Navy Chief Sureesh Mehta was asked by Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday to explain the failure of the Navy and the Coast Guard to act on specific information provided by intelligence agencies that could have prevented terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attack from reaching the Indian coast. Sources said that the Defence Minister, who was questioned about security lapses on part of the Armed Forces at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday, pulled up the Navy Chief for the same. On November 19 there had been alerts by intelligence agencies that an attack was planned on Mumbai from the sea. The alert went as far as to say that the terrorist could probably come by an Indian fishing trawler. The Chief is understood to have told the minister that the information provided was ‘not actionable’ and little could have been done by the Armed Forces. However, the inability of the Navy and the Coast Guard (which also comes under the operational command of the Navy) to detect the terrorists even though they were in Indian territorial waters for at least 72 hours is being questioned by various quarters. For the record, the Navy says that Mehta had sought an appointment with the minister in view of the national mourning and its impact on the Navy Day celebrations scheduled for December 4. The meeting went on for over 40 minutes and MoD officials confirmed that the Navy Chief briefed the minister on the security scenario in view of the Mumbai attack. “The Navy Chief met the Defence Minister and briefed him about the security situation and the navy’s preparedness to meet any eventualities,” a MoD official said. Sources said that a press conference by the Marine Commandos (MARCOS) of the Navy in Mumbai even as the rescue operations were being carried out by the National Security Guards (NSG) was also discussed at the meeting. Officials confirmed that no clearances had been given by the Defence Ministry for the conference that lasted for close to an hour. Questions have also been raised on the detailed conference that had revealed some of the tactics used by the elite force which have always been kept under wraps in the past. Another goof-up by the Navy was the handing over of photographic evidence gathered by the MARCOS to a television channel. The photograph contained details of credit cards, weapons and other equipment used by the terrorists that, analysts say, should only have been revealed to investigating agencies.
