Nivedita Choudhuri

‘In Flanders’ fields
the poppies blow,
Between the crosses,
row on row,
That mark our place:
and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid
the guns below.’

This poem penned by Canadian doctor John McCrae as he sat in an ambulance near the battle-scarred fields of Ypres, Belgium, in 1915 is a poignant reminder of the horrors and futility of war. November 11, 2018, marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.

This year the Armistice Centenary on 11 November coincides with Britain’s Remembrance Sunday. Remembrance Sunday is held in the UK and the Commonwealth countries as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

The Armistice was signed between the Allies of the World War I and Germany at Compiegne, France, for the cessation of hostilities. It took effect at 11 o’ clock in the morning — at the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’ of 1918. A formal peace agreement was only reached when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. Around 20 million people died and another 21 million were wounded during the war, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The poppy has become the symbol of reverence, and remembrance, for the millions of soldiers who have lost their lives in conflict. During the World War I (1914-1918), much of the fighting took place in western Europe. The beautiful countryside was bombed and fought over. The landscape quickly became arid and desolate. However, bright red Flanders poppies were resilient flowers and grew in thousands, flourishing in the midst of upheaval and disarray. 

In 1915, after losing a friend in Ypres, Lt Col McCrae was inspired by the sight of the poppies to write the famous poem, In Flanders Fields. His poem inspired an American professor, Moina Michael, to make and sell red silk poppies which were brought to England by a French woman, Anna Guerin. The British Legion, formed two years after the end of the World War I, ordered nine million of these poppies and sold these on  November 11, 1921. The poppies sold out almost immediately and that first ever ‘Poppy Appeal’ raised over £100,000, a huge amount of money at the time. The cash was used to help World War I veterans with housing and employment.

India made a massive contribution to Britain’s war effort. It sent vast numbers of volunteers to fight and die on behalf of the Allied forces. Almost 1.5 million Muslim, Sikh and Hindu men from present-day Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Bihar volunteered in the Indian expeditionary force which saw fighting on the Western Front, in East Africa, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Gallipolli.

Volunteering offered a chance to bypass the caste system because becoming a soldier meant good pay and the opportunity to be part of the ‘warrior caste’. Of these men, around 50,000 died, 65,000 were injured and 10,000 were reported missing.

Besides a huge procession past the Cenotaph, a memorial built in  Whitehall, London, at the end of the World War I, bells will also toll from Flanders to villages across the UK and Germany on Novembe 11. As news of the Armistice spread in 1918, church bells which had fallen silent across the UK, rang out in celebration. On the Armistice Day Centenary, Ypres will be focus of global media attention.

This year, early on November 11, more than 3,000 bell towers across the UK will ring out with the sound of half-muffled bells in a heartfelt memory of those who laid down their lives. At midday, the bellringers will remove the muffles from the clappers and the bells will ring open to signal the thankfulness of the nation.

The British and German governments have urged other governments to ring bells at the same time so as to show the unity and the reconciliation that has come about among former foes.

New Delhi, November 8

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend a ceremony on Friday to induct new artillery guns and equipment, including K9 Vajra and M777 howitzers, at Deolali artillery centre in Nashik, a ministry spokesperson said.

The induction of 100 K9 Vajra at a cost of Rs 4,366 crore is to complete by November 2020. The first batch of 10 guns will be delivered this month, Defence Ministry spokesperson Col Aman Anand told reporters on Thursday. The next 40 guns will be delivered in November 2019, and another 50 in November 2020, he said.

The first regiment of K9 Vajra, first-ever artillery gun manufactured by the Indian private sector, is expected to complete by July 2019.

The gun has a maximum range of 28-38 km. It is capable of burst firing three rounds in 30 seconds, intense firing of 15 rounds in three minutes and sustained firing of 60 rounds in 60 minutes, he said. The Army is also going to raise seven regiments of 145 M777 howitzers.

Five guns each will be delivered to the Army beginning August 2019 and the entire process will complete in following 24 months. The first regiment will complete by October next year, the spokesperson said. The gun, having a range of 30 km, can be moved to a desired location using helicopters and service aircraft. Compact gun tractor to tow 130 MM and 155 MM artillery guns will also inducted during the ceremony, the officer said.

It is fitted with a crane that can handle ammunition weighing two tonne. — PTI

ON the eve of the World War I armistice centenary, the British government has announced that it is opening its doors wider for soldiers from Commonwealth nations to be enlisted in the UK armed forces. Before we get to that, let’s look at the conditions under which 15 lakh soldiers from India fought in the Great War. World War I commemoration events showed how the soldiers, disproportionately large number of who were from this region, faced brutality, racial discrimination and prejudice even as they fought heroically on battlefields in Europe and Africa, where an estimated 34,000 made the ultimate sacrifice.

Indians do not fight under a foreign flag, although persons of Indian origin who are citizens of other nations have long distinguished themselves in foreign armies. This is not going to change. The British Army, however, has maintained a component of Gurkha soldiers for over two centuries, but it was only in 2014 that these soldiers were allowed to settle in Britain after they had served their term. There have also been issues about their pay and pensions.

Unlike India, certain Commonwealth countries contribute soldiers to the British armed forces, but the 200-a-year cap was lifted in the face of a shortage of 8,200 personnel. Yes, this is not quite a floodgate, but then the British armed forces have been slow to change. Women were allowed to apply for all positions in the armed forces only last month. The new recruitment effort has come about because of a chronic shortage of candidates, which people from the Commonwealth countries are likely to fill. Naturally, such a move would also allow for more diversity, which is needed. The British army has to evolve with the times and needs fresh blood, but the irony of opening doors of the most vital and strategic arm of the country at a time when the political and rhetorical tide is against immigration, can’t be missed.

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 29

Northern Command chief Lt Gen Ranbir Singh on Monday reviewed the security situation in Kashmir.

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh arrived in Srinagar on a two-day Valley visit and reviewed the prevailing security situation in the wake of the recent anti-militancy operations which have led to the elimination of a number of militants.

Accompanied by Chinar Corps Commander Lt Gen AK Bhatt, the Northern Command chief visited the formations and units in central Kashmir and was briefed by the Army officers about the current security situation.

“The Northern Command chief commended the troops for their dedication to duty and high standards of professionalism. The need to be prepared for effectively meeting the emerging security challenges was also reinforced,” an Army statement said.

The Northern Command chief also visited 92 Base Hospital at the Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar and enquired about the health of the injured soldiers. He wished them speedy recovery, the statement said.

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 5

Ignoring threat of US sanctions, India on Friday went ahead with the deal to procure the S-400 “Triumf” air-defence missile system from Russia. The move comes a month after India and the US signed an agreement on exchange of military information — Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).

An Indo-Russian joint statement after the Narendra Modi-Vladimir Putin meeting in New Delhi read: “Both sides welcomed the conclusion of the contract for the supply of the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile system to India.”

The move is a clear indication of the balance India has maintained between Russia and the US. The Tribune was the first to report in its September 7 edition that despite inking COMCASA, “India will run the course its military relations with Russia”.

India has a strategic partnership with the US  but has made it clear to Washington that India-Russia military relations  stand separate from India-US ties and that these are not inter-connected.

The US, in June, passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) that requires imposing curbs on nations that have “significant” defence relations with Russia.

There is a provision for a waiver and New Delhi has argued out its case to the US. The US has reacted to the S-400 deal saying “the intent of CAATSA is to impose costs on Russia and is not intended to impose damage to the military capabilities of our allies (India)… The waiver authority is not a blanket waiver. Waivers are considered on transaction basis. We cannot prejudge any sanctions decisions”.

Alexander Mikheev, who heads Rosoboronexport, the Russian state-controlled intermediary for export of arms said “contract for S-400 is the biggest (ever) between Russia and India and the largest in the history of Rosoboronexport. Today we begin to execute it”.

Among the 39 entities listed by the US on the ban list is the Rosoboronexport.

India is buying five systems costing some $5.4 billion. These will provide an “umbrella coverage” against any air-borne threats, including nuclear missiles, stealth aircraft, fighter jets, missiles, UAVs etc. The radars on ground can track around 300 targets and then guide missiles to shoot down around three dozen targets simultaneously over a range of 400 km.

For example, an S-400 system deployed near Jalandhar in Punjab can track aircraft flying well over Islamabad and Peshawar in Pakistan. Moscow is the single largest supplier of weapons and military equipment to India. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), on March 12 this year, released its annual report “trends in international arms transfers”. Making an assessment for a five-year block (2013-2017) it said Russia accounted for 62 per cent of India’s arms imports.

India, Russia ink S-400 deal; no sanctions on ally, says US

The fortnight-long 14^th Indo-US joint Army exercise in ‘Yudh Abhyas’ series, at Chaubattia in Uttarakhand’s Almora district saw one infantry battalion—350 soldiers—each carrying out field training drills under a joint brigade headquarters, an Indian Army spokesperson said.

The exercise that concluded on Saturday saw participation of US Army’s 1^st Battalion of the 23^rd Infantry regiment. It was the fourth such exercise at Chaubattia, the spokesperson added.

The Yudh Abhyas series started in 2004 under US Army Pacific Partnership Programme.

“Over the years, the two countries have decided to progressively increase the scope and content of the combined exercise,” said an Indian Army officer.

The commanders and staff officers of both sides worked in close coordination to receive and collate intelligence to issue suitable operational orders. The combined field training components executed these orders in simulated realistic situation, the spokesperson said.

The exercise curriculum, the spokesperson said, was planned progressively where the participants were initially made to get familiar with each other’s organizational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills.

The training culminated in a 48-hour consolidation and validation exercise in which troops carried out a daring rescue and destroy mission in the general area of Pilkholi near Chaubattia.

The final exercise was reviewed by senior officers from both sides, the spokesman added. — IANS

NEW DELHI: A game of musical chairs is being played with the top brass of the Army with an officer who was relegated to a training command being shifted to the operationally sensitive East to give him a shot at the top post of Army chief next year.

Lt Gen Mukund Naravane, who was posted as the head of the Army’s Training Command in December last year, would be the senior most officer of the Indian Army when General Bipin Rawat retires next year. While in the past the seniority principle ..

London, September 23

A group of Indian artists, in the UK to mark the centenary of World War I, has claimed they have uncovered documents that reveal bias against the Indian sub-continent soldiers fighting alongside the British Army in the 20th century war.

The Delhi-based artists from the Raqs Media Collective told the ‘Observer’ that papers from the British Library revealed the British forces systematically neglected to treat psychological problems among Indian soldiers and adopted unequal measures in the care of soldiers traumatised by their experiences from the battleground.

“The condition of shell shock was first diagnosed in 1915 by the English doctor Charles Meyers. But documents we found show Meyers quickly dropped the term because it was feared ordinary soldiers would find it easy to understand and so would ask to be seen by medics,” said Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs.“Insted, Meyers suggested a more opaque diagnosis of NYD, or Not Yet Diagnosed — Nervous, which ordinary soldiers would find harder to use,” he said. Sengupta’s team is working on a new art project at Colchester in Essex, commissioned to commemorate the end of World War I — being marked in the UK since 2014 and set to end in November this year.

The term “trench back”, which features in their new installation ‘Not Yet At Ease’, was often adopted to describe symptoms that were actually psychological. “The idea of ‘trench back’ was derived from the condition of ‘railway back’, which was used for people who were thought to have been upset, or jolted, by the speed of rail travel,” said Sengupta. “It was a way of talking about wounds or damage to the spine, instead of mental health. ‘Trench back’ was supposedly caused by being knocked by falling debris in the trenches.”

Records show 1.3 million soldiers from undivided India served in WW-I as part of the British Indian Army. — PTI

The phrase is misused by predatory States to wield power without responsibility

In calling the bluff on Chinese investments and recusing his country from earlier deals, the Malaysian Prime Minister may have eased India’s own concerns on Chinese presence around Malacca Straits

At 93, Mahathir Mohamad’s political career has spanned over 70 years and the wily nonagenarian has returned as the Malaysian Prime Minister after an itchy retirement lasting 15 years. The statesman, credited with transforming Malaysia from an agrarian to an industrial powerhouse in his first term of 22 years, has ostensibly returned to ‘save’ his country from the wrath of the multi-billion ‘1MDB’ scandal, substantial parts of which were linked to the Chinese involvement. Mahathir’s successful electoral campaign, pitched against the ‘great-grandmother-of-all-scandals’, was seen as a possible roadblock to the growing portents of Sinosphere under the previous Najib Razak regime, who had started courting mammoth Chinese investments into Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have been on a relentless prowl to hook cash-strapped countries with its gargantuan Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create uninterrupted routes, connectivity and infrastructure along both land and seaways. The Chinese juggernaut towards this proposed solidification of interlinkages has led to infamous belligerence and appropriations in the South China Seas and the ‘String of pearls’ ports that dot along the life-sustaining maritime passages. The approach of the Chinese efforts varies from the simple ‘cheque-book diplomacy’ of funding investments (eg Philippines), coercion (eg Doklam in Bhutan) to surreptitious ‘debt-traps’ (eg Hambantota port in Sri Lanka).

A lethal and irresistible combination of financial, military and diplomatic muscle is leveraged to ensnare and ensure the requisite Chinese footprint. Often, this Chinese footprint initially comes under the guise of civil facilities and infrastructure, which later morphs into the dual-usage (civil and military) platforms, as was done recently at the mouth of the strategically placed Djibouti base of the Chinese Navy. The sophisticated pattern of patiently luring the bait follows the generous doles of ‘unpayable’ Chinese investments, which are, thereafter, settled with certain compromises in the form of invaluable bases, arrangements and irretrievable alignments. Recently, this had led the old warhorse and one-time critic of the West, Mohamad Mahathir, to presciently forewarn of the Chinese tact as a new version of colonialism.

Malaysia and the southern tip of the Indian Islands of Andaman and Nicobar overlook and physically dominate the most sensitive and vulnerable chokepoint of Chinese nightmares in the Malacca Straits. This ultra-narrow straits host the busiest shipping lanes in the world with over 100,000 ships plying nearly 30 per cent of the global trade. From a Chinese perspective, it sustains the ‘Chinese Dream’ fueled by trade and an unending appetite for energy sources. A potential doomsday scenario of a ‘choke’ in the Malacca Straits has led to two strategic actions: First, to attempt creating alternate corridors like the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) or rail-linkages with the Eurasian nations, all dovetailed under the BRI initiative. Second, to invest disproportionately in the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to create adequate energy buffer stocks to withstand any unforeseen disruption in these regime-sustaining seaways. However, given the best economic viability of the seaways as opposed to overland routes, the essential preference remains on ensuring the uninterruptedness of these seaways by way of establishing strong Chinese footprints all along the route.

Given that only India and Malaysia have the maritime real-estate around these vulnerable Malacca Straits (as narrow as 1.5 nautical miles wide at the Philips Channel) both from a sovereign and military perspective, any untoward presence of the Chinese could upset the applecart of power balance. Currently, this area is relatively free from overt militarisation, given that the traditional Chinese naval muscularity is restricted further up in the South China Seas and the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Tri-Services Command has also adopted a defensive posture and build-up. However, the presence of Chinese warships could undo the equations as they are threatening to do so in the Maldives, or in the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, where the Chinese have acquired port control for a 99 year lease. Till the recent change in the Malaysian regime, amongst various investments that the Chinese were dangling was to invest $7.2 billion in the redevelopment of the Malaysian Malacca Port to a deep sea port (capable of handling aircraft carriers), a promise that could rival Singapore port facilities. This had the signature Chinese debt traps written all over it, which could ultimately lead to Chinese presence in these calm waters.

The sagacious Mahathir had to walk the tight rope of calling the bluff of Chinese investments, as also recognising the importance of maintaining cordial relations with its biggest trading partner. His first port of international call after assuming prime ministership was Beijing, where he was feted and honoured with the disconcerting realisation that Mahathir had personified the anti-Chinese sentiment and had to be charmed for future acquiescence. However, age hadn’t withered the blunt Mahathir who lost none of his chutzpah in declaring on Chinese soil, “We are not against Chinese companies, but we are against borrowing money from outside and having projects which are unnecessary, and which are very costly”, after he had announced the cancellation of three major Chinese contracts for an East Coast Rail Link and two gas pipelines, arguing the cost was inflated and the terms weren’t favourable to Malaysia. The Chinese are not known to take sleights of colonialism very easily but are cognizant of the fact that Mohamad Mahathir at 93 will be resolute on sovereign pride, independence and legacy that could militate against Chinese ambitions and debt-imperialism.

With a spiralling debt of $250 billion, declared concern on Chinese intent and non-issues with the existing infrastructure around Malacca Straits, Mohamad Mahathir may have inadvertently eased India’s own concerns on Chinese presence around the Malacca Straits. Even his remark that “free trade should also be fair trade” had unmistakable pointers of correcting the ‘China-first’ approach that dominated the Malaysian narrative. Mahathir will be welcomed into comity of the Sino-wary nations in the Asean region and will find alternate trading partners in the Japanese, Indian and Australian markets, who have their own long-term concerns and apprehensions with the formula of initial Chinese benevolence and its subsequent aftermath.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)