The Navy Foundation in Bengaluru is perhaps more unique than
one may like to hear of at first instance. In the first place, Bengaluru is not a
maritime location. However, the Admiral Pereira Lecture series that it has
instituted is to do with alumni from the region. Kannur, came up severally in
the Naval Chief’s welcoming address. Little did I imagine that Ronnie Pereira
was from Kannur where
India’s seamen are formally trained. Bengaluru by contrast seems more like
the choice for naval
officers’ retirement abodes. On asking uniformed men, I realised that not
more than 70 officers had secondments or deputations across DRDO or Central
Quality Assurance offices. Around 500 retired officers however resided in
Bengaluru. This is the city the late Admiral Pereira breathed his last too.
I was fortunate to be
invited to the 2nd Admiral Pereira lecture by the renowned scientist
Prof. Paulraj. Paulraj is the pioneer of a breakthrough wireless technology known as MIMO (multiple input, multiple output). MIMO is now core technology in latest WiFi and LTE systems. The topic for
the day on 11th January at the BEL auditorium was regarding security and technology in the new world order.
Admiral
Robin Dhowan, had already assured the audience of indigenous development of equipment
for the navy. The speaker in Paulraj represented a continuity in an
intellectual voyage for the modern soldier in an asymmetric warfare context. Having
spent 25 years in the Navy, he went on to be a respectful academic in Stanford.
What I was especially drawn to were the pattern in his laments. None had a
technological challenge. They were either social, organisational or merely cognitive
or attitudinal. Let me recount a few of his reflections.
1. Bureaucracy in India needs reform. It currently
arrests development.
2. Narrating the travel embargo during his sonar
development, and the ‘good’ men in Raja Ramanna’s time, he elaborated on the
rigidity of the ‘system’. He labelled it as the need for organisational reform.
3. Technology cannot be left merely to the private
sector. The gaps in technology requires government support in the order of lakhs
of crores of rupees. Indigenous technology does not have that backing even if private capital
were to join hands.
4. Emphasis on quality is missing in higher education.
The Chinese government sends hundreds of thousands of students to USA on
government grants to access better quality of education. He gets more than
200000 letters of interest from students of Chinese origin annually. India’s
scene is desperate and despicable in this respect.
5. Spectrum for common citizens is blocked by the
services in the name of national security. Prof. Paulraj felt some of this
spectrum could be freed simply by withholding it in times of national security,
than to permanently disallow the spectrum to civilians.
Well, the above notwithstanding, some points I picked up
beyond the BEL auditorium were noteworthy too. We took to a table where an
elderly veteran sat alone for lunch. He was kind enough to accept our presence.
Having introduced himself as a veteran pilot, he went on to share much from his
heart. Here's a brief recall from his outpouring.
1.
Commanders in the Navy could ‘separate’ out to pursue
intellectual dreams like Paulraj did, and the host Ray D’souza did. The air
force and the army on the other hand were short of personnel. The air-force and
could hardly recover investments in its pilots for example.
2.
It takes 12 signoffs before a fighter aircraft
takes off. Ground duties are no less. Civilians have no clue to the preparedness of airmen.
3.
He felt that the seeds of indifference came
about because Nehru did not feel sovereignty needed technological investments,
so much so that the 1962 war saw soldiers on foot and in khakhi braving the
Himalayan heights who in their retreat were lucky to be airlifted.
4.
Bengaluru has been refusing permission for a war
memorial. It is symptomatic of the clash between the political class and
service officers. Just one officer alone has spent Rs. 26 lakhs since 1986 to
fight for this right up to the Supreme Court, so as to create mind-share in forthcoming generations regarding
the role of servicemen.
5.
Admiral Ronnie Pereira was lucky to be picked up
from the road outside the air-force hospital in Bengaluru. He was riding a scooter in one of the most inglorious deaths a service chief may've had in India. An
admiral as he, lived such a simple life as to be riding a scooter in retirement. Imagine!
The worlds of service personnel are quite far from those of
the ordinary civilian. Governance has been diluted by serving and retired
bureaucrats. No profession however can proceed to excel without a cause. And
braving the odds as Paulraj would do to stay on a problem long enough despite
the odds placed on him by invested paradigms.
Emergence is to be welcomed with openness - it is an
attitude of trusting vulnerability. Expertise is an outcome of devotion, a
relentless sacrifice to focus on a few things to exclusion of all else. It is
an attitude of 'can do'. Originality comes from an attitude of curiosity and a
presence of spontaneous positivity - that is to be authentic - without
guarantee or pretence. Naivete of course will come from irreverence, and
disregard for others' learning.
I had the opportunity to shake hands with naval aviation specialists, Air Marshalls and Admiral Dhowan himself. Overall, this session experience left me with a profound question.
What
am I bringing forth to this world?
