Monthly Archives: August 2018

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter

New York, April 9

India is a “very influential and powerful player” in the Asia Pacific and is going to play an ever increasingly role in the region, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has said on the eve of his visit to India during which “exciting new projects” will be discussed to boost Indo-US strategic ties.

“India is already a very influential and powerful force in the whole Indo Asia Pacific region, starting with the Indian Ocean,” Carter told PTI.

He said that his three-day trip to India, beginning tomorrow, would be an important step in the implementation of some of the key decisions being taken by US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last two years.

However, Carter remained tight-lipped on the decisions to be taken during his India trip that would take him to Goa and New Delhi.

“We will talk about exciting new projects, the details of which I cannot got into this afternoon,” the Defence Secretary told a New York audience before the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) yesterday for which he specially flew to the Big Apple to give a key policy speech on Asia Pacific.

Obama Administration’s “Asia Pacific rebalance” and Modi Government’s “Act East Asia” is what Carter described to the New York audience as “strategic handshake”, between the two largest democracies of the world.

“Obviously it (India) is going to play an ever-increasing role, a very positive role because of the values it stands (for).., championing of a co-operative approach to security,” Carter said in response to a question.

The Defence Secretary acknowledged that India’s “influence stems all the way around, South East Asia and into East Asia”, and also referred to the close relationship it now has with Japan in the Asia Pacific region.

Carter, who has played a key role in this new phase of India-US defence relationship – which started in his previous capacities at the Pentagon – believes that India-US relationship is destined to be one of the most significant partnerships of the 21^st century.

And his second visit to India, in less than a year, is aimed to realise that, he said.

“It’s (India trip) to take some very important new steps and to implement what the President and the Prime Minister agreed last year and the (defence) framework (agreement) that I signed with Minister Parrikar last year,” Carter said.

Carter said the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), which was started in 2012 in his previous stint at the Pentagon, “grasps hands” with Modi’s “Make in India” campaign to expand the nation’s industrial and defence base.

“In the area of the DTTI, in the area of joint military exercises and activities, we would have the opportunity in a very tangible and significant way to signify our co-operation,” he said.

Carter said that enhanced co-operation in the maritime security would be another key feature of his India trip.

At the invitation of his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar, Carter would be spending nearly two days in Parrikar’s home town Goa.

“I would be visiting western naval base,” he said, adding that last year he had visited the eastern naval base.

When Parrikar was in the US in December last year, Carter took him to a nuclear-powered air craft career and the two leaders spend nearly one day.

His Goa trip is also expected to be marked by the India visit of USS Blue Ridge.

“The fact that there is a US navy vessel in port at the exact time, nothing could signify better close co-operation between us,” Carter said.

After spending two days in Goa on April 10 and April 11, Carter would fly to New Delhi where among others he would meet Prime Minister Modi and the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Without going into details, he said the two countries would also be concluding several important agreements, including one on commercial shipping information exchange, which will “make many new things possible” in the future.

“US India relationship has grown incredibly over the past several years. And of course, Secretary Carter takes a strong personal interest in US-India defence relationship,” a senior defense official said, adding that Carter has a close personal relationship with Parrikar.

“That’s why he is going to the Minister’s home town of Goa,” he added.

The US is very interested in exploring the possibilities of co-production of fighter aircrafts and the issue is being discussed with India, the senior defence official said when asked about news reports of talks on manufacturing of fighter jets in India.

India, the official said, has also expressed interest in buying armed drones from the US.

Under the Modi Government, the defence official on condition of anonymity said there has been strong progress in bilateral relationship.

The scope and depth of US-India defence ties has become much stronger, he said in response to a question. — PTI

WhatsApp is rolling out end-to-end encryption, a move that will potentially protect texts and voice calls of its over one billion users from hackers and “regimes”. “WhatsApp has always prioritised making your data and communication as secure as possible. And today, we’re proud to announce that we’ve completed a technological development that makes WhatsApp a leader in protecting your private communication,” founder Jan Koum said. The latest version of the app will encrypt every call, message, photo, video, file and voice message that is sent on the platform by default, including group chats. “No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us,” he said. PTI

Weapons of peace?: Nuclear Development Adviser to Pakistan’s National Command Authority, Gen Khalid Kidwai (retd)

In his inaugural statement at a seminar on nuclear security at a think tank in Islamabad, the Nuclear Development Adviser to Pakistan’s National Command Authority, General Khalid Kidwai (retd), made sure to get the deterrence message across to India. He warned that, “Cold Start or no Cold Start”, Pakistan’s adoption of “full spectrum deterrence” had brought  about “retention of strategic equilibrium in South Asia” by seriously neutralising any propensity in India for the “use of the military as an instrument of policy”. For their contribution to “peace and stability in the region”, he was inclined to echo the title of a book on India’s nuclear weapons by Raj Chengappa, calling Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, “weapons of peace”. On return from Islamabad, where Sushma Swaraj had gone for the ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan, briefing Parliament she acknowledged as much, saying: “war is not an option”. Whereas she did not specify why this was so, the nuclear factor also figures among other reasons to avoid war, such as the economic one. Since both states are close to embarking on a “bilateral comprehensive dialogue” brokered by Swaraj during her Pakistan visit last December, it would appear that Khalid Kidwai is at least partially right. However, since the promised dialogue has not taken off three months on since its announcement indicates the pitfalls. The terror attack on Pathankot airfield early in the year resulted in the foreign secretary talks scheduled for mid-January being postponed. Even if talks finally take off in wake of the visit of the joint investigation team from Pakistan to the site of the terror attack in Pathankot, the hiatus indicates a continuing fragility that cannot be wished away. This is compounded by India’s Pakistan strategy, likened by a former Indian ambassador to that  country as “manic pirouetting”. Since the strategy is controlled by National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, his views are worth probing.Immediately prior to parliamentary elections, in which Doval had a major hand in generating the Modi wave, Doval laid  out his strategic world view at a talk in Sastra University. He called for a shift from a defensive strategy to one of “defensive offence”. Since this was not an offensive  strategy, the nuclear threshold was not of consequence. He preferred “Intelligence-led”, “covert”, operations to military action against Pakistan’s “vulnerable” areas, such as its “internal security”. Deeming “strategy without tactics is noise before defeat”, it can be expected that Doval as NSA is practising what he preached. Pakistan’s recent nabbing of an alleged Indian spy, former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, is perhaps evidence of this. Alongside, in another preview of his Pakistan strategy, Doval as head of the Vivekananda International Foundation had instigated a press statement by 41 members of the strategic community. The statement had effectively tied down UPA II from contemplating a resumption of talks with Pakistan. It called for terrorism as being the sole agenda of talks. Today the promised “comprehensive bilateral dialogue” continues in abeyance, held hostage to terrorism. This explains Sushma Swaraj’s briefing to Parliament: “We have decided that through talks we will resolve the issue of terrorism as talks is the way forward so that the shadow of terror is removed.” The upshot is that India’s Pakistan strategy appears to have two prongs. One is to condition Pakistan to its underside by exposing it to Indian intelligence operations, while engaging in a dialogue restricted to terrorism.The strategy is not without its dangers. Firstly, while Indian interests are sought if not quite met this way, over time Pakistan’s national security estabishment’s interest in the dialogue  would lag. It is currently not averse to Sharif’s outreach to India that relies on personal equations reinforced with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief stop over at Sharif’s Raiwind residence. However, a status quo in India’s favour could prompt counter action by the Pakistan army to once again use its tried and trusted instrument, the ISI. Secondly, the Pathankot terror attack and Pakistani NSA’s tip off to his Indian counterpart of infiltration of ten terrorists on Mahashivratri eve into India suggests that terrorist forces can act autonomously. They can trigger off another crisis by a mega terror attack. During his Sastra University address, Doval had weighed in favour of an intelligence-driven response to 26/11. In effect, the intelligence game would now heat up, increasing propensity for either side eventually going military. It is then that the nuclear threshold, so cavalierly dismissed by both Doval and Khalid Kidwai, would kick in. Given such escalatory possibilities, the contrasting policies of the two states appear delusional. Whereas Pakistan loses no opportunity to foreground nuclear dangers to reinforce deterrence, as done most recently by Kidwai, India for its part has taken care to omit any mention of nuclear weapons in relation to military exercises since 2013. Foregrounding nuclear dangers thus continues to be important, if only to compel the two states to remain at the table. Ali Ahmed is the author of  ‘India’s Doctrine Puzzle: Limiting War in South Asia.’

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 29

The Bombay High Court today ordered the demolition of the controversial Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society building at Colaba in Central Mumbai on the grounds that it violated the provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone Act. The court, however, granted a stay on its order for 12 weeks to allow lawyers representing members of the Adarsh Society to challenge it in the Supreme Court.A Bench comprising Justices RV More and RG Ketkar also asked the Ministry of Defence to act against its officials for not taking action on irregularities during the construction of the building. It asked all parties, including the Ministry of Defence and the state government, to restore the plot on which the Adarsh building stood.  The Ministry of Environment and Forests had on January 16, 2011, ordered that  the building be demolished in three months. However, members of the society moved the Bombay High Court.The Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society was originally planned as a six-storey building to house women who lost their men in the Kargil war. But in a few years, the building grew in height as politicians, bureaucrats and Army officers jostled for flats. The scam came to light in November 2010. The then Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had to resign after it was revealed that he had obtained multiple flats in the names of his relatives.

Mumbai housing society

• Adarsh Housing Society, with a 31-storey building in Colaba, Mumbai, was meant forKargil war widows and defence personnel
• But over the years, politicians, bureaucrats and military officers allegedly conspired to bend the rules to derive benefits
• The Army had been in “de facto” possession of the 6,490-sq m prime land for over 60 years before the Adarsh highrise came up there in 2003

The discharge of the nine accused Muslims in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case leaves a blot on the functioning of India’s premier investigative agencies. A failure to hold top bosses accountable encourages them to misuse anti-terror laws. Framing innocents in crimes they have not committed has become almost an everyday occurrence in this country. When Maharashtra’s ATS (anti-terror squad) picked up nine Muslims after the Malegaon blasts that left 37 people dead, few eyebrows were raised. When the CBI took over the investigation and filed a charge-sheet, their guilt stood almost established in the national conscience. Post 9/11, members of certain communities, including Muslims, have unfortunately been stereotyped as terrorists. It came as a huge surprise when the third agency to probe the case, NIA (National Investigation Agency formed after 26/11), stumbled upon a confession by Swami Aseemanand, picked up for the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast, saying that a right-wing group was involved in the Malegaon blasts. For the first time four right-wing terrorists were arrested and the term “saffron terror” gained currency thereafter. The innocent Muslim accused got bail finally but not before spending five years in jail. After the change of government at the Centre in 2014 an allegation of bias has frequently been thrown at the NIA and not just by human rights activists. The NIA has filed a charge-sheet against the four right-wing suspects in the Malegaon case but done little else. It has so far found no evidence against them. What lends credence to the charge is the fact that about 40 witnesses have turned hostile in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah and Samjhauta Express blast cases.The discharge of the accused in the Malegaon case and possible acquittals in other right-wing terror cases will dent the NIA’s image. Its credibility is at stake. Already its Pathankot handling has raised questions. If terror cases are pursued on communal lines, as an impression to this effect is gaining ground, it would jeopardise India’s fight against terror and its right to ask Pakistan to proceed against its own Masood Azhars and Hafiz Saeeds. There cannot be “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists”.