India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 02 :: Jan. 16 - 29, 1999

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COVER STORY

'The full facts of the affair are not known'

Interview with Sharad Pawar.

Sharad Pawar, Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha and former Defence Minister, figured prominently in the controversy over the dismissal of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. Defence Minister George Fernandes and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra have claimed that Admiral Bhagwat's removal from office had the Congress(I) leader's consent. Senior figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition Government claim that the dismissal became inevitable after the Congress(I)'s efforts to resolve the crisis proved abortive. In an exclusive interview to Praveen Swami, Pawar explains why he chose to break his initial silence on the controversy. He accuses Mishra and Fernandes of peddling "utter falsehood". Excerpts:

Defence Minister George Fernandes said at a press conference in New Delhi on January 1 that Admiral Bhagwat's dismissal became inevitable when a senior Congress(I) leader's efforts to make the officer see reason failed. He claimed that this leader had himself made clear that his initiative had come to nothing. Is it a fact that this Congress(I) leader was you?

It is true I met Admiral Bhagwat some time before matters came to a head. What exactly I discussed I will not say, but the discussions could not be concluded because of constraints of time we both faced. I informed George Fernandes of those discussions. But I wish to say emphatically that I at no point said the discussions had broken down. In fact, my sentiments about the issue at that stage were quite optimistic. I do not understand on what basis the Defence Minister has made his claims.

Were you and Manmohan Singh consulted on Admiral Bhagwat's removal from office? What was the context of this consultation?

People in this Government have been saying all kinds of things, but forgetting to explain their context. The initiative for consultations came from the Congress(I), for one, not from the Government. A number of Congress(I) MPs were deeply disturbed at the unsavoury controversy that had erupted in the newspapers involving the dispute between Defence Secretary Ajit Kumar and Admiral Bhagwat. A number of concerns were voiced. The MPs approached our party president, Sonia Gandhi. She did not believe that such a matter should become a political issue, or even be discussed outside the appropriate forums. Therefore, Manmohan Singh and I were asked to meet the Prime Minister. We took an appointment, and made our point of view known. Our point of view was that this was a sensitive matter of national security and of the defence services' morale, and that the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister should handle it in a mature and appropriate fashion. Fernandes knows just what was said, because he was there right through this meeting. The important thing here is that at this stage there was no question of sacking Admiral Bhagwat. The issue had not come up, and we were neither then nor later informed that such a move was even a possibility. There was only a dispute, a bitter dispute, which needed to be resolved. Then I read in the newspapers that Brajesh Mishra has said something and that George Fernandes has said something else. They are coming out with utter falsehoods, which are very painful to me. All I can say is that the Prime Minister, who is a decent man, should be careful about the kinds of people he surrounds himself with.

MOHD. YOUSUF

In its effort to justify Admiral Bhagwat's removal, Fernandes has claimed that the officer committed a number of serious errors of judgment. A letter to the Pakistan High Commission has been mentioned, for example; and there are charges that he threatened his subordinates. Was this or any other serious lapse mentioned to you when you met the Prime Minister?

No, nothing at all. We only knew of the dispute between Ajit Kumar and Bhagwat, nothing else. It was news to me that some other problems are supposed to have existed. No one told us anything when we met the Prime Minister, and I can't understand why.

Do you believe that Admiral Bhagwat's dismissal was politically motivated?

Look, this entire issue is not simple and I don't want to make any rash comments.

The reason why I ask this is that while on the one hand the Government says that no political pressures operated in the making of the decision, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Prem Singh Chandumajra has gone public claiming that Admiral Bhagwat had an anti-Sikh bias.

Please try and understand what I mean when I say the issue is not simple. The full facts of the affair are not known. Only some things have been made public and others have not. There are many questions that remain unanswered. The Government's conduct of this entire affair is giving rise to a grave apprehension that political and communal considerations were at play. Knowing the Bharatiya Janata Party, such things are not impossible. All I know is that Admiral Bhagwat was an extremely competent officer who was removed in a very strange way. Let us hope the Government had a very very good reason for what it has done.