Sanjha Morcha

Let’s not play with India’s heritage

Instead of respecting the sanctity of our past, why are we bent on destroying it?

Why is there such an outcry over a film about Padmavati that has not even released? For some time last week I broke free from answering this question as I walked through my beloved city Allahabad. This city, while being rebellious by nature, has become a victim of destruction by destiny.

It is not possible that you walk the city’s streets and history doesn’t knock on the windows of your mind. I remembered this when I reached the place where Hindu Hostel used to be located. This was where Chandra Shekhar Azad emerged from and went to Company Bagh before the police surrounded him. After a long and fierce encounter when he realised he was running out of bullets, he shot the last one through his own temple so that the British could not capture him alive. Even today, the statue of Azad twirling his moustache appears to be challenging the British colonialists.

What an incredible setting! Located next to each other, the Hindu Hostel, Company Bagh, Indian Press and Mayor College together recount innumerable stories of education, culture, colonialism, protests and repression.

For the uninitiated, Mayor College is now better known as the Science Faculty of Allahabad University and Indian Press shut down more than half a century ago. This is the place from where Saraswati, the monthly magazine edited by Pandit Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, was brought out and played an important role in helping Indians get conversant with literature, culture and values. Some distance away from Indian Press are located the Anand Bhavan and Swaraj Bhavan. Motilal Nehru played his part to strengthen the Congress’s nationalistic character from here. This is where young Jawaharlal Nehru learned the alphabet of politics and Indira Gandhi opened her eyes. As a young journalist, it is here that I met a grief-stricken Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. On the first floor, Rajiv couldn’t hold back his tears looking at the childhood toys of ‘Priyadarshini’.

At that time the multicultural character of Allahabad was still alive.

In one part of the city stayed Firaq Gorakhpuri and in another Mahadevi Verma. Naresh Mehta, Bhairav Prasad Gupt, Jagdish Gupt, Shailesh Matiyani stayed in different parts of the city but all of them strived towards reaching a common destination: Allahabadiyat.

During my Allahabad trip, I also discovered that very few people knew about Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla. During the 1971 war, the Pakistanis had sunk our warship Khukri. Mulla was its captain. In true naval tradition he went down along with the vessel he was commanding. At one time he was a hero for our generation, but today few people remember him. Compared to him, many more people are aware of the family associated with Anand Bhavan. But these days through the university of WhatsApp, an assortment of ridiculous stories are is being spread about them. This is the misfortune of every Indian city. In order to create a new identity, we’ve destroyed the old, but couldn’t create anything that future generations can be proud of.

It is true Indians don’t know how to keep the sanctity of their history intact. If we knew how to do that, so much outrage wouldn’t have been unleashed over Padmavati. Till now six state governments have already said that they won’t allow the film’s release. Before I left for Allahabad, I remembered watching an interview with Arvind Singh Mewar, a descendent of Rana Kumbha, on YouTube. Sitting in his palace, in an interview given to a magazine, he conceded that he doesn’t have any photograph of Padmavati in his possession. The reason? There was no convention of clicking photographs at that time. We are fighting over what happened more than 700 years ago since we don’t have any documentary proof about it. However, the memories of the leading lights of Allahabad and many other Indian cities are still fresh in people’s minds. Why rake up controversies over them?

The reason is clear. Rather than nurture what history has given us, we want to kill it. Why do we forget that humans cannot obliterate history? We should nurture it with care so that we can receive wisdom from it when the need arises. But the exact opposite is taking place. For petty gains, our politicians are ready to change the names of cities, roads and memorials. Going a step further, some of them even talk about demolishing the Taj Mahal. Irrespective of which party gains from this, the common man gets caught in an intellectual morass. This is akin to playing with the nation’s heritage.

Why can’t we Indians understand such a simple fact?

 

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When Subedar Major Taught NDA Cadets a Good Lesson About Nishan

NDA Cadets from the early to mid eighties will remember the imposing frame of SM Darbara Singh. During the rehearsal for the Passing out Parade in 1985, the cadets were in a particularly rebellious mood. The noise did not die down even when the Nishan (Presidential Colours awarded to NDA) was brought into the QM fort, and this was a serious matter indeed, for the Nishan is held in high esteem by the cadet community.

The insult to the Nishan did not go down well with Subedar Major Darbara Singh. With his measured steps he stepped up to the podium and with a voice heavy with anger and gruff with emotions, he asked the cadets to lend him their ears.

Mules carrying ammunition over a mountain pass during 1962 War.

Subedar Major Darbara Singh “Cadets, I have served in the Indian Army for 23 years. I have seen the 1962 operations, the 1965 and 1971 wars as a combatant. The Nishan that you have not acknowledged today, stands for me and countless others who have taken up the profession of arms and given their youth and lives for the honour of being given an opportunity to salute the Nishan, as the symbol of the supreme sacrifice made by our martyrs.

I will tell you a story that might indicate to you the feelings that we soldiers have for the Nishan. The SM drew a deep breath and continued, In this very academy we have a hut of remembrance,where the names of all the former alumni of this institution who have fallen in action are inscribed on the wall, I have been in this academy for the past three years and I have been able to enter that hut only once.

Because written on the wall is one name, Lt Palta of the 4th Battalion the Sikh regiment.

During the 1962 China War, my Paltan was posted in the Tawang sector. I was deployed right on the border, and my section commander was the same Lt Palta whose name is there on the wall in the hut of remembrance.

On the fateful day of 15 Nov 1962, the Chinese attacked our post and we were told to fight back to the last man, last bullet. Lt Palta was personally leading the fight back. It was a harrowing time, we were outnumbered, out gunned and desperately short of ammunition.

Yet we soldiered on , because Lt Palta did not know any other way.

I will carry this blood to my funeral pyre.” The SM’s voice became gruffer with verbalized emotion, “When I entered the hut of remembrance the first time, I saw Lt Palta’s name and picture on the wall.

In an instance I was transported back in time to 1962 and felt his cold stiff body on top of mine and his blood congealing on my face. Till date I haven’t been able to enter the hut again.

” Cadets, its for officers like these that the academy has been given the Nishan. It has been won by the blood of ex NDAofficers and it stands for all that is good and pure in these horrible times; I will not permit you to insult the Nishan and Lt Palta as long as I have breath.”

So saying the SM stepped off the dais and strode out of the QM fort in fragile silence. The silence of the QM fort was shattered only by the echoing word of of command of the parade commander some eight minutes later, ordering the passing out parade to coil its sinuous way out of the QM fort in to the drill square.

The Nishan is nothing but a piece of cloth for those who see it as such, but for Subedar Major Darbara Singh of the Ninth Battalion of the Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army, and countless others like him, it stood for Lt Palta and a cold winter night when a young Lieutenant died trying to protect and lead his men in to battle and to supreme honour.

It stood for a quintessential Indian army officer, who, even when dead, continued to shield a young frightened soldier who was out of ammunition and at the end of his wits.

A breed of officers who gave these grizzled old men the self-esteem and sense of honour, of belonging to a family, of mattering, of esprit-de-corps, and in the end, a way of life. And that, in my opinion is true leadership.


Another militant gives up arms, returns home

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, November 20

Three days after a footballer-turned-militant shunned the gun, another youth from south Kashmir has renounced violence and given up arms to return to his family.The police have been tightlipped about the identity of the militant who gave up the gun today.Soon after the police announced that a militant in south Kashmir had returned home, paying heed to the pleas of his family, Deputy Inspector General, South Kashmir, SP Pani, confirmed the news.“Yes, a boy has returned to his family,” Pani said, but maintained that the police wouldn’t give out any details about the boy.“We will not disclose his identity for now, given the involvement of various issues in the process,” Pani said, remaining non-committal on whether the identity will be disclosed at all.Sources, however, revealed that the militant has been identified as Nasir Ahmad Dar, a 16-year-old from Czimmer village in the DH Pora area of Kulgam district.Dar had been missing from his home since September 27 this year. Meanwhile, Director General of Police SP Vaid took to Twitter and expressed happiness over the development.“On my visit to Kulgam, I was told another local militant has come back home in response to the appeal of his mother and other family members. Great news!” Vaid posted.


Renaming legacy Dyal Singh College should retain its name

Renaming legacy

A low-hanging fruit for any regime is renaming public institutions to advertise its ideological priorities. The rechristening of Delhi University’s Dyal Singh Evening College to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya falls in this category. Dyal Singh Trust, established in Lahore, founded and ran a college and library in that city. Both retain the name of their founder. After Partition, the trust set up Dyal Singh Library and Dyal Singh College in Delhi. Dyal Singh Evening College was founded in 1958, and Dyal Singh College a year later. Both share the campus and the governing body, headed by a BJP member, but have separate staff members, including the principals.Delhi University has managed both colleges since 1978 and a few months ago it decided to convert the evening college into a morning one, prompting the name change, and raising other issues. It is easily conceded that both the colleges have not been beacons of academic excellence and are facing many infrastructural problems as they seek to accommodate students on a relatively small campus in the Capital. The governing body would be well advised to concentrate more on providing such facilities and improving the lot of the students and staff members of one of Delhi’s older colleges. Educational institutions need academic recapitalisation, and it is only natural to expect the governing body to take appropriate measures, rather than to embark on a frivolous renaming venture.India has a long history of philanthropists donating for worthy causes, including educational institutions and hospitals. They have often been named after the benefactors. This is only right and proper. Changing such legacies smacks of pettiness. Besides colleges in Lahore and Delhi, there are Dyal Singh educational institutions in other cities, and they too bear the name of their founder proudly. A man who donated his fortune to establishing trusts focused on public good, Dyal Singh Majithia deserves wider recognition rather than obliteration. His name should continue to adorn the institution that was founded by his trust.


Nirmala’s Arunachal visit may hurt peace, says rattled China

Nirmala’s Arunachal visit may hurt peace, says rattled China
Nirmala Sitharaman

Beijing, November 6

China today objected to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying her tour of the “disputed area” is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the region.Sitharaman, India’s first woman Defence Minister, yesterday visited forward Army posts in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China to take stock of the defence preparedness. She also tweeted pictures of her visit, including her meeting with Army officers.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“As to Indian Defence Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, you must be very clear about China’s position,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.“There is a dispute on the eastern section of the China-India boundary. So this visit by the Indian side to the disputed area is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the relevant region,” she said in a response to a question.The Indian side should work with the Chinese side to make contribution to properly resolving the issue through dialogue and create enabling environment and conditions, she said. “Hope India will work with China for the shared goal, seek a solution acceptable to both sides and accommodate our concerns in a balanced way,” she said.India’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, New Delhi has reacted strongly to any attempts challenging its sovereignty over Arunachal. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and routinely objects to top Indian officials’ visit to the area. The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China stretches to 3,488 km. Special representatives of both sides have held 19 rounds of talks to resolve the dispute.Sitharaman had visited Nathu La area on the India-China border in Sikkim last month and greeted the People’s Liberation Army soldiers across the border. — PTI


China’s OROB hits roadbumps by VBN Ram, Freelance journalist

China’s OROB hits roadbumps

VBN Ram,Freelance journalist

A slew of setbacks in at least three nations for the OROB (One Road One Belt) initiative have dampened the spirit of Chinese economy policymakers. Pak calls off contractThe biggest setback has come from Pakistan, which has called off its $14 billion contract with China for the construction of the Daimer-Bhasa hydro-electric project. China had laid strict conditions, including ownership of the project. According to Muzammil Hussain, Chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the project is not viable and hence not doable, besides being against national interests. He stated so while briefing the Public Accounts Committee on the status of this mega water project. However, China might consider granting some concessions to ensure that its OROB remains unscathed — even though Pakistan has made it manifestly clear to China that it being shortchanged is tantamount to going against its national interest. After all, conditions imposed by China were as bad as the Merchant of Venice had imposed, and like the latter, it wanted its pound of flesh. What were the conditions imposed by Beijing: the securitisation of this project by Pakistan’s pledging of another operational project and taking charge of the entire operational and maintenance cost.Setback in NepalIn a tweet on November 13, 2017, the Deputy Prime-Minister of Nepal, Kamal Thapa, has stated that Nepal’s $2.5 billion contract with China’s Gezhouba Group in respect of the Budhi Gandhaki hydro-electric project has been scrapped. “The project was concluded in an irregular and thoughtless manner and rejected under the direction of Parliamentary Committee,” he said. The above was a bilateral deal — the MoU for which was signed in June 2017 — covered the building of a 1200-megawatt hydro-electric project at a location about 80 km from Kathmandu, as a follow-up to Nepal agreeing to join the OROB. This project is in the process of being awarded to India.

Myanmar alert

Nepal’s withdrawal from the bilateral contract comes a few years after Myanmar decided to cancel the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam, which was formalised by former President Thein Sein. China is continuing its efforts with Myanmar quite persuasively to revive this project.Myanmar has quite obviously seen how Sri Lanka has been shortchanged by China with respect to the Hambantota port project.China’s changed requirementsChina’s wily altruism to secure regional economic hegemony is being supplanted by its economic imperative, or more specifically, its necessity for reducing its debt to GDP ratio. The 19-party Congress has emphasised on market-based allocation of resources and a shift towards greater reward to risk the overall profile of investments.As a matter of coincidence, China is encountering these setbacks at a time when India’s outreach to its neighbours has become highly intense. The aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Philippines has seen significant achievements — the icing on the cake being the impelling need and commitment for a free and open Indo-Pacific region (a strategic initiative by the Quad, ie the US, Japan, India and Australia) to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and lawful commerce in international waters and overall maritime security and infrastructure development and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific. The regional reference “Indo-Pacific” instead of Asia Pacific has added significance.Mandarins in India’s foreign office can pat themselves on the back because they have been able to convince many neighbourhood nations that commercial and non-commercial ties with India can rejuvenate their economies besides rendering them more secure. India should grab the opportunities. That India is bestowed with robust technological prowess is internationally acknowledged. 


Bandipur operation is an ominous sign for terrorists in J&K BY LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN (RETD)

Indian army in Jammu
Soldiers from the Indian Army (Representational image) | Photo by indianarmy.nic

While it’s incorrect to declare ‘victory’, India seems to be on the right path when it comes to anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Even as Dineshwar Sharma, the government-appointed interlocutor, returned after his first reconnaissance of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and a round of meetings was underway in Delhi, the government gave directions for the continuation of focussed and hard anti-terror operations in Kashmir. Within days of those directions, the Bandipur operation on 18 November resulted in one of the biggest achievements in anti-terrorist operations this year. Six terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba were gunned down by the Army’s 13 Rashtriya Rifles, in conjunction with the J&K Police and the CRPF.

Operations against terrorists have two connotations in J&K. First is the counter-infiltration (CI) mode, in which the Army has established a strong and dominating grid along the LoC belt, in depth up to 20 km. This deployment is in layers. Since the strength of infiltrating terrorists can be very high, the attrition levels too are high, resulting in operations in the past where as many as 10-15 terrorists have been killed in a single encounter. These days this number rarely exceeds six infiltrators because terrorists have reduced the size of infiltrating groups to avoid high attrition.

The second mode is that of hinterland operations, or what may also be termed as counter-terror (CT) operations. In the late 1990s and before, the elimination of six or more terrorists in an encounter was considered normal and the frequency was reasonably high. That was because the Valley was full of terrorists who roamed in bands. When the attrition levels increased, the mathematics of terror started to fall in our favour. This was from 2004 onwards, once the LoC fence was operationalised. The Army could eliminate more terrorists in the hinterland than the rate at which they infiltrated.

The terrorist leadership evaluated the situation and decided to reduce the strength in the operational groups. Instead of the usual six, the terrorists began living in pairs, sometimes trios. This reduced the quantum of terrorists killed in contact operations. It was a strategy of the LeT in particular, which then needed many more over-ground workers (OGWs) for guidance to the foreign terrorists (all LeT terrorists are generally Pakistanis) for frequent movement to avoid the security dragnet.

Of course the most important issue here was the need for and existence of a large network of ‘safe houses’ in which foreign terrorists resided. In fact, I once celebrated when one of my units killed five high-level terrorist leaders who had got together for a conference in the Lolab Valley on 13 July 2011.

Ominous signs for terrorists

While a single operation is never sufficient to give us a trend, I can see a few ominous signs for the terrorist cadres. One is the drying of funding. Even OGWs need funding. The call for azadi and radical ideology can only keep passion and commitment going up to a point. Beyond that, it is a question of money.

The NIA’s recent actions and maintenance of continuity with these is having its effect. The lower strength of OGWs means a smaller number of safe houses too. So, terrorists from Pakistan have to stay for shorter periods in fewer homes, and thus have to be in larger groups. This offers greater potential for success to the ever-hungry Rashtriya Rifles troops.

Post-operation analysis will soon tell us whether this eliminated group was a resident terrorist group or a recently infiltrated one. Either way, there can be no denying that the phenomenon of infiltration is impossible to stop; the most the Army can do is contain it as much as possible. Secondly, more youth have been recruited to terrorist ranks in South Kashmir than the number killed or neutralised this campaigning season. So, we are almost back to square one in the numbers game.

The direction of the central government to the forces to not dilute the focus and intensity of operations is wise. Winter can sometimes be a period for a tactical pause when the Army, in particular, gets on to other things like reviewing conventional warfare plans and conducting war games.

My experience in Kashmir tells me that winter is a ‘high kill’ period, but this fact is not registered in the psyche of the forces due to lack of continuity management. With changed circumstances, now is the time to ginger up intelligence. But intelligence does not come cheap. There is a need to spend more money. If this advice is heeded I am quite certain we have a partridge hunt in the offing this winter.

Too many times in the past we have declared premature victory in the fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists and separatists. My sincere advice — victory is not on the horizon yet; it’s too complex a term. We just have to ensure that the CI/CT grids remain intact, and there is no attempt at premature dilution.


Rank-parity mistakes being corrected: Rawat

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14Army Chief General Bipin Rawat is learnt to have told officers at an Army’s internal function that the issue of rank parity is being addressed and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has promised full support on it.General Rawat was addressing a gathering of officers who are to retire at the end of this month. This was a customary farewell meeting of the Chief with officers who were in the ranks of Colonel and above. Sources in the know of things said the Chief clearly brought out that certain oversights and anomalies were made by the service headquarters in the past. These were being addressed and amendments were being carried out. The Tribune was the first to report the matter in October following which the Army headquarters made corrections.General Rawat talked in great detail about the classification of various services and why the Army was not categorised as ‘group-A’ service. The Army, he said, had a pyramid structure and it should not be compared with others. Terms and conditions of service are very challenging and difficult, he reportedly told the officers.


To talk or not to talk….by Arun Joshi

With interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma in Srinagar for talks with all stakeholders, the separatists are not too keen on joining the dialogue process initiated by the Modi government.

To talk or not to talk….
Women separatists protest the visit of Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s interlocutor for J-K, in Srinagar on Monday. Pic: Mohammad Amin War

Arun Joshi

Kashmiri   separatists declared on Sunday that they “cannot disappoint” their people by talking to the Centre’s new interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma as that would be a betrayal of “sacrifices” made for the “sacred cause”. The “sacred cause”, in common perception in Kashmir, is “azadi” or independence from India and Pakistan. It is a rejection of the two-nation theory as also plebiscite.Syed Ali Shah Geelani, speaking on behalf of the separatists, particularly moderates Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik who had collected more than three million signatures from Kashmiris for “azadi”, decreed that no section of the Hurriyat Conference would talk to the interlocutor. The gag order has a ripple effect in non-separatist camps as well. The civil society has maintained a distance from Sharma.Geelani’s aim is to discredit the dialogue process initiated by the Modi government. The majority in the Valley is for “azadi”. Thousands have died for this cause and the end to the conflict is not in sight. Although Geelani, the Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen and some other groups have been asking for right to self-determination as envisaged in the United Nations Security Council resolutions of 1948-49, the fact is that those fighting the Indian security forces were doing so for their “complete independence,” and not for Pakistan. They were grateful to Pakistan for its help to the militants, but not obliged to let Pakistan declare Kashmir as its fifth province.Just when Dineshwar Sharma arrived in Srinagar, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told an audience in London that “an independent Kashmir is not possible.” This has poured cold water on the hopes of those believing that Pakistan was helping them achieve freedom and since then, separatists have gone in a silent mode.The current Kashmir “mood” can be understood in three constituencies:  (1) the sections of silent people who want peace and normal relations with Pakistan with status quo on borders and some dignified measures to give them a sense that they got something at the end of the day. (2) the vast majority that have made their political, geostrategic and economic calculations in which an independent Kashmir is viable and internationally important place; and (3) the traditional pro-Pakistanis since 1947. It would be wrong to assume that the sections that want to live with India will ever speak out. These sections are mute and they live in peripheries and sectarian enclaves in the Valley. Given this scenario, the public mood is to air day-to-day grievances before the interlocutor. This way, their calls for economic and political uplift and good governance would reach Delhi.The separatists are caught in their own web. For 30 years, they have been promising “azadi”. Over 50,000 people have died, a few thousands have disappeared or are languishing in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. A vast majority of them are desperate to come back to their homes here from across the Line of Control. This raises a question:  why are the misguided youth, fired to “liberate their motherland”, are desperate to return home if Pakistan was such a heaven.Even if separatists’ argument is taken at its face value that it is fruitless to meet the Centre’s interlocutor, what is the option — Pakistan  is promoting the idea of Pakistan-only option for Kashmiris. The PoK is better known to them  as a “terrorist state’. Geelani’s skepticism to talks emerges from the past experience with Delhi in which the Centre flinched at implementing the reports of its own men to resolve the Kashmir issue. Even National Conference President Farooq Abdullah has said: “Not much is expected of the new interlocutor.” But a larger point is being missed. Apart from Pakistan’s machinations to stall any Delhi-Srinagar dialogue, there is a problem with the Kashmiri leadership, particularly with the separatists: their clock is stuck in the mid-twentieth century. The electoral parties — National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party — have their agendas rooted in autonomy and self-rule, respectively, but the separatists have no such roadmap. Separatists have only their assertions: “We will not disappoint our people,” “they will not hesitate to offer sacrifices, even at the cost of their life.”Since Sharma has not challenged the Pakistan premier, it is spreading disappointment among the people here. They want to know the status of “azadi”.Any leadership should have asked Sharma what he has to offer (essentially, a direct question to Modi). Delhi cannot afford to repeat its mistake if it has to replace the disappointment on the ground with optimism. The Kashmir imbroglio

  • The majority in the Valley is for “azadi” and an end to the conflict is not in sight even after thousands of deaths.
  • Pakistan Prime Minister SK Abbasi told an audience in London that “an independent Kashmir is not possible.”
  • The Kashmiris want to know the status of “azadi” since despite Pakistan’s help, they have never wanted Pakistan to  rule over them. Their “sacrifices” have been for “azadi” only.

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