Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, May 2

Facing a shortage, the IAF wants Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to speed up the production of Tejas fighter jets to meet the contractual obligation of producing 16 aircraft each year.

The IAF, HAL and the Department of Defence Production of the Ministry of Defence were part of a high-level review meet last month. The IAF wants HAL to produce a minimum of 16 jets each year to meet the contractual obligation of making 83 Tejas Mark-1A, sources said. Deliveries for the Tejas Mark-1A are to commence in February next year. HAL, with last month’s capacity addition at Nashik, can now make 24 jets per annum.

In the past, a delay in the manufacturing of the first batch of 40 Tejas jets had left an erroneous impression. The IAF ordered 20 planes under a Rs 2,813-crore contract in 2006 and another 20 planes under a Rs 5,989-crore contract in December 2010. All 40 were to be delivered by December 2016. However, the deliveries were completed this February — seven years behind the schedule. The IAF has told HAL that the pace of making 16 jets has to be sustained. It presently has 31 squadrons (16-18 planes each) of fighter jets against a mandated need of 42 to tackle a collusive two-front threat from Pakistan and China.

Our Correspondent

Jammu, May 3

An alert has been sounded at all Army installations along the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway following intelligence inputs about a terror attack. All schools inside cantonment areas in Jammu, Samba and Kathua remained shut on Wednesday while those in civilian areas operated as per schedule.

2 militants shot in Kupwara gunfight

Srinagar: Two militants were killed in a gunfight as security forces foiled an infiltration bid at Pichnad in Machil sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday, officials said. Inside

Sources in intelligence agencies, however, said no movement of terrorists had been observed so far. A message sent to parents by Kendriya Vidyalaya inside Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu read: “As per instructions received from nominee chairman, students residing outside Sunjuwan campus will not report to school tomorrow (May 3) due to security reasons.”

Even as the message generated concern among parents, the Army did not specify the nature of security reasons and the duration for which it would continue.

The intelligence agencies had already alerted the J&K Police and the Army that terrorists might try to disrupt the G-20 meeting scheduled this month in Srinagar. The police have increased vigil even in Jammu city. The Border Security Force too has strengthened the security grid and increased patrol along the border with Pakistan.

Sources said there were strong inputs that terrorists might try to infiltrate from the border along Pakistan in Kathua, Samba and other areas. “Army installations have been put on high alert in some districts of Jammu division. The alert is expected to continue till the G-20 meeting in Srinagar,” said the sources.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 3

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the women wrestlers’ counsel to submit in a sealed cover additional material with respect to sexual harassment allegations against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sha

It asked him to share the sealed cover with Delhi Police.

The women wrestlers’ advocate alleged that Delhi Police are doing absolutely nothing in investigating the women wrestlers’ allegations.

PT Usha meets protesting wrestlers at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar

She was seen conversing with wrestlers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia at the site.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha on Wednesday met with wrestlers who have been sitting on a protest demanding the removal of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment.

The former athlete arrived at Jantar Mantar in the national capital where top grapplers have been staging a protest for the last 11 days.She was seen conversing with wrestlers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia at the site.

Previously, Usha had on April 27 said that the wrestlers should have approached the IOA instead of going out in the streets against the WFI and its president, whom the wrestlers accused of sexual harassment and mismanagement of athletes.

“Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is having a committee for sexual harassment, instead of going to the streets they (protesting wrestlers) could have come to us earlier but they did not come to IOA. It is not good for sports not only for wrestlers, they should also have some discipline,” the IOA president had told mediapersons earlier.

Wrestlers had expressed their disappointment at her remarks.

“Being a woman athlete, she (PT Usha) is not listening to other women athletes. We have followed her since childhood and got inspired by her. Where is indiscipline here, we are sitting here peacefully,” Sakshee Malikkh told mediapersons.

Vinesh Phogat, a CWG and World Championships medalist also termed Usha’s comments as “insensitive”.

“We live as per the constitution and are independent citizens. We can go anywhere. If we are sitting out in the streets, there must be some reason, a reason that nobody listened to us, be it IOA or Sports Ministry. Her saying this is insensitive. I even called her, but she did not pick up my phone,” said Vinesh.

Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia said, “You feel sad when she says these things because she is the IOA Chief and a woman herself, she cried for her academy in front of the media. She wants us to approach IOA, but we went there three months back, but no justice was given.” Three months ago prominent wrestlers came forward to lead a protest against WFI Chief, the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the formation of an ‘oversight committee’ to probe allegations levelled against the WFI and its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and other coaches.

The committee was tasked with submitting a report on the issue to the ministry. The wrestlers launched a fresh protest in April.

On April 30, Delhi Police registered two FIRs against WFI president Singh over allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation of female wrestlers by him. Top Indian grapplers such as Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and many other wrestlers are involved in the protest against the WFI chief.

IANS

New Delhi, May 3

India’s ace wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who has been protesting at the Jantar Mantar here with other top grapplers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has alleged that Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur tried to suppress the matter by forming an oversight panel instead of taking concrete action.

During their second phase of their protest, wrestlers are demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan, who is also a BJP MP.

“We ended our protest after talking to Union Sports Minister (Anurag Thakur), and all the athletes had told him about the sexual harassment. By forming a committee, he tried to suppress the matter there; no action was taken that time,” Vinesh told reporters.

The ace wrestler also said that it is tough to stand against a powerful person who is misusing his power and position for a very long time.

“It is very difficult to stand against a person who is misusing his power and position for so long,” she said.

The Olympian further revealed that the wrestlers had met an official before they started their protest in Jantar Mantar, for the first time. But, no action was taken.

“Three-four months before we sat at Jantar Mantar, we had met an official, we had told him everything about how women athletes are sexually harassed and mentally tortured when no action was taken, then we sat on dharna,” Vinesh said.

Meanwhile, Brij Bhushan has refused to resign from the wrestling body, saying it would then mean he has accepted the allegations.

“If I resign that means I have accepted their allegations, my tenure is about to end. Till a new party is formed and the government has formed an IOA committee under that committee elections will be held and then my tenure will end,” he told the media earlier.

The wrestlers’ protest has become a huge political issue, with several opposition leaders showing solidarity with the athletes and demanding the resignation of the WFI chief.

Abhijit Bhattacharyya

Author and Columnist

The US-led NATO has 31 members with Finland’s entry to the club. The European Union (EU) has 27 member nations. Both are headquartered in Belgium, historically known as the ‘cockpit of Europe’, owing to the high number of battles fought on its soil. The Group of Seven (G7), however, is more powerful, consisting of leading industrialised countries which meet informally at the level of heads of state or government; the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission represent the EU.

The West realises well that today, it cannot physically fight Napoleonic or Hitlerian wars in its own backyard. Contemporary Europe faces twin debilitating factors: ‘slowest (mostly minus) growing population’ in 28 nations and lowest fertility rate in 22 countries. The West can be physically present only inside Ukraine. It’s bizarre because direct military action by the West is impossible for one reason or another; nay, both the rapid demographic devastation and the irreversible economic damage.

Together, all three groups reveal Western supremacy in world economics. These groups are determined to dominate the show — despite the rising Asian challenge — through money power as the days of western nations’ imperial conquest of countries in resource-rich, underdeveloped Asia, Latin America and Africa are a thing of the past.

Yet, the G7 remains a formidable financial power, as seen from the economic parameter of gross domestic product (GDP) from pre-Covid 2019: the US ($21.4 trillion), Japan ($5.08 trillion), Germany ($3.86 trillion), the UK ($2.83 trillion), France ($2.71 trillion), Italy ($2 trillion) and Canada ($1.736 trillion).

Six of the G7 member states are from the Occident, while Japan represents the Orient. Regrettably, this ‘all-powerful Club Seven’ is actively considering imposing a near-total ban on exports to Russia amid the Ukraine war, thereby potentially sowing the seeds of monstrous mayhem.

Unfortunately, ever since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict 14 months ago, there has never been any serious/sincere effort from the NATO, the EU or the G7 to prevail upon the warring nations to cease hostilities.

The sad part of the unfolding story, therefore, is that the West seems hell-bent on strangling Moscow through penury and starvation to a slow, painful destruction. By doing so, the G7 seems to be ignoring the fundamental principle of behavioural psychology since the dawn of human history. If pushed to the wall without an escape route for survival, a suicidal counter-attack is the inevitable outcome, thereby resulting in mutually assured destruction (MAD).

The West seems to be keen on prolonging the macabre dance of death and destruction, inflicting colossal damage on itself.

The West must remember that both the much-publicised proposed economic/financial ‘sanctions’ imposed by the G7 to cripple the adversary and the stamina as well as endurance of the sanctioned nation have shelf lives as they depend on who blinks first or who outruns the other, and when.

Let’s take a few examples from history to visualise as to what could be the way to surviving or thriving. In the 431-404 BC Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta, ‘a trade boycott imposed by Athens on Sparta’s ally Megara’ led to the 27-year-long war, resulting in much misery and ruin, according to great chronicler Thucydides.

In modern times, the then US President Woodrow Wilson, perhaps, was the earliest to recognise sanctions as a “peaceful, silent, deadly remedy” to fix an adversary as “there will be no need for force.”

In less than 23 years, Wilson’s successors, despite imposing a fuel and steel embargo on Japan, provoked Tokyo to launch a deadly pre-emptive strike on the US, thereby escalating and transforming a European war into World War II. Sanctions have proved to be good in theory but bad in practice. Sanctions don’t necessarily restrict or nip a war in the bud because every living species is bound to counter-attack when death is imminent and inevitable. The law of nature stands ‘as is where is’ since time immemorial.

One just has to visualise the world’s battlefields to understand how ferocious hand-to-hand fights or ‘death-wish’ combatants are a part of a nation’s folklore.

Hence, the bottom line of conventional war even today, like the Russia-Ukraine conflict, is the death of countless soldiers. No nation can fight a long-drawn land war without an inexhaustible supply of able-bodied men awaiting their turn for the grave. The death zone is a frightening prospect for the wealthy nations, especially the West, which started it and got a taste of their aggression in the two wars of the 20th century and are now petrified to see the scale of fatality in mainland Europe.

The West realises well that today, it cannot physically fight Napoleonic or Hitlerian wars in its own backyard. Contemporary Europe faces twin debilitating factors: “slowest (mostly minus) growing population” in 28 nations and lowest fertility rate in 22 countries. The West can be physically present only inside Ukraine. It’s bizarre because direct military action by the West is impossible for one reason or another; nay, both the rapid demographic devastation and the irreversible economic damage.

Hence, when “doing nothing” is likely to be seen as complicity, “something’s to be done to express morality of solidarity”, something that at least sends a clear signal to the world that what the alleged aggressor is doing has the disapproval of the mighty G7, EU and NATO.

Sanctions, therefore, are the first as well as the last resort, not physical participation, to help Ukraine. Today, Ukraine’s condition is like that of Poland, Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia before and during World War II.

It’s NATO (no action, talk only) for Ukraine. Arms to Ukraine, sanctions against Russia — both strategies have been in vain so far.