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Sqn Ldr Shivamjit Kaur Sandhu inaugurates the park named after her at Garden Colony in Nakodar on Saturday. Tribune Photo

Deepkamal Kaur/tns

Jalandhar, January 13

Nakodar town celebrated Lohri in a different way today. The administration officials, civic authorities and public gathered at a park in Garden Colony and named it after the first woman Indian Air Force (IAF) officer from the town – Sqn Ldr Shivamjit Kaur Sandhu.The IAF officer, her husband Sqn Ldr Vivek Tewari, her parents and residents of her entire colony came out and celebrated Lohri in the park this afternoon.SDM Amrit Singh, who had mooted this kind of initiative by earlier naming a road after Capt Sonia Arora, the first woman Army officer from Nakodar, has made a second attempt of the kind under the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme”.Nakodar Municipal Council president Aditya Bhatara said, “We had passed a resolution for naming the park after Sq Ldr Sandhu in September, which finally got cleared from the Local Bodies Department three days ago. It was a sheer chance that when the clearance came, Sqn Ldr Sandhu too was at her parents’ place for a break. We proposed to hold the function on Lohri, to which she agreed. A space for the park had been earmarked in the colony and we got it readied in just three days with boundary wall, inter-locking tiles, foliage planting and other works done within three days. The residents and the general public appreciated the step taken by us.”At the function, Sqn Ldr Sandhu shared her excitement with the young girls attending the event, “There is nothing that the girls of a small town like Nakodar cannot do. The girls in Delhi also study the same books, which we read here. All we need to do is to grasp and retain as much as we can with thorough understanding.”Great granddaughter of Naik Lal Singh, who laid down his life in the Saragarhi battle, Sqn Ldr Sandhu had studied at St Judes School in Nakodar till Class VI. After that, she had moved to Army Public School in Beas. She pursued her BSc in computer sciences from Lyallpur Khalsa College in Jalandhar. She appeared for the IAF entrance test and cleared it. It has been seven years since she joined the Air Force and is now posted at the Pathankot Air Force base.

Arun Joshi

It must be said that Pakistani diplomats have an expertise and can play their charm to turn the bad situation into a good one. A Pakistan foreign office spokesperson made such a powerful presentation on Friday, virtually proving that US President Donald Trump was not aware that how Pakistan’s fight against terrorism had served American interests. The illustration was simple that Pakistan had helped decimate Al-Qaida and other extremist groups that had shot into global fame because of the 9/11 — without, of course, making a mention that Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan before he was killed by Americans in a daring raid.Pakistan’s foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua while delivering a lecture on “Pakistan’s Foreign Policy issues” at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, on Saturday made a very significant point that Trump’s New Year tweet in which he accused Pakistan of “lies and deceit” in return for $33 billion aid over the past 16 years, was being analysed. The diplomats analyse each and everything, and then work out the things in favour of their country. Tehmina said, “President (Trump) might have got some feedback that he was prompted to tweet in the manner in which he did against Pakistan.”Having said that Pakistani politicians and diplomats claimed that its fight against terrorism has worked for the regional stability and it wants to work more on the front by continuing engagement with the US. Pakistan understands the strategic and logistic compulsions of the US. It wants to milk this cow as much as it can. The serious point is that it is mainly responsible for the regional instability in South Asia. It created a terror monster in Afghanistan and on its own soil to bleed its neighbours — India and Afghanistan. It’s angry with India on losing East Pakistan forever as Bangladesh appeared on the global map as an independent and sovereign nation. India did help the agitating people who were fighting against injustice and denial of democracy to them by the rulers and military of West Pakistan. Afghanistan, it believes, is its backyard, and any Indian presence there is that of an enemy. This kind of thinking is against the international law.Kashmir offers a classic example where Pakistan is using its terror machine to destablise the regional stability. Pakistan-trained terrorists are spilling blood of innocents. J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti reminded the world, including Pakistan, on the second death anniversary of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, “No cause can be achieved by bloodletting.”Pakistan knows that its claim of working for the regional stability is a hoax and only a way to get more dollars from the US. Pakistan has bled Kashmir and continuously brands it as a nuclear flashpoint. Its troops have made the Line of Control that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan, hot. Alongside, it supports and funds the Haqqani network that is responsible for endless terror attacks in Afghanistan.Rawalpindi trusts terrorism more than dialogue. If Pakistan wants to sound genuine in maintaining regional stability, the least it can do is to stop ceasefire violations. Killing soldiers and civilians on the Indian side has its consequences. That doesn’t help the cause of regional stability.Pakistan owes an explanation to the international community that whose interests is it serving by making India and Afghanistan target of its terror networks. It should better learn a lesson by the advice of the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to the Pakistani establishment. She said: “It’s that old story — you can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” That message is more relevant today. And Delhi needs to note that if Pakistan gets into deeper trouble, it would cause more terror and trouble for India as well. It is better that the two engage and sort out their issues bilaterally. That can lead to regional stability in reality.

The family of martyred Sepoy Jagsir Singh at Lohgarh Thakran Wala village in Zira subdivision on Sunday. Tribune photo

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, December 31

A pall of gloom descended on Lohgarh Thakran Wala village in Zira subdivision as the news of the killing of Sepoy Jagsir Singh (32) trickled in this afternoon. Jagsir attained martyrdom during early hours on Sunday following unprovoked firing by Pakistani forces on Indian Army posts along the Line of Control in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir.Sources said Jagsir was targeted by snipers of Pakistan’s Baloch Regiment.Defence sources said though the Indian Army retaliated strongly, Sepoy Jagsir of 19 Punjab Regiment got grievously injured during the exchange of fire. He later succumbed to his injuries.Jagsir had visited his native village last week and had promised to visit again in the New Year.“Jagsir had called yesterday night to convey his New Year greetings. Little did we know it will turn out to be our last conversation with him,” recalled the martyr’s mother, Gurmit Kaur, her voice choked.His wife Mohinder Pal Kaur was inconsolable as she remembered her seven-year relationship with her husband.“We got married in 2010 and were blessed with three kids — Nigamjit Kaur (7), Gurmeet Kaur (5) and Jagdeep Singh (2). On his next visit home, he had promised to take the kids on an outing,” she said.Army officials said Jagsir was a brave and sincere soldier. “The nation will always remain indebted to him for his supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty,” said an official.The martyr’s body would be brought to his native village on Monday in a helicopter, say sources.Jagsir had joined the Indian Army in 2004 and had been serving in the Kashmir valley for the last few years.He did his schooling from the government school in the village and was the youngest of the three siblings.Tehsildar Vipin Sharma along with other officials met the bereaved family and offered condolences.

Ajit Doval. AFP file

Islamabad, January 1

National security advisers of India and Pakistan held a “secret” meeting in Thailand where the tone and tenor of India’s NSA Ajit Doval was “friendly and positive”, a senior Pakistani official said on Monday.A Pakistan national security division official, on condition of anonymity, said the meeting between Pakistan’s NSA Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) and Doval took place in Thailand on December 27, ‘The Dawn’ newspaper reported.“The meeting was good. Doval’s tone and tenor was friendly and positive,” the official disclosed. The official maintained that he was briefed about the Indo-Pak meeting.He was told that the meeting was “useful”. The report also quoted the official as saying that the interaction might help in restarting some sort of engagement at the diplomatic level as well.However, there was no word–officially or unofficially–from the Indian side.The meeting, which appeared to be pre-decided, came two days after Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav met his family in Islamabad on December 25.

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The Jadhav-family meeting became the latest flashpoint in already strained Indo-Pak relations with Pakistan terming its decision to allow Jadhav’s family to travel to Pakistan to meet him as a humanitarian gesture and India accusing it of violating mutual understanding.New Delhi also hit out at Pakistan, asserting that the Indian national appeared coerced and under considerable stress during the tightly controlled interaction and also accused Pakistan of disregarding cultural and religious sensibilities of family members on the pretext of security.Jadhav, who was captured in March last year, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying, an accusation that India has dismissed as concocted.New Delhi says Jadhav was kidnapped in Iran where he had legitimate business interests, and brought to Pakistan. To save Jadhav, India moved the International Court of Justice, which ordered Pakistan in May to stay his execution.It was not the first meeting between the two NSAs in a third country.In December 2015 also, the two NSAs, along with the two foreign secretaries, had met in Bangkok, which was not revealed from both the countries till after the meeting. PTI

FOR at least three decades now, the President of India’s addresses to the nation on the eve of the Independence Day, as also on the eve of the Republic Day, have been personal statements; that is, these are not vetted by the Council of Ministers and provide an occasion for independent reflections. Since the Emergency days, the President, as the head of the Republic, has come to be seen and respected as someone who would stand apart and, if need be, away from the political regime and its partisanship. For President Ram Nath Kovind, 25th January, 2018, was an opportunity to reaffirm the tradition and expectations of presidential gravitas. And, he rose to the occasion. The President’s address was remarkably free of tired and failed shibboleths that the nation has been subjected to these last four years. While enormous progress has, indeed, been made since the birth of our Republic, there is no getting away from the fact that much still remains to be accomplished. And, the President did just that — reminding the nation and all its stakeholders of the abiding importance of republican values and egalitarian promises. In particular, the President was at his sensitive best when he noted that while “we need to craft a modern India that is both a land of talent — and, a land of unlimited opportunities for that talent,” we also need to pay special attention to those weaker communities that “still live at the edge of poverty.”   There was a particularly remarkable note in President Kovind’s address: the importance of “disciplined and morally upright institutions.” In this age of personality cult, the President did well to reiterate that “institutions are always more important than the individuals located there”, and, that those who preside over public institutions ought to perform as “trustees of the people”. And, at a time when the State is arrogating to itself the right to interfere in every sphere of the citizens’ lives, it was reassuring to hear the Head of the Republic suggest respect for an individual’s “space, privacy and rights.” Amen. 

Lt Col Haripal Kaushik. File photo

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 26

Lt Col Haripal Kaushik, who represented India in hockey and was the vice captain of the 1956 (gold medal), 1960 (silver medal) and 1964 (gold medal) Olympic teams, passed away at his residence in Jalandhar cantonment on Thursday night.According to his daughter Veronica, Kaushik was suffering from dementia since 2015 and was in the last stage.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“He was a fighter throughout his life and struggled hard against the disease,” Veronica said. He was 84 and was going to celebrate his next birthday on February 2. He was survived by his daughter. His wife Prem Bala Kaushik had died long ago. Kaushik was commissioned in 1st Sikh regiment in 1959. He was a superb athlete and an exceptional hockey player and rose through various services and national-level hockey competitions to become the vice captain of the “unbeatable” Indian Olympic hockey team in 1956 (gold medal), 1960 (silver medal) and 1964 (gold medal).He was awarded the ‘Vir Chakra’ for displaying exemplary courage and self-disregard in the 1962 Indo-China war when he led his company from the front in the face of the enemy. The Haripal Stadium, raised in honour of the officer, is a lush green and sprawling multipurpose sports field in MIRC.It has a standard athletic track, field for conducting various athletics events, a hockey and a football ground, a multi-gym complex and a spectators seating all around.

Altaf Bukhari and General Bipin Rawat

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 13

A senior minister in the J&K Government today took Army Chief General Bipin Rawat head-on for demanding education revamp and advised the Army to focus on its job.Minister for Education Altaf Bukhari asked General Rawat not to make “unnecessary comments beyond his constitutional mandate and trespass his defined mandate.”“Those who have no link with education are talking about it. We have an education system, whatever shortcomings are there, we are trying to address them…,” Bukhari told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by a school in Srinagar today.Clearly hinting that he was not happy with the Army Chief’s assertions, Bukhari asked the Army to “concentrate on their job.”“There is no need for their advice. Those people who are not concerned with education tell us whether there should be one map or two maps in the schools. We are not going to accept this. Let them (Army) do their job. Perhaps they are not doing their job properly because of which we are suffering,” he said.During a press conference in Delhi on Friday ahead of Army Day, General Rawat reportedly took a hardline approach against the education system in J&K and called for its revamp. He said madrasas and mosques were spreading disinformation.“India is a democratic country and the Army cannot have control on everything. Perhaps he (General Rawat) knows it and I know it very well. Our students and teachers are efficient. Our students have topped the IAS exams. Aberrations are there in every society. I do not think I will take any sermon from anybody. I have a boss (Chief Minister) and if she finds any fault in the education system, we will do (address) it,” the Education Minister said.Bukhari claimed children of the state were not going towards radicalisation.“Our Army is doing good work and they should do their own job,” he said.