Undermined chiefs unhappy with antony
Defence Minister has had a tenuous relationship with a series of military chiefs.
The dramatic resignation of Admiral D.K. Joshi as Indian Navy chief on Wednesday has brought the enigmatic leadership style of Defence Minister A.K. Antony into the spotlight. He has had a tenuous relationship with a series of military chiefs, which has led to strains and eruptions in civil-military relations like never before.
A furious former chief alleges that this style is focused on “undermining chiefs to force them on the back foot”. This is what happened with Admiral Joshi, he infers. On 23 November 2013, Antony issued a press release to publicly criticise the Navy leadership over its safety record, and asking it “not to fritter away precious national resources”. From then on, it was all downhill. Every single “incident” at sea found its way into the public domain in a grossly exaggerated manner, forcing the Navy into a continuously tense fire-fighting mode, and ultimately triggering Joshi’s resignation.
Other chiefs at the receiving end of Antony’s style include Air Chief Marshals S.P. Tyagi and N.A.K. Browne, General Deepak Kapoor and Admiral Sureesh Mehta. General V.K. Singh was both indulged and treated like the bête noire. Most ex-chiefs, who spoke to The Sunday Guardian, also blamed the minister’s innuendo-laden style, “blurred communication” — famously described as a “bizarre mix of inadequate vocabulary and strange body language”— and unwillingness to take decisions as reasons for tensions with the civilian establishment.
Tyagi, who was energetically branded as the villain in the VVIP helicopter scam — despite the purchase having been processed and deal signed three years after his retirement — is known to have bitterly complained of malfeasance and defamation by a coterie. The CBI has not been able to press charges against Tyagi even after a year of investigation.
Public sector units such as the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) were pitted against Browne to label him pro-import. Generous patronage was extended to a belated HAL attempt to produce an indigenous basic trainer after the aircraft of this class had been imported. Under Admiral Mehta, the military leadership, for the first time in In- dian history, openly expressed resentment and discontent against inadequate pay.
“Antony did not take independent decisions. He pushed everything down to the bureaucracy. We were at loggerheads over the Pay Commission issue,” acknowledges Admiral Mehta, who as Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee was forced to go to the Prime Minister when Antony did not address the grievances of the services. “Thereafter, for every issue, he would ask me, ‘Have you spoken to PM?’” shrugs Mehta, bemoaning a total lack of leadership.
While Antony’s relationship with General V.K. Singh is widely perceived as “dysfunctional”, there was tension with his predecessor, General Deepak Kapoor. “Faith and trust had eroded,” admits Kapoor. Buffeted by the Sukna “land scam”, a disturbed Kapoor complained to Antony that he was being undermined through rumour and misrepresentation. “He told me he didn’t know and would check up,” recalls Kapoor.
Kapoor’s bigger complaint is that Antony, despite his good connections, did not have the political weight and gravitas to “get things done” for the forces. “Budgets are falling. Military modernisation has suffered. Nothing comes through. He told me the Army would get the long-required artillery guns any time, very soon. I’m four years into re- tirement. The guns have still not come. There’s total drift,” he rues.
Admiral Mehta lamented Antony’s overdependence on the civilian bureaucracy. “When I went to him with an urgent proposal, his response would be, ‘Have you discussed it with the Defence Secretary?’ The Defence Secretary was not in my chain. There was never a balance between the Ministry and the forces,” he said.
Another former chief, who did not wish to be named, blamed lack of clarity and the tendency to play games for the current predicament. He expressed surprise that Antony should so resolutely oppose action against General V.K. Singh at a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting, but so quickly accept Admiral Joshi’s resignation. “With Pranab Mukherjee, there was clarity. He could be very tough, blow up a chief, but also mollify another one and assuage hurt, like he did while tearing up Admiral Arun Prakash’s resignation,” he pointed out, making a case for sophisticated political interventions to keep the sensitive civil-military relations on an even keel.