UPA shows haste in key defence appointments
It would have been preferable had the outgoing Congress-led UPA Government left the matter of appointments to the top positions in defence services to the new Government which will take charge in a month or so from now. But not only has the incumbent regime gone ahead with the appointment of a new Navy chief, it has also firmed up the announcement of a new Army chief. Because there had been no real justification for the Government to have been in such tearing hurry, the move has raised eyebrows. What has compounded matters further is the controversy surrounding the very choice of the service chiefs. New Navy chief RK Dhowan, for instance, has superseded Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha who, after being passed over for the senior-most position, has put in his papers. It has been argued that the Government could not possibly have promoted Vice Admiral Sinha since he was in direct command of the hub where a number of naval accidents had taken place, among them being the one involving INS Sindhuratna, resulting in the loss of precious lives. Of course, no court of inquiry has yet indicted him for those accidents. However, in deciding to supersede Vice Admiral Sinha, the Union Government ended up in appointing Admiral Dhowan who has never held any operational command. In other words, not only did the Centre supersede an officer, it also appointed one who has no command experience of the kind that most of the earlier Chiefs of Naval Staff have had. It would be premature, though, to judge Admiral Dhowan only from this perspective. He has taken charge at a critical time and in the midst of developments he is not responsible for. He has his work cut out: Shore up the morale of the Navy; develop a more effective communication system with the civilian authorities at the Defence Ministry; push for modernisation and new acquisitions; and, put in place more stringent mechanisms that will reduce the possibility of accidents that the Navy has been hit with in recent months. If he can succeed in these endeavours, the controversy surrounding his appointment, Vice Admiral Sinha's resignation and even the earlier resignation of Admiral DK Joshi as Chief of Naval Staff, will subside.
The other controversial legacy which the UPA is reportedly plotting is the appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff. The Government has apparently decided that lt General Dalbir Suhag will take over as the Army chief from General Bikram Singh, whose tenure ends on July 31. While there is no issue of superseding here, the fact is that lt Gen Suhag has had a questionable record, although it must be made clear that none of the charges that were brought against him has been proved. But then, here, as in the case of the naval appointment, the bone of contention is more of the propriety of an outgoing Government to issue orders for such appointments. While the explanation that, as a matter of convention, defence heads are announced at least two months before the incumbent is to demit office, is well taken, surely there can be exceptional cases where the announcements are delayed by a few weeks — just as the regime found it exceptional enough to supersede the senior-most naval officer. Can it be that there is more than meets the eye to the UPA regime’s hasteIJ