Monthly Archives: August 2018

This is the third fatality in the Pakistani firing and shelling on forward posts and villages in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri this month.

The officials said the latest firing and shelling from across the border took place in Shahpur-Kerni sector on Saturday night, drawing strong retaliation by the Indian Army.

They said the casualties suffered by the Pakistani Army in the retaliatory action were not known immediately.

On June 4, havaldar P Mathiazhagan fell to Pakistani firing in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, while on June 10, Naik Gurcharan Singh lost his life in a similar incident in Rajouri sector.

Speaking at a virtual rally for Jammu and Kashmir, the defence minister assured that national pride will not be compromised under any circumstances.

Speaking at a virtual rally for Jammu and Kashmir, Singh also assured the opposition that the central government will not keep Parliament or anyone in the dark about developments on the border and will share details at an appropriate time.

“I want to assure that we will not compromise with national pride under any circumstance. India is no longer a weak India. Our strength in national security has risen. But this strength is not meant to frighten anyone but to secure our country,” Singh said.

“This is also our effort to defuse the tussle between India and China through military and diplomatic level talks,” he said, noting that the two countries are engaged in military level dialogue.

Also read: India says will hold more diplomatic-level talks with China to resolve border standoff

The nine nuclear-armed countries—the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—together account for an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons as of January 2020.

China and Pakistan possess more nuclear weapons than India, according to a new yearbook released by a leading conflict and armaments think-tank on Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s Yearbook 2020 pegs the number of nuclear warheads in the Chinese arsenal at 320, while the nuclear forces of Pakistan and India are estimated to have 160 and 150 weapons, respectively.

The figures have been updated till January 2020.

India and its neighbours were ranked in the same order by SIPRI last year too when China possessed 290 nuclear warheads, Pakistan 150-160 and India had 130-140 warheads at the start of 2019.

The findings come at a time when India and China are caught in a border confrontation along the contested line of actual control in eastern Ladakh. Also, there is a noticeable military buildup on both sides of the border—stretching from Ladakh to Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

China is carrying out “significant modernisation” of its nuclear arsenal and developing a “so-called nuclear triad for the first time” made up of new land and sea-based missiles and nuclear-capable fighter jets, the SIPRI said in a statement announcing the launch of the yearbook.

“India and Pakistan are slowly increasing the size and diversity of their nuclear forces,” it said.

The yearbook, which “assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security”, found while there has been an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2019, all nuclear weapon-possessing countries continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals.

With 6,375 and 5,800 warheads, Russia and the United States together possess more than 90% of global nuclear weapons.

The nine nuclear-armed countries—the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—together account for an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons as of January 2020.

“This marked a decrease from the 13,865 nuclear weapons that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2019. Around 3,720 of the nuclear weapons are currently deployed with operational forces and nearly 1,800 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert,” SIPRI’s statement said.

It also highlighted low levels of transparency in reporting on nuclear weapon capabilities.

“China now publicly displays its nuclear forces more frequently than in the past but releases little information about force numbers or future development plans,” the statement said.

“The governments of India and Pakistan make statements about some of their missile tests but provide no information about the status or size of their arsenals,” it added.

India was the third-biggest military spender in the world last year after the US and China, according to a SIPRI report released in April. It was the first time that two Asian countries featured among the top three military spenders.

New Delhi’s defence spending grew by 6.8% to reach $71.1 billion in 2019, said the report on Trends in World in World Military Expenditure.

Chandigarh, June 13

Four alumni of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI), Mohali, were among the 423 Gentlemen Cadets, including 90 foreign cadets, who were commissioned as officers at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, today.

They included Lt Karan Singh Cheema, a third-generation officer who has joined the Assam Regiment, and Simranjit Singh, who has joined his father’s regiment, Skinner’s Horse.

D Gurbaz Singh and Gurlal Singh have joined the Regiment of Artillery.

They were from the fourth batch of the institute that was set up by the Punjab Government to arrest the declining trend of youth from the state joining the armed forces as commissioned officers. — TNS

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 14

Sikh bodies have welcomed the UK authorities’ proposal to rechristen the Havelock Road in Southall as Guru Nanak Road.

SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal said if this proposal was executed, it would be a befitting tribute to Guru Nanak Dev in view of the 550th Gurpurb.

“This road will be a symbol of recognition of the Sikh community’s huge contribution, be it to the UK’s economy or social service. It will also help in strengthening the anti-racism campaign on foreign soil. Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, the largest shrine in western Europe, is also located on the same street, which would further complement its significance,” he said.

In the wake of “Black Lives Matter” protests, the UK’s Ealing Council has been reviewing colonialist connects associated with its street names and statues. A survey was already being conducted on the proposed name of the road. At present, the road is named after British General Sir Henry Havelock, who was involved in the recapture of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh during the First War of Independence in 1857.

DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the langar tradition taught by Guru Nanak Dev, which had got acclaim world over especially during the Covid-19 crisis, had shown its impact.

“That’s why the foreign community recognised Guru Nanak’s philosophy of communal harmony in the modern materialistic world,” he said.

However, Sukhdev Singh, Punjab convener, Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), said, “As a Sikh devotee, it was a matter of pride to name the UK road after the founder of Sikhism. But historically speaking, the streets and monuments signify the legacy of occurrences and their names apprise of those chapters of the past from where the community ultimately rescued. So, the original names should not be altered.”

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 14

On August 5 last year, when Parliament approved an amendment to Article 370 of the Constitution to carve out Ladakh as a separate Union Territory, China responded with angry statements.

Beijing questioned the “changed status” of the “boundary”, whereas in reality there is no boundary and it never was and largely due to the Chinese, who have rejected every such proposal in 174 years, or since 1846. The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a kind of loose understanding with several disputes and overlapping claims, especially along the 826 front in Ladakh.

• Want peace, not China’s territory, says Gadkari

Since 1846, when the British took over J&K post the first Anglo-Sikh War, an attempt was made to have a boundary and was quickly followed up in 1847. In all, the British proposed boundaries — five separate ones in 1846-47, 1865, 1873, 1899 and 1914, China rejected each of them. Britain got China to send in troops during World War I and II, but the boundary remained undecided.

Major Alexandar Cunnigham, who led the British attempt in 1847 to demarcate the boundary, details this in his 1854 book “Ladakh Physical, Statistical and Geographical”. He narrates “The settlement of this boundary (between Ladakh and Tibet) was of some importance”.

In 1834, the Dogra Army, led by General Zorawar Singh, captured Ladakh. During the Sino-Sikh War (1841–42), the Qing Empire invaded Ladakh, but the Sino-Tibetan army was defeated and “a letter of agreement” was signed in 1842.

Since August last year, China’s foreign affairs ministry has questioned the move on Article 370. At an informal session of the UN Security Council in August 2019, the Chinese Permanent Representative in the UN had argued that India’s decision to abrogate Article 370 challenged China’s sovereign interests and violated bilateral agreements on maintaining peace in the border area. In Ladakh, only two spots along the LAC are disputed.

One is at Trig Heights in the north-eastern edge of Ladakh and the other is Demchok. Besides, both sides carry out patrolling in what they perceive as the boundary — at the northern edge of Pangong Tso, Sppangur Gap, Kongka La, Chumur, Mount Sajun, Hot Springs and Samar Lungpa. However, not a bullet has been fired since November 1962 in Ladakh.

Sequence of events post Independence

• 1947: Chinese army enters Tibet
• 1950: India unilaterally declares McMahon Line in Arunachal as its boundary
• 1954: India claims Aksai Chin as part of its northern border
• 1958: India discovers China has built a road over the plateau of Aksai Chin
• 1959: PM Nehru rejects Chou En-lai’s letter accusing Indians of overstepping McMahon Line
• 1960: China bizarrely expands its claim on another 5,100 sq km of the territory in eastern Ladakh
• 1960: China wants status quo — India keeps NEFA (now Arunachal), while China keeps Aksai Chin — northeast edge of J&K
• 1961: In November, India launches forward policy to retain control over territory
• 1962: In Oct-Nov, India-China go to war
• 1993: Pact is inked on maintenance of peace along LAC
• 2014: PM Modi suggests demarcation of LAC, China says let representatives resolve it

ndia can live with the new map, though the dissonance will harm both countries, but hit Nepal hard. The cost of ultra-nationalism will be heavy. The principal beneficiary will be China. The hangover of India being rebuffed over Nepal’s new Constitution in 2015 and the economic blockade has not gone away.

Maj Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

Military commentator

Nepal’s new map became a reality on Saturday after its ratification by parliament as a Constitutional Amendment Bill. India had suggested that by crossing the red lines of issuing the new map and tabling the Bill in parliament, Nepal had closed the door on dialogue. Earlier, after Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli’s intemperate outburst in parliament about India on the border dispute, it had said that Nepal has to create the right ambience for talks, hinting at the shelving of the new map and the Bill and the lowering of the rhetoric. Still earlier, it informed Nepal that talks on the border dispute could be held after the Covid emergency.

By dragging its feet in providing a date for talks since last year when the border row re-erupted, New Delhi fuelled the rise of territorial nationalism which was exploited by Oli in salvaging his political career, assisted copiously by China’s overreach in the once-off limits: Nepal’s domestic politics. The ground reality is that India and Nepal, after 26 years of negotiations, have resolved 98 per cent of the border issues, except Susta and Kalapani.

India missed not once, not twice, but thrice, the opportunity to break the ice and shift protests from the streets and parliament to the negotiating table. On at least two occasions — in November-December 2019 and March 2020 — while in Nepal, I witnessed demonstrable anti-India sentiment and critique of New Delhi’s protracted silence over Kalapani.

What triggered the recent wave of protests among the media, public and political elite in Nepal was first, the publication on November 2, 2019, by the Survey of India, of a new political map — eighth edition — after the change of status of J&K followed by the ninth edition on November 8. The boundary delineation in both maps was similar, except that from the November 8 map, the Kali river’s name was deleted. In a radio interview with me, Nepal’s renowned radio-TV journalist Rishi Dhamala pointed this out. This was reason enough for a highly emotional border issue to blow up. After the map misstep, Nepal asked for foreign secretary-level talks — sent three notes on November 20 and 22 and December 30 — but, according to Kathmandu, got no response from India.

Second, even as the offending map issue was simmering, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on May 8, virtually inaugurated the blacktop road connecting the pilgrimage route to Kailash Mansarovar and ancient trading point with China with Lipulekh Pass, claimed by Nepal as part of the disputed triangle of territory consisting of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh Pass and Kalapani.

India should have let sleeping dogs lie, even though the road has been under construction for more than a decade and Nepal never objected to it. The road threw a lifeline to an embattled Oli, cornered by his party for misgovernance, political excesses and arrogance. His SOS on May Day to China ensured he retained his party and government’s leadership. On May 11, Nepal issued a diplomatic note on the road to Ambassador Vinay Kwatra in Kathmandu and a similar note to the MEA in New Delhi. According to Nepal, diplomatic notes were not acknowledged. India did respond later, saying that talks could be held after the Covid emergency. A tele-conversation between the foreign secretaries was necessary to cool tempers while formalising formal dates for talks.

Last November, Oli said Nepal would not issue its own map. But on December 13, his Minister for Land Management and Cooperative, Padma Aryal, stated that Nepal would publish a new map. That should have alerted New Delhi. The last chance for India to stall Nepal’s new map and the CA Bill — and possibly pre-empt both — was between May 19 and 31.

According to the Nepalese media, PM Narendra Modi was expected to call Oli on May 19, but due to his preoccupation, the conversation did not materialise. The next day, the map was released, endorsed by an all-party meeting on May 26 and tabled in parliament on May 31. The Bill sailed through parliament two days ago with an unprecedented unanimity, including the 34 votes of the new Janata Samajwadi Party of the predominantly Madhesi lawmakers.

During these developments, India had noted Nepal’s cartographic aggression and artificial map, unilaterally altering status quo, pending talks. India has reiterated that it deeply values its civilisational, cultural and friendly relations with Nepal, adding that it has kept the border open for emergency supplies and provided 25 tonnes of medicines to Nepal.

Canada-based Nepali thinker Naresh Koirala has said that history will tell whether Nepal’s new map was an effective strategy to resolve the border dispute or a gamble with long-term consequences for India-Nepal ties. The trust deficit, already low, could sink irretrievably. The unique army-to-army relations will take a hit as will the pro-India ex-servicemen’s community, which is being sniped at by their fellow folks. The Army chiefs of India and Nepal are honorary generals in each other’s armies and India has been the first responder in Nepal’s political and national emergencies.

The remarks of General MM Naravane were not helpful though he later sounded conciliatory. Nearly 40,000 Gorkha soldiers have fought India’s wars and won gallantry awards, sacrificing their lives for India’s sovereignty. The open border and special privileges to Nepali citizens in India may unravel. The long-touted special relationship, that vanished decades ago, because New Delhi failed to recognise the arrival of the post-civil war new Nepal, globalised Nepali and nationalistic political leadership, markedly leaning towards China. Given the fractured opposition, the ruling Nepal Communist Party is in a commanding position till the 2023 elections.

India can live with the new map, though the dissonance will harm both countries, but hit Nepal hard. The cost of ultra-nationalism will be heavy and the principal beneficiary, China. The hangover of India being rebuffed over Nepal’s new Constitution in 2015 and economic blockade has not gone away. Still, history will also judge whether India could have prevented what turned out to be a fait accompli. Perhaps, a phone call from Modi, who won the hearts and minds of the Nepalese in 2014, to Oli, may have saved the day.

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Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 14 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that India was trying to resolve conflicts with China through militarily- and diplomatic-level talks. He said that China had also shown its willingness to solve all conflicts through dialogue.

“Talks—both at the military and the diplomatic level—are already going on between the two countries,” the Defence Minister said while addressing the first-ever virtual ‘Jammu Samvad Rally’ to highlight the achievements of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

“Neither the opposition nor Parliament will be kept in the dark about talks with China,” said Rajnath Singh.

In an obvious reference to recent statements of Congress leaders, he said, “In a democracy, we realized the importance of the opposition and we respect them also.”

“We are living in a democratic country and the opposition has its own role. I assured the opposition that details of the ongoing dialogue between India and China will be divulged at the appropriate time,” the Defence Minister said, adding, “Time and again the government has briefed the nation about developments on the borders.”

Singh, however, made it clear that the “pride of the nation” will be protected at any cost.

“There will be no compromise on the nation’s pride,” he said.

The Defence Minister said that India was “competent” enough to defend the nation.

“We are equipping our forces with advanced weapons,” Singh said and revealed that the supply of multi-role fighter aircrafts Rafale will start in July this year.