Comments on: Not too sharp a Kirpan (updated)

By: marco jaice

marco jaice — Sun, 06 May 2007 17:26:19 +0000

theres been such a great input from different angles but the fact remains the same .its better to learn from our mistakes and perform well in the future …… am a person who has lost my uncle in this event (sinking of khukri) being trained in various warships of our navy i being an ex NCC Sr Cdt.Cpt understand that it takes lot of self determination ,courage and sacrificial mind to kiss the abyss and alow the juniors to live thier life. Lets focus on our strength and be the global winner…

By: Sanjiv (sanjju) M.

Sanjiv (sanjju) M. — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:00:33 +0000

MARIA! The gorgeous Fort Convent lass? Wow! My young teenage Campionite heart went a thumpin everytime i saw u.. I am letting u into a little secret of 30 long yrs ago.The Golf Course adventures,the friday movie at the US Club, the the naval family ,all a faded dream now.

Our Dads kicked ass real good in 1972 with raw guts and the little they had as weaponry.I just dont understand how an introspection 35 years later will help the Navy of today learn from its "mistakes" given that all the parameters have changed.

By: mariner

mariner — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 09:59:51 +0000

Well let me introduce myself first. I am in the Indian navy serving as a full fledged lieutenant onboard warships. Let me put one thing straight. We have to learn from our mistakes. Lets not start blaming who is wrong, who is right or who is corrupt. Lets instead see as how to solve a problem. There are enough problems as such. We have to draw lessons and ensure such a misfortune does not occur in the future.

And such a situation shall arise when u people show faith in us. Agreed there is no war now. Agreed the economy is bouyant. But remember IF U WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE U HAVE TO PREPARE FOR WAR.

I have to admit one thing being an Officer. The lives of the sailors under me squarely rest upon me. If my sailors die i am wholly and hundred percent responsible for it. Let the entire world say i am not to be blamed for their lives, but when i go to sleep these memories haunt me. Thats the way we are trained in our National Defence Academy. We have to lead. We have to take resposibility. I safely presume these thoughts might have gone through Capt Mulla as he decided to go with the ship. And every person who has a self respect will do the same.

Jai Hind.

By: Maria

Maria — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 13:10:08 +0000

I was eight years old and wide awake late that night my heart thumping as my mother went to answer the ringing phone .It wasn't about Dad... but the Khukri had been sunk! I still remember my mother coming back to bed crying with a mixture of releif and despair. We didnt lose immediate family but we had lost family ;a feeling that many would find difficult to understand given the dog eat dog mentality that now prevails.

Its great fun to discuss culpability for the sinking of a ship 35 years after the event with the infinite wisdom of hind sight ofcourse. Uncharitable as they might like to be to the young families that lost precious members to the war , the armchair pansies who write this crap should wait to fight their own wars first before passing wise judgement on helpless old or long deceased heroes of yesteryear.

My Dad and the many "uncles" in the Naval family (most of whom were known to us children by first name) were heroes . If a nation that once sung their praises thinks other wise ....so be it!

By: gbpinku

gbpinku — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:06:58 +0000

If it wasn’t for the Indian Armed Forces, we all would have been Pakis by now. And politicians, beaurucrats, civil servants et al would have ensured it faster for a meagre sum. You need balls of steel to be part of a full fledged war and much more than that to save your juniors and go down with your ship. Sicklings sitting in their airconditioned offices blabbering over the armed forces are nothing but traitors of the country who need to be shot at the first given oppurtunity. The month of Dec 71 also saw so many supreme sacrifices, heroism and bravery in the Army, Navy and Air Force, lets talk about them and ensure that at least all Indians, if not the world, know of our courage and valiance and leave the finer points of tactics and when to get away and when not to, leave it for those who are capable of taking this decision, they have been, chosen, trained and sent their after being selected from the best of the best.

By: DEVIL

DEVIL — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:19:19 +0000

it is sad to see that all of you assholes dont know your arse from your mouth when you start spitting out shit.. do some brainstorming on how you would feel looking down from siachen with your fingers in a polythene bag or how you feel when you are flying over kuttch and you pick up radar contacts or even when an enemy submarine decides to show itself to you briefly…. ever read the army recruitment ad… DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU????

By: Sam Mccarthy

Sam Mccarthy — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 08:46:25 +0000

A lot of "galley news" do flow and it is true that Khukri was not on action station. Instead, routine patrol was being carried out in the comfort that Pakis will have gone into the harbour. Such was the disaster that Admirals Nanda and Kohli reapd on the Indian Navy.

Lot of people fail to mention RAdm Kuruvilla and his Chief of Staff. Indeed after the first successful attack on Karachi harbour, both CNS and C-in-C Western Command wanted to send a second wave of attack on Karachi. As fleet commander, Kuruvilla sought access to intelligence reports on the last attack which were denied.

Disaster such as the sinking of Khukri struck because the chain of command did know of the internal bickering which assured them that Pakis have gone home!

By: matrix

matrix — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:34:54 +0000

i am really surprised at the comments from everyone who has been given a mouth by the ALMIGHTY TO SPEAK!! i myself am a serving officer in the Indian Navy.if u people do not know about things,please ask others before blogging whatever comes to your mind. specially this bihari babu character,what do u know about the armed forces? if your armed forces would have been corrupt,you wouldn’t have been sleeping inside your house fearlessly. you know how is it to stay inside a sinking ship when u know that u are going to die inevitably? and still captain m n mulla risked his life,saved as many of his juniors as he could and finally went down with his ship!! how many of us can lay our lives like this? regarding INS prahar’s sinking… again no one of u knows what happened.. and still u want to raise a finger towards the soldiers who don’t get any bribe… are really underpaid(go and find out the pay of a jawan, its even lesser than a peon in bihar government) i should not comment on this,i am bound by rules.. but u shud know that it was not the naval ship’s mistake.the merchant vessel was on auto-pilot.the personnel on duty were sleeping, and they didnot respond to continuous calls by the naval ship. the merchant vessel was supposed to get out of way as per rules.. i am not saying that the naval ship was not at mistake.the officer on duty shud have taken action when he found out that the merchant ship wasn’t taking action… the naval ship did take action, but very late. the guilty will of course be punished by the military law,and it is harsher than u know. just one request,please ask others before u write anything.the whole world reads it, and think of what they will assess when they find us indians only criticizing ourselves… lets have some self respect guys. hope u understand. thanks

By: Akash

Akash — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:37:20 +0000

Can the posters, especially Bihari Babu behave with some more maturity and decorum please?

Why dont you people read as to what the Navy actually did and said instead of spilling sepia ink over made up bunkum? The link has been given above!

And shame on Manish for bringing in RDB and Pat Tillman without even examining the Navy's stated view as given on its own website. If this was not shoddy reportage based on one speculative report, then I wonder what is.

By: yourdad

yourdad — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:38:32 +0000

This is absolutely shocking to read this item about INS Khukri. I have decided to question one of my relative in the navy regarding this event.

BTW , also read about the recent event in which INS Prahar sank 35 km from the cost of goa after hitting a SCI ship !

Is this what is called as "blue water navy" ? we have naval officers dreaming of enforcing their authority from the arabian sea to the gulf of malaysia !