Monthly Archives: August 2018

In this world of instant media and viral tweets, impressions are important. Today, there is a feeling that the government is battling its own soldiers and that the latter can hope for justice only from the courts.

Lt-Gen DS Hooda (Retd)
Former Northern army Command Chief

In April 2018, in the case of Union of India Vs Prithwi Singh, concerning the grant of disability pension to a soldier, the Supreme Court observed, “The couldn’t-care-less and insouciant attitude of the Union of India with regard to litigation, particularly in the Supreme Court, has gone a little too far as this case illustrates….it is adding to the burden of this Court and collaterally harming other litigants by delaying hearing of their cases through the sheer volume of numbers… this is an extremely unfortunate situation of unnecessary and avoidable burdening of this Court through frivolous litigation which calls for yet another reminder through the imposition of costs on the Union of India while dismissing this appeal.”

Unequal battle

The Supreme Court’s observations are reflective of the problems plaguing the very emotive issue of disabled soldiers fighting cases in the courts for their pensionary dues. It is both an unequal battle and an unjustified one. The government had been routinely challenging Armed Forces Tribunal rulings, forcing veteran soldiers and widows to appear in the Supreme Court, where they faced a battery of government lawyers, whose costs possibly exceed the payout for the disability grant. 

The Supreme Court’s comments in the Prithwi Singh case are telling, “To make matters worse, in this appeal, the Union of India has engaged 10 lawyers, including an Additional Solicitor-General and a Senior Advocate… In other words, the Union of India has created a huge financial liability by engaging so many lawyers for an appeal whose fate can be easily imagined on the basis of existing orders of dismissal in similar cases.”

More importantly, the volume of appeals filed in the Supreme Court has created the impression of an insensitive government disrespecting the sacrifice of soldiers who suffered medical disabilities while serving the country in the most challenging of conditions and the harshest of terrains. There is an unseemly squabble on whether the disability has been caused by service conditions, and certifications of commanders on the ground are disregarded by financial advisors and pension sanctioning authorities.  

Move to cut litigation

It was, therefore, an extremely welcome step when the current government moved to reduce litigation and improve the system of redressing grievances among the military veterans. The Defence Minister constituted a Committee of Experts that submitted its report in November, 2015. Among the 32 recommendations that were immediately accepted by the minister, an important one was the withdrawal of litigation in all cases that had been settled by the high court/Supreme Court. The minister gave 45 days to implement the recommendations approved by him.

Despite this display of political will by the government, and a passage of three years, the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee of Experts remains tardy. In June 2017, the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare issued instructions that no further appeals would be filed on legally settled cases, but pending appeals would not be withdrawn. This is not only a completely petulant approach but also bad in law.

Service HQ’s role

The Service headquarters have also not moved proactively to follow up on the recommendations approved by the Defence Minister in 2015. While it is accepted that changes in policy can only be done by the MoD, a narrow interpretation of policies by military officers in the headquarters, despite legal rulings to the contrary, cannot be considered a shield to deny due benefits to the soldiers.

As reported in a leading newspaper on November 22, the MoD, on September 7, had communicated that “Litigations (should) be viewed in an impersonal, non-adversarial and dispassionate manner and should not be made a prestige issue or a win/loss situation. The tendency to the continuous unethical filing of appeals in issues that have attended finality at the high court or Supreme Court should be checked and all such pending appeals should be identified and immediately withdrawn.” Despite this, only 180 cases out of the total of 7,676 are being withdrawn by the three services.

Financial implication

Contrast this with the other ministries. The Income Tax Department, in July this year, moved to reduce its litigation load. The threshold limits for filing appeals was raised to Rs 1 crore in the case of Supreme Court, and Rs 50 lakh and Rs 20 lakh in case of high court and tribunals, respectively. As per media reports, this amounted to a withdrawal of 41 per cent cases with a revenue impact of Rs 4,800 crore.

It is often argued that the military is a large organisation and rulings by the courts impact a great number of serving and retired officers and men. The financial implication of implementing the court orders is huge and this would put additional pressure on the already stressed revenue budget. Such an argument needs to be dismissed outright. Justice cannot be sacrificed at the altar of budgetary constraints. Also, spare a thought for the disabled soldier spending a significant part of his hard-earned pension in fighting cases in the Supreme Court.

In this world of instant media and viral tweets, impressions are extremely important. Today, there is a feeling that the government is battling its own soldiers and that the latter can hope for justice only from the courts. This is despite the political leadership clearly conveying its intent to reduce litigation in courts. How will this intent get translated into action?

There is little future in the blame game. A concerted effort has to be made to address this very vexing problem that shows everybody concerned in poor light. The first step is to adopt a more liberal outlook towards disabled soldiers. It is only then that we will be able to craft policies that show a more sympathetic approach. There must be ruthlessness to withdrawing past cases from the courts and filing new appeals. This scalpel will have to be wielded by the Defence Minister.

The Indian military is not a mercenary force that works only for monetary incentive. Values and an honour system are rated highly in the profession. However, the soldier, particularly after he sheds his uniform, must not feel abandoned.

Jammu, December 24

Pakistani troops on Monday opened fire and shelled forward posts and villages along the LoC in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

The firing and shelling from across the border started in Keri, Lam, Pukharni and Peer Badaser areas of Noushera sector around 9.30 am, a police officer said.

Army personnel guarding the LoC retaliated and the cross-border firing between the two sides was going on when the  reports last came in. There was no immediate report of any casualty, the officer said. PTI

The Army had carried out a court of inquiry during which it was found that Rs. 82 lakh were allegedly paid to these two officers by Jai Prakash Singh, a contractor, it said.

Complaint was filed by Brigadier Rajiv Gautam at Army’s 3 Corps headquarters (File)

New Delhi, December 17

The Indian Air Force created history today as it flew an AN-32 using a bio-fuel blended with normal aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The transport plane, which routinely drops supplies, men and equipment to Leh, Siachen-base camp, Kargil and Srinagar, took a 45-minute sortie from Chandigarh using green fuel.

The plane was flown by experimental test pilots and a test engineer from IAF’s aircraft and systems testing establishment (ASTE).

The project is a combined effort of the IAF, DRDO, Directorate General Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) and Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum.

This opens the possibility of having a continued use of bio-fuel in military aircraft. The IAF may decide to test other aircraft like helicopter and fighter jets, significantly reducing the oil import bill and also encouraging framers in arid area to grow more plants that yield tree-based oil.

The IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, had in July announced their intention to promote bio-fuels.

Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), Additional Director General of the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) — a think-tank — said: “It is the first step. It can help reduce crude imports. However, many more steps are needed to have an efficient logistics trail.” — TNS

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

Former intelligence chiefs today suggested a change in the command and control structure and functional ethos of the intelligence set-up in India to make it a more effective instrument to assist decision making.

“I am afraid that at the apex level of intelligence, you have the NSA who is also coordinating the functioning of intelligence agencies apart from his other jobs. The country needs a Director of National Intelligence who coordinates the work of intelligence agencies as the NDA’s charter of policy making and advisory is far too large and significant for merely being a coordinator,” former Director General of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lt Gen Kamal Davar, said while speaking at a session ‘Wisdom of Spies’ at the Military Literature Festival.

He suggested that for the intelligence arms of the three services to be effective, they should be brought under the command of the DIA. The lack of expertise in languages was a major weakness with Indian intelligence and we needed to be much more serious about Asian languages, he added. 

The country had a good intelligence set-up with good coordination among different agencies, but we needed to sharpen our arsenal and covert capability, he said.

Pointing out that covert capability takes a very long time to build, but two Prime Ministers in the past dismissed a fair amount of such capability in an outright manner, Lt Gen Davar said decisions at the highest level have to be made carefully and deliberately and not based on emotions.

“Unfettered access to decision makers in a converged paradigm is extremely important in the Indian context and there is no question in a democracy of all intelligence agencies reporting to one man,” Lt Gen Sanjiv Langer, another former DIA chief, said.

Stating that we don’t want to create another J Edgar Hoovar (a former long-time FBI chief who wielded immense power), he said in the present Indian political environment, it would be suicidal to have one person controlling all agencies.

He said that in the present era, intelligence required marriage of intellect with technology and spies had to be treated as a capital asset and not just a resource that could be used and thrown away. Parliamentary oversight over intelligence agencies, an over-the-horizon vision and an attitudinal overhaul were required, he added.

While sharing his experiences of dealing with the heads of various foreign intelligence agencies, AS Dulat, former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, suggested the recently elected Prime Minister of Pakistan has been in place for just a couple of months and should be given time to enable him to improve ties with India.

THE latest meeting of the world’s 20 most economically powerful nations at Buenos Aires was termed as the ‘avoidance summit’. Trump avoided meeting Putin, China tried to avoid the trade wars, Putin tried to avoid getting rapped for the fracas with Ukraine and everyone avoided a discussion to reform the WTO and pursue climate change. But India, usually an important but not a crucial determinant at G-20 summits, was ardently sought out by both the camps. A Russia-India-China summit took place after 12 years, indicating that New Delhi intends addressing the flux in the neighbourhood by a regional approach. If that was not symbolic enough, Japan and US expanded their bilateral summit at the last moment to include India, enabling India not to lose sight of its concerns for the Indo-Pacific.

There were no surprises in the Japan-India-US trilateral because it has been a work-in-progress. Moreover, the momentum is kept going because of the unanimity among their elites to pursue this relationship with the unstated intention to deny Chinese dominance over the Indo-Pacific. This suits India’s interests. Till there is a festering land border dispute with China, the US-led maritime partnership can serve India’s requirement for a counter pressure point. However, there is no matching enthusiasm among the Indian elites for creative diplomacy with Russia and China. The task of nurturing and advancing ties with them is left to the Indian state which is partly responsible for the absence of a RIC summit for a dozen years.

The most notable outcome of the RIC summit was the desire to work on terrorism. All three countries lie in what is called the crescent of Islamic terrorism that transcends national boundaries. The  resilience of terror groups in the region is because of the absence of a coherent multi-nation effort. A consensus among the three countries should hopefully diffuse to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and have a calming effect on Pakistan which is also a member. This is the season of unlikely rapprochements and India has managed to put itself in the centre

In a recent interview, chief of army staff General Bipin Rawat spoke at length about why the Indian Army is not ready for women combat officers.

Women in combat is not just a contentious subject, it is also one which brings out passionate reactions from both aspiring women who wish to shatter yet another glass ceiling and Indian Army officers fiercely holding the ceiling in place, lest it starts to crack.

While both the disruptors and the resistance have valid arguments, Gen. Rawat strangely chose the most chauvinistic, illogical and factually untenable points to insist why the Indian Army would not have woman combatants any time soon.

From “…there are orders that we have to cocoon her separately. She will say somebody is peeping, so we will have to give a sheet around her” to “I make her a commanding officer. She is commanding a battalion. Can that lady officer be away from her duties for six months? Do I put a restriction on her to say that in that command tenure you will not be given maternity leave? If I say that, there will be ruckus created,” his arguments were infantilising women at best and ridiculous at worst.

Take the first point. Why would a woman officer complain about men peeping inside her hut/cabin/room, unless somebody is indeed peeping inside? And if somebody is peeping inside a woman’s room without her consent, then it is not the woman’s problem; it is a problem of discipline. And as any military leader would agree, indisciplined troops are a nightmare for any commander.

Taking the same argument forward, Gen. Rawat said that since a majority of Indian soldiers (people below the rank of officer) still come from villages, they will have a problem taking orders from a woman commander.

There are two flaws with this excuse. One, soldiers are trained to follow orders given by their superiors in rank. Period. They are not trained to take orders from a ‘male’ superior. In military, a rank is what matters, which is why it is worn on the shoulders. Now if trained soldiers chose to look at the breast of their commanding officer instead of the rank on her shoulder, then in addition to being a problem of indiscipline, it represents the breakdown of command too.

The second flaw is that men from rural areas have been taking orders from women for several decades now, whether as security guards, domestic helps, office assistants and even in the military. After all, except for combat, women officers are already serving in the military. Aren’t they giving orders to their juniors, including jawans? And aren’t those orders being obeyed?

His most facetious argument was about women asking for maternity leave during their command tenure. In India, even the male officers who get approved for command tenure rarely do so before the age of 40. Given this, which woman, especially after enduring physical and mental rigours of military training to get commissioned as a combatant, would decide to have a child at the age of 40 or more? Even in the civil sector, the percentage of women opting to have children at 40 is miniscule. What’s more, of every ten officers, only half manage to command a unit. A woman who reaches this position is hardly likely to throw it all away because she belatedly decides to have a child. And even if she does, she would know that this would involve a compromise as far as her military career goes. This should worry the woman concerned, not the army chief.

Gen. Rawat, please look at the social profile of the officers you are commanding. Most have more than one child even before they hit their 30s; almost a decade and half before they can have a shot at commanding a battalion. Why would women be any different?

And as far as the country not being ready to receive the body bag of a woman officer is concerned, is anyone ever ready to receive a body bag of their loved one? It’s not about being ready. It’s about hoping and praying that your loved one does not return in a bag, yet accepting it when that happens.

Clearly, Gen. Rawat was caught off guard by the intrepid journalist. And the misogynist banter which usually happens in the army messes found its way into the interview.

Contrast this with the press conference the chief of naval staff had a few weeks prior to this infamous interview. In response to a question on women officers being inducted in the combat role, Admiral Sunil Lanba said, “Navy is a gender-neutral service. We have already commissioned women officers in combat. They are flying the P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, which is a combat platform.”

According to Admiral Lanba, women officers have been trained to release weapons from P-8I, which is combat in the navy.

In response to another question, he added that all the modern under-construction warships are being designed to accommodate women officers. The only reason women have not been deployed on surface ships so far is because the naval training ships are not equipped to train women officers. “We are working on this. As soon as we have new training ships, we will train women for deployment on combat ships,” he told the assembled journalists.

Admiral Lanba offered no timelines and none were asked. A new training ship could start training women officers next year, or it may not do so for another five years. But at least the chief conveyed that the navy has no prejudice against women, instead of belabouring the fact that a woman officer may have to be alone on the ship with male colleagues for several months on operational deployment.

Inducting women in combat is a serious subject, which is why very few armed forces in the world induct women in the fighting arms. It deserves a serious and well-considered response. If he was not giving so many interviews at a breakneck speed, perhaps Gen. Rawat would have had time to consider his responses and he wouldn’t have exposed his regressive mind-set.

Surely, the head of the largest volunteer army in the world could have done better.

• ndia Today TV’s undercover reporters have revealed the grim reality of stone pelting in Kashmir
• A number of the stone throwers have admitted to being on the payroll of unknown ‘underground masters’ in order to attack security forces
• The men are alleged to be paid ‘Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000 (£80) a month’

At an unknown address in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district, fugitive stone-pelters dropped their face masks for a conversation with India Today TV’s undercover reporters.

With that, they also revealed disturbing truths behind the unrest in the Valley that followed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s killing last year.

Zakir Ahmad Bhat, Farooq Ahmad Lone, Wasim Ahmed Khan, Mushtaq Veeri and Ibrahim Khan made startling confessions: from being on the payroll of their underground masters to carrying out deadly attacks on security forces, public servants and property in the troubled region.

Scroll down for video… 

‘It’s Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000 (£80) a month and clothes. Sometimes shoes as well,’ said Bhat when asked whether he was paid to charge at security forces with stones.

Young boys took to throwing stones in mass demonstrations that rocked Kashmir Valley in 2008 and 2010.

Since then, it has become a popular way for youths to express their anger against the government, and authorities have been constantly looking to stamp out a repeat in the escalations of violence.

Bhat is also a specialist in Molotov cocktails or petrol bombs. He is wanted for arson attacks during last year’s stone-pelting protests that erupted after the death of Wani, who had a large social media following and was credited with reviving militancy in Kashmir.

By his own admission, Bhat sounded unapologetic about forging contracts with obscure enemies to strike at troops in the Valley.

‘We pelt security forces with stones – J&K police personnel, Army jawans, MLAs and government vehicles.’ But this hired extremist refused to disclose the identity of his financiers.

‘We will die but won’t reveal their names. It’s the question of our bread and butter.’

He admitted to hurling stones in Baramulla, Sopore and Pattan. ‘Now, we go to the downtown (in Baramulla), where we protest on Fridays.’

He would also supply and use petrol bombs. ‘We get separate funds for making petrol bombs,’ Bhat said.

He charges up to Rs 700 for making one Molotov cocktail.

‘I must have made 50-60 bombs. We throw them on vehicles and whosoever comes in between,’ he said.

From July to October last year, as many as 19,000 people were injured and 92 killed in a series of clashes between rock-throwing protesters and security forces in Kashmir, news reports suggest.

Around 4,000 security personnel were among the wounded. Two jawans were reportedly among the dead. But for stone-pelters such as Farooq Ahmad Lone, violent agitations are their livelihood.

‘It could be Rs 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 or even Rs 5,000,’ said Lone, quoting his daily income from organising shutdowns and stone-throwing demonstrations.

‘We have been pelting stones since 2008.’ Wasim Ahmed Khan put his monthly stipend from rock-hurling protests at Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000.

For accomplice Veeri, it’s Rs 700 a day on weekdays and up to Rs 1,000 on holy Fridays.

‘So, the man who pays you belongs to your village?’ asked India Today TV’s investigative reporter.

‘He just arrives. He’s known to one of my friends,’ replied Veeri, refusing to name his paymaster.

But pelters did disclose how they were assigned their job well in advance.

The hidden masterminds would use the Internet to organise stone-pelting across various locations in Jammu and Kashmir, revealed Ibrahim Khan.

Instructions regarding potential targets, he explained, were circulated on group-messaging services beforehand.

‘Instructions are issued on WhatsApp groups,’ Khan said. ‘Who are you asked to pelt stones at?’ asked the reporter.

‘A policemen, Army personnel, whoever comes forward. There are clear directives,’ Khan, who makes up to Rs 20,000 a month from the protests, answered.

Young children, he claimed, were also recruited as pelters. ‘How much are children paid?’ probed the undercover journalist.

‘It depends upon who the boy is. If he has a good physique, he will be paid around Rs 7,000 – Rs 7,500,’ Khan said.

But if the child recruit is weak, he would get around Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000, he added.

For children up to 12 years, the minimum payment for stone-pelting is fixed at Rs 4,000, said Khan. Bhat, Veeri and Wasim Ahmad Khan then shared their track-record in executing attacks on security personnel and government property.

‘We hurled petrol bombs at a vehicle parked on a bridge. Two people were charred,’ said Bhat, referring to a 2014 assault on a pair of policemen. Veeri said he had injured at least 30 to 35 people from various security agencies till now.

File photo of an AugustaWestland chopper.
New Delhi, December 17

A Dubai-based businessman and accused in a money-laundering case connected with the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal moved a Delhi court on Monday seeking anticipatory bail.

Rajeev Saxena, a director of two Dubai-based firms — UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings — filed application through his advocate before Special Judge Arvind Kumar, saying he was anticipating arrest.

The court sought response from the ED by December 24, when it will next year the matter.

The court has already issued non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Saxena in the case. PTI