be investigated. But a public debate in Parliament will inevitably expand the scope of the debate. However, the difficulty of disclosing sensitive information on the floor of the house will remain.

In 51 years of Independence, this is probably the first time that the integrity of the defence minister is begin tested on the floor of the house. Equally, this is the first time the Opposition has ganged upto politicise serious national security matters such as interference with military operations and the nexus between arms dealers, serving officers and politicians. The sad part is that parliamentarians, instead of debating nuclear strategy, defence reforms and the Strategic Defence Review, are divided between defending India and embarrassing the government and the armed forces.

Bhagwat's charges against his minister are wide-ranging and have appeared widely in the media. Most of these have not been substantiated and are only Bhagwat's version. Going by the record so far and the Army Chief's rebuttal of charges it appears that they will hold little water.

One other lesson of the Bhagwat dismissal is that had there been a Chief of Defence staff instead of the present revolving door system of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and a rotating chairman, Bhagwat may never have been sacked.

It is time Bhagwat quit the scene and settled down to writing his memoirs. But he seems determined not to as he has held out two other threats: one, that he retains the option to go to court; and second, he claims he is in possession of information and material of a serious nature which he has not included in the present affidavit.

The members of the house are demanding the resignation of the defence minister because Bhagwat has been granted his pension. People forget that pension is an issue that is not linked with dismissal. Pension is meant not merely for the individual but nor the whole family. Pension he would have got anyway.

General Ashok K Mehta