Vice Admiral Elenjikal Chandy Kuruvilla – The Man who Bombed Karachi

Vice Admiral Elenjikal Chandy Kuruvilla – The Man who Bombed Karachi

Bear with me for continuing with the memories of 1971. But this story too should be told for there wouldn’t be a more opportune moment for it than this 50th anniversary.

The bombing of Karachi in December 1971 has been the highest point in the history of the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy has never tasted greater success before or after this historic event. Hence Indian Navy celebrates December 4, the day it made the ‘world’s biggest bonfire’ of Karachi as the Navy Day every year.

Yet, one of the most important leaders of this historic operation has not received due recognition, even in his own state of Kerala. He is Vice Admiral Elanjikkal Chandy Kuruvilla (1922-1994). He commandeered the Western Fleet, which stunned Pakistan and even the superpowers like the USA and the USSR by this blitzkrieg. Although the Indian government awarded him the Param Vishist Seva and Athi Vishisht Seva medals, Kuruvilla has not received due public attention, unlike many others involved in the bombing.

Indeed, the man who deserved the biggest credit for the bombing was the then Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral S.M. Nanda (1915-2009), who even named his memoir, the ‘Man who Bombed Karachi’ (2004) as suggested by his journalist friend Kushwant Singh. For, Nanda did this offensive deliberately to recapture the Indian Navy’s ‘lost reputation and morale’ caused by not being permitted to participate in India’s former wars of 1962 and 1965.

There was another reason too for the Karachi-born Nanda to deserve the highest credit for the bombing. For, he had it done against stiff opposition from his force. Nanda wrote, ‘I have little hesitation in saying even at the risk of sounding immodest, that this idea was essentially mine and also that I had to overcome rather strong resistance and stiff opposition from staff that had been brought up on the theory that a naval force must desist from approaching a hostile coast defended by Naval and shore-based aviation.’

Kuruvilla later headed the Southern Naval Command and became vice-admiral while serving as chairman of Mazagon Docks. Retired from the Navy in 1976, he settled in Ooty with family and died there in 1994.Two daughters survived Kuruvilla and his wife, Pinky. Let us remember this Malayali who bombed Karachi on its fiftieth anniversary and also when another Malayali became the Chief of Naval Staff for the first time.