Two days after INS Betwa, Indian Navy’s guided missile frigate, hit the ground while being undocked, Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the reason for the accident may have been a wrong calculation of balance. The incident occurred Mumbai’s naval dockyard on Monday, which has also been described by the officials as ‘first of its kind’ in India.
The accident left the INS Betwa tilted perpendicular and lying on its side on the ground. Reports said that the main mast, which houses the long-range surveillance radars, was broken and that the boilers and other equipment inside the ship may have been damaged. The Navy also ordered an inquiry to fix responsibility and ascertain the extent of damage.
Describing the incident as “unfortunate”, sources had said that the naval dockyards had recently undertaken a similar kind of exercise with a much heavier aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya. INS Betwa was commissioned in 2004. It had gone for a medium-refit to the Naval dockyard in Mumbai in October and was to set out to sea later.
In the meantime, the defence minister has said that India is definately for peace and stressed that he was not coward who would compromise on security in fear of war, adding that the country has never strived for war. Speaking to Aaj Tak the defence minister underlined that ‘national security should be paramount’ and said that one should be ready to go back on their own words on national security.
Adding that he was not a coward, who would compromise on national security, he said that when tension increased at the border, Indian jawans also die even if more damage is caused to the other country, he said, while pointing out that no one likes loss of lives. Parrikar added that the September 29 surgical strikes, which was carried out by India across LoC led to ‘unpredictability’ in the mind of Pakistan. The Defence Minister also pointed out that he just took credit for taking the decision and not for the operation, a PTI report has said.