Monthly Archives: August 2018

Raipur, June 6

A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service weapon in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh on Saturday, police said.

The incident took place in the early hours at a forest in Pankhanjore police station area, police said.

“The deceased jawan, identified as Head Constable Suresh Kumar, was returning along with his colleagues after an anti-Naxal operation,” a senior police official told PTI.

A team of BSF’s 157th battalion had launched the operation on Friday from its camp in Sangam village, he said.

On the way back, Kumar allegedly shot himself with his AK-47 rifle between Ghoda and Dotameta villages, around 200 meters ahead of the camp, and died on the spot, he said.

What prompted him to take the extreme step is being ascertained, he added.

On Friday, an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of the same 157th battalion had tested positive for COVID-19 in Bhilai town of Durg district. The ASI was kept in a quarantine centre set up by the paramilitary forces in Bhilai after he returned from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh following his leave.

The Frontier Headquarters of the BSF, which is extensively deployed in Kanker for anti-Maoist operations, is located in Bhilai.

Security forces who are returning from other states are being quarantined before being allowed to join the duty.

Islamabad, June 6

The Pakistan Army on Saturday claimed to have shot down an “Indian spying quadcopter” allegedly intruding across the Line of Control (LoC).

Military spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said that the mini copter violated the country’s airspace in Khanjar sector of the LoC.

“The quadcopter had intruded 500 metres on Pakistan’s side of the LoC,” he said in a statement.

The spokesman claimed that it was the eighth Indian quadcopter to be shot down by the Pakistan Army troops this year.

Last month, two such quadcopters were downed, the first on May 27 and the second on May 29 after they allegedly intruded deep inside the Pakistani territory, he said.

India has dismissed previous such claims by the Pakistan Army.

The ties between the two nations strained following the Balakot strike when the Indian Air Force jets bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan on February 26 last year to avenge the killing of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in the Pulwama terror attack on February 14.

Pakistan retaliated on February 27 by attempting to target Indian military installations.

The ties were further nose-dived after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir in August last year. Pakistan downgraded diplomatic relations with India and expelled the Indian High Commissioner. PTI

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Saturday, arrested a terror-funding conspirator in the infamous Visakhapatnam espionage case, wherein 11 Naval personnel allegedly leaked sensitive information to Pakistan’s spy agency — Inter-Services Intelligence.

Abdul Rehman Abdul Jabbar Sheikh (53), a resident of Mumbai, was involved in the terror funding along with his arrested wife Shaista Qaiser and others, an official spokesman said.

During the search of his house, a number of digital devices and incriminating documents were seized by the NIA, which took over the case in December last year, he said.

The Indian intelligence agencies had busted the espionage racket linked to Pakistan in December last year.

The NIA arrested Mohammed Haroon Haji Abdul Rehman Lakdawala, a resident of Mumbai, last month. A probe found that he was one of the “key conspirators” in the case.

With the arrest of Sheikh, a total of 15 accused have so far been arrested, including the 11 Navy personnel, Pakistan-born Indian national Qaiser and her associates.

Pakistan-based spies recruit agents in India for collecting sensitive and classified information regarding locations and movements of Indian naval ships and submarines, and other defence establishments.

“Investigation revealed that a few Navy personnel came in contact with Pakistani nationals through various social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and were involved in sharing classified information in lieu of monetary gains. The money was deposited into the bank accounts of the Navy personnel through Indian associates having business interests in Pakistan,” the NIA said last month. PTI

Army Commander Western Command visits Jalandhar and Ludhiana Military Stations

Jalandhar, June 3, 2020: Lieutenant General RP Singh, Army Commander, Western Command visited the formations of Vajra Corps located at Jalandher and Ludhiana Military Station on 03rd Jun 2020.  Army Commander was briefed by Lieutenant General Sanjeev Sharma, GOC Vajra Corps during the visit.

The Army Commander visited MH Jalandhar wherein he reviewed the preparation of COVID-19 situation and quarantine facilities which have been recently made functional.  He also inaugurated newly constructed Astro Turf Hockey Ground for the Army Services Hockey Node at Jalandhar Cantonment.  While on his visit to Vajra Corps Headquarters Complex the Army Commander was briefed on operational matters by GOC Vajra Corps.  He also reviewed the operational preparedness of Vajra Corps Artillery and Air Defence Brigades.

The Army Commander appreciated the various measures being taken by the formation to prevent COVID-19 spread and exhorted all ranks to maintain focus on operational readiness at all times.

Gagndeep Kaur, PRO (Def) Jalandhar

Gurdas Mann and cricketer Harbhajan Singh join other celebrities to support the effort initiated by Punjab CM Amarinder Singh to educate people on observing safety measures against the virus

Ludhiana It’s a song for which a galaxy of stars from actors Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor to singer Gurdas Mann and cricketer Harbhajan Singh, have come together for one mission: To give people enough hope and courage to vanquish Covid-19. So, the Mission Fateh song released a few days ago by Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was again launched by deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal here on Thursday.

Its message: To muster up resilience, resolve and discipline to defeat the virus and save Punjab.

Agarwal on the occasion urged the officials and residents of Ludhiana district to educate the masses about Covid-19 through the song, which also features local boy Sonu Sood, who hit the headlines recently for sending home migrants to their home states on buses, alongside brave heart and Punjab Police poster boy ASI Harjit Singh, who recently almost lost his hand in an attack while urging people to stay indoors during the lockdown and TikTok sensation Noor.

Sung by Punjabi music director and singer B Praak, Fateh’s message is all about maintaining social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands regularly.

The song also features Soha Ali Khan, Randeep Hooda and Rannvijay besides stars from the Punjabi film and music industry including Gippy Grewal, Ammy Virk, Jazzy B, Binnu Dhillon, Pammi Bai, Jasbir Jassi, Rajvir Jawanda, Rubina Bajwa, Kulwinder Billa, Karamjit Anmol, Singga, Tarsem Jassar, Lakhwinder Wadali, Harjit Harman, Gurnazar, Babbal Rai, Jaani, Kulraj Randhawa, Shivjot, Happy Raikoti, Afsana Khan, Ninja, Aatish, Tanishq Kaur and Aarushi.

Sports personalities include cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Anjum Moudgil and Avneet Sidhu.

The song will also be broadcast on various television and radio channels to reach out to the masses in Punjab

In the coming days various departments of the Punjab government will work towards spreading awareness of Covid-19 among the people of the states under Mission Fateh, stressing on the fact that the virus still hasn’t been controlled and that people can make small changes in their lifestyle to protect themselves and their families from the disease.

Jayadeva Ranade says India shouldn’t hurry to settle the issue, questions why China carried out an operation that needed so much planning and money.

Ranade, now president of think-tank Centre for China Analysis and Strategy (CCAS), said India should not be in a hurry to settle the issue just to quieten down things. He added that the fresh tensions are a major and serious issue, because they come after the two big meetings between PM Narendra Modi and the Chinese President since the Doklam stand-off — Wuhan summit in 2018 and the Mamallapuram meeting near Chennai last year.

“For a military operation of the kind we have seen, regardless of whether there is any gunfire or not, the fact that the Chinese have deployed troops all across our northern border means that a number of forces have been brought up and there has been considerable planning,” Ranade told ThePrint.

“This has to have been cleared by the Central Military Commission headed by President Xi Jinping, if not initiated by him. That is why I say it is quite different from the previous standoffs. And we have to keep this in mind,” he said.

Also read: China is on the defensive and has adopted ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. Here’s what it means

Xi’s grip on PLA

Ranade, a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, said there is little doubt that President Xi has a firm grip on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He underlined that he is not suggesting that everyone in the PLA is supportive of Xi because off and on, it comes out that certain generals have been dismissed on various grounds.

“Obviously there is some element of either opposition or something that Xi Jinping is dissatisfied with. Otherwise, by and large, he has a grip on the PLA. Virtually all the generals in place now have been appointed by him in his tenure, and he is also now the Commander-in-Chief,” he said.

Ranade explained that unlike in India where the President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Xi holds the functional operational post of commander.

“There is no doubt that he is not only in the picture, but was very much involved in the planning of this entire exercise,” he said, adding that one should not forget the issue of Nepal raising its border dispute with India.

Consolidation of Xi’s position in China

Ranade said there are many factors for Xi carrying out this action, including consolidation of his position within China.

“The (India-China) relationship itself has been, if I may use the term, deteriorating or sliding. There are many factors for this, some which the Chinese share. If we are looking for a time period, we need to look at April 2015, when Xi flew to Islamabad and announced the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” he said.

“Since that date, Chinese have been telling us at the official level, at the level of think-tanks, at the level of track-one-and-a-half, that resume your talks with Pakistan, resolve the Kashmir issue, and then look to improve relations with China. It has been that explicit and has been steady. That is one factor.”

Also read: Remember Vajpayee-Nehru episode? That is why Congress must let Modi off the hook on China

Military talks

On the talks set to take place between divisional commanders of the Indian and Chinese armies this Saturday, Ranade said it indicates that the matter is serious, and that the military is taking it seriously and is prepared for a long-drawn process.

“It is a good sign that they are meeting and talking… I hope that the fact that they are meeting at this level after a series of preparatory meetings at lower levels is not an indication or does not hint at a desire to settle matters quickly. We should settle it, but with the status quo ante — everyone goes back to where they were,” he said.

“I don’t think our armed forces should be in a hurry to settle just to quieten things down. I don’t think that should be the government’s position either, nor do I think it is.”

Ranade said the bigger question is why China actually carried out this operation, because it involves a lot of planning and money.

“Was it to test our responses in multiple places? If yes, then it is a preparation for something else. Or was it just a message that we can do what we can at any time? If it is the latter, it is a very expensive way of communicating,” he said.

Also read: India, China need to break stalemate, greater challenges ahead: Former envoy Ashok Kantha

India-China border tensions must be seen in the backdrop of Beijing’s deteriorating international relations during the coronavirus outbreak, experts say.

Despite the remote location, the military buildup at the un-demarcated border at Pangong Tso lake should not be seen in isolation, but set against the backdrop of Beijing’s deteriorating international relations during the coronavirus outbreak.

Tensions are flaring as governments from the U.S. to Europe, Japan and Australia move to cut a dependence on China exposed by the pandemic, and India spies an economic opening that it’s seeking to exploit. But analysts of India-China relations say Prime Minister Narendra Modi risks stoking tensions with Beijing in siding too closely with Donald Trump at a time when the U.S. president is picking a fight with China.

“India has increasingly been seen as aligning with the U.S. and that can’t benefit India in the long term,” said Phunchok Stobdan, a former Indian diplomat and author of “The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas: India and China’s Quest for Strategic Dominance.”

“The Chinese have a saying: kill the chicken to scare the monkey,” said Stobdan. “That’s why smaller powers like India and Australia, who have aligned with the U.S., are witnessing a more aggressive China.”

The origins of the standoff that began May 5 remain unclear. India says it was surprised by China’s deployment of troops at three locations on its border including two in Ladakh, a region of strategic importance nestled between western Tibet and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that was recently brought under federal control — a move that angered China. The government concedes the tensions may have been triggered by completion of a road and bridge in the Galwan sector of Ladakh, part of a border infrastructure program that Modi’s government says is intended to develop remote areas rather than aimed at any particular country.

Also read: India’s Fingers have come under Chinese boots. Denial won’t help us

While both sides continue to negotiate a compromise — military officials at the border are due to meet on June 6 — India holds that what it calls incursions were in areas never before disputed by the Chinese.

“China sees India’s infrastructure building along the Line of Actual Control, of which both sides have different interpretations, as overstepping and challenging the status quo, and therefore cannot be tolerated,” said Professor Sun Shihai, director of the China Center for South Asian Studies in Sichuan University.

India and China — which together account for a population in excess of 2.7 billion, or one third of the world’s people — are no strangers to animosity, and fought a war in 1962. But that was supposed to be behind them as economic and commercial realities took precedence: This year marks seven decades of India’s diplomatic ties with China, its second-biggest trading partner after the U.S.

Now both nations are marshaling extra troops and artillery to the Himalayan frontier even as Beijing and New Delhi try to lower the temperature. The developments have surprised observers lulled by healthy trade and bonhomie between the rivals following resolution of their last military incident, a monthslong border standoff in 2017. President Xi Jinping last visited Modi only in October.

Then in February, Trump arrived in India. Since March, India has stepped up participation in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific group of nations, which includes Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Vietnam, with weekly calls to discuss issues such as pandemic preparations and “vital supply chains.” Modi and his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, upgraded their bilateral ties and signed a defense agreement on Thursday.

India’s recent approach marks a shift from the past few years, which saw Modi work on bilateral ties to push for more access to Chinese markets while trying to balance military tensions. It was a strategy evident at their bilateral summits in Wuhan, central China, in 2018, then last year in Mamallapuram, southern India.

Yet traditional mistrust and lack of trade reciprocity from China has hindered progress, according to a senior Indian government official who asked not to be named discussing foreign relations. India shunned a China-backed regional trade pact in 2019. And while India runs a $22 billion trade surplus with the U.S., its deficit with China last year was more than twice the size, at some $50 billion — more by far than with any other country.

“India generally feels that its stark trade deficit with China reflects Beijing not playing fair — not permitting India greater market access in areas of its strengths,” said Alyssa Ayres, Washington-based senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

Then came the coronavirus, which first emerged in Wuhan, with its devastating impact on health and economic wellbeing. As the Trump administration rounded on Beijing for its initial handling of the epidemic, the government in New Delhi made a bid to lure U.S. businesses to relocate to India from China, reaching out to more than 1,000 companies from medical equipment suppliers to auto part makers offering incentives to decamp.

Also read: Ladakh military operation has President Xi Jinping’s sanction: China expert Jayadeva Ranade

With its toll from Covid-19 rising, India is pushing for a bigger share in global supply chains to shore up an economy battered by the outbreak and create much-needed jobs after 122 million people were left without work. Even so, Modi’s call to cut dependence on imports may come back to hurt India.

No one expects another shooting war. But the situation is sufficiently precipitous that Trump suggested U.S. mediation over the “raging border dispute,” an offer rejected by both parties. Trump and Modi talked by phone Tuesday.

Asked about the call, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily media briefing in Beijing that there was “no need for the intervention of a third party” over the border issue.

Beijing has “strictly abided” by the relevant treaty, and “committed to uphold national, territorial and sovereign security as well as upholding peace and stability in the border region,” Zhao said. Describing the situation as “overall stable and controllable,” he said that China and India have mechanisms and communication channels that give them “the capacity to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiations.”

Months after the 2017 clash, India entered a military communications pact with the U.S., followed by increased participation in an informal strategic grouping with the U.S., Japan, Australia known as the Quad. During his visit to Modi’s home state of Gujarat in February, Trump announced military deals worth more than $3 billion that included 24 Lockheed Martin Corp. Seahawk helicopters for the Indian navy.

“It’s safe to say that China has been perturbed by some aspects of the Modi government’s foreign policy, including trade issues but also its moves toward closer alignment with the U.S. and Japan,” said Jeff Smith, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and author of “Cold Peace: China-India rivalry.”

Domestically, the border dispute led to a backlash against China with Indians calling for a ban on Chinese imports and even extending the snub to mobile phone apps. Millions of downloads of “Remove China Apps,” which helped Indians purge their Android smartphones of Chinese games and software, forced Alphabet Inc.’s Google Play to pull the plug on the app from its store, citing violations of its policies. China’s Global Times called the boycott a tactic to shift focus away from India’s ineffective handling of the Covid-19 epidemic.

India must be careful how far it pushes. The government changed rules to allow hydroxychloroquine exports to the U.S. at Trump’s request last month, yet two-thirds of India’s bulk drugs and drug intermediates come from China. There are similar levels of dependency from electronics to auto parts. Chinese investments of more than $8 billion have been made in India, mostly in finance and technology startups.

“It’s almost impossible for a big multinational to completely decouple from China,” said Li Qin, counsel of Link Legal, a law firm headquartered in New Delhi specializing in advising Chinese companies on investing in India.

Also read: How India and China resolved three major stand-offs in the Modi era

For Xu Liping, a researcher at the National Institute of International Strategy in Beijing, part of the state-run Chinese Academy Of Social Sciences, it’s “quite unrealistic in practice for India to relocate large-scale production chains from China.” India lags behind China in key areas such as raw material supply and transportation: “China and India are standing at different stages of industrialization,” said Xu. In any case, supply chains are determined by capital and not politics, so “for now, China is a better choice.”

Politics are driving the debate, however, and U.S.-China differences are only likely to sharpen over the next few months, according to Tanvi Madan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and author of “Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped US-India Relations during the Cold War.”

“The conversations about global supply chains show that globalization itself is being redefined,” and countries like India “will have to show that they can be reliable trade partners,” said Madan. “While India wouldn’t want to come in the middle of the U.S.-China scuffle, they would want to benefit from what is happening.”

–With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Dandan Li, Jing Li, Lucille Liu and Hannah Dormido. –Bloomberg

Also read: The Chinese are so predictable, Modi & Shah should’ve seen them coming on 5 August 2019