Manohar Parrikar is showing rare maturity when he hints that Mickey Pacheco should follow the law. This is in contrast with his recent comments saying that being Defence Minister is like an ‘adventure’. This was possibly said in the context of going out to sea on the Indian Navy ships and watching their sea maneuvers, getting in and out of helicopters and visiting the forces in places like Ladakh.
The comments that he had made in the incident when the Pak boat ‘blew’ itself in the Arabian sea off the Gujarat coast that we have the capability to eavesdrop on wireless communications as far as Karachi from where the boat had started, compromised our position and exposed our intelligence capabilities. Other than that in the comment made by Parrikar that Somalian pirates are moving into the Indian Ocean and closer to India’s territorial waters left both the Foreign and Commerce Ministries red in the face since they had been lobbying in international forums that the Indian Ocean is a safe zone.
This position would have reduced the insurance rates for shipping that moves through the area which is very high considering the risk of piracy by the Somalian pirates. Parrikar thus is improving and learning on the job like they say and finding that being Defence Minister one has to use one’s tongue with discretion and not shoot oneself in the foot once too often as was his habit as Chief Minister.
Srinivas Kamat, Alto-Betim
