Says proper mechanism for grievance redress exists in the system

Manohar Parrikar, Defence minister

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today made it clear that troops of the armed forces using social media platforms to air their grievances were “violating discipline” and asked them to report matters through “proper channel” — euphuism for reporting matter only through their immediate superiors in hierarchy.Replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha on quality of food being served to troops and the use of social media to highlight matters, Parrikar said: “If someone goes to the social media, I think, it is basically a violation of the discipline of the Army”.He cited the Army Act saying it has a provision for a redress mechanism. This could be followed. If still there is a problem, I think, the Chief of Army Staff has already provided a mechanism for redress at his level also. If the issue is still not resolved, there is a provision to even come to me, but raising it on the social media does not resolve the issue. It only highlights the issue, he said.“We insist that they should come through the proper channel. We will address them, and, I don’t think there is much of a big complaint about food”.The matter was raised during the question hour on the issue of a BSF jawan who had complained of diet in a social media post. One of the members asked Parrikar that though BSF fell under the Home Ministry, how he would view if Army jawans, too, aired their problems through the social media.Parrikar said there were dietary provisions for soldiers and there had been increase in the scale of meat, chicken for JCOs and authorisation of chilled, frozen meat as basic ration.He said the extension of special ration available for those posted at Siachen Glacier to troops across the country anywhere above 12,000 feet had also been undertaken. 

Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh shows strawberries he has planted at his home in Chandigarh on Sunday. Tribune Photo: Pradeep Tewari

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5

The polling is over in Punjab, but not for state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh. He is scheduled to visit poll-bound Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the party.A day after the hard-fought poll battle in the state, the scion of erstwhile Patiala royal estate did not let the poll fatigue get to him. “I will be visiting Uttarakhand before moving to Uttar Pradesh,” Capt Amarinder said today.He spent the morning with his grandchildren and relatives in Patiala before leaving for Chandigarh around 10.30am.At his bungalow here, he got down to reading the final draft of his book on the battle of Saragarhi. It is slated for release next month. “I carried the draft with me during campaigning. But due to hectic schedule, I was unable to read it. At the end of the day, I was too tired to go through it,” said the CM face of the Congress.“Post polling, there’s nothing to do. I am in a different mindset, focusing on the job at hand,” he said, relaxing in the lobby on the first floor, where he has planted strawberries. As plants have bore fruit, he relishes these and offers them to his guests.In the afternoon, he hosted a lunch for the IPAC team, which he said did a “good job”. “I am politely turning down requests from visitors to go downstairs to pose for selfies because it gets exhausting after a long schedule of campaigning.”Confident, he glanced through several survey reports on his mobile phone that hint towards the Congress forming the government. The conversation was interrupted by calls from candidates, who seemed to share their feedback on polling trends in their constituencies.“We are expecting 34 seats in Malwa, 19 in Majha and 14 in Doaba. My boys are confidant of performing well. We may not do well on one or two seats in Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts,” he added.

Preneet back to household chores

• Patiala: Former Union Minister Preneet Kaur said she was relieved partially as the canvassing was over. “I woke up early in the morning as I had to meet supporters. I have to attend a bhog and a birthday party of a supporter,” she said on Sunday. Now, her focus is home. “Relatives had come over to assist us in campaigning. Since they have left, I will be spending the next two days on household chores,” Preneet added.

Raninder has no time to relax

• Capt Amarinder Singh’s son Raninder Singh, who managed his father’s campaign in Lambi, said he had a tough month. He hosted a lunch for his supporters in Lambi on Sunday. As he reached New Moti Bagh Palace in the evening, he was surrounded by Congress supporters waiting for him to give feedback of the election process. “I will wake up late on Monday. I have not been able to do that for long. I will leave for Delhi as we are hosting the shooting World Cup there. So, I have no time to relax,” he added. Raninder is the president of the National Rifle Association of India. — Aman sood

Maj Gen (retd) Satbir Singh, chairman of the Union Front of Ex-servicemen of India, in Dehradun on Saturday. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 4

The Union Front of Ex-servicemen of India, which has been staging a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi for One Rank One Pension (OROP), has extended support to the Congress in Uttarakhand.Union’s chairman Maj Gen (retd) Satbir Singh, while addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, said their organisation had full faith in the leadership of Harish Rawat.He sought a promise from the Congress government that it would sincerely work for the betterment of ex-servicemen in the state if it is re-elected.He said the state government had promised that all vacancies for ex-servicemen in state government jobs would be filled at the earliest.Maj Gen Satbir Singh accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of failing to implement OROP. “The OROP being provided to us is mere eyewash and not the OROP demanded by the ex-servicemen,” he alleged.Ex-servicemen could no longer be neglected in the country and it was the very reason that they had decided to intervene politically and support the Congress in the Assembly poll taking place in five states, he said.Responding to queries, Maj Gen Satbir Singh said in the 2014 parliamentary elections, they had supported the BJP but the party ditched them and so they were now supporting the Congress.State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay expressed gratitude to the Union Front of Ex-servicemen of India for supporting the Congress. People of Uttarakhand had close links with defence forces and the Congress was expected to make major gains with ex-servicemen’s support, he added.

Gurmehar Kaur

New Delhi, February 25

Days after Delhi University’s Ramjas College saw violent clashes, a Lady Sri Ram College student who is a Kargil martyr’s daughter has initiated a social media campaign, “I am not scared of ABVP”, which has gone viral.Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, changed her Facebook profile picture holding a placard which read “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP”.“The brutal attack on innocent students by ABVP is very disturbing and should be stopped. It was not an attack on protesters, but an attack on every notion of democracy that is held dear in every Indian’s heart. It is an attack on ideals, morals, freedom and rights of every person born to this nation,” the Jalandhar native said in a Facebook status.“The stones that you pelt hit our bodies, but fail to bruise our ideas. This profile picture is my way of protesting against the tyranny of fear,” she added.The literature student’s classmates and peers started sharing the post, prompting students from various universities across the country to change their profile pictures with the same placard, as the initiative went viral.Ramjas College had on Wednesday witnessed large-scale violence between members of AISA and ABVP workers.The genesis of the clash was an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on ‘Culture of Protests’, which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by the RSS student wing. — PTI

Brave as ever

• Last year, Gurmehar Kaur (pic), who was just two when she lost her father, uploaded a four-minute video on YouTube, holdingup a succession of placards revealing her experiences and conveying her powerful message for peace between India and Pakistan. TNS

‘Not afraid of ABVP’: DU student whose father died in Kargil war writes on FB

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN Jalandhar’s Gurmehar says she reacted to attack on her friends at Ramjas College

NEW DELHI/JALANDHAR : Days after Delhi University’s Ramjas College witnessed violent clashes, a Lady Sri Ram College student, the daughter of an officer who died in the Kargil war, started a social media campaign ‘I am not afraid of ABVP’ that has garnered widespread support.

Jalandhar’s Gurmehar Kaur, 20, daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, changed her Facebook profile picture holding a placard which read “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me .# Students Against AB VP ”. Gurmehar said she reacted to what happened with her friends and she had no idea that it would garner so much of support from the public. “I was not there at the spot where this incident happened, but when I got to know that some of my friends got injured during the clash and they were pelted with stones, I got upset. I could not bear that and took to social media to protest.”

“The brutal attack on innocent students by ABVP is very disturbing and should be stopped. It was not an attack on protesters, but an attack on every notion of democracy that is held dear in every Indian’s heart. It is an attack on ideals, morals, freedom and rights of every person born to this nation,” she said in a Facebook status.

“The stones that you pelt hit our bodies, but fail to bruise our ideas. This profile picture is my way of protesting against the tyranny of fear,” she added.

The literature student’s classmates and peers started sharing the post, prompting students from various universities across the country to change their profile pictures with the same placard, as the initiative went viral.

Kaur’s Facebook post so far has 2,100 reactions, 3,456 shares and 542 comments.

Ramjas College had on Wednesday witnessed violence between members of AISA and ABVP . ABVP supporters had protested against an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar , which led to violence after a counter demonstration by students over not allowing a peaceful discussion.

In May 2016, she had posted a velfie (selfie video) that had crossed over 50,000 shares on Facebook and YouTube. She had recalled how as a kid she used to hate Pakistan just because it took away her father, only to realise later, “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.”

Kaur wrote that she will fight “for peace between India and Pakistan,” as she believes her father would have still been there had there been no war.

She ended it with a powerful message, saying, “I wish to live in a world where there are no Gurmehar Kaurs who miss their dad. I am not alone. There are many like me.”

Army men in Shopian after the militant attack on Thursday. Tribune Photo: Amin War

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Wednesday morning’s ambush of the Army patrol, which claimed lives of three soldiers and injured five others, including two officers, has yet again put the spotlight on the increasing dangers for the Army. It is a siege-like situation for the Army, where its operations, movements and camps are increasingly coming under terror attacks.More worrying is the intensity and frequency of such attacks and the mounting public support for the militants who have been inflicting casualties on soldiers.Shopian incident is to be read as the peaking of such attacks on the Army. These worries deepen when militants get away with such audacious attacks with the help of the support of their overground sympathisers who cordon off the encounter site.The way Indian soldiers are losing their lives in ambushes and encounters with militants is simply inexplicable. Something is definitely wrong somewhere, which the Army has not been able to correct despite the vow of Army Chief General Bipin Rawat that ruthless measures would be taken against the terrorists and their sympathisers who have deadly and disruptive intentions.There has been no tangible improvement in the situation. In fact, it has stirred more anger and deepened feelings to take revenge on the forces by the crowds, apparently the risk-taking supporters of the militants.The militants have come to rest in the core of the psyche of sections of people who thrive on anti-India sentiment. They want to shield militants at huge costs. The risks in such situations are very high but they also are aware that the security forces cannot fire at them with guns because that would embarrass India at the international fora. That has emboldened them.Already the global human rights watch groups have accused the security forces of using “excessive force” against the stone-throwing protesters.The frequency with which the militants have appeared to have gained an upper hand as far the casualty ratio is concerned is a highly disturbing scenario. It is disturbing because it sends an alarming message that the militants are invincible and the Army is vulnerable in Kashmir.In the same line, it is also read that militants enjoy this advantage because of the public support that has been demonstrated when the stone-throwing crowds have not only disrupted the anti-terror operations but have also forced the Army to abandon their operations.Equally dismaying is the point that people have turned visibly hostile to the Army and are unafraid of taking on the soldiers. This speaks of their love for militants and hatred for India, for they believe that India has sent its “occupational forces” to rule the state. This narrative is at the heart of the whole trouble in which the Army is increasingly becoming a target.

CM condemns killing of three Army men, civilian at Shopian

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 23

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the killing of three Army personnel in a militant attack at Shopian in the wee hours today.The Chief Minister said violence had never been and could never be a mean to address issues. She said the unending cycle of violence in the state had brought untold miseries to the people and collective efforts were needed to get the state out of the morass of death and destruction.Mehbooba Mufti also expressed deep grief and anguish over the death of a civilian in the incident.She conveyed her sympathies with the bereaved families of the soldiers and the civilian.

In this handout photograph released by Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on November 29, 2016, Pakistan’s newly-appointed army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa attends the change of command ceremony in Rawalpindi. AFP photo

Islamabad, February 20After days of silence, Pakistan Army on Monday dismissed as “disinformation” a media report that said army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa urged officers to read a book about how India succeeded in keeping the military out of politics.The Nation newspaper reported on February 12 that Bajwa addressed a gathering of senior army officers of Rawalpindi Garrison in the General Headquarters in December and recommended ‘Army and Nation: The Military and Indian Democracy Since Independence’ written by Steven Wilkinson.The book provides details of changes made in the structure and recruitment pattern of the Indian Army to suit the fledgling democracy in the new country.Army Spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor issued a brief statement to reject the contents of the report.”News/comments quoting COAS’ address to officers at Rawalpindi regarding book ‘Army and Nation’ is a disinformation,” he said in the statement posted on Facebook.It had been reported that Bajwa in the address dwelt on the thorny issue of civil-military equation in the country where the army has ruled for almost half of the history since independence in 1947.The report said the new army chief in a poised manner communicated it to his officers in unequivocal terms that there should be cooperation and not competition between army and civilian leadership of the country.”The army has no business trying to run the government.The army must remain within its constitutionally defined role,” Bajwa was quoted as saying.He also urged officers to read Wilkinson’s book, according to the report. — PTI

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Can those supporting terrorism be called terrorists too? – Watch panel discussion

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Aircraft to ramp up capability to detect enemy missiles

BENGALURU: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday inducted its first indigenously developed airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system, mounted on a Brazilian Embraer-145 jet, ramping up its capability to detect enemy aircraft and missiles.

The Netra AEW&C system has been developed by the Defence Reasearch and Development Organisation (DRDO) and has a range of around 200 km.

The aircraft was handed over to the IAF on the opening day of Asia’s largest airshow Aero India-2017, more than six years behind schedule.

Over 550 defence and aerospace firms, including 279 foreign companies, are taking part in the biennial event being held at the Yelahanka air force base.

A senior IAF officer said, “The induction of the AEW&C aircraft is the highlight of the airshow for the air force.

We need to swiftly scale up our airborne surveillance capabilities.”

India inked a $208-million contract for three Brazil-built Embraer-145 planes in 2008 as part of a DRDO programme to scale up the IAF’s AEW&C capabilities.

The deal was in the news last year due to kickback allegations.

The IAF currently operates three Israeli Phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWACS) mounted on Russian IL-76 heavy-lift planes and there areplanstobuytwomore.

The system has a range of 400km. The numbers are not enough to cover the eastern and western sectors during offensive operations.

In 2015, the defence ministry accorded its acceptance of necessity, the first step towards making an aquisition, for a $760-million project involving mounting two such indigenously developed surveillance systems on the European Airbus A330 platform.

India is considering a proposal to buy a total of six A330 aircraft on which the AWACS may be mounted, taking the value of the deal to around $2.5 billion.

The first such aircraft could be inducted by 2025.

The radar system to detect far off targets will be developed by the DRDO.

Airbus Defence & Space was the only bidder for the AWACS India programme, making it the first single vendor project to be cleared by the BJP-led NDA government.

FGFA PLAN FACING ISSUES, SAYS PARRIKAR

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday acknowledged that a multi-billion dollar programme to co-develop a stealth fighter with Russia was facing some issues.

Parrikar’s comments came three days after Hindustan Times reported that the fifth generation fighter aircraft project was facing an uncertain fate with the government mulling to set up a panel to find how India would benefit from it.

“There are some issues to be addressed in terms of manufacturing, how it will be exported after the project is completed and what approvals will be required,” the minister said.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 13

Lashing out at the Modi-led Union Government over its “failure” to secure the nation’s borders from continued militant influx despite its tall claims in the wake of the surgical strikes, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh today pointed out that the much-touted demonetisation move had clearly failed to check either the inflow of terrorists or fake currency from Pakistan into India.He said Sunday’s encounter in Kashmir and reports of Pakistan pushing fake Rs2,000 currency notes into India via Bangladesh were proof enough that the ill-conceived “notebandi” decision was not helping curb terror, as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Stronger and sterner measures were needed to ensure fool-proof border security if the nation and its people were to be guarded against frequent external assaults, said Capt Amarinder.The PPCC chief also questioned the continued imposition of cash curbs on the people, demanding to know how depriving the common man of his own hard-earned money was helping the government crack down on terrorism and black money.

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary committee has come down heavily on the government for its alleged failure to prevent terror attacks on security installations, saying lessons have not been learnt from Pathankot attack and that there was something “seriously wrong” with the counter-terror establishment.

HT FILEThe terror attack took place on January 2, 2016.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home in its report, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, took stock of overall performance of ministry of home affairs.

Despite several steps reportedly taken by the government to strengthen security measures, it has “comprehensively failed” to prevent recurrence of such subsequent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pampore, Uri, Baramula, Handwara and Nagrota, it said.

“The Committee observes that the government has not learnt any lesson from the Pathankot attack,” the panel noted, saying there remains an urgent need to further strengthen the security network and plug the “serious gaps” in security establishment and intelligence gathering/sharing that have come to the fore in the recent attacks.

The panel, headed by former Union home minister P Chidambaram, expressed its inability to understand that “in spite of terror alert sounded well in advance, how terrorists managed to breach the high-security airbase and subsequently attack.”

Taking note of the intelligence input and kidnapping and subsequent release of a Punjab superintendent of police (SP) and his friends, the committee wondered whether the security agencies were “so ill-prepared to anticipate threats in time and counter them swiftly and decisively.”

“The panel feels that something is seriously wrong with counter-terror security establishment as despite the fencing, floodlighting and patrolling by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, Pakistani terrorists managed to sneak into India from across the border,” it said.