New Delhi: The sudden resignation of Admiral D.K. Joshi as the Navy chief is the latest in a series of controversies that have hit service chiefs in independent India.
But while there was concern expressed by the government over the Navy’s safety record in the past few months, there are some like former navy chief Admiral (retd.) Arun Prakash who believe that Admiral Joshi need not have resigned since most of the incidents were trivial, barring the disaster that struck the INS Sindhurakshak in August last year and Wednesday’s incident on the INS Sindhuratna.
The controversies began in 1959 when the then Army chief Gen. K.S. Thimayya submitted his resignation to the government following differences with then defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon.
However, Prime Minister Nehru persuaded him to withdraw his resignation and continue.
Nearly four decades later, in 1998, the then Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked by the NDA government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for serious differences with the then defence minister George Fernandes.
In 2005, the then Naval chief Admiral Arun Prakash reportedly offered to quit after the name of his relative Ravi Shankaran cropped up in the infamous naval war room leak case but the government turned down the offer since Admiral Prakash was known to be a competent and honest officer.
In January, 2012, the then Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh dragged the government to the Supreme Court in connection with a matter involving his date of birth.
There was speculation then that Gen. Singh could quit or that the government could sack him but neither happened.
