Maritime enthusiasts bemoan bureaucratic indifference

The commissioning of the INS Vikrant (the first indigenous aircraft carrier -IAC) is no doubt a fine achievement on all fronts for Indian Maritime history. But do we have a policy as a nation to protect and conserve our warships? The Defence ministry may say 'we do' and point out at INS Chapal which is docked on the sands of the Rabindranath Tagore beach in Karwar in Karnataka.

But while we thump our chests, bleating about nationalism and respect for national icons, we have failed to conserve the old INS Vikrant (formerly HMS Hercules) and INS Viraat (formerly HMS Hermes). We have salvaged the hull of Vikrant and sold it to scrap dealers and INS Viraat is floating like a ghost ship at 50 meters fathom of Alang in Gujarat half ripped off its jump ramp from which several thousands of fighter aircraft have taken to the skies.

It is such a shame that the Country's first Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant has been sold to scrap dealers and now the second Carrier INS Viraat's fate also is hanging in balance. Thanks to the few nationalist entrepreneurs from Maharashtra the great ship might just get a new lease of life as the Supreme Court has stayed the breaking of INS Viraat. The ship is now anchored in Alang in Gujarat.

Karnataka has a special place in raising a flag of dissent against breaking up Viraat and in a great show of nationalist fervour the coastal region had petitioned the state government to bring Viraat to the coastal waters of Karnataka and make it a living museum. This petition was sent even as the news broke out about the decommissioning of Viraat in 2015. The decommissioning happened sometime in 2017 without the state and the central governments even taking note of the petition the ship had been set up for auction for breaking.

The Karnataka State Coastal Development Authority (KSCDA) had even sanctioned Rs 3.5 crore to develop infrastructure and identified two places on the coast of Karnataka. Though it had been forgotten during the last five years the proposal has got traction after the Supreme court halted the demolition of the ship recently. In 2015 the three coastal districts of Karnataka Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada under the flag of KSCDA appealed to the then Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee. The matter did not go any further though the state government had forwarded the letter to the central government.

This is the issue with our governments' inaction on matters pertaining to the preservation of our maritime heritage. The political leadership and bureaucracy's indifference pains the Navy because no sailor worth his salt can see the ship he served on break down. All ships, however, cannot be turned into museums because of the corrosion that could cause them to sink, which would be a worse outcome. 'However, I am confident that the nation can use its resources to donate at least one aircraft carrier to a museum', said a Navy official with the rank of ship commander who spoke off the record.

It was hoped that when India builds its own aircraft carrier and perhaps when it has developed its own capabilities the country might treat its decommissioned carriers with more dignity. Perhaps this is the time for the government to tow abandoned INS Viraat, retrofit it and create a museum that is worth our nationalism. Both Vikrant and Viraat were foreign make and they were 'purchased' and not built, except for 'refitting' and maintenance by our dockyards.

The reason to continue the demolition of the ship might stem from the fact that the 'ski ramp' on the front side of the ship has been already dismantled, "But when we got the ship (HMS Hermes of the British Royal Navy) the ramp was not there, our engineers scaled up the functionality of the ship and built the ramp which definitely gave an edge. If the government is sure of making it into a museum, the absence of ramp should not be a problem" said the sources.

The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had ordered in 2021 that the "parties engaged in the dismantling of the ship to maintain status quo". The petition to this effect was filed by Envitech Marine Consultants Private Limited based in Thane, Maharashtra. But the shipbreaking company at Alang in Gujarat - Shree Ram Group- says it had already dismantled 40 per cent of the ship. The petitioners however are hopeful that it can be restored and transformed into a museum in any coastal part of the country.

Sources in the Defence ministry say that the company that had asked for the restoration of the ship as a museum wanted a No Objection Certificate, but there is no such procedure as the ship which is decommissioned is no more the property of armed forces. This could be seen in the case of INS Chapal warship museum at Karwar the ship was handed over to the local administration for upkeep.