Monthly Archives: August 2018

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat’s homily to Pakistan asking it to turn into a secular state from an Islamic nation if it has to stay together with India would have ruffled several feathers in the Foreign Office. It has been India’s consistent policy, bar a few aberrations, not to be prescriptive about the political arrangement in other countries. This stance is on display in the ongoing G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia may be in the West’s doghouse for the murder of journalist Adnan Khashoggi and is an Islamic country to boot. That didn’t prevent PM Modi from discussing urgent matters of state with him.

Similarly, it is of little concern to India that China is a one-party state. As long as it does not imperil its national interests, India is happy to go along with China regardless of its political structure and sense of destiny. That also presumably is the political line the Army Chief is compelled to adhere to. The Army is the last line of defence and the Chief has to keep the morale of his men high and inspire them into combat. His exposition on the need for Pakistan to change its identity hardly promotes any of those prerequisites.

General Rawat superseded two senior officers on the way to becoming the Chief. The reason for the supersession, a rare happening in the Indian Army, was his vast experience on the Line of Control and in the Northeast. The Army has risen to the occasion in both sectors, but General Rawat betrays a lack of sensitivity and propriety when he weighs in on issues outside his domain. In this case, he also displays a naivety, if that is the case, about the fragility of the circumstances. The Kartarpur corridor has provided an extraordinary opening for India and Pakistan to get out of a diplomatic cul de sac. The situation requires India to display a unity of purpose among different actors for the tough bargaining that is inevitable. It could do without creating the impression of dissonance.

New Delhi: Amid a distant Rafale deal shadow, two senior bureaucrats handling finance in the defence ministry have been posted out, months after being appointed by the government. The replacement for the top position of the financial advisor (defence services), or FADS, is an officer from the rival audit and accounts service, something that has sent the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) cadre into a shock.

Madhulika Sukul, who took over as the FADS in August, has been moved as secr ..

While it is undeniable that it has taken over three decades to bring the accused in this case to justice, and that our criminal justice system stands severely tested in that process, it is essential in a democracy governed by the rule of law to be able to call out those responsible for such mass crimes — Delhi High Court

Manoj Mitta

Though communal violence has been a serious and recurring problem for decades, it was not until 2012 thatany political leader got convicted in this connection. But then, former BJP minister Maya Kodnani’s conviction in a Gujarat 2002 case was overturned eight months ago by the Gujarat High Court. So the conviction now by the Delhi High Court of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar for his complicity in 1984 is the only precedent left and, given the quality of the reasoning displayed in the 207-page judgment, likely to be an enduring one.

Calling such mass killings “crimes against humanity”, the verdict provided a comparative perspective on the follow-up to Delhi 1984 and Gujarat 2002. The systems had evolved in the intervening period: the National Human Rights 

Commission (NHRC) came into existence in 1993 and the Supreme Court proved receptive to NHRC’s pleas to intervene in Gujarat cases. In fact, the HC might well have recalled that when NHRC first approached the Supreme Court in 2003 after the collapse of the trial in the Best Bakery case, Justice S Muralidhar himself was the advocate-on-record for NHRC.

What the HC verdict did point out, though, was that while in the Gujarat cases the Supreme Court had set up a special investigation team (SIT) within five years, a similar mechanism meant to reduce local influences was constituted for Delhi cases only last year, after a lapse of 33 years. The HC also bemoaned the absence in Delhi cases of the witness protection measures that had been adopted in the Gujarat context. There was also a reference to the Bilkis Bano judgment of 2017 for thwarting Sajjan Kumar’s attempt to take undue advantage of the delay in the registration of the FIR.     

After all, the FIR  was filed only toward the end of 2005 following the findings of the Justice Nanavati Commission earlier that year. And even that might not have happened had the action taken report (ATR) tabled by the Manmohan Singh government in August 2005 not been vehemently opposed in Parliament and outside. Despite all the evidence, the UPA government in the first instance rejected its findings against Sajjan Kumar and its minister Jagdish Tytler. The conviction came after another 13 years as the case had to cross yet another hurdle in the form of Sajjan Kumar’s acquittal.

The main ground for his 2013 acquittal was the alleged unreliability of the complainant Jagdish Kaur. Her testimony against Sajjan Kumar was discarded by the trial court merely because her 1985 affidavit before the Ranganath Misra Commission did not name him. The HC, however, accepted her assertion that she had very much talked about him in her Punjabi testimony and that the name went missing when translated into English. Besides, the HC  rightly stressed that the judiciary was in any event bound to go only by the evidence recorded during the trial and the manner in which it withstood cross-examination. It upheld Jagdish Kaur’s testimony on the basis of a rigorous cross-examination running into 78 pages.

In the big picture, this belated conviction of the first Congress leader exposes the Rajiv Gandhi government’s culpability for not only the carnage that took place on its watch, but also the systematic attempts to shield the culprits. Even the first judicial inquiry conducted by the Misra Commission, which otherwise earned the odium of doing a whitewash in its 1986 report, recommended a further probe to identify the many cases that had either not been registered or not been properly investigated. That is how, in 1987, the Jain-Banerjee committee for the first time recommended a case against Sajjan Kumar. And when that case was actually registered in 1990 and a CBI team sought to arrest him, they ended up being besieged by Sajjan Kumar’s supporters till his lawyers obtained an anticipatory bail, making a mockery of the rule of law.

Such contrived delays, disruptions and cover-ups ensured that other Congress leaders allegedly complicit like Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao (who was the home minister) and HKL Bhagat (whose East Delhi constituency saw more killings than even Sajjan Kumar’s Outer Delhi constituency) escaped accountability during their lifetime. The most prominent among those who are left is Kamal Nath, who, in a historic irony, became CM of Madhya Pradesh the very day Sajjan Kumar was convicted. Kamal Nath was actually given a clean chit by the Nanavati panel, but the allegations continue to haunt him. For all the embarrassment to the Congress, the ruling has also put the Modi government in a fix because of its call for a law on genocide and crimes against humanity.

(The writer has penned ‘When a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage’)

NEW DELHI:  The Army has decided to open six more branches for permanent commission for women. A proposal to this effect has already been sent to the Ministry of Defence and the Government is likely to announce it after the winter session of Parliament beginning from December 11.

“The government is likely to confirm the process after the winter session as we have already moved the file to the ministry,” a top Army source said.

The Army’s decision follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement from Red Fort on Independence Day that the Army would open its door wider for women.“Women officers commissioned in short service will get opportunity for permanent commission like their male counterparts,” Modi said. “This is my gift to the women of this country today.”

Among the branches which will give permanent commission to women are image interpreter, cyber and IT, language specialist and service board.

Currently, women officers are in the Army’s legal, medical, education, signals and engineering branches. When the Army inducted women into the Army Education Corps and the Judge Advocate General Branch, it went ahead without cabinet or Parliament approval.

Top sources said this time, too, the Government will not be required to get their go-ahead. At present, the women are commissioned as the Short Service Commissioned officers from the Officers Training Academy, Chennai, and can serve up to a maximum of 14 years. The Army also has plans to induct women at the jawan level. Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat had said that 100 women soldiers would be inducted into the military police as jawans.

Contributions by men in uniform have made military literature a treasure trove of the rich legacy of our armed forces

Lt Gen Baljit Singh (retd)

“No battle is ever won, he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosopher and fools” — Anonymous

When at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, Prime Minister Nehru made an impassioned appeal to his fellow countrymen to arise and embrace their “tryst with destiny”, the Indian Army was a tried and tested, highly motivated and among the most dependable organs of the new republic. It had a proud heritage of valour on battlefields at home and across the oceans — stretching back in time at least 150 to 200 years. By and large, the rank-and-file were un-lettered, but they had few peers when the occasion demanded the ultimate in commitment, that is, “last man to the last round”. But they made no pretensions about literary inclinations or pursuits, seldom reading and much less writing.

So all genre of recorded military histories of the times, remained the preserve of officers who, till the 1930s, were Britons. However, once the officer-cadre was opened to Indians, they won plaudits for leadership on battlefields and post August, 1947 India’s lieutenant colonels would get accelerated promotions to brigadiers and major generals. Young and inspired by the trust reposed, several among them would wield the pen with as much flair as they did the proverbial sword. And as all bright sparks were shifted from one leadership role to another, they acquired a fund of new experiences both in the form of oral histories as also memos recorded on secret files.

The beginning

A few such officers penned their experiences after superannuation, and the first book of note, Slender was the Thread was authored by Lt Gen L P Sen, DSO, who, as a Brigadier along with a few hundred soldiers, was air-landed in the wee hours of October 27, 1947, upon a make-shift air-strip near Srinagar. This book is a fascinating and balanced recounting of the 1947-1949 J&K War.

Cruel as all wars are, these are also a crucible of new endeavours, successes and failures in equal measures. So, the twilight period of India’s Independence prompted certain soldiers to seek premature retirement and take up writing as their calling in life henceforth. Manohar Malgonkar was one such officer (a graduate in English and Sanskrit), who had served in the Maratha Light Infantry in Field Marshal Slim’s 14th Army in Burma and rose to a Lieutenant Colonel by 1948. After he hung up his boots and settled near Belgam, he published a beguiling novel, Distant Drum.

As may be imagined, Malgonkar’s fiction is woven around the gripping, nostalgic life and times of officers and their battalion (4th Satpura Rifles) in peace and war, ending with the protagonist Captain Kiran Gaud engaged in conversation across the Cease-fire Line in J & K with a Pakistan Army officer. Kiran is jolted to learn that the lost love of his foe was none other than Bina, his wife. Such are the vicissitudes of war. Malgonkar went on to write eight more books, including A Bend in the Ganges, that was adapted into a Hollywood movie; and more importantly Kanhoji Angrey, arguably India’s pioneer of maritime warfare.

Heat and dust of defeat

Perhaps few other armies had emerged from WW II with comparable, much applauded war-fighting reputation than the Indian armed forces. But come October-November 1962 India-China War, and an unblemished image of some 200 years standing was ruined in mere 20 days. The field commander, Lt Gen B M Kaul would hurriedly publish The Untold Story, but no one cared to pick, leave alone read that book. Brig J P Dalvi, Commander of the Namka Chhu battle zone, published Himalayan Blunder, which is an honest narrative of where he personally failed and yet how his ill-clad, poorly equipped soldiers, outnumbered by a factor of five by the enemy, valiantly stood their ground, till annihilation.

Unlike Dalvi, the narrative of skirmishes and battles from Bum La, down to Bomdila as witnessed and narrated by Brig Darshan Khullar (at the time a subaltern of less than two years service) in his book, When Generals Failed, makes a refreshing reading of the death-defying conduct of soldiers in trenches and lower-rung officers — neither of whom were ever short on guts and grit. Darshan’s personal shenanigan to go back to an abandoned rations dump, north of Se La under sniper-fire by the PLA, to fetch a sack of sugar for his men and another one to get beer bottles for his buddies, truly sums up the never-say-die ethos of soldiers.

But this subaltern was wiser than his years in stating that “India could have defeated the Chinese, or at least given them a bloody nose, if only there had been one great General and a few good brigadiers to seize the opportunity.”

Defeat in battle infuses indomitable spirit even among the kin of soldiers and it is, therefore, not surprising that an officer’s progeny (whose father’s battalion had more than 280 casualities) would publish, in 2016, perhaps what is the best in Indian war literature, 1962 — The War That Wasn’t. Shiv Kunal Verma, with a hindsight of five decades and a decade-long research, provides 400 pages of compelling, scholarly text, which holds interest to the last word. A strip photograph on the imaginative cover shows two IAF planes airborne and right below on terra ferma, four jawans can be seen evacuating a wounded comrade  wrapped in a dusty swath, strapped atop a yak — strikingly epitomising the archaic conditions under which the Indian Army had fought the Chinese. But did the Army betray its oath of allegiance? Well, here is Verma’s emphatic no; PVC 1 (Posthumous, JCO), MVC 11 (Officers 6, Other Ranks 5), VrC 31 (Officers11, JCOs 4, Other Ranks 16).

Courting glory

Come 1965, and the armed forces would grab the chance of wiping clean the humiliation of the searing defeat of 1962. The war had commenced with military setbacks both in the Chhamb Sector of J&K and on the Ichogil Canal beyond Amritsar. Lt Gen Harbakhsh Singh, PVSM, VrC in his book War Dispatches and autobiography, In the Line of Duty (published posthumously), gives a lucid account of events, but refrains from passing  judgements on personalities; certainly not on his superior, Gen J N Chaudhury, the COAS, who was rumoured to have panicked and advised a disastrous military recourse to General Harbakhsh Singh. Mercifully, the autobiography scotches that unholy rumour, altogether.

A magnum opus worth cherishing

If the General showed the war through macro narratives, his ADC, Captain Amarinder Singh (retd.), and Lt Gen Tajindar Shergill (retd.), PVSM, have provided a brilliant magnum opus of 528 pages, The Monsoon War, bringing alive combat actions from the grass roots, upwards to the COAS. Perhaps the raison d’etre are the 135 full-page maps of combat actions, conceived so imaginatively that one may skip the text altogether; all maps are courtesy Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad, Pakistan Army, from his book, Illusions of Victory!

Memoirs galore

Back home, the 1971 War, for the first time, committed the Indian Army simultaneously on the Western and the Eastern borders with Pakistan. Lt. General K P Candeth, who fielded the Western Army, wrote a blow-by-blow account of the conflict in a matter-of-fact style without any literary pretensions.

But of all the books penned by uniformed men post 1947, Surrender At Dacca: Birth of a Nation, by Lt Gen JFR Jacob is by far one of the better military history narratives judged by any yardstick. One hall-mark of good military history (besides being factually truthful) is that it should hold the interest of a military and civilian reader alike. By my reckoning, General Jacob’s book meets these criteria admirably.

In my reckoning, the two sterling additions to military literature were,  Musings and Memories by Maj Gen D K Palit VrC, and Lest We Forget by Capt Amarinder Singh (retd.) The first is in the autobiographical format giving in full measure the life and times of an IMA gentleman-cadet, a Battalion Commander leading from the front in Poonch, the Director of Military Operations overseeing the 1962 India-China War, a Divisional Commander who feels proud to participate and wins the tent-pegging trophy at the National Horse Show and arrives full circle to end his career in command of his alma mater the IMA, Dehradun.

Based on impeccable research, Lest we Forget showcases brilliantly the nine significant battles between 1947 and 1971. The dramatic re-creation of the Battle of Rezang La ending with the last counter attack by about 20 survivors led by Major Shaitan Singh, PVC (posthumous), and the re-telling of the Battle of Dograi from the accounts of Lt Col Desmond Hyade, MVC — are such powerful narratives that will, in time, surely rank among the finest battle accounts.

Autobiographies that steal the show

In the autobiographical military literature, From Reveille to Retreat by Lt. Gen S P P Thorat, DSO and My Years With IAF by Air Chief Marshal P C Lal, PVSM, DFC, will lift the spirits of any reader, from any walk of life.

And if the purpose of war literature is to inform and inspire soldiers and citizens alike then all the above books will pass the litmus test.

Beijing, December 3

China on Monday welcomed India and Pakistan’s efforts to open the Kartarpur corridor, saying strengthening dialogue between them and properly addressing their differences meant a lot to world peace and development.

The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur–the final resting place of Guru Nanak–with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district.

Both India and Pakistan last month announced that stretches would be developed in their respective areas to link the two revered places.

“We are glad to see the good interactions between Pakistan and India. Both are important countries in South Asia. The stability of their relations means a lot to the world peace and development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here answering a question on the corridor.

“We sincerely hope that the two countries can strengthen coordination and dialogue, properly address their differences, and improve their relations for stability and peace,” he said. PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have planned a major operation to bring down the remaining top leadership of terrorists operating in the state.

As per the latest estimates of the Army, a hunt is on for three terrorists who formed the core 12-member leadership.

The three are locals from Kashmir and have been categorised by the forces as ‘A++’ terrorists, the most notorious level. In the past couple of months, security forces have killed nine terrorists of the same category, the last one being Naved Jatt, who had killed journalist Shujaat Bukhari.

The forces are searching for Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Zeenat-ul-Islam, the group’s chief operational commander in Kashmir; Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo; and Zakir Musa of the group called the Ansar Ghazwat ul-Hind. Authorities in Delhi are upbeat that the number of terrorists killed so far during 2018 is 233 and of these, 39 have been killed in November alone, indicating that local sources have been helping the forces. October, September and August had seen 28, 29 and 28 terrorist getting killed, respectively.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had said recently “terrorists have to be brought to a level where they are not able to revamp and come together”. Sources said clear instructions have been issued to prevent any regrouping.

There are inputs on terrorists being concentrated in certain areas of south and central Kashmir — in five locations Shopian, Anantnag, Budgam, Kulgam and Srinagar.

The Army says hard intelligence about the whereabouts of terrorists is coming from the local population which has led to successful operations.

This development coincides with the reality that ceasefire violations by Pakistan (firing from across the Line of Control in J&K) have been going up. On May 29, India and Pakistan had agreed to maintain ceasefire along the borders. They had promised to end continuous firing across the acrimonious divide.

The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of India and Pakistan had then spoken to each other through the existing telephonic hotline mechanism.

Resultantly, June and July saw only 18 and 13 ceasefire violations. In contrast, the violations in October and November were 178 in each month. The ceasefire is an understanding of 2003. Ceasefire violations go up when Pakistan Army fires at Indian posts in the attempt to remove the focus on terrorists attempting to sneak in.

Search on for dreaded trio

• A hunt is on for three terrorists who form the core 12-member leadership. The three are locals from Kashmir and have been categorised by the forces as ‘A++’ terrorists, the most notorious level
• The forces are searching for Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Zeenat-ul-Islam, the group’s chief operational commander in Kashmir; Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo; and Zakir Musa of the group called the Ansar Ghazwat ul-Hind
• In the past couple of months, forces have killed nine terrorists of the same category, the last one being Naved Jatt, who had killed scribe Shujaat Bukhari

Pakistan seems to have procured another piece of Artillery equipment from China — the SH-15 howitzer. And the significance for India is that the system could be nuclear-capable, if Pakistan’s attempts to miniaturise nuclear weapons has been successful.

The howitzer made an appearance at Pakistan’s 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS), organised in Karachi this week. Only one picture of the weapon appeared, indicating some kind of secrecy or embargo, but that was enough to confirm that Pakistan has begun importing the system.

The SH-15 was also exhibited at the Zhuhai Airshow held this month in China. It is already in service with the People’s Liberation Army’s 72 Group Army in the Eastern Theatre Command, with the artillery brigade firing alongside the PHL03 MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) and the PLZ05 howitzer SP (self-propelled).

The SH-15 trials in Pakistan were carried out in secret in the mountains near Karachi. A leaked picture of the trials was published in Chinese magazines.

Pakistan is learnt to have ordered at least 52 SH-15, enough for three regiments of the artillery.

How it works ::

The SH-15 system uses a 6×6 wheeled Shaanxi truck chassis for carrying a 155 mm howitzer mounted at the rear of the truck. The truck also has two spades connected to the howitzer at the rear for stabilising the system.

The howitzer system is operated by a crew of five and carries almost 22.5 tons of load.

It is protected against small arms firing and shell splinters by an armoured cabin at the front, which has all bulletproof windows and windshields.

The 155mm/52 calibre long-barrel howitzer is fitted with a double-baffle muzzle brake. It has four boxes for carrying 60 rounds of ammunition as first line.

Northern Industries Corporation (NORINCO), the state-run defence manufacturer that makes the SH-15, claims it has a maximum firing range of 53 km with a rocket-assisted artillery projectile, similar to the eight-year-old SH-1 system.

The elevation and traverse of this howitzer is operated hydraulically. It can also be operated by manual controls in case of emergencies. The maximum rate of fire is six rounds per minute.

The SH-15 can be used to perform a direct firing role, which the Pakistan Army seems very fond of.

Nuclear dimension ::

So, why is Pakistan so fixated on 155mm howitzers? The answer is that the SH-15 will be the best ‘shoot and scoot’ system for the use of nuclear shells — easy to hide and easy to use against troop concentration.

Pakistan has been working on the miniaturisation of nuclear weapons since 1984, with Plutonium as the core. The US nuclear artillery shell W-48 uses 10kg high density alpha-plutonium with a sphere of barely 54mm.

Pakistan’s ex-martial law administrator and self-proclaimed president Pervez Musharraf had told a US diplomat that Pakistan had produced the smallest nuclear warhead in the latter half of 2011.

Such a warhead, if fitted in a 155 mm shell with a stated range of 53 km, will be a game-changer against India’s ‘Cold Start’ doctrine.