Another attack on George Fernandes'

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Subject: Another attack on George Fernandes' support to Burmese democracy

Fernandes in Nanda pocket: Adm. Bhagwat
23rd February 1999
>From Asian Age Newspaper, India

Sacked Navy chief Vishnu Bhagwat launched a scathing attack against
defence minister George Fernandes on Monday, accusing him of maintaining
direct contact with arms dealers and supporting subversive groups involved
in smuggling arms into India.

Mr Bhagwat made startling allegations about how the defence minister, the
then defence secretary and some members of the defence forces were working
against national interests and favouring powerful arms lobbies. These
groups, he argued, had worked for his summary dismissal as Navy chief on
December 30.

"So, in fact, there was no record of repeated disagreements with the
minister - only that he found me inconvenient in regard to his illegal
acts, whether giving free run to people furnishing arms to insurgents for
use against the Indian people and the Army, appointing dishonest and
racist officers, or defence purchases detrimental to indigenous projects,"
Mr Bhagwat said.

In a written statement issued on Monday, the former Navy chief said he had
briefed the minister "on the methodology of subversion of Navy officers by
arms peddlers on the 4th and 8th May, 1998; the fact that adverse remarks
on (Vice-Admiral) Harinder Singh pertain to specific obligations incurred
by this officer from M/s Crown Corporation and Makalu Engineering in
Moscow, St. Petersburg and London."

Instead of taking a serious view of the vice-admiral's behaviour, the
observations were expunged from Harinder Singh's confidential report, and
"Fernandes and Admiral Nanda (Retd) (who owns Crown Corporation) entered
into direct communication with each other and met before and after 30th
December 1998." Admiral Nanda (Retd) and his son Suresh Nanda are "the
agents for the MTU engines ex-Germany for the Army tanks Vijayanta and
Arjuna, and the HDW submarine," Mr Bhagwat said. On the Nanda family and
other arms dealers of India, Mr Bhagwat said, "Globe-Tek, Crown
Corporation... The names keep changing, so do directorships and their
partnerships and front companies; but it is the same people who are
middle-men for foreign interests peddling arms to India."

The former Navy chief also accused Mr Fernandes of blatantly favouring gun
runners who were smuggling shiploads of illegal weapons for operations
against the Indian government and in neighbouring countries.


Defence secretary Ajit Kumar wrote to Adm. Bhagwat in July-August asking
him to call off operations against gun-running in the seas around India.
On August 8, Mr Bhagwat said, he informed the defence minister in the
presence of his Navy colleagues that nobody can intervene in mandated and
regular operations. The minister allegedly responded with a note saying
that operations should be carried out only in India's exclusive economic
zone. "This suits the gun-runners," said Mr Bhagwat.

"Why are the LTTE, Burmese, and Northeast rebels operating form the house
of the defence minister? He asked. Pointing out that "the chiefs had to
jointly tell Fernandes on August 8 that the anti-gunrunning operations in
the Andamans - which were initiated after (former Army chief) Gen.
(Shankar) Roychowdhury made a request to the CNS in December 1996 who, in
turn, requested specific intelligence - were mandated operations by the
Army, Navy and Coast Guard. They neither required prior approval nor that
information be given in advance to the ministry of defence," he said.

Don't tell George, said PM
23rd February 1999
>From Asian Age Newspaper, India

The Prime Minister, Mr Atal  Behari Vajpayee, instructed the defence
chiefs not to inform defence minister George Fernandes in advance about
the May 11 blasts, sacked Navy chief Vishnu Bhagwat said on Monday.

Addressing reporters at the Delhi press Club on Monday, the former Navy
chief said that Prime Minister Vajpayee summoned the three service chiefs
to his 7, Race Cou8rse residence and formally informed them on May 9 about
the proposal to hold about the proposal to hold nuclear tests on May 11.

Mr Vajpayee "specifically told (the three chiefs) not to inform the
defence minister." Mr Bhagwat in his statement said that "Mr Fernandes was
only informed on the forenoon of 11th May," the day when India held its
second round of nuclear tests at Pokhran.

The former navy chief also accused Mr George Fernandes of cooking up the
Sagarika missile project, a reported proposal for developing a
submarine-based ballistic missile, which had received wide international
publicity last year. "Mr Fernandes himself announced the so-called
Sangrika on September 6 in a UNI report," he said, and claimed that the
Sagarika project "was the invention of the Internet" and the minister.

On the dirty moves within the ministry, he claimed his noting on the fact
that the Admiral Groshkov, the Russian ship which India proposes to buy,
has been rated at Rs 30 million more than the original quotation, was
deleted from the file. "It takes three years to build a ship, 300 years to
build a tradition, and on minister to destroy it in a few days," the angry
Mr Bhagwat said.


The End

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