Monthly Archives: August 2018

The panel, in its report, has criticised the defence services for passing such orders in, essentially, what are private matrimonial disputes. –

The Army, Navy and the Air Force Acts provide that the competent authority can impose a cut upto 33 per cent on pay and allowances which can be paid to the wife as maintenance on her application.

A panel of experts of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has slammed the defence services for passing orders granting maintenance allowance to wives of military personnel from their salaries, especially in Army, without due investigation and scrutiny.

The panel, in its report, has criticised the defence services for passing such orders in, essentially, what are private matrimonial disputes. The Army, Navy and the Air Force Acts provide that the competent authority can impose a cut upto 33 per cent on pay and allowances which can be paid to the wife as maintenance on her application. With growing matrimonial disputes, the number of such applications has increased in the last few years especially with the Army granting maintenance to the spouses on almost all applications through non-speaking orders without providing reasons.

An expert committee constituted by the Defence Minister on litigation has however observed that the exceptional provisions are being invoked in a routine manner by defence authorities. It has also found that the system does not have the wherewithal or ability to examine the veracity or truthfulness of the allegations and counter-allegations of both parties which is basically a matter of evidence that can only be weighed and dealt with by civil courts under law legislated for this specific purpose. The panel has said that this exercise can only be carried out under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the relevant Marriage Acts, rather than the defence services getting into what may fundamentally be a civil or private dispute between a husband and his wife. The panel has also observed that even the Army HQ has expressed concern on the issue and that maintenance is meant to tide over a difficult financial situation and not to lead life on someone else’s expense. It has recorded that the award of maintenance results in grave civil consequences for an individual wherein a cut is imposed on his pay and should be taken as a serious matter and not routine. Moreover, it may not be initiated on the fact whether the spouse is working or not but whether she has the capacity to work or not, further adding that a situation cannot be allowed to prevail wherein an otherwise qualified/educated spouse stops working or refuses to take up a job in order to claim maintenance. The Panel has stated that though defence personnel have a bounden duty to maintain their families, such issues should be left to Courts to decide based on evidence. Surprised at the acceptance of an unusually high number of applications by the Army, the committee has questioned, “does it mean that it was found that out of the total applications received, such a high percentage of officers were found wanting in their familial and marital obligations? If yes, then what were the tools available to reach that conclusion?” There has been a rise of litigation on the subject in the past. Recently, a Lt Col had averred that his wife held a Doctorate and also working in a real estate firm but still was awarded maintenance by the Army. Another officer had stated that his wife had a degree of MSc as well as BEd and was earning a huge amount from tuitions and he had elderly parents to look after but still deduction of arrears of maintenance had resulted in disbursement of more than Rs 30,000 to the wife per month while he was being disbursed a amount of just Rs 6000. Another serving Colonel had stated that was being expected put his earnings at the disposal of his wife who was fully qualified and competent to work and was actually working.

Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar. Reuters file photo

United Nations, April 2

Clinging to its pro-Pakistan stance, China has asserted that JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar does not qualify to be nailed as a “terrorist” to face UN sanctions as his case “did not meet” the Security Council’s requirements.

“Any listing would have to meet the requirements” for blacklisting, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Liu Jieyi told reporters yesterday in response to questions over China’s decision to place a ‘technical hold’ on designating Azhar in the UN Sanctions Committee.

“It is the responsibility of all members of the council to make sure that these requirements are followed,” he said, but gave no further details.

Liu’s comments came on a day when China, one of the five permanent members of the 15-nation Council, assumed the rotating presidency of the UNSC for April.

India has reacted strongly to China’s blocking of its bid at the UN to ban the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief, saying that the sanctions committee was taking a “selective approach” in tackling terrorism.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Friday defended China’s decision, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an “objective and just manner”.

“We always deal with the listing issue (banning militant groups and their leaders) under the UN Security Council committee established under resolution 1267 based on facts and relevant rules of procedures in an objective and just manner.

“The Chinese side has always been in communication with relevant parties on the listing issue,” he said, hinting that China is also in touch with India on the issue.

India yesterday said it is disappointed that a “technical hold” has been put on its application to include Azhar in the UN sanctions list, terming the move “incomprehensible” that this is despite the JeM being listed in the UN Security Council Committee as far back as 2001 for its known terror activities and links to al-Qaeda.

This is not the first time China has blocked India’s bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts for a ban on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, which has veto powers, did not allow the ban apparently at the behest of Pakistan again.

Last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying that its stand was “based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness”, with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi. — PTI

Activists carry placards of the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, during a protest against the attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot, in Mumbai on January 4, 2016. — AFP

Beijing, April 1

China on Friday defended its decision to once again block India’s bid at the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief and mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack Masood Azhar, saying that it acts on such issues based on facts and rules in an “objective and just manner”.

Asked about China’s reported last minute move putting a technical hold on India’s submission, which Indian officials say was armed with strong evidence of the JeM’s terror activities and its role in the Pathankot attack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said here that China “supports UN playing a central and coordinating role in international cooperation against terrorism”.

“We always deal with the listing issue (banning militant groups and their leaders) under the UN Security Council Committee established under resolution 1267 based on facts and relevant rules of procedures in an objective and just manner,” he said.

“The Chinese side has always been in communication with relevant parties on the listing issue,” he said, hinting that China is also in touch with India on the issue.

This is not the first time China has blocked India’s bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts for a ban on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, one of the five permanent members of the UN group with veto powers, didn’t allow the ban apparently at the behest of Pakistan again.

Last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying that its stand was “based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness” with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.

Stating that China is opposed to all forms of terrorism, Hong said “China has also taken active part in international counter-terrorism corporation”.

To another question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington yesterday that the world community should “drop the notion that terrorism is someone else’s problem and that ‘his’ terrorist is not ‘my’ terrorist,” Hong said “China opposes double standards on the issue of terrorism”.

“We believe that all parties should enhance communication in a bid to forge counter-terrorism synergy to work together with entire international community, including India, to jointly fight against the threat of terrorism and safeguard peace and stability of the region and beyond,” he said. — PTI

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President Pranab Mukherjee pays homage at the Khongjom War Memorial in Thoubal district on Saturday. PTI

Imphal, April 23

President Pranab Mukherjee today praised the people of Manipur for their broad tolerance, pluralism and acceptance of universalism.“Truly, it (Manipur) is Jewel of India. It is not only for its rich culture variety or pristine beauty, for its brave men and women, but for its broad tolerance, pluralism, celebration of pluralism and acceptance of universalism,”he said.The President was here to participate in ‘Khongjom Day Observation’, observed every year to pay tribute to the brave sons of the state who made supreme sacrifice for the cause of their motherland.He also inaugurated Khongjom War Memorial and laid wreath there. Manipur is the place which is not only known for its blue hills and pristine beauty but for the endurance, tolerance and determination, he said. In the function, Mukherjee offered tributes to the fierce patriots from the state who fought the last battle of the Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891. “I join you in paying homage to the great sons and daughters of Manipur. They gave their today for our tomorrow,” he said. — PTI

India’s leadership needs to draw right lessons

All supreme leaders of China have either been generals or political entities in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). But unlike his predecessors, Xi Jinping has taken much greater interest in matters military. Within days of taking over, Xi made high-profile visits to many army, air force, space programme and missile command facilities. Speaking to sailors on board the Haikou, a guided-missile destroyer, he said that his dream was of China to become a strong nation, and added, “To achieve the great revival of the Chinese nation, we must ensure there is unison between a prosperous country and a strong military.”Xi unveiled his plans to transform the PLA in the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on November 12, 2013. The first phase has been completed. The remaining changes are expected to be completed by 2021. The military reforms on the one hand are to transform the land-focused PLA into a well-trained, technologically capable, specialised force to meet the demands of the future battlefield. That would “lead to effective integration of the civil-military leadership, restructuring the military and its force level, and the teeth-to-tail ratio”. On the other hand, it involves some reshuffle of authority, aimed at enforcing discipline and getting a firmer grip on the military. In recent years, several instances of corruption in the PLA have been reported in the Chinese media: the worst hit being the system of promotion. Two former vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, were arrested and imprisoned. According to reports, 47 PLA generals were investigated in 2015.  As one military expert noted, “If you have a military where you can buy positions, it doesn’t matter if you have the best weapons in the world.” The anti-corruption campaign needed to focus on the issues of military discipline, inspections, audit and an independent judicial supervision. A new Commission for Discipline Inspection is being set up under the CMC to ensure strict discipline within the PLA. Xi has ordered the PLA to change its culture and adopt a style of frugality and austerity because ostentatious habits kill professionalism! “Ten Regulations on Improving the Work Style of the PLA” have formally banned liquor at PLA functions, forbade holding of big banquets and called on the PLA brass to adopt a simple style in their inspection tours. Senior officers have been told to spend two weeks on the frontline as enlisted soldiers. Regiment and brigade commanders will do this once in three years, the division and corps commanders once in four years, and higher leaders from higher headquarters once in five years.More important changes are those related to the PLA command and control organisation, its employment and doctrine. In China, the CMC is the highest military body which exercises command and control over the PLA forces through four general departments-General Staff, Politics, Logistics, and Armament.  These departments are now to be replaced by 15 new departments, signalling a more direct control. Earlier, the General Staff Department (GSD) was the number one organ of the armed forces, in charge of operations as well as intelligence.  It commanded the army, through which it controlled seven military regions across the country. The GSD has now become the Joint General Staff Department, to function purely as a staff organisation, similar to the joint chiefs of staff system of the USA. The PLA ground forces will now become a separate service. This marks the reduction of the power of the ground forces but some improvement of command and control within the army. The erstwhile Second Artillery Corps in its new avatar will become the Rocket Force and will control all short, medium and long range ballistic missiles. The General Political Department has transferred control of the military legal system to the new Law Commission.The General Armaments Department was responsible for developing military equipment and managing aviation units. The responsibility for development of new military equipment has now been distributed to the four armed forces. A new Strategic Support Force (SSF) has been created to work on integrated air and aerospace developments and strategy. The SSF will be responsible for satellite positioning, communication, and remote sensing. The precise delineation of responsibilities between the SSF and the PLA Air Force is yet to be seen.The existing Chinese command system involves seven Military Regions, headquartered in Shenyang, Beijing, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Lanzhou. The Military Region structure is being redrawn. Instead, Integrated Battle Zone commands with increased focus on combat will be established through joint operations command and ability. For a combat mission to be effectively executed, the commander of a battle zone has to be entrusted with the authority and discretion to mobilise troops within his area of responsibility. This will enhance overall joint operations capability of the forces involved and also improve development of joint as well as cross-region air and naval operations when required.In the new set-up, the CMC will take direct charge of the administration of the PLA.  The ‘CMC-battle zone-troops’ system will ensure closer, more effective political leadership of the armed forces. The service headquarters of the army, air force, navy and the rocket force will be detached. Their task will be to provision and train their respective forces.  The reforms envisage a cut of 300,000 personnel in the 2.3 million PLA forces. The idea is to ‘remake the PLA from a man-power intensive force to a smaller, technologically able and mobile force capable of combat beyond its geographical borders’. The proportion and force structure of different forces will be streamlined ‘to suit new security needs and operations.’The PLA transformation is in line with the current security concepts and trends. It reflects mission-oriented operational thinking, enhanced deterrence capability, and preparedness to play a role beyond geographic frontiers, when required.In India, we had discussed such issues in the Group of Ministers (2002) and the Naresh Chandra Committee (2011-12), though not as comprehensively. But our political leadership, civil bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence and the Service headquarters have managed to stall recommended reforms due to lack of military education and/or parochial interests. The over-riding lesson that the Chinese process offers is the important role of political leadership in the military reform process. No transformative change can take place in the military of any society — democratic or authoritarian-without the direct involvement of the political class. As this important task can no longer be postponed in India, I hope that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who began his three-day visit to China on April 18, 2016, will find time to learn from the Chinese example.

— The writer is a former Army Chief

BLUNT BUTCHER

When 2005 earthquake wrecked havoc in North Kashmir and parts of Jammu, the civilian population in Uri, Kupwara, Karnah and Poonch, the most affected areas in terms of damage to life and property, demanded disbursement of relief through the army. They were skeptical about the civilian administration that reportedly bungled relief at many places. The demand was actually motivated by tremendous support lend by the armed forces in rescuing people and ensuring their immediate rehabilitation, as most of the areas were even beyond reach of the civilian administration. Some of the jawans lost lives in reaching out victims in Tanghdar area.
The victims of 2005 tremors know how bravely the young soldiers and officers came to their rescue at their hour of need. At most of the places, the gratitude was expressed in unequivocal terms.
How can love for the armed forces in 2005 and beyond turn so sour that same lot of people will move in herds to attack army camps over alleged molestation of a girl student in Handwara, Sogam, Kupwara, Langet and other places, notwithstanding the fact that the so-called victim herself tormenting vicious propaganda by saying the violence was actually triggered by a couple of youngsters, who wanted to malign the army and tease the teenager?
Blow-hot-blow-cold relationship vis-a-vis army is a gruesome fact of Kashmir. No eyebrow will be raised over Maulvis, village elders, students and other segments of civil society venturing for ‘Wattan Ki Ser’ programme of the army until vested interests try to exploit any female to satiate their lust of defaming the forces, mainly at the behest of their mentors across the border. How many people have objected to civic action programme of the army, under which computers are provided to schools in border areas, roads constructed, health camps organised and rescue operations undertaken during natural calamities. The armed forces are the first visible entities at any accident site or the places engulfed by fire. They always remain a phone call distance when civilians are in distress.
The people of Kashmir know how some unfortunate women fell prey to ‘inhuman terrorists’ wearing army outfits. They know how innocents are kidnapped and killed by men in the guise of soldiers. They also know the atrocities being committed by terrorists are deliberately linked to the armed forces because there is a pattern to defame and malign the Indian Army.
In this love-hate campaign against armed forces, the separatists and the so-called ‘mainstreamists’ remain on the same page. The mainstream leaders trust less on local police but speak more against the security forces, despite having first preference for non-state jawans to provide them protection. A senior National Conference leader Sheikh Mustaffa Kamal was recently exposed by retired General B. S Jaswal on a national television channel when the former carried out his usual vicious campaign against the army. The General reminded Kamal how he had requested for army support in early nineties by pleading that he was apprehensive about the local security men. The Kamaal-doctrine is the ugly truth of Kashmir scenario where armed forces are trusted privately but condemned publicly to appease a particular constituency.
The 2014 flood are brute reminder of hypocrisy and duplicity when even rescued marooned people blamed the army for ‘partisan’ relief operations. Some of them claimed in the backdrop of rescue choppers that the army was selective in bringing out trapped people from inundated areas. The separatists were shamelessly seen indulging in photo ops by distributing relief material stolen from the army boats. Yasin Malik got terribly exposed while posing to the cameras with such stolen commodities in the marooned areas. Despite outrage against the army, the flood affected victims told Prime Minister to send compensation in their personal accounts rather than getting this disbursed through local agencies. This is the trust deficit between the locals themselves but despite that no occasion is missed to collectively raise fingers against the army.
Even as volatile and explosive North Kashmir is reeling under unabated protests, the Centre has rushed additional para-military forces to calm the situation. They are there to lessen the collateral damages being caused by Pakistan funded lackeys in terror and separatist ranks. They have vested interest in keeping Kashmir on boil. Some mainstream players are also playing their dirty tricks in belittling the army by perpetrating situation.
The question arises why such a hate and love syndrome for the army is at its worst display in the Valley. The answer is not difficult to comprehend. Actually the vested interests (the number of whom is unfortunately huge) want to have best of both the worlds. This can be achieved only by hammering the army to hilt.
Cherry on the separatist’ cake is criminal silence of BJP over the well-conceived attempts being made to defame and malign the army and belittling it in public eyes. The State Unit failed in rising to the occasion by coming in favour of valiant soldiers notwithstanding the fact that additional replenishment is being made by the BJP ruled central government.
The wickedness of the BJP lot-the ministers, the legislators and the senior leaders-is reflected by the fact that the motivated mother of the brave girl is being allowed to spill venom against the army despite her daughter openly castigating ‘youths with

Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag also paid his tributes to Major Amit Deswal, who was killed during a combing operation conducted by the Rashtriya Rifles and the Special Forces in Tamenglong district of Manipur, in New Delhi on Friday. ANIhttps://youtu.be/SnDEVlTPUEA

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