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Ministry's planning closed legal option for Bhagwat

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The government's strategy, which closed the legal option for dismissed chief of naval staff Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, resulted in his lawyer wife Niloufer's diatribe aimed at Defence Minister George Fernandes, senior ministry officials say.

Aware that Admiral Bhagwat's wife is a senior advocate, the government ensured that he would not be able to get a stay from the law courts by issuing the orders for his dismissal and appointing his successor Admiral Sushil Kumar simultaneously.

This left no scope for a possible stay.

A shaken Admiral Bhagwat did not even call on the defence minister before leaving South Block, the officials said.

They maintained that Fernandes would not have broken his silence on the issue if Niloufer Bhagwat had not rushed to the press "with all kinds of baseless allegations".

The officials refused to comment on Fernandes's contention that the admiral had "lied" and "leaked sensitive information". But they said senior ministers had expressed unhappiness over reports that the navy lacks crucial equipment. They said modernisation of the armed forces is a continuing process and the government has to proceed cautiously because of the huge expenditure involved.

They hinted that as naval chief, Admiral Bhagwat did not take any steps to ensure that "needless clamour" for equipment did not stop. They emphasised that the admiral had been given subtle suggestions to end "rumour-mongering" in the navy, but to no avail.

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