Hours after her husband Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked from the top post of Indian Navy, sitting inside their Rajaji Marg residence, Niloufer Bhagwat said: `` Yeh kissa kursi ka hai. The head of a coalition government buckling under pressure. Vice Admiral Harinder Singh levelled all sorts of allegations saying that a Sikh was being discriminated against. The Akalis and others began pressurising the government.''

``I am a realist. I do not think a communal party would forgive me for what I did in the Srikrishna Commission. The Commission indicted the saffron party. I have alwaysrepresented the downtrodden and been branded a Communist. The capitalist party is taking revenge,'' she said.

Niloufer Bhagwat said that the Admiral was never summoned by the Prime Minister, Home Minister or the Defence Minister and told that ``his actions were not in conformity.''

She said that the Supreme Court in several orders has made it clear that the government cannot recommend the appointment of an official. ``The government can accept or reject the recommendation of the Naval Chief. Like in the case of appointment of Judges, the government cannot make appointments,'' he said.

Admiral Bhagwat sat in the living room surrounded by friends and well wishers while his wife talked to reporters. Later, he walked in. Said Admiral Bhagwat: ``I have stood by the Constitution of the Republic. I'll tell you what a soldier does. He stands by the country and does his duty with honour. That is what every soldier stands for and pays for it with life,'' he said with a lump in his throat.

Admiral Bhagwat satlooking at the ceiling as his wife spoke. ``The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) cannot usurp the role of the Maharajas or the King and Queen of England. They were done away with when India became a Republic. The ACC is as bound by the law as the common man,'' she said.

Admiral Bhagwat said he would not be going to court to challenge his dismissal. His wife explained the circumstances in which he had gone to court earlier (1990). ``That petition was about the sale of office in the Indian Navy. Fleet Commanders' appointments were going for extraneous considerations,'' she said. ``But the legal issue was that they removed my Annual Confidential Report (ACR) and substituted it with another one and we had evidence for it,'' Admiral Bhagwat added. ``We had evidence. The Admiral called for investigation into the affairs of the Navy. He did not do it for selfish reasons,'' she said.

Admiral Bhagwat later bowed out of the room, saying he was not in a ``proper frame of mind'' to talk. ``I have spoken tomy men. The men I have served with love for 40 years,'' he added and left the room. Niloufer Bhagwat said that the country put Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in the highest office not to ``serve political masters.''

``He has paid a price and it is necessary for him to pay the price. I want the country to absorb what has happened to him. The country will react more seriously to his dismissal than to his reinstatement in service,'' she added.

She also called the appointment of Vice Admiral Sushil Kumar as the next Admiral as ``arbitrary''. ``Imagine what kind of a person do we have as the next chief. He has done no operational command and has not even commanded a fleet. He has never been a fleet commander. This is just a political conspiracy to get a man who is pliable. After all there are so many defence deals coming up,'' she said.

New Navy chief

Vice Admiral Sushil Kumar, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, NM, ADC. Commissioned in 1961, he specialised as a hydrographer, and has participated in the 1961 liberation ofGoa, the 1965 and the 1971 wars. He has commanded two ships, and his last appointment prior to taking over the service was Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Command at Cochin, responsible for training. As Director of Naval Operations in Delhi, he was awarded the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal for operations in Sri Lanka and Maldives in the late 1970s.