Legendary Admiral of the old school

It was December 18, 1961, off the coast of Goa. The communication console on the bridge of the anti-aircraft frigate INS Betwa crackled to life with a message from the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS). It read, “Personal from CNS. Capture me a Portuguese frigate please.” The captain of Betwa swung into action. The other ships patrolling in company — INS Beas and INS Cauvery — were told to join in. What followed was a battle in which Betwa’s accurate gunfire crippled the Albuquerque and the frigate surrendered. Betwa’s captain’s message to the Naval Headquarters read, “Albuquerque has been destroyed and is now lying sunk in Goa harbour.” A day later, the Governor-General surrendered, marking the end of over 450 years of Portuguese rule in Asia. The captain of Betwa was Commander Rustom Khushro Shapoorjee Ghandhi, Rusi to friends.

Rusi Ghandhi had a long and distinguished career in public service. A Jabalpur boy, born on July 1, 1924, Rusi joined the Royal Indian Navy in January 1943. His 36-year career saw him rise to the rank of Vice Admiral, command ships in all major conflicts, win the Vir Chakra for gallantry, head both the Eastern and Western Fleets, and serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command. After retirement, he spent five years as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Shipping Corporation of India. Concurrently, Rusi was the Captain Commandant of the Executive Branch of the Navy, an honour conferred upon retired flag officers who serve as a ‘Distinguished Elder’.

From 1986 to 1990, he served as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh. Some years later, 1993 to 1996, he was a member of the minorities commission. The vast canvas and wide variety of assignments would testify to his ability, experience and acceptability.

Rusi was quite the destiny’s child! He took part in World War II as a young trainee, saw action in Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and was on board the W-class destroyer HMS Wakeful at Tokyo Bay during the surrender of Japan, marking the end of hostilities of WW-II. During the Royal Indian Navy uprising in 1946, he was on the river-class frigate HMIS Shamsher, the only ship in Bombay which did not mutiny. Interestingly, Rusi, as the gunnery officer, wanted to bombard the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, seen as a symbol of British colonialism, and even advised his Commanding Officer to do so.

As the aide-de-camp (ADC) to the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, with whom he forged a lasting friendship, he was present at Rashtrapati Bhavan on August 15, 1947, when ‘India awakened to life and freedom’, and witnessed the swearing in of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Thus, even before he was 25, he had a ringside view to some of the most seminal events of the 20th century.

In the late 1950s, Rusi took over as the skipper of INS Cauvery, the first of his many command tenures. In 1960, he commissioned the Betwa as her first captain and a year later, achieved poetic justice in putting out of action a frigate named after the second Viceroy of Portuguese India and the first Duke of Goa, Alfonso de Albuquerque.

In the 1965 Indo-Pak war, he commanded the ASW frigate — INS Khukri — and was the Senior Officer (F14) of the 14th Frigate squadron, which included INS Kirpan and INS Kuthar. Though continuously deployed, he experienced the frustration of the Indian fleet being assigned a defensive role and restrictions imposed on action against the enemy. When war broke out in 1971, Rusi as captain of the flagship of the Western Fleet, INS Mysore, was the de-facto chief adviser to the Fleet Commander, Rear Admiral EC Kuruvilla.

The Western Fleet carried out the devastating missile boat attack on Karachi (Op Python) on December 8, undertook raids on the Makran coast, apprehended the Pakistani merchant vessel ‘Madhumati’, choked access to Pakistani ports and exercised control of North Arabian Sea. Rusi was awarded the Vir Chakra for “gallantry, leadership and devotion to duty of a high order”.

In the early years of the Indian Navy, Rusi was the training officer of the 1st Joint Services Wing course (which later became the National Defence Academy). He was the first Indian officer to attend the Naval War College at Rhode Island, USA, and in whose wake many distinguished officers have followed. He did stints in the Navy’s Personnel and Operational branches and had a diplomatic tenure in London immediately after the 1971 war. His tenure as the Chief of Personnel (Navy’s HR head) is notable for the merger of the erstwhile Supply and Secretariat branch with the Executive branch, giving them opportunities for upward mobility and command positions.

Tall and handsome, Rusi had eclectic tastes that included a penchant for red socks and a passion for angling. His colourful personality and ready wit were much admired. Rusi passed away on December 23, 2014; he was given a burial at sea as per his wish — “I’ve enjoyed fish all my life, now let the fish enjoy me!” Family and friends put out to sea in the missile boat INS Vipul to say their final goodbyes to the ‘Old Seadog’.

In the centenary year of his birth, he is fondly remembered as a ‘legendary Admiral of the old school’.

— Cmde Srikant Kesnur is a Navy veteran and Swaroop Anand a startup entrepreneur