Admiral Ben Key, married and father of three, had fun with a subordinate. Key isn’t gay; the subordinate is a woman. We don’t know if it was adultery; the British tabloids—prudes!—don’t tell us if she was someone’s wife.
Key has been kicked out, and King Charles has anointed General Gwyn Jenkins to head the Royal Navy. A general to head the navy? Yes, mates! Jenkins will be the first general to be the ‘first sea lord’. He was a commando in the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy’s amphibious special ops force.
Good luck, Jenkins. Keep your eyes open, and your ears safe. Once a captain Jenkins crossed the sea path of the Spaniards in the south seas, and they sent him back minus an ear. An MP brought the severed ear to parliament; the sight of it fired England’s fiercest sea spirits leading to a nine-year war with Spain starting 1739. They called it the War of Jenkins’ ear, perhaps the first war triggered by the sight of a human organ, after Cleopatra’s nose.
Imaging: Deni Lal/Ai
Let’s leave Gen Jenkins to sort out the royal naval mess, and get back to Sir Ben’s non-crimes. Under English law, cheating your wife, or having fun with another’s, is no longer a crime. Nor is it under the old Indian penal law or under the current Bharatiya kanoon. Guys who are into it say it is fun—till your wife or her husband gets to know of it. After that it’s hell.
But then, Key isn’t just another ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’—that’s what they call their aam aadmi (shall we say ‘man on the slow train to Karjat’?) He was their ‘first sea lord’, a post once held by the likes of Louis Mountbatten when Britannia ruled the world’s waters. Other navies had admirals; the Royal Navy had sea lords. They still have, though the sea lords are verily King Canutes now!
The long and short of it is that Sir Ben was England’s first sea lord, and they have asked him to stand down to face a probe. Not a court-martial, thankfully. The Royal Navy claims to have never court-martialled an admiral since 1757, when John Byng faced the firing squad for “failing to do his utmost” in a battle against the French.
Sleeping with a woman who isn’t your wife—be she single or married—is no longer a crime for the constabulary to knock on your door. England decriminalised adultery long ago; India’s Supreme Court did it in 2018 through the Joseph Shine judgement. But His Majesty’s law lords and sea lords aren’t impressed; nor would our military jurists be. Sleeping with a subordinate or a subordinate’s spouse is still an offence under military law in both countries. Our court revisited the issue in 2023 and ruled that the armed forces are exempt from the ambit of the Shine judgment.
Yes, mates! The guys and gals in uniform don’t have all the rights and freedoms that we on the slow train to Karjat have. They have a different set of dos and don’ts, and one of those is not to indulge in unofficerlike conduct. Sleeping with a colleague or colleague’s wife is a conduct unbecoming of an officer, and you can face the sack for doing that.
Fine, let the British do whatever with their first sea lord, and let our military courts do if they find an officer having committed the offence. I am here not as a Peeping Tom lurking near officers’ bedrooms, but out of poetic interest.
Poetic interest? Yes, I like the phrase we use for describing the crime of adultery in India’s military. We call it ‘stealing the affections of a brother officer’s wife’.
Patriarchal, perhaps! But I shall bet all my hoarded Spanish gold to say it was coined by a Keats or a Casanova!
prasannan@theweek.in