KOCHI: Theft of hard disks from country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant, being built at Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), is a major security violation as it happened at a high security zone, said former Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash on Tuesday. “The hard disks could be replaced and it might have only contained details of propulsion system which is not a great secret. Hope the intelligence wing is taking a good hard look at the incident,” Admiral Arun Prakash said on the sidelines of a lecture on “India’s Security Challenges” organised by Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).
On Anandaman & Nicobar Command, put in place immediately after the Kargil war, he said it was one of the few positive steps taken by the then government. “We all had apprehensions on how Navy, Army and Air Force will work together. But within months, everybody learned to work with each other and it soon became a perfectly functioning organisation. We thought the Anandaman & Nicobar Command will be replicated elsewhere, but nothing has happened since then,” he said.
Earlier, delivering the lecture, he said China can be expected to push its influence in the region to grab territory, try and rewrite the rules to suit its own interests. “China’s strategic nexus with Pakistan and its diplomatic moves are all exclusively focused on containment of India and impairment of India as a rival,” he said adding that PLA Navy (Chinese Navy) will over take the US Navy in terms of ships soon.“China has constructed an aircraft carrier in three years where as India’s indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant is still under construction, “ he said.