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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, Jan 8: S D Deshmukh, former executive director for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has squarely blamed the Prime Minister for allowing a politically controversial figure like George Fernandes to become the nation’s Defence Minister.
Commenting on the sacking of Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, Deshmukh said that Bhagwat should have resigned. While admitting that there could be conflicts over appointments, Deshmukh said he failed to understand how Fernandes had been appointed Defence Minister, especially when the latter’s political leanings were well known.
“I do not understand how he can make statements about reorganising the army set up without consulting the army chief.”
“If I were the Prime Minister, I would have definitely not given sensitive portfolios like External Affairs or Defence Ministry to him. How could he publicly speak about this? However, the full facts of the case are not known. And there is no other source of information except the media,” he said.
“The fact that the new Naval chief said that he would have to reconsider the appointment of the deputy chief throws new light on the issue.”Admitting that the political set up was superior to the Defence forces, Deshmukh was highly defensive of the criticism levelled against the civil servants. “It is not quite true. There is a laid down procedure for these matters. It is not as if bureaucrats spell out the decisions. The civil servants must obey the political masters.”
Asked to comment if reforms were required in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Deshmukh was quite clear that these were not required. The existing laws and regulations, he maintained, were quite sufficient although they had become dilatory. “Why do they need to change the entire system?”
Reacting to the general grouse of the Service chiefs that they were not always consulted on policy related matters, Deshmukh said “normal consultative practices should be adequate.” But he said that the External Affairs Ministry should have also been consulted on Bhagwat’s sacking.
