NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday also touched upon cost overruns in submarine repairs and also slammed the Railway ministry over its safety record.
DELAY, COST OVERRUNS IN SUBMARINE REPAIRS
The CAG has hit out at the defence ministry for poorly planning the refit of a Russia-made submarine that led to the warship being unavailable to the navy for nearly a decade.
In a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the top auditor also slammed the ministry for significant cost overruns in the project, with the refit cost of INS Sindhukirti shooting up from 629.50 crore to almost
1,175 crore. The submarine is one of the Indian Navy’s 10 Kilo class boats bought from Russia between 1986 and 2000.
The medium refit of the submarine was awarded to Vizag-based Hindustan Shipyard Limited for the first time to develop indigenous repair capabilities at a time when the Kilo class boats were routinely sent to Russia for overhaul.
The medium refit of the submarine kicked off five years behind schedule in January 2006 and was supposed to be completed by January 2009. However, the yard delivered the boat to the navy, which is grappling with a depleting combat potential of its underwater arm, only in June 2015 with sea acceptance trials to follow.The CAG attributed the delay to “deficiency in manpower deployment by the yard, delayed supply of yard materials and modernization of equipment.” The auditor recommended that the navy should establish dedicated project teams to monitor refits and the ministry should exercise stringent financial controls.
RAILWAYS FACE FLAK TOO
Noting with concern that the number of train accidents went up by 160% during 2003 to 2013, the CAG slammed the Railways for not uniformly making available the sanctioned safety items to different zones. In the three year period from 2010 to 2013, as many as 814 coaches, wagons and locomotives remained idle in 10 railway zones for periods of 668 days for want of safety items, resulting in the loss of earning capacity of 348.37 crore, the country’s top audit body pointed out in its report tabled in Parliament. The report pointed out that there were instances of en route detachment of coaches and wagons due to use of inferior quality of items.

Neerja was India’s youngest and first woman recipient of the highest civilian honour, the Ashoka Chakra, posthumously.

“NO, we are not grieving at all. There will be no mourning in the Bhanot household. My mother lived a full and happy life, and that’s all that counts,” says Aneesh Bhanot, whose mother Rama Bhanot passed away after battling an illness on Saturday night. She was 86.

Rama was also the mother of flight attendant Neerja Bhanot who lost her life trying to save the lives of 379 passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked PanAm Flight 73 on September 5, 1986. Neerja was India’s youngest and first woman recipient of the highest civilian honour, the Ashoka Chakra, posthumously. Pakistan also bestowed the prestigious Tamgha-e-Insaaniyat Award on Neerja. She was only 22.

In yet another act of kindness and selflessness by this family, Rama’s body was donated to PGI. “This was mama’s wish. She used to accompany us to the Rotary meetings and would always try to find ways to help people. This was her final gift,” says Aneesh.

The tragic loss of her daughter to a terrorist attack 29 years ago was an unbearable one, but Rama and her husband Harish Bhanot soldiered on. “It took them time, for Neerja was the ‘laado’ of the family, the youngest and most pampered. My parents had wished for her, and in a news article after her death, my father had mentioned how, when she was born on September 7, 1962, the maternity ward matron here at Chandigarh hospital rang up to inform, it’s a girl. To her surprise, he gave her double thanks, for Neerja was a prayer answered after two sons,” recalls Aneesh.

The bond between Rama and Neerja often made Aneesh and his older brother Akhil jealous. “Neerja used to bully us both. Quite a feisty girl she was,” remembers Aneesh. Everyone’s favourite, there was a lot of Rama in her. “Both of them would go for ice cream every afternoon when we were living in Mumbai. The zest for life, the courage and the can-do attitude, the loving and giving nature, laughing and cracking jokes, being confident and bold — Neerja got it all from mom,” he reminisces, sharing how his mother braved his father’s illness too, who passed away in 2008 after battling Alzheimer’s.

From Shimla, Rama Bhanot was an MA in classical music and worked as a telephone operator in times when even local calls were booked. She also took an active part in the Punjab Song and Drama Division, and travelled all over the country with the production.

Come New Year, and the Bhanot family is gearing up for the Neerja Bhanot Award on January 13, which is also Rama’s birthday. Then, it’s Fox Star Studios and Bling Unplugged’s ‘Neerja’ (a biopic) that will release on February 19. Directed by celebrated ad film director Ram Madhvani, Sonam Kapoor is essaying the role of Neerja and Shabana Azmi, the role of Neerja’s mother, Rama.

On playing the role of Neerja’s mother, Azmi, in a release had mentioned, “I had the good fortune of meeting Ramaji in person last year when I was invited to Chandigarh to present the Neerja Bhanot award. She is lovely and we get along really well.”
Interestingly, when Sonam visited the family two years ago for a dinner, the minute she walked in, Rama said, “This is Neerja,” recalls Aneesh, wishing his mother was alive to see the film, something she was looking forward to too.
A prayer ceremony will be held in the memory of Rama Bhanot on December 16 at Arya Samaj Bhawan, Sector 16.
 

– See more at:

by David Swanson

Back in 2010 I wrote a book called War Is A Lie. Five years later, after having just prepared the second edition of that book to come out next spring, I came across another book published on a very similar theme in 2010 called Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War, by Richard E. Rubenstein.

Rubenstein, as you can tell already, is much more polite than I. His book is very well done and I’d recommend it to anyone, but perhaps especially to the crowd that finds sarcasm more offensive than bombs. (I’m trying to get everyone except that crowd to read my book!)

Pick up Rubenstein’s book if you want to read his elaboration on this list of reasons why people are brought around to supporting wars:

1. It’s self-defense;
2. The enemy is Evil;
3. Not fighting will make us Weak, Humiliated, Dishonored;
4. Patriotism;
5. Humanitarian Duty;
6. Exceptionalism;
7. It’s a last resort

Well done. But I think Rubenstein’s respect for war advocates (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense, as I think we must respect everyone if we are to understand them) leads him toward a focus on how much they believe their own propaganda. The answer to whether they do believe their own propaganda is, of course — and I assume Rubenstein would agree — yes and no. They believe some of it, somewhat, some of the time, and they try hard to believe a bit more of it. But how much? Where do you put the emphasis?

Rubenstein begins by defending, not the chief war marketers in Washington, but their supporters around the United States. “We agree to put ourselves in harm’s way,” he writes, “because we are convinced that the sacrifice is justified, not just because we have been stampeded into okaying war by devious leaders, scaremongering propagandists, or our own blood lust.”

Now, of course, most war supporters never put themselves within 10,000 miles of harm’s way, but certainly they believe a war is noble and just, either because the evil Muslims must be eradicated, or because the poor oppressed peoples must be liberated and rescued, or some combination. It is to the credit of war supporters that increasingly they have to believe wars are acts of philanthropy before they’ll support them. But why do they believe such bunk? They’re sold it by the propagandists, of course. Yes, scaremongering propagandists. In 2014 many people supported a war they had opposed in 2013, as a direct result of watching and hearing about beheading videos, not as a result of hearing a more coherent moral justification. In fact the story made even less sense in 2014 and involved either switching sides or taking both sides in the same war that had been pitched unsuccessfully the year before.

Rubenstein argues, rightly I think, that support for war arises not just out of a proximate incident (the Gulf of Tonkin fraud, the babies out of incubators fraud, the Spanish sinking the Maine fraud, etc.) but also out of a broader narrative that depicts an enemy as evil and threatening or an ally as in need. The famous WMD of 2003 really did exist in many countries, including the United States, but belief in the evil of Iraq meant not only that WMD were unacceptable there but also that Iraq itself was unacceptable whether or not the WMD existed. Bush was asked after the invasion why he’d made the claims he’d made about weapons, and he replied, “What’s the difference?” Saddam Hussein was evil, he said. End of story. Rubenstein is right, I think, that we should look at the underlying motivations, such as the belief in Iraq’s evil rather than in the WMDs. But the underlying motivation is even uglier than the surface justification, especially when the belief is that the whole nation is evil. And recognizing the underlying motivation allows us to understand, for example, Colin Powell’s use of fabricated dialogue and false information in his UN presentation as dishonest. He didn’t believe his own propaganda; he wanted to keep his job.

According to Rubenstein, Bush and Cheney “clearly believed their own public statements.” Bush, remember, proposed to Tony Blair that they paint a U.S. plane with UN colors, fly it low, and try to get it shot. He then walked out to the press, with Blair, and said he was trying to avoid war. But he no doubt did partially believe some of his statements, and he shared with much of the U.S. public the idea that war is an acceptable tool of foreign policy. He shared in widespread xenophobia, bigotry, and belief in the redemptive power of mass murder. He shared faith in war technology. He shared the desire to disbelieve in the causation of anti-U.S. sentiment by past U.S. actions. In those senses, we cannot say that a propagandist reversed the public’s beliefs. People were manipulated by the multiplication of the terror of 9/11 into months of terrorizing in the media. They were deprived of basic facts by their schools and newspapers. But to suggest actual honesty on the part of war makers is going too far.

Rubenstein maintains that President William McKinley was persuaded to annex the Philippines by “the same humanitarian ideology that convinced ordinary Americans to support the war.” Really? Because McKinley not only said the poor little brown Filipinos couldn’t govern themselves, but also said that it would be bad “business” to let Germany or France have the Philippines. Rubenstein himself notes that “if the acerbic Mr. Twain were still with us, he would very likely suggest that the reason we did not intervene in Rwanda in 1994 was because there was no profit in it.” Setting aside the damaging U.S. intervention of the previous three years in Uganda and its backing of the assassin that it saw profit in allowing to take power through its “inaction” in Rwanda, this is exactly right. Humanitarian motivations are found where profit lies (Syria) and not where it doesn’t, or where it lies on the side of mass killing (Yemen). That doesn’t mean the humanitarian beliefs aren’t somewhat believed, and more so by the public than by the propagandists, but it does call their purity into question.

Rubenstein describes the Cold War thus: “While fulminating against Communist dictatorships, American leaders supported brutal pro-Western dictatorships in scores of Third World nations. This is sometimes considered hypocrisy, but it really represented a misguided form of sincerity. Backing anti-democratic elites reflected the conviction that if the enemy is wholly evil, one must use ‘all means necessary’ to defeat him.” Of course a lot of people believed that. They also believed that if the Soviet Union ever collapsed, U.S. imperialism and backing for nasty anti-communist dictators would come to a screeching halt. They were proved 100% wrong in their analysis. The Soviet threat was replaced by the terrorism threat, and the behavior remained virtually unchanged. And it remained virtually unchanged even before the terrorism threat could be properly developed — although it of course has never been developed into anything resembling the Soviet Union. In addition, if you accept Rubenstein’s notion of sincere belief in the greater good of doing evil in the Cold War, you still have to acknowledge that the evil done included massive piles of lies, dishonesty, misrepresentations, secrecy, deception, and completely disingenuous horseshit, all in the name of stopping the commies. Calling lying (about the Gulf of Tonkin or the missile gap or the Contras or whatever) “really … sincerity” leaves one wondering what insincerity would look like and what an example would be of someone lying without any belief that something justified it.

Rubenstein himself doesn’t seem to be lying about anything, even when he seems to have the facts wildly wrong, as when he says the most of America’s wars have been victorious (huh?). And his analysis of how wars start and how peace activism can end them is very useful. He includes on his to-do list at #5 “Demand that war advocates declare their interests.” That is absolutely crucial only because those war advocates do not believe their own propaganda. They believe in their own greed and their own careers.

Beijing, December 27

China today adopted its first counter-terrorism law that grants overarching powers to security agencies, allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations and requires technology firms to give sensitive data like encryption keys to the government.All 159 legislators of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee adopted the draft law earlier approved by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).China had provisions to counter terror threats in its Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Emergency Response Law, but never had a dedicated law to counter terrorism. The NPC submitted the first draft of the Anti-Terror Law for review in October 2014 and second in February 2015. — Agencies

China which is happy to welcome the latest development in India-Pakistan relationship said it would support both countries to enhance mutual trust and have continuous dialogue.

China today said, it “welcomes” Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s surprise Friday visit to Pakistan, saying it would “support” India and Pakistan to “enhance mutual trust” and have “continuous dialogue.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that China was “happy to see and will support, as always, Pakistan and Indian to enhance mutual trust”, adding that it was a “common neighbour and friend of both Pakistan and India”.

“The Chinese side welcomes the latest development in the Pakistan-India relationship,” Lu said, adding that India and Pakistan were “important countries in south Asia” and that “the improvement of their relationship will be significant to regional peace, stability and development.”

He said China would support efforts of both countries “to achieve common development through continuous dialogue”, in a reference to the recent interruptions in the dialogue process.

The recent improvement in relations has been welcomed in Beijing, which has close ties with its “all weather” strategic ally Islamabad.

“There is no doubt of course China will welcome this development,” said Ma Jiali, a leading South Asia expert at the Communist Party School and China Reform Forum, in an interview to India Today. “China’s attitude towards India and Pakistan is that we would like to see improvement of relations,” he said.

Ma praised the Modi government for its outreach to Pakistan. “Modi wants to improve relations with the neighbours. This is an important step and will improve the environment,” he added. “Till now, India’s regional diplomacy has improved and to some extent India has enhanced relations with all neighbours.”

While Beijing enjoys close relations with Pakistan, China has in recent years sought to strike a better balance in ties with India against the backdrop of rising trade and common concerns with India on issues such as terrorism.

Earlier this month, China for the first time hosted the head of India’s Northern Army Command, with Beijing previously reluctant to engage with the Northern Command citing “sensitivities” on Kashmir.

While China has a stated policy of neutrality on the Kashmir issue, Beijing’s recent moves have suggested otherwise, from issuing stapled visas to Indian residents of J&K and going ahead with an economic corridor project with Pakistan, through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Beijing has since stopped stapled visas for J&K, but is going forward with the corridor.

In October, India and China decided to scale up counter terrorism exercises following drills in China and also discussed holding for the first time joint relief exercises along the Line of Actual Control, sometime next year, to boost trust between the militaries.

And last month, both sides set up a first ministerial mechanism to deal with security issues including cross border terror, when Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Beijing. A joint committee chaired by the two home ministers will meet annually for the first time to deal with common security challenges including for the first time cross-border terrorism. While China was earlier reluctant to talk terror because of Pakistani sensitivities, Indian officials say they have seen a new approach from Beijing amid rising violence in China’s western Xinjiang region, which has been blamed by Chinese officials on Islamist groups alleged to have ties to certain outfits in Pakistan.

Ajay Banerjee

Pernia, a young girl at a school run by a government-backed NGO in Tenga valley, located at an altitude of 6,500 feet, addresses the morning assembly where she narrates to children: “India is a big country… we are part of it”.Her words assume significance for China has been staking claim to this territory while locals consider it a part of India. This is where the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) handed down one of the biggest military embarrassments to India.As Pernia continues with the assembly at her school — Rajendra Ashram — its director Ravindra Mishra talks to two young Army officers about the shortage of rice for 120 children who stay in the school’s boarding facility.A senior officer, who has come from Tezpur-based 4 Corps, steps in and directs the officers to “give the rice”. He assures Mishra “ho jayega” (it will be done).The school gets aid from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs and at the local level, it comes under Army’s “Operation Samaritan” in Arunachal Pradesh.The operation is nowhere near the size and scale of “Operation Sadbhavana” — a similar civil interaction programme being run in J&K by the Army.In the North-East, educational institutes have been adopted. Up north in Tawang, Manjushree School has been provided with amenities, including computers, a printer, tables and chairs, for improving education.Its principal Amar Gurung says: “We are now adding classes X, XI and XII and will seek Army’s help in teaching.” The children are also being taught in Tibetan script — an attempt to keep the legacy alive.Manjushree School and Rajendra Ashram have one thing in common — they are for orphans, destitute and the poor. At Bum La, the border meeting point with the Chinese, the children of Manjushree School are often part of the civilian welcome team.Militarily, Tawang and Tenga — 190 km apart — are important staging grounds for the Army. Other than Bomdila, the route has very small hamlets that cannot sustain on their own in the face of adversity.The road has Army recovery vehicles to help people and drivers in distress. In this remote part, where there are no roadside eateries, Army units make provisions for tea at Sela Pass, Jaswant Garh and Sapper.Schools being covered under “Operation Samaritan” include Vidyashree School, Tawang; Government School, Gorsam; Government Primary School, Gacham; Government School, Lhou; Government School, Shoktsen; and Primary School, Zemithang. Besides, amenities are being provided at Teli and Thrizuno village among others.

(Concluded)

ribune News Service

Jammu, December 21

Some drivers of Army vehicles do not hesitate to jump red lights at busy rotaries and crossings in the winter capital, which is already an unplanned city with congested roads, overburdened Traffic Police Department and delayed under-construction flyovers.“In jumping red signals at the rotaries they do not seem bothered about light vehicles and safety of others. This morning I and other people driving their cars had a narrow escape when a monster size Army vehicle didn’t follow red light and virtually crushed my car,” said Alok Mehta, a bank employee.Mehta said he had this harrowing experience in Gandhi Nagar this morning. He was furious over the fact that such Army vehicle drivers don’t take traffic signals seriously and pose threat to the life of others.Shalini Gupta, a Jammu University student, also echoed similar views. “She said people usually come across such Army vehicles being driven rashly while a man in combat uniform keeps blowing a whistle regularly that creates fear among others driving on the road, especially girls and women like me, who ride two-wheelers to reach their colleges and workplaces,” she said.A traffic police officer candidly admitted that at times they come across such Army drivers, who show scant regards for the traffic lights. “But law is same for everyone and we don’t allow violators to go scot-free,” he added.However, Army denied the charge. A Defence spokesperson said all the Army drivers strictly adhere to traffic rules within and outside the cantonments.“However, if such a case comes to the notice of the people, they should simply note down three digit and four digit numbers on front and rear portions of Army vehicles and lodge a complaint. Stern action under law will be taken against violator,” he said.The city and its outskirts have major cantonments in Satwari, Gandhi Nagar, Rehari Chungi, Ambphalla, Kunjwani, Sunjwan, Nagrota, Jammu University Road and Miran Sahib.The SSP, Traffic, Mohan Lal, said law was same for everyone and none would be allowed to violate it.He, however, said to check increasing trend of jumping red lights, the Traffic Police Department had decided to install video cameras at 10 busiest rotaries and crossings in the capital city soon.“Though we have made a proposal of having an integrated system of CCTVs at all the crossings with the facility of relaying real-time images to the Transport Department so as to identify such violators for quick action, for the time being we are going to install 10 videos cameras at as many crossings,” said Lal.The SSP, Traffic, informed that it will take another week for the Traffic Police to come up with the interim arrangement.“These cameras will be installed on tri-pods from morning to late night hours wherein violators of red lights will be identified and consequently challaned,” he added.Till the time we come up with an integrated system of CCTVs functional 24×7, the interim arrangement will remain in place, he said.

Traffic police to install cameras at 10 crossingsT

hough we have made a proposal of having an integrated system of CCTVs at all the crossings with the facility of relaying real-time images to the Transport Department so as to identify such violators for quick action, for the time being we are going to install 10 video cameras at as many crossings. —Mohan Lal, ssp, traffic

Awar veteran who has lived through two of the biggest refugee crises of the past 80 years has summed up the difference in attitudes to them after a visit to the “Jungle” camp in Calais, France. Harry Leslie Smith, 92, has lived through the Great Depression, the Second World War and post-war austerity. He served in the Royal Air Force and is now an activist for the poor and for the preservation of social democracy.The camp — dubbed the Jungle by the people there because of the poor living conditions — has become a temporary home to 3,000-4,000 men, and about 350 women and children. A squalid area with little or no sanitation, it is the final stop for many refugees from the Middle East and Africa as they try to seek refuge in the UK.Writing in the New Statesman, Mr Smith observed how the fencing at the port in Calais and nearby Channel Tunnel terminal seemed to be a reflection of British politicians’ “opinion of immigration, refugees, the consequences of war and the responsibility for peace”, comparing the fence to the barriers separating East and West Germany during the Cold War. He wrote:    “The world has changed since I was young. It has not grown harder: just more foolish and selfish. I have seen camps like the Jungle before – at the end of the war. But back then, there was a desire among ordinary citizens and their leaders to alleviate the plight of refugees. Today, it is different. The common will to do good, or at least maintain a decent society for all, has vanished. Our politicians — and we, the ordinary people — are ignoring our moral, political and human responsibility to be our brothers’ keepers. In the end, the only thing that separates us from those who live in the Jungle is luck — and any gambler will tell you that this can change at the turn of a card.”Since the Paris terror attacks in November, there has been a significant slump in public support for the resettlement of refugees in Britain. US politicians have also come under fire for what many perceive to be a minimal response to the crisis.  ‘Trumpism’ is a term coined in relation to the often fear-mongering remarks by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who most recently called for a “ban on all Muslims” entering the United States.

The Independent

Kupwara, December 19

To address the problems of students, especially girls, at Government Middle School, Zoonreshi, a remote village in Kupwara district, the Army today handed over three toilet blocks constructed by it to the school and the locals.Locals, especially parents and schoolchildren, thanked 19 Maratha Regiment for providing them the facility. “It is a great move indeed by the Army. Our girls were forced to defecate in the open in the absence of toilets in the school. On behalf of villagers, I thank the Army for providing the much-needed facility,” said Mohammad Yaseen Mir, Zoonreshi sarpanch.At least 200 children are enrolled in the school. A senior Army officer said that in line with the PM’s call to provide dignity to women in villages and remote areas, the Army had built a toilet block in the school. — OC

Militant hideout busted in Ramban

Jammu, December 19

Security forces today claimed to have busted a militant hideout in Ramban district from where they recovered a rich haul of arms and ammunition.“Soldiers of Delta Force along with Jammu and Kashmir Police busted a terrorist hideout in the dense forest of the Kumet area of Ramban district and recovered a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and war-like stores,” said a Defence spokesperson.The joint operation by troops of Delta Force and police was launched yesterday and continued till this afternoon, he added.“Following an input a massive search and combing operation was launched in the area for over two days in extreme inclement weather conditions,” he said. — TNS