India’s recent demonstrative protest to the United States against the latter’s sale of eight more F-16 multi-role fighters to Pakistan is as unnecessary as it is excessive. Not only will the sale of these aircraft not alter India’s military balance with Pakistan, but it could also tantamount to India unwittingly hyphenating New Delhi with Islamabad, a cold war phenomenon that the Indian diplomat has worked hard to undo in recent years. While New Delhi may have valid reasons to question Washington’s rationale to supply these aircraft, yet the fact is Pakistan has been in possession of F-16s since 1983. Washington justifies the sale saying that these are ‘critical’ to Islamabad’s counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations which in turn are in the national interest of Pakistan, the US, Nato and the region as a whole as these operations will reduce the ability of militants to use Pakistani territory as a safe haven for terrorism and a base of support for insurgency in Afghanistan. New Delhi’s assertion is that these aircraft have limited value against fighting terrorists and is only expected to sharpen the Pakistani military prowess against India. Pakistani Air Force fighter aircraft have indeed been engaging militants in their hideouts in the tribal areas of Waziristan. However, it is difficult to quantify the success of these operations. There is also the criticism that Islamabad has been selective in targeting only the anti-Pakistani elements within the Taliban.But by expressing its disapproval, New Delhi can also be open to similar protests by Pakistan for its continued purchasing spree of high technology weapon systems and weapon platforms which has made it the world’s largest importer of defence equipment. India’s recent agreement to buy 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets from France is one case in point not to mention the long list of other defence equipment that New Delhi has purchased from Russia, the US and Israel. Rather than protesting too much, India should engage in quiet diplomacy and continue to build on its strategic partnership with the US while feeling free to arm itself from any source as per our defence requirement.
All posts by webadmin
Militant killed in Pulwama, civilian dies in clashes
( With Pics),Suhail A Shah,Anantnag, January 20
A militant was killed in an encounter here in Pulwama district while a civilian died in the subsequent clashes on Wednesday. The police have said 15 of their men, including a senior officer, were also injured in the clashes.The militant has been identified as Shakir Ahmad, a resident of Bandina village in Pulwama district. The slain civilian has been identified as Parvez Guroo, a resident of Batpora village in the Naayina area of the south Kashmir district.A police spokesperson said the encounter was triggered late Tuesday night. The security forces cordoned off Batpora village about 9:30 pm following inputs of militant presence in the area. While the forces were zeroing in on a residential house where militants were believed to be holed up, the latter opened fire on them.“The fire was duly retaliated, triggering an encounter,” said a senior police officer from the area. There was, however, a lull in the exchange of fire till about 2 am, when the fire fight resumed again.Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said, around 50 people stranded at a local mosque in the wake of gun fight were rescued and taken to safety by the police.Local sources said the exchange of fire continued till 10:30 in the morning, after which the security forces blew up the house and the militant hiding in it was killed.An army spokesperson told The Tribune that an AK-47 and other war-like stores were retrieved from the encounter site.Meanwhile locals, in hundreds, came out and clashed with security personnel to try and give a safe passage to the “trapped” militants. Police sources said there might have been other militants present at the site of the encounter but owing to protests and clashes, they might have managed to escape.As the fire fight came to a halt and the body of the militant was retrieved, protesters kept swelling and the clashes continued. “Hundreds of rioters attacked our jawans and injured more than 15 of our men, including a senior officer who is undergoing treatment at a Srinagar hospital,” said Pulwama SSP Tejinder Singh.The police used tear-smoke shells and fired in the air to disperse the agitated protesters.Singh said in the ensuing chaos a stray bullet must have hit the civilian protester and “unfortunately he succumbed to the injury.” Three other civilians have received bullet injuries and they have been shifted to Srinagar, where their condition is stated to be stable.Meanwhile, clashes intensified in the area after the civilian killing and police had a tough time keeping the law and order situation under control.
Box
TRAIN SERVICES SUSPENDED
BATOTE: Commuters travelling between Banihal and Srinagar faced a lot of inconvenience on Wednesday as train services were suspended due to the clashes in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag following the killing of a local militant in Pulwama. “Since the house of the militant killed in the encounter is near a railway track, villagers sat on the dharna on the track. Due to the deteriorating law and order situation, we had to suspend the train service between Banihal and the rest of the Valley for a day,” said Chief Controller, Railways, Nand Kumar.
Rail service suspended
- Train services were suspended on Wednesday due to the clashes in Bijbehara following the killing of a militant in Pulwama. “Since the house of the slain militant is near a railway track, villagers sat on dharna on the track. Due to the deteriorating situation, we had to suspend the train service between Banihal and the rest of the Valley for a day,”said Chief Controller, Railways, Nand Kumar.
63 Cavalry’s cycle tour flagged off
Chandigarh, February 14
As part of its Diamond Jubilee commemorations, 63 Cavalry, an armoured regiment, is conducting a cycle expedition from Bhuj in Gujarat to Amritsar. The expedition was flagged off by Lieut-General KJ Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command and Colonel of the 63 Cavalry from Bhuj today.The expedition will be undertaken in two phases. In the first phase a distance of 1,180 kms in 20 days. The second phase will be from Alwar to Amritsar, covering a total distance of 1,900 km. The team comprises one officer and 12 other ranks led by Capt Himanshu Karan. — TNS
Security demands strategy before action
The National Security Adviser is an oddity in the Parliamentary system, since he only owes accountability to his appointing authority, the Prime Minister. This further empowers the Prime Minister”s Office, detracting from India”s parliamentary democracy by making it resemble a presidential system.
Accounts of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval, as a man of action have only been reinforced by his response to the terrorist attack at the Pathankot airfield early this month. While a laudable quality in an operational-level commander, however, when this trait (to take action) is present in abundance in a person required to function at the strategic level, it may be problematic.
Perhaps, the most onerous responsibility of the NSA is his duty as Secretary to the Political Council of India’s Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) and as Chair of its executive council. The appointment requires a cool, reflective, person to tenant it. The Pathankot episode throws up the question: Whether Doval is the best man for this sensitive job.
On this score, the criticism attending the response to the Pathankot terror attack should not be spin-doctored into oblivion. The Prime Minister on a visit to the site, and the Army Chief in his Army Day press conference, have tried to restore confidence in the system. Acknowledging a few home truths would better serve the system.
A key point was brought forth by the previous NSA, Shivshankar Menon. He observed the cancellation of the NSA’s trip to China for strategic-level talks, implying this was an instance of misplaced priorities. Second, an NSA getting involved in essentially a tactical-level operation is liable to miss the wood for the trees. Third, the NSA’s bypassing of institutions such as the Home and Defence Ministries and the military serves to sap traditional chains of command and constitutionally ordained authority.
Since the NSA is at the fulcrum of India’s nuclear command and control, these observations have implications for India’s nuclear command and control.
India’s NCA already has glaring lacunae. As revealed in the commentary in the aftermath of the Pathankot episode, India’s National Security Council (NSC) system has been created through an executive order in 1998. It has not been institutionalised and sanctified by an Act of Parliament ever since. As a result, the NSA is an oddity in the parliamentary system, only owing accountability to his appointing authority, the Prime Minister. This further empowers the Prime Minister’s Office, detracting from India’s parliamentary democracy by making it resemble a presidential system.
The NSA serves as link between the Political Council of the NCA that comprises the Prime Minister and principal ministers, and the Executive Council, comprising of the significant officials, military chiefs and scientific heads. Even this responsibility of the NSA has no legislative authority underwriting it. The press release of January 3, 2003, from the Cabinet Committee on Security that met to operationalise India’s nuclear deterrence policy at best serves to inform. It cannot be taken as sanctioning this role of the NSA. The responsibility needs being invested with legal content.
The insertion of the NSA in the nuclear command loop is such as to act as a buffer between the political head and the military chiefs. To fulfil this function, the NSA has the support of the NSC Secretariat (NSCS), which is under the Deputy NSA and part of the PMO. The strategy programme staff that informs decision-making and implements nuclear deterrence and employment strategy is, however, not under him directly, but is in the NSCS.
The Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) commands the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) that is in charge of India’s crown jewels, its nuclear arsenal. The staff support of the Chairman COSC is the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff. Further, the Chairman COSC receives his marching orders not from the Prime Minister or Defence Minister, but the NSA. Since the Chairman COSC is himself double-hatted, also serving as head of his service, the NSA’s role assumes a greater significance. In effect, the general commanding the SFC is willy-nilly reporting to two heads: the bona fide military chain of command and the more significant, but civilian, NSA.
This reveals a structural problem in India’s nuclear command and control in which accountability is with the military, but the authority is with the NSA. Governments in this century, including the current one, have promised to create the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) or permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. A CDS, with executive teeth in the nuclear realm, would ensure convergence of accountability and authority. That the reconstitution of the dysfunctional National Security Advisory Board has been held up for close to a year now does not lend confidence on this score.
The deficiencies of this system are such as to preclude buffeting from the angularities of personalities. As demonstrated on other occasions such as the Special Forces operation in Myanmar in the middle of last year, the NSA has a tendency to join the action. Conflict will serve up temptations aplenty for him to roll up his sleeves. The NSA would be better advised to exercise considerable self-restraint and allow the national security institutions to work their mandate, to enable him to take a wide-angled view of crises and conflict. Servicing the NSC in a sober manner would enable him to give relevant inputs as the fulcrum of the NCA.
Ali Ahmed is the author of “India’s Doctrine
Puzzle: Limiting War in South Asia.”
Porous border, vulnerable forces
ON THE RADAR Dinanagar and Pathankot terror attacks have exposed Punjab’s 553-km border with Pakistan, bringing under scrutiny the nexus between drug smugglers and security personnel. State police and BSF are in self-correction mode, but more needs to be
CHANDIGARH: While two terror attacks in Punjab in the past six months have laid bare the gaping holes in the state’s 553-km-long border with Pakistan, the terrorists’ modus operandi has turned the spotlight on the nexus between drug smugglers and security personnel.
HT FILEBSF inspector general Anil Paliwal (centre) with 10-kg heroin recovered from a border outpost in Ferozepur in November last year.In March 2012, after years of a nonchalant approach towards the drug menace, the state government went cracking against drug smugglers and peddlers. The mandate to then director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini was to “identify and smash” the drug networks and their supply lines. The police top brass was instructed to entertain “zero political interference”.
SHADY DEALINGS
The drive revealed that the accusations of police-smuggler nexus were not unfounded. In two years (2013 and 2014), at least 70 personnel of the Punjab Police were found working in collusion with trans-border narcotic smuggling networks, as per police records.
Of them, 48 cops were summarily dismissed from service after their links with drug smugglers/peddlers surfaced. Another 19 policemen were arrested on similar charges. The dismissed officials included deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Dinesh Singh, against whom the charge was that he “misused his official position to promote drug trafficking.” Sub-inspector (SI) Kulwant Singh was sacked for having a “nexus with drug peddlers” while posted as the station house officer (SHO) at Kahnuwan (Gurdaspur district).
More than 57,000 peddlers and smugglers were arrested in 48,138 cases, leading to the seizure of 1,744 kg of heroin (from 2012 to September 2015).
“The state government adopted a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and gave clear directions to the police. As a result, the drug distribution network has been ruthlessly broken and transit lines of major Pakistan-based heroin cartels snapped in the past four years,” says Saini, who remained the state police chief from March 2012 to October 2015.
The clean-up drive helped the police bust international cartels, starting from one “Arif Mohammad alias Doctor” in Pakistan. The arrests have been indicative of the flourishing drug trade between Pakistan and Punjab. And, the drug smuggler-police-politician nexus is blamed for the easy availability of drugs in the state.
In border villages, enemy lurks within
PUNJAB-PAKISTAN BORDER: The white pillars that mark the international border between India and Pakistan stand bright in the fog, mute witness to the drug smuggling, and now terror, route to Punjab. Beyond the pillars, the mustard crop is in bloom in Pakistan, while the lush wheat fields provide the winter backdrop on the Indian side. A fortnight after the Pathankot terror attack on the airbase, a visit to Punjab’s border villages reveals a deceptive calm but disturbing truth that the enemy lurks within.
SAMEER SEHGAL/HTWhite pillars mark the Indo-Pak border amid farmers’ fields.On the surface, it’s difficult to miss the prosperity that families of farmers in Punjab’s border villages have seen over the past 15 years. Landholdings may have shrunk but trucks parked outside houses in villages located just a shout away from the border speak volumes about the easy money narcotic smuggling has brought.
The high number of drug addicts in these villages also reveals the misfortune that has befallen their residents.
Once into smuggling cloth material, opium and later gold from Pakistan, crossing the unfenced, and unguarded, border was like venturing into the neighbourhood for these families. In the past decade, however, they have taken to smuggling heroin. The contraband is smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan into India via J&K, Rajasthan and Punjab. A major part of the consignment is passed through Punjab, while some quantity of heroin is sold in the local market by couriers. The smuggling has been going on unchecked as it’s done with the tacit understanding of Punjab Police and politicians, at different levels, coupled with the lack of a modern surveillance system and inadequately deployed Border Security Force (BSF).
Now its just that Pakistan has begun pushing in terror with the narcotics, the Pathankot attack being the latest fallout.
‘EVERYONE IS A SUSPECT HERE’
Smuggling has is virtually a lucrative cottage industry in Punjab’s border belt. Despite the rising risks, villagers admit, it has helped build fortunes. The signs of prosperity are visible in villages such as Mahwa, Daoke, Naushera Dhalla, Havelian, Mehndipur and Rajatal.
But drug addicts can also be spotted easily. “Border villagers are into smuggling and the youth are in the grip of drugs. Everyone is a suspect here,” says Amandeep Singh of Mehndipur village, in the Khemkaran sector, surrounded on three sides by Pakistan.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
About 2 km from Mehndipur is Sehajrai village of Pakistan, considered the hotbed of heroin smugglers due to its proximity with the border. Border villagers own farm land across the barbed fence up to the pillars. They grow wheat and paddy in the fertile stretch on the Indian side, while their Pakistani counterparts plough land right up to the pillars.
At many places from Fazilka to Pathankot, the border criss-crosses in such a manner that the Pakistani farmers’ land is 50 metres from the Indian fence. Pushing heroin in small-sized packets is then just a throw away. There have been instances of police and BSF recovering Pakistani mobile phone SIM cards from Indian couriers. The border villages receive signals of Pakistan’s cellular networks such as Mobilink and Ofone.
When the crop is tall and ripe on both sides of the Radcliffe line, the border pillars are not visible. This is an advantage for Pakistani smugglers, who can easily hide amid wheat or paddy crop while venturing into Indian fields to push the poison into Punjab. And, there is no dearth of takers. “Before the border was fenced, Indian villagers could simply walk into villages in Pakistan that are a kilometre away,” says Labh Singh, 80, of Naushera Dhalla village. A former opium smuggler, he broke down and said with regret: “My son was into smuggling and was caught with fake currency and arms. He died in jail.”
BSF’S CHALLENGES
“Police and politicians encourage drug smuggling. Police harass the innocent. I have been detained many a time unnecessarily,” claims Suba Singh, a former sarpanch of Rajatal village, infamous for smugglers, even as another villager Kundan Singh, 90, reminds the former about his shady past.
Now, every family that owns farms across the fence is seen as a potential heroin smuggler in the garb of a farmer. This stigma doesn’t ruffle many. Smuggling, many admit, flows in their blood.
That’s one of the enormous challenges the BSF faces while guarding the 553-km border of Punjab. “The BSF ‘kisan (farmer) guards’ accompany peasants to their land across the fence. Many a time, we have recovered heroin hidden in farm appliances. It is not easy when you have to watch anti-national activities of those whom you are protecting,” says a senior BSF officer.
Hunt on for mastermind of trafficking ring in region
Apart from reports of Gurwinder Singh of Jaid village and Gurdeep Singh of Tandi Aulakh village being feared drowned, there has been no report of people missing from anywhere else in Punjab. There has been no confirmation of the incident as yet.
ARPIT SHUKLA, IG, Jalandhar zone-2
KAPURTHALA: With information on the Panama boat tragedy still scarce, the police claimed to have identified and booked the mastermind of the human trafficking gang of the region, 29-year-old Kapurthala native Samual alias Bunty. The department has also claimed that the two unregistered travel agents arrested on Monday worked to lure ‘unsuspecting and gullible youth’ for Samual and were paid between `1 lakh and `2 lakh for each ‘client’ they could muster.
“Samual is a native of Dayalpur village in Kapurthala and is absconding. He has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and various sections of the Immigration Act. Raids are on to nab him,” said Arpit Shukla, inspector general (IG) of police, Jalandhar zone-2.
The police add that Kulwinder Singh Multani (52), a petrol station owner from Bhogpur (Jalandhar) — among the arrested on Monday — had enticed the youth by claiming that his own son Manpreet Singh had settled in the United States and was earning well there.
The second man arrested, Harbhajan Singh (65), a retired Haryana police employee from Bhatnura village (Kapurthala), also misused his influence to lure the youth, the police have claimed.
“Apart from two complaints of Gurwinder Singh (21) of Jaid village and Gurdeep Singh (25) of Tandi Aulakh village being feared drowned, there has been no other report of missing people from anywhere else in the state. There has been no confirmation of the incident as yet,” the IG added.
On Tuesday, police produced Multani, a resident of Bhogpur town in Jalandhar, in the local court which remanded him to two-day police remand.
Kapurthala deputy commissioner Daljit Singh Mangat and SSP along with other administration and police officials visited the houses of the victims in the district.
With no official confirmation coming through on the other victims, police sources said that some Jalandhar-based travel agents had hinted that the passengers on the boat could be from Pakistan Punjab.
BSF keeping tabs on its own personnel
ALANDHAR: After the Dinanagar and Pathankot terror strikes, fingers are being pointed at the Border Security Force (BSF) for its ‘failure’ to stop infiltration from across the Pakistan border and alleged connivance of some of its men with drug smugglers.
The force, tasked with guarding the border and preventing trans-national crime, has sacked and jailed seven of its personnel for colluding with the drug mafia, while 108 others have been shifted since 2011 due to suspicious activities, according to information available with the intelligence wing of the BSF’s Punjab frontier headquarters in Jalandhar.
Of these seven cases, four, including the recent arrest of a jawan by the police in SAS Nagar, were handed over to the state police for investigation, citing the involvement of civilians also.
BSF inspector general, Punjab frontier, Anil Paliwal says the intelligence and vigilance wings keep tabs on all personnel, especially those who belong to the smuggling-prone area, even during their leave period.
“Transfers are based on reports given by our intelligence wing about their activities or due to complaints regarding doubtful conduct,” he adds. Other BSF officers also reason that the transfers do not mean that these personnel were involved in any illegal activity on the border. Since 2014, the BSF has also adopted a policy not to offer the home district to any soldier or official. Postings are also not given in buffer districts (two nearby districts from both sides).
RECORD SEIZURE OF CONTRABAND
Notwithstanding the flak, the BSF has made the second biggest seizure of heroin and other narcotic drugs on the Indo-Pak border along Punjab in 2015 after setting a record in 2014. A total of 344-kg heroin was seized in 2015 as compared to 361 kg in the previous year.
Though repeatedly blamed by the Punjab government for drug smuggling, the record seizures, despite a drop in heroin production in Afghanistan as per a United Nations (UN) report, are seen by the paramilitary force as a positive sign.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Paliwal said. As for intrusion, 21 smugglers and 15 intruders have been gunned down by the BSF since 2011. In addition, 122 Pakistani nationals were caught while crossing the border, mainly for the purpose of smuggling or spying.
“There has been no report of terrorists taking this route though. We have not had inputs on this for the past many years,” another BSF official told HT.
DRUG FLOW ACROSS THE FENCE
Security forces have been working to break the back and snap transit lines of Pak-based cartels
AN APPEAL TO VETERANS
Dear Veterans,
Ex-Servicemen Joint Action Front(Sanjha Morcha) website only uploads the News with have been published in the National News Papers at no point of time it publishes any emails of individuals until unless it has beneficial contents for the ESM community.
It also publishes/uploads authenticated Letter by various authorities concerning OROP or any other welfare issue of ESM or it Reproduces orders which have been uploaded on Govt authorities website.
Veterans can forward such News/Publications/Article/orders which shall benefit the ESM community in any aspect at the following email of sanjhamorcha, giving your particulars and contact number
printmediasanjhamorcha@gmail.com
Regards
Col Charanjit Singh Khera
Gen Secy
Sanjha Morcha
+919988266450
Fifth navigation satellite set for launch on January 20
SOURCE: THE HINDU
FOOD ADULTERATION PART-II FRUITS/VEGETABLES All that shines is not pure!
Manav Mander
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, February 9
Don’t get carried away with bright red carrots or sparkling green chilies, unusually shining apples and visibly sweet melons, as traders and retailers, who are under pressure to ensure a regular supply of fruits and vegetables much before due time of arrival in the mandis, resort to unethical practices.Rampant malpractices are adopted by them to give that extra shine, colour and sweetness to fruits and vegetables.To ripen bananas and mangoes fast, they are exposed to carbide that generates ethylene gas which gives out heat that in turn helps the fruit to ripen fast.Many green vegetables such as bitter gourd, lady’s finger, pumpkin and cabbage are dipped in copper sulphate water to make them look greener.Similarly, brinjals are coated with oil that makes them shine; apples are lightly touched with wax to make their coat look impressive; carrots are dipped in red-water and watermelons injected with red colour and sugar syrup to make them red and sweet from inside.“People are advised to carefully check fruits and veggies and purchase only seasonal fruits and vegetables. Wash them thoroughly before consumption and using a blend of vinegar and water to clean vegetables which will help in killing the bacteria,” said a city-based medicine expert Dr Sudhir Sharma.Artificial ripening of bananas and mangoes with calcium carbide, popularly known as masala, is common and sometimes apples, papayas, guavas, pears and plums are artificially ripened as well.“Artificial ripening of fruits is done for commercial purposes with chemicals. However, fruits thus readied are both toxic and tasteless. If the fruit is uniformly well coloured, or if black blotches appear on the skin in two or three days, you could suspect chemical ripening,” said a former employee of the Health Department.Being cheap (one kg of this chemical costs Rs 25-30, which can ripen 10 tonne fruit), it is indiscriminately used by traders in preference to other recommended practices.“I was shocked to see needles in the musk melon last summer while I was savouring my favorite fruit. I came to know that it was artificially ripened and from that time I have stopped eating water melons and musk melons. But this is not the solution and the department should take some strict steps to see this rampant adulteration going on,” said Harminder Singh, a city resident.The Health Department on the other hand maintained that they have been keeping a check on these rampant practices and destroying over-ripened fruits from time to time.The perils
- The colours used in artificial ripening of fruits and vegetables include sudan red, methanol yellow and lead chromate. It has proved to be carcinogenic for humans if consumed over a long period of time
- Carbide, which is used to ripen fruits, is harmful for liver and kidney, while methanol yellow can cause cancer, stomach ailments and degeneration of the male reproductive organs
- Lead chromate can causes anaemia, brain damage and blindness
- Sudan red is also harmful for stomach and digestion
Test yourself
- Green chillies, green peas and other vegetables
- Adulterant: Malachite Green (To accentuate the bright, glowing green colour of the vegetable)
- Test: Take a small portion of the sample and place it over a moistened white blotting paper. Coloured impressions on the blotting paper indicate the presence of Malachite green.
Awareness the key
- People must go for seasonal fruits and vegetables. Keep these under running water for a few minutes, so that the chemicals are washed away
- Wash fruits thoroughly before consuming
- Always cut the fruit into pieces, rather than consuming directly
- Fruits that have a uniform colour are more likely to have been artificially ripened
- Do not buy fruits when these arrive in mandis before the due period. You can be almost sure that they are artificially ripened for better marketing and earning profits
- While eating mangoes and apples, cut the fruit into pieces, rather than consuming directly
- What looks attractive outside may not be good for health. Fruits that have a uniform colour, for example a bunch of bananas having a uniform colour, are more likely to have been ripened artificially
India Readies For Home Grown Interceptor Missile Test
BALASORE: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is slated to test fire its patriot Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile from a defence base off the Odisha coast against an incoming ballistic missile to assess the home-grown weapon’s ‘killing’ capability. Reliable sources told The New Indian Express while the preparation was going on in full swing at the Abdul Kalam Island (formerly known as Wheeler Island), the test is likely to be conducted either on Sunday or Monday. More than one hundred scientists and technical officials are camping at the test facility for the crucial launching of the complex weapon system.
As per the coordinated programme, the incoming missile mimicking an enemy missile will be launched from a warship anchored in the Bay of Bengal and a few minutes later the indigenously developed interceptor missile would lift off from the launching complex-IV of the Kalam Island after getting requisite command from the tracking radar.
Though on November 22, the missile had intercepted an electronic target; all eyes are on the real test in which the interceptor would actually destroy the incoming high speed ballistic missile over Bay of Bengal. On April 6, last year the missile nosedived within a couple of seconds after it took off from the mobile launcher. A defence official said the missile integration is finished and the preparation for the test is near complete. ‘Final round check ups are on.’
‘The scientists are leaving no stone unturned to make the mission successful’, he said. India has a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth’s atmosphere. The success of the AAD test will boost India join the very exclusive BMD club of US, Russia and Israel.
In a bid to protect major Indian cities, the DRDO in the first phase has developed two-layered BMD system while the research and development is on to develop Phase-II anti-ballistic missile defence system, capable of destroying enemy inter-continental ballistic missiles fired from 5,000 km away. The first phase two-layered BMD system capable of killing enemy missiles fired from 2,000 km away is expected to be inducted in the armed forces soon.
It will be 12th test of the missile, third in last ten months. Earlier of the 11 tests, 8 in endo-atmospheric region (below the altitude of 40 km) and three in exo-atmosphere (above an altitude of 80 km), nine tests have been successful.
The test is aimed at observing the operational effectiveness of the low altitude interceptor missile which is considered as similar to the American PAC-3 system in terms of range and altitude of interception.
Developed by DRDO, the 7.5 metre tall AAD interceptor is a single stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with an inertial navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator totally under command by the data up-linked from the ground based radar. It has the capability to destroy the enemy missiles fired from 1,000 km away.
India-Nepal military exercise begins in Pithoragarh
Indian and Neplease Army contingents at the joint military exercise in Pithoragarh on Monday. Tribune photo
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, February 8
A 14-day India-Nepal combined military exercise, named Surya Kiran IX, commenced at Pithoragarh today. The exercise will culminate on February 21.The Nepal army is being represented by officers and troops of the elite Shree RudraDhoj battalion while an infantry battalion is participating on behalf of the Indian Army. The combined battalion-level exercise is being conducted under the aegis of the Panchshul Brigade of the Central Command.This is the 9th India-Nepal combined exercise. During the combined training, emphasis will be laid on upgrade of tactical and practical skills by sharing each other’s experiences and also on enhancing inter-operability in jungle warfare and counter terrorism operations in mountain terrain. The role and importance of Armed Forces in disaster management in both the countries has assumed increasing significance in the recent years. Therefore, focus will also be laid on humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations, including medical and aviation aspects.Brig Sanjay Sharma, officiating Major General, Staff, Central Command, was present during the opening ceremony and interacted with soldiers of both the contingents.He emphasised that both the armies had a lot to learn from each other, especially in their approach towards handling the modern day challenges of terrorism and in disaster management, as it had been one of the most important challenges for both the countries after some recent calamities. Senior Nepalese Army officials were also likely to attend the combined exercise along with their Indian counterparts during the validation phase of the exercise.
SOME BITTER TRUTHS : FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The reading of the comments made by Min of Def in response to queries raised by 7th CPC (obtained by Air Mshl Savur and put in his blog Aerial View) reveal how subservient Armed Forces have become. I get the impression lowly CAPF Officers are better than our senior Armed Forces Officers.
Right from 1947 Armed Forces Officers were considered a notch above God’s Own ICS Officers. Now our worthy senior Armed Forces Officers are happy to be equated with second rate IPS Officers because they wear uniform and have badges of rank. That means we have accepted we are inferior to IAS and IFS.
Look at the cadre strength of IAS and the number of Secretary level officers (out of 6,000 IAS Cadre strength they have 300 Secretaries to the Govt of India vis – a- vis out of 48,500 Armed Forces Officers we have not got more than 20 Army Cdrs and equivalent).
One Secretary in Min of Def (ESW) told me when he visited my office when I was Director Sainik Welfare A.P
“Brigadier Sahib, Your Senior Armed Forces officers are like passengers in the General compartment of train. One or two desperately try and get into the General compartment and once they are in they would not allow anyone else to enter. We, IAS Officers have no shame to serve under one of our own batch mates or even juniors. Look at me. I am Secretary in Min of Def (ESW) and Def Secy is junior to me though he is my batch mate. How does it matter to me? Both of us get the same salary and we enjoy the same perks. Def Secy respects me because I am his senior.
Look at Finance Secretary. He has a half dozen to dozen secretaries who work under him. One is Revenue Secretary, another is Expenditure Secy, third one is Secretary Banking services, fourth one is Secretary Non Banking services. No body feels jealous of Finance Secy.
Look at Foreign Secy. He has dozen Secretaries under him. One is Secy East, another is Secy Middle East, another is Secy North America etc.
Can you ever permit 10 Army Cdrs serve under one Army Cdr? You waste your time in your rank badges, how many orderlies you must have, how many men you must command. You keep throwing the phrase I have never understood – It is rank down-gradation?
You guys want everything for yourself but you would not allow the same privileges to be given to your juniors. You suffer and blame for all your ills on us IAS Officers. If you cannot set up your house in order what can we do? Sorry most of you have not grown up after you left your training academies. You keep throwing your seniority when that means in your own language focol. Not even God Almighty can help you unless you people reform yourselves. Sorry for this but that is my view and my perspective. I am sure you will not agree.
Will you work under another Brig if he is junior to you in NDA by three or four courses? No you will never. But we in IAS have no such hard feelings. As long our pay and privileges are not reduced, we can serve under any one who may be junior to us by three or four years”
Was this IAS Officer wrong in what he thinks of us?
Service Chiefs as per the admission of Min of Def agree to only few Lt Gens to HAG + scale of pay and not all 100% Lt Gens.
Why then blame Min of Def? These guys in Min of Def manage to get such stupid recommendation from our worthy service chiefs (sorry Gen YN Sharma sir this is the calibre of modern service chiefs and you may say my comments are in bad taste) and quote ad nausem to deny any benefit to Armed Forces personnel.
Are 0.02% Lt Gens in Armed Forces are equal to 80% IAS Officers who reach level of HAG+ and we call this parity? Can there be any more nonsense than this?
When 6th CPC offered NFFU to Armed Forces it is reported a CNS told “I will have more Admirals drawing NFFU than the ships I command?”
Whom do you blame for this utter down-gradation of izzaat of Armed Forces? Service Chiefs or Min of Def?
If Army is going to rent out four battalions to clean River Ganga @ Rs 70 crore per annum per bn, why blame Min of Def.
Is it the job of inf bn to clean shit thrown by all and sundry in River Ganga? Do our Service Chiefs know that there used to be Eco Bns of TA who do these kind of things?
Present CM of Telangana was tempted by the servility of Armed Forces to tell striking GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) sanitary staff “If you go on strike and do not life garbage then I will call Army”.
So Army has been reduced to cleaning River Ganga, placing mats for Yoga on Yoga International day in Delhi and lifting Garbage of GHMC.
Sir, do not get me wrong. All Service Chief are not servile as the present lot.
We had Gen OP Malhotra when ordered to employ Army to dispose of dead bodies of Tsunami that hit Andhra Pradesh in 1978, refused to do so and was bold enough to say “ Lifting dead bodies is the job of scavengers and soldiers are not scavengers”.
Gen KV Krishna Rao confronted mighty Indira Gandhi and said “Either you give us free rations or accept my resignation”.
Adm Sureesh Mehta issued instructions in Navy that they will not accept 6th CPC pay scales unless Lt Cols are brought up from PB- 3 to PB-4.
These Service Chiefs were not dismissed. Because they had moral courage to confront. They had 00s.
Why cannot Service HQ make a simple chart to show to CPCs as to how many reach the rank of Joint Secy at what service and how many in the Armed Forces reach that rank. Then take it to Addl Secy level and then Secy level as percentage in their respective cadre? Then only one will understand meaning of stagnation. Are they not capable of showing how much an IAS from the day he enters service collect lawful wages till he retires and how much an Armed Forces collects in his service career. Can they not on this on average basis?
Why cannot TRIPAS demand pay of Armed Forces due to acute stagnation be made year wise with rank pay separately so that even if super-seeded officers keep getting higher pay?
Why cannot TRIPAS list out all types of allowances to civilian employees on percentage of basic pay and compare them to Armed Forces personnel who get a fixed sum to show how we are cheated at every stage for working in most inhospitable conditions?
If an insignificant issue having very little financial effect such as trade rationalisation for Armed Forces Personnel requires elaborate procedures like (a) Appointing Committee of Secretaries in which there is no representation of Defence Services (b) Group of Ministers and (c) Discussion in the Cabinet are put into motion. This is to ensure nothing is given easily to Armed Forces. To keep them under modern slavery and force them to beg for crumbs to be thrown at them. But when an operation takes place immediately praising the Armed Forces to the Sky is the norm in Govt of India since 1947 thanks to Nehruvian policy of having strangle hold on the Armed Forces.
But when it comes to recommending upgrading 24 posts of Addl Secys to Secretaries in IRS and similar upgradation in other Group A services what is required? A simple note in a file is moved and approval of the minister is obtained and then implemented immediately or obtain cabinet nod after cups of tea and savoured free by these worthies our democratic system has put in place.
Now where is committee of secretaries, Group of Ministers for these Group A services gone when some bounty is to be given to civilians?
Security experts both from Defence fraternity and Civilian community are unanimous in their conclusion that Pathankot Air Base operation is a fiasco.
It begs the following questions.
Who is responsible for defence of Pathankot Air base?
Is it not AOC, Air force Station Pathankot?
He can as per SOP ask for additional help from his boss i.e. AOC-in-C, Western Air Comd who in turn ask for help form Chief of Air Staff. We in Army have SOP for sector def in peace station and practise it regularly so that any such incident happening in one unit, all neighbouring units come to rescue of that unit under difficulty. Is there no area defence plans for def units deployed in Pathankot or anywhere else? Can not AOC Pathankot ask for help from Inf Div and Armd Bde co-located in Pathankot?
Who is NSA to take charge of this operation? Is it in his charter of duties? Is he CDS? Have we outsourced defence of our own installations to a NSA who is an IPS guy?
Balan Sir, I know you do not like my mail being a typical infantarian. Coolly think of this. Army has been reduced to laying mats for Yoga because the civil company contracted failed to turn up and cleaning River Ganga. If weapon yielding jawans are made to lift garbage on taslas on their heads why blame anyone? Now COAS must be very busy discussing as to who should made responsible to contract a million taslas. Is it DGOS or E-in-C? Should it be procured under DGS &D Rate contract or should we go to IFA and get his approval?
I wonder why all veterans are crying hoarse that 7th CPC has downgraded fauns.
Our COAS has converted our soldiers into scavengers.
7th CPC gives such scavengers benefit of soldiers and recommend them higher pay & allowances and pensions of soldiers and not of scavengers which we have been reduced to by our worthy COAS, should we not thank Chairman 7th CPC?
I know you do not know whether to laugh or weep at my mail?
Regards,
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)
9493191380
An Article worth reading, if not read before, which questions the wisdom of some nitwit Editor who wanted late Col Niranjan to be be taken to task for not following the Drill during Operation in Pathankot. Read below :-
Dear Editor of the Telegraph,
Your editorial ‘Martyrs Rite’ on Col Niranjan on 07 Jan 15 ranks as the most depressing piece that I have come across on Pathankot operations. In sweeping keystrokes, you’ve murdered the martyr more treacherously than the jihadi’s explosives did. You’ve stated that Late Col acted on ‘bravado’, and used editorial license to call his act ‘stupidity’, you then questioned why he got a ‘state funeral’. Not satisfied by that, you have continued to poke the dead and demand that he must be ‘taken to task’ even when ‘dead’.
As a citizen who rests assured on the cover that my army gives me I have certain questions and comments for you.
Firstly I wonder how much do you know about the happenings on that fateful day to show the cocksureness hat you’ve shown in your piece?
Technically, let’s assume that it was the jihadi’s dying act to have booby trapped himself- How are you sure it was a simple trap that you assume it is?
Let’s call it a body trapped IED, and you may find that there are myriad ways that it could outwit a disposal specialist. Even assuming that was a grenade, it is essentially a mind game between the specialist and the jihadi with multiple likelihoods of its activation. Add to it the immense pressures of leading a group from front in that given situation.
I reckon that Col Niranjan had an extremely difficult task at hand which he did bravely for us all.
You’ve also linked up ‘discipline’, ‘routine’ (you meant an SOP?), ‘behaviour’, ‘ridicule’ etc. I wonder what on earth has these got to with brave act of a young soldier who got plucked in the prime trying to do his duty! Your articulation appeared too obfuscated for me to discern anything sensible.
By asking the martyr to be ‘taken to task’, even as embers on his pyre are smouldering, you have disrespected his death for our cause! Typing away in some urban air-conditioned office against a deadline I suspect your tribal instincts won over your civility when you questioned Niranjan’s state funeral. Do you know that this is a nation that honourably buries even enemy soldiers?
You say that he should’ve acted safely right? Safety is a much abused line today. Kindly remember India will rue the day a soldier acts too safe. Soldiering is never a zero risk game. You walk that tight rope between SOPs and situations that a creative fate throws at you. Off all the contingencies that you are prepared for there are always surprises which leaves no scope for counsel or moments to deliberate. You act on instinct as a reflex derived from training.
You, like me, I’m certain would have been in our cosy drawing rooms glued to headlines as Niranjan braved the jihadis. What on earth gives us the wisdom and the right to question Niranjan and Army screaming a cover up!
If there is anyone who has to cover up I guess it your paper for having shot off an immature and outrageous editorial!
I think as the man on ground he acted a most honourably for our sake. Let us bow to that. If there has been shortcomings in his drills let us leave it to a system which usually gets to the bottom of things!
Editors have a serious role in society. By asking difficult questions you act as conscious keepers of the society. That in no way gives you the right of editorial brazen ness which was on display today. Your piece was downright inhumane and served no purpose. By all means question the living system, but desist from passing judgement on the dead too quickly. They went to fetch us peace!
You owe Niranjan and the nation an apology!
