A dark day for the Indian Navy. For the time in its history, a Chief of Naval Staff — Admiral D.K. Joshi — has resigned. A ‘deeply upset’ Admiral met Indian defence minister A.K. Antony at noon today, hours after an accident on board submarine INS Sindhuratna, the latest in a series of mishaps that have thrust the navy into a quagmire of questions of safety standards, operating procedures and its peacetime record.
I’ve just accessed the text of Admiral Joshi’s resignation letter:
I have the honour to refer to recent incidents/accidents during the past few months that have impacted the professional image of the Navy. While the government has continued to repose its fullest trust and confidence in the service, I consider my continuation as Chief of the Naval Staff as untenable.
In the interests of accountability, I therefore accept fullest moral responsibility for the above mentioned accidents/incidents, and hence I have the honour to resign with immediate effect.
In the interim, the Vice Chief of Naval Staff may discharge the responsibilities as an officiating CNS.
Admiral D.K. Joshi
The Indian Navy’s vice chief Vice Admiral Robin Dhowan has been appointed acting Navy chief. The MoD will shortly appoint a full-time officer.
His statement came in hours after he met with the Raksha Mantri, he was obviously told to step down
What next for Admiral ?? Lok Sabha tickets from AAP after some sensational disclosures ….. 🙂
At least he had the honor to resign after a spate of accidents related to kilo subs whereas the top air force brass even after so many MiG 21 accidents and loss of lives of our pilots blamed everyone except themselves and the aircraft and went about their job as if nothing had happened.
Its time we increase our purchase of scorpene subs option as western countries pay a lot of attention to crew safety and comfort in their subs and remove russian subs which are death traps for our men.
i seriously feel that the one who should be resigning must be the defence minister.his indecision has led to the present sorry state of our armed forces…he is the one responsible
Sourav Paul@ Raksha Mantri does not run the Navy on a day to day basis …. it is the Navy Chief who does whatever the constraints might be !
Admiral D.K. Joshi, we salute you. You have displayed true honour and moral responsiblity. Sir, we will serve you anytime. Just give the orders, and you can count us in.
Same can be said for General V.K. Singh. Sir, it was a pleasure serving under your command. Just give the orders, are the Army is with you.
I think the DM & MoD have to own up too. Do they expect retro-fits to perform like the USS Virginia class Sub's.
@anon @12.54:
dude he is the one responsible.
Keeping emotions aside it was inevitable. Unfortunately 20 naval personals died under his command, during peace time. Being an officer/ gentleman this is something he had to do it. These deaths and problems haven't been a consistent pattern with previous Chiefs. According to me the CinC of the western command is the one to have gotten the stick, Joshi being the bigger man and a true leader took on the onus. This breakdown of commumication shows a tremendous problem between the MOD and the services. The next GOI should have the balls and appoint a CDS or equivalent to prevent such sad issues in the future.
In the first place navy chief should have not operated the kilo class submarines once the sindhurakshak tragedy took place.
Why Not AK Antony? Why Not scrap the submarine upgradation contract? Why not fire those who have caused delays in submarine acquisitions / manufacture? Why not bureaucrats? DK Joshi was the easiest target.
We need to fire this government as soon as possible so that some level of sanity returns to this country and of course the defence forces. Else we shall have more pilots killed, more submarines sunk and of course more money made by these goons. All under the watch of so called Honest Defence Minister. Fire them, lest it is too late to rescue things.
When these Kilo-subs were acquired, they were already coming from minimum 10 years of Soviet Navy service.So another 25-30 years in Indian Navy and these subs are nothing better than junk. In addition, now Navy has to do coastal policing while coast guard sleeps on the coast even after 26/11. The customs, escise and DG Shipping is corrupt to the core, which has been reported several times. Someone actually called Indian Coast Guard as NPA (Non Performing asset).
On top, the Navy's strength is mere 58,000. Compare it to China, US and other countries. This small Navy is asked to protect 7500 km of coast, millions of km of EEZ with meager amount for operations, refits, and maintenance.
Even then, Indian Navy has operated as a true blue navy so far. So D K Joshi has done the most honourable thing by resigning on moral responsibility.
But think about the RM, A K Antony, who has frittered away 10 year of rare peace we got. The last time India got 10 years of peace was 1971-1981 during which, Indira Gandhi made India strong as a fort. But Antony allowed Indian Army to bloat and bloat to 1.5 million people while armed with old INSAS guns, crappy boots, helmets, gloves, transport systems, and cheap and outdated Russian armour. He has ruined Air Force which has now come to 30 squadrons. He orders open competition from all other countries and then sits on the decision for ever. While orders from Russia and Italy are given without any consideration and competition. Examples, Mil-17 helicopters, T-90 tanks, INVAR missiles, Augusta Helos, the counting can go on. His left bias has brought Indian defence services to their knees.
Will he also own up and resign??
I think it is not the fault of Admiral Joshi but he took high moral ground and resigned for the good of Navy…Great act…
I think the right person to resign is Raksha Manthri Antony and entire top line of MOD for poor planning and acquisition process and corruption ….
They order T-90S and T-72 without A/C and waste so much on Air Force and did not acquire new submarines timely…relying on such old submarines is very dangerous and it is not the problem of Navy at all, much less of Admiral Joshi….
Very very very poor performance from the UPA government…
The accident is a result of us not upgrading continuously. We have wasted last 10 years in not planning. The gulf between MoD and services is also increasing. The result of a very under performing government
What is there for that idiot antony to resign after all the damage has been done. This is criminal wastage of money and resources in decision making process. What has antony gained by being longest serving RM when the defence forces are being martyred by his indecisiveness. This is a conspiracy against the nation.
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I think, the defense minister should also offer his skin …
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My hunch is that Antony and his ilk will never resign from RM's post. He is the most self-centered and incompetent person.
I wonder if there will be anything left for Modi Government? How much more will be destroyed before these horrible bunch of demagogues leave the government???
So MoD is responsible for another Mishap.
They sunk a 1000 crore submarine because it xould not procure the batteries in 15 months!!!
What professionalism..
After all the MoD outdoes itself everytime…HAL wants the IAF to fly an imaginary trainer in HPT 40, DRDO wants the war to be shifted to Awadhi as the aarjun is too heavy to be moved and its Agni missiles are called a success when it fails night trials!!! the tejas made with an underpowered engine as if it would thrill the pilot to have supherb radars notifying it of incoming missiles but have nothing to move away from it…
MoD ,HAL, DRDO are the bane of every Indian
I salute you the naval chief….you have done one thing which should be done but no one does coz he wants post retirement perks… you have done one thing which the defence forces would remember as a person doing right thing when it was necessory…both for the ppl who aim dor post retirement jobs and the babus who have scanty care for the defence personnel. like in Rang de basanti… the defence minister says 'log defence me bharti hote hai shaheed hone ke liye'…high time defence ppl tell them its not what you think….
Jus hope ppl under you are morally upright to follow you and not what happened during Admiral Bhagwat time…
i have greatest regards for you… i think Airforce is one arm which needs to learn lot many things from you… donno much about army though..