THE NAVY AS NEWS-A REJOINDER (Commodore Gilbert Menezes I N Retd)
The article by Fredrick Noronha( 24th Feb) sought to address the Navy and Civilian relationship over a broad canvas of incidents starting with the sonic booms heard over Goa a few days ago, and concluding with the dire warning that the Indian nation could collapse economically if we tend to focus too much on Arms acquisition in somewhat similar fashion to the erstwhile Soviet Union. This rejoinder seeks to set the record straight. One of the major reasons for Goans not fully appreciating the Navys vital role in Goa is the hamhanded and sometimes irresponsible statements of some politicians with an eye on their votebanks, particularly Shantaram Naik, Churchill Alemao and Mathany Saldanha. These gentlemen have badmouthed the Navy from time to time and specifically about the issue of Dabolim airport, forgetting that National Security will always take precedence and override sectarian state issues. Fredrick Noronha has displayed much the same approach when making passing reference to Anjediva island being 'gifted' to the Navy with no recompense. Firstly, the island was transferred to the Government of India, and not to some private party, to build up a huge, new and modern Naval base to enhance our National security. If anything, we, as Goans, should feel proud to have played a part in this exercise. It also came at little cost to us as the island was uninhabited anyway, with only a small heritage chapel on it. The Navy now has a secure deep water base which can service its front line striking forces like the Western Fleet and submarines. Besides, the Navy has a proud record of preserving heritage buildings such as the dockyard buildings in Mumbai. So we can be assured that the chapel of our lady of Brotas will be maintained. In the case of Dabolim airport, the Navy uses it as a strategic facility to operate various types of aircraft from it including long range maritime patrol aircraft, capable of mounting searches over the entire Arabian sea, besides actively assisting the international anti piracy operations in the Gulf region. Over the past 2 years, a number of pirate attacks have been foiled, hundreds of ships been safely escorted and a large no. of pirates captured in the gulf region, in large measure due to the dedicated flying effort mounted by the Navy from Dabolim. There are 7 different types of aircraft and helicopters operating from the naval air station. To keep them and aircrew in constant readiness and operational fitness, the Government of India has spent crores of rupees and built up huge infrastructure over the past 40 years. Keeping Goas tourist traffic in mind, a balance has been arrived at, and at least 40 civil flights arrive and depart daily, in addition to about 600 charter flights in season. This is a far cry from the solitary Indian Airlines flight of the 1970s. The airport is used for dedicated Naval flying for only about 4 hours in the morning. At other times and during the night, naval aircraft operate on an as required basis, without hindering civil flights. It is true that the airport is congested, but this is due in large part to the extremely poor management practices of the Airport Authority of India. The pathetic visitor areas, awful parking arrangements, substandard signboarding inside the terminal, announcement systems, dirty toilets, are all testimony to this. For Goans to say that the naval air station should move to Karwar at this juncture is ridiculous because no large airstrip exists at Karwar. The naval base there is primarily built as a deep water port to provide operational and repair facilities to warships and submarines of the Western Fleet of the Indian Navy. Besides, the argument can be used that why should Karnataka take on additional burden for the Nations defence? Does the state of Goa have no responsibility towards National Security? Lastly, there is little danger that the Indian Republic will collapse economically due to the defence budget which now constitutes less than 3% of GDP. In real terms it is less than the annual turnover of one Indian company -Reliance Industries. The parallel drawn with the erstwhile Soviet Union is completely inappropriate. The security of any Nation does not come cheap.
