The sacking of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat as the chief of naval staff has sent the arms supply companies which hosted Vice Admiral Harinder Singh scurrying for cover. While former naval chief Admiral S.M. Nanda, 83, bemoans the fact that this was the second major controversy his company, Crown Corporation, has been embroiled in, Ispinder Singh, wife of the late proprietor of Makalu Engineering, says she is completely distraught with the media reports on their company.Not used to the spotlight and familiar with operating behind the scenes, arms supply companies are finding the publicity and the media microscope uncomfortable.Among the two concerns, the Crown Corporation, evidently, has a wider network and is presided over by Admiral Nanda. While the former CNS is president of a clutch of other companies, Crown Corporation is the family's flagship. By Admiral Nanda's own admission, it handles annual exports of around Rs 10 crore to North Africa, the Middle-East and the UN Peace Keeping Force. Among thecommodities supplied: blankets, batteries, shoes and uniforms for use of para-military forces in these countries.The London office of Crown Corporation was run by Admiral Nanda's son, Suresh, who had taken pre-mature retirement from the Navy as an acting Lt. Commander. Admiral Nanda says is it Suresh's company which has employed retired Commodore V. K Chaudhury, Harinder Singh's host, in Moscow.Another Nanda concern, the Dynatron Services, handles servicing of MTU diesel engines, used by the Navy, and has work-shops located in Chennai. The family also owns the Intercon Marantime Constancy, which Admiral Nanda says has almost shut shop since ``there was too much paper-work involved.''The former CNS says the attempt to drag the Crown Corporation into the controversy of sacking of Admiral Bhagwat was an attempt to ``deflect'' from the real issue. ``How does it matter where Harinder Singh stayed? Despite all that's going on, there is a lot of camaraderie and bonhomie between Naval officers and theyoften stay with one another on holidays abroad. By trying to find out where officers stayed, Admiral Bhagwat is trying to spy on them.'' he says. He recalls that the first affront to the group was the raids conducted by the Income Tax Department in his residence and offices in 1987. At that time, the name of another company they owned, Globetec International, appeared in the press in connection with the HDW submarine deal. Globetec International had had landed the post-control servicing contract for the HDW submarines in the Mazagaon docks. Following the raids, the family shut down the company and soon afterwards and Suresh decided to move abroad.In the case of Makalu Consulting Engineering, the reverse happened. In 1996, the proprietor of Makalu, retired Commander Pradeep Sachdev, died of a heart attack, compelling his son, Gundeep, who was studying abroad to return to India and pick up the pieces of their business of trading defence supplies and equipment.The Sachdev family admitted that MakaluConsulting Engineering faced an uncertain future and had suffered reversals, first, on account of the black-listing done by the Ministry of Defence and later by Pradeep Sachdev's death. They had now decided to shift their attention from defence supplies to software programming and exports.Ishpinder spoke about their floundering business with tears in her eyes and said she had been deeply disturbed by Makalu's name being dragged into the controversy of the naval chief's dismissal. ``Mrs Bhagwat has been naming Makalu again and again and I want to go and speak to her about it. I take exception to people labelling us as arms-dealers. Makalu has never dealt with arms only some spare-parts, nut and bolts and even this business has nearly closed down.''Her son, also said he vaguely knew some ``problem'' of black-listing had taken place a few years ago but would thought that would have been ironed out by now. At present, he said, they were concentrating on the computer programming department but continued tobe the liaison representatives for Baltic Machine Company and Sudmash, which supplied compressors, air-conditioners and generators to the Navy.Gundeep said in an attempt to find out the facts on Vice Admiral Harinder Singh's stay, he had spoken to (Retd) Commander D.S. Dagar, who till last year worked as Makalu's representative in St. Petersburg. Commander Dagar had clarified that Vice Admiral Harinder Singh had stayed in his house and not theirs.``But we have known Vice Admiral Harinder Singh for decades. He was a very good friend of my father's,'' he said. ``Several Naval officers stayed in our house in St Petersburg and initially I too thought Uncle Harry would have stayed at our place. Now we can set the record straight.''
