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Participants at the national convention-cum-reunion of the War Decorated India in Chandimandir on Friday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR

Maha Vir Chakra recipient the late Brig KS Chandpuri’s widow Surinder Kaur Chandpuri and son Hardip Chandpuri (right) being felicitated by Lt Gen GS Sihota (retd) during the national convention-cum-reunion of the War Decorated India in Chandimandir on Friday.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

The two-day national convention-cum-reunion of the War Decorated India (WDI) began at Chandimandir Military Station today. Gallantry award recipients from various parts of the country and next of kin of deceased war heroes attended the event.

Tributes were paid to the recently departed members of the association and war widows were honoured on the occasion. The election of the association president, nomination of executive committee members and issues relating to gallantry awardees and their welfare were part of the agenda. As tales of heroism flowed, old camaraderie was reignited.

The WDI was set up in 1991 to serve as a platform for strengthening camaraderie among the war heroes, further their cause and to provide them any assistance in times of need. Its members consist of recipients of gallantry awards won in the face of the enemy that include the Victoria Cross and Military Cross of the pre-Independence era and the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra, which were instituted post-Independence.

Chief of Staff, Western Command, Lt Gen PN Bali, addressed the gathering. He said the serving military men drew inspiration from the bravehearts who fought valiantly for the motherland and in the process many had laid down their lives.

The convention is held once in four years. The event this time was relatively a low-key affair with lesser number of participants as compared with past occasions as the number of war heroes has been dwindling over the years.

Among the Victoria Cross awardees, relatives of the Late Nb Sub Nand Singh of the Sikh Regiment, Late Sub Ram Sarup Singh of the Punjab Regiment and Late Badlu Singh of the Jat Lancers were felicitated. Dhano Devi, wife of Late Col Hoshiar Singh of the Grenadiers and daughter of Late Sub Joginder Singh of the Sikh Regiment, both of whom were decorated with the Param Vir Chakra, the nation’s highest gallantry award, was also honoured.

Col Hoshiar Singh was awarded the PVC for his actions while establishing a bridgehead across the Basantar river and repulsing enemy attacks in the Shakargarh Sector during the 1971 Indo-Pak War, while Sub Joginder Singh had led his troops in the face of the enemy despite being heavily outnumbered and defended his post near Bum La in the north-east until he was wounded and captured during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

Sub Nand Singh’s son, Ripu Daman, who was attending the convention for the first time, pointed out that the names of Indian Victoria Cross recipients did not find a place in the newly constructed National War Memorial in the Capital.

Among those present was Lt Col (Dr) Virendra Sahi, a Vir Chakra recipient form the Battle of Laleali in the Chhamb Sector in December 1971. He had killed a Pakistani officer, who was physically much larger, in hand-to-hand combat after his weapon had jammed. Pakistani troops under the command of a major were able to gain a foothold on the forward tip of the Laleali post that resulted in a hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Pakistani soldiers. Sahi, who was also then a Major commanding an infantry company, had sent a handwritten citation to Pakistan, detailing his opponent’s actions.

Claims have been made that the Balakot airstrikes were intended to be a strategic step to deliver a strong message and isolate Pakistan. However, any such step has to be followed by other measures by other countries to debar Pakistan from every possible venue. Nothing concrete has been achieved so far.

Vappala Balachandran 
Former Special Secy, Cabinet Secretariat

THE discordant national security discourse after the Pulwama and Balakot incidents is denigrating our armed forces. Widespread exultation over the achievements of our Air Force in Balakot, its heroic resistance to Pakistan’s air aggression and the shooting down of their F-16 have been drowned out by a cacophony of opposing dialectics, including controversies triggered by the ruling party.

The first instance was on March 1 when BJP MP Subramanian Swamy tweeted that ‘just seven persons’ had ‘conceptualised’ the Balakot bombing. His list did not include Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This made people wonder how our armed forces could operate without their minister’s knowledge. Then came BJP president Amit Shah’s claim during an election rally that over 250 terrorists were killed in the Balakot airstrikes. He criticised the opposition parties for demanding proof of the deaths. This provoked the Congress to say that the BJP was politicising the armed forces. This and other interventions forced the Air Force Chief to draw the red line: “Government counts casualties, not us.” By implication, he conveyed that the Air Force was given targets, which they hit successfully. “We hit the target… otherwise why would they (Pakistan) have responded?”

Since then, all efforts of BJP spokespersons have been to justify the remarks of their president by quoting different sources, named or unnamed. No official figures have been released by the government so far. Simultaneously, the foreign media has been relentless in reporting the Pakistani version that no damage was caused. The opposition parties also complained that the Prime Minister was revealing details during public meetings, not officially. 

That did not prevent leaks from secret operational intelligence, collected by our National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), from appearing in the media. It was claimed that the NTRO had detected 300 active mobile phones in Balakot area before the airstrikes. No explanation for why the media was given this secret information unofficially was forthcoming. Simultaneously, an investigation by a leading Indian weekly found that residents of Balakot and police officials in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) were admitting that the IAF strikes had resulted in military casualties too, “not just destruction of terror infrastructure and militants.”  If this is so, why is the government reluctant to reveal these details, which would only strengthen the official version?

It is true that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had indirectly confirmed the NTRO story when confronted by the media during a BSF function on March 5: “Were these mobile phones used by the trees? Will you not believe the NTRO also?” He added that the number of dead at the Jaish training camp would be known “today or tomorrow”. Still, no official account was published. 

At times, the BJP’s dialogue resembled egregious politics descending to the street level when ministers spoke about the dissenters. On March 6, Minister of State for External Affairs and former Army Chief VK Singh called critics and journalists as jonk (leeches).

Such remarks made the Opposition hit back. On March 11, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah made a frontal charge that the airstrikes were aimed at “winning the Lok Sabha elections”. The next day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Centre was “stretching the elections till May-end for another strike in April”. Simultaneously, a Central investigating agency appears to be pitting the entire Muslim population in the Valley against New Delhi. The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA’s) recent summons to Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to come to New Delhi have united all 20 disparate Muslim religious groups behind him as he represents Srinagar’s Grand Mosque, a 300-year-old institution.

Claims have been made that the Balakot airstrikes were intended to be a strategic step of escalation to deliver a strong message and isolate Pakistan. However, any such strategic step has to be followed by other measures by other countries to debar Pakistan from every possible venue. Unfortunately, nothing concrete has been achieved so far. As regards compelling Pakistan to give up its support to terrorists, all we could earn so far is a message from US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton about his talk with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had assured to “deal firmly with terrorist groups operating from the country”.

To me, the Balakot strikes were as spectacular as the US bombing of Libya on April 15, 1986. Both conveyed the message, but did not have any strategic impact on the target country. Former CIA Director Robert Gates, who was then President Ronald Reagan’s Deputy National Security Adviser, writes in his memoirs From the Shadows that there was no consensus in the National Security Council (NSC) on the bombing, although the Reagan administration was ‘obsessed’ with Gaddafi from 1981. Secretary of State George P Shultz was clearly against it. Gaddafi was a bigger threat to world peace than even Pakistan, having supplied munitions to the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The immediate provocation was Gaddafi’s bomb attack on a Berlin discotheque patronised by American troops on April 5, 1986, killing 2 Americans, besides a missile attack on a US Air Force plane in the Gulf of Sidra on March 24, 1986.

Seymour Hersh, in his New York Times piece ‘Target Qaddafi’ (February 22, 1987), claims that the entire planning was done by a clandestine group in the NSC led by Col Oliver North, keeping senior NSC members, including Shultz, in the dark. (Do we see a parallel here if we were to believe Subramanian Swamy?) North came to grief only in 1988 for a similar illegal intervention in the 1987 Iran-Contra Affair.

Did the bombing stop Gaddafi in his tracks? No, he executed a much bigger attack by planting a bomb on Pan Am Frankfurt-Detroit Flight 103, killing 270 persons, on December 21, 1988. Gaddafi was killed over two decades later on October 20, 2011, during the Libyan Civil War

New Delhi, March 13

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that documents filed by the petitioners seeking review of its Rafale deal verdict are “sensitive to national security” and those who conspired in photocopying the papers have committed theft and put the security in jeopardy by leaking them.

The Ministry of Defence said an internal enquiry commenced on February 28 and is currently in progress over the leakage of sensitive documents and it is of utmost concern to find out where the leakage took place.

The affidavit filed by the ministry said documents attached by the petitioners — former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie as also activist advocate Prashant Bhushan — relate to war capacity of combat aircraft and have been widely circulated, available to the country’s enemy and adversaries.

“This puts the national security in jeopardy. Without consent, permission or acquiescence of the Central Government, those who have conspired in making the photocopy of these sensitive documents and annexing it to the review petition/ miscellaneous application and thereby committing theft by unauthorised photocopying of such documents relied in this regard…have adversely affected the Sovereignty, Security and Friendly Relations with the foreign countries,” said the affidavit, filed by Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra.

The affidavit assumes significance as Attorney General K K Venugopal on March 6 hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had alleged that the review petition was based on the documents which were stolen from the ministry.

Two days later, Venugopal claimed the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and he had meant in his submission before the top court that petitioners in the application used “photocopies of the original” papers, deemed secret by the government.

In the affidavit, the ministry said secrecy was envisaged in various agreements that the Centre had entered into with France and others concerning matters of national security.

It said even though the Centre maintains secrecy, Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan are relying on documents annexed and “are guilty of leakage of sensitive information, which offends the terms of the agreements”.

The Centre said those who have conspired in this leakage are guilty of penal offences under the Indian Penal Code including theft by unauthorised photocopying and leakage of sensitive official documents affecting National Security.

“These matters are now a subject of an internal enquiry which has commenced on February 28 and it is currently in progress. In particular, it is of utmost concern to the Central government to find out where the leakage took place so that in future the sanctity of decision making process in governance is maintained,” said the affidavit, which will come up for perusal before the apex court on Thursday.

The Centre asserted that Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan are using “unauthorisedly accessed documents” with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to National Security and Defence and have been used by them with an intention to mislead the apex court.

“The documents presented by the petitioners are failing to bring out how the issues were addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent authorities taken. The selective and incomplete presentation of the facts and records by the petitioners are intended to mislead this court into deriving wrong conclusions which is very damaging to National Security and public interest,” it said.

The affidavit added that the Performance Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Capital Acquisition in Indian Air Force Report No. 3 of 2019 has already been presented to Parliament and thus is in public domain.

It said documents relied in petition belong to a class “in which the Government of India is entitled to claim privilege under Section 123, 124 of the Indian Evidence Act”.

The documents unauthorisedly produced by petitioners are exempt from disclosure under Right to Information Act and as such petitioners have no authority whatsoever to produce it “before the court without the explicit permission of the Government of India, Ministry of Defence”, it added.

While claiming privilege over the documents relied upon by the petitioners to support the review petition, the Centre said since they have unauthorisedly and illegally produced those documents it has become imperative for the Union of India to seek removal of these documents from the record. — PTI

 pilot usually sustains injury either due to the forces involved in ejecting the aircraft, or due to how he landed. There could be significant pain in the back, particularly with standing or ambulating.

Written by Dr. A.K. Ghori

Within days of what happened to Wing Commander Abhinandan, another MiG 21 pilot has ejected safely in Bikaner on Friday. Fighter pilots face serious challenges in the unfortunate scenario they have to eject. Spine fractures are a common sequela of combat aircraft ejections and these injuries fall on a spectrum from stable compression fractures to unstable burst fractures.

Ejection and landing are the two events when a fighter pilot can sustain a spine fracture. The most common injury is a compression fracture in the thoraco-lumbar junction (T10—L2). (Image 1) Compression fractures are painful, but they heal over 12 weeks with no long term consequences in most patients.Image 1: Compression Fracture- The vertebra is “squished” but overall spinal column is stable allowing for upright posture and ambulation.

With low altitude ejections there isn’t enough time to decelerate adequately for a smooth landing. A hard landing can lead to much worse injuries, such as burst fractures, or fracture-dislocations. These injuries are extremely painful, the pilot would not be able to stand or ambulate, and may experience loss of sensation or motor function in his legs. This injury may require surgical intervention and long term outcome depends on the type of injury, success of surgery, and rehabilitation.

In many cases several of them have gone back to their normal activities, and some have even returned to challenging endeavors such as sky diving and ATV racing.

A pilot usually sustains injury either due to the forces involved in ejecting the aircraft, or due to how he landed. There could be significant pain in the back, particularly with standing or ambulating.

MRI and CT scans of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine can reveal a compression fracture. If that is the only spine injury, then pain would probably resolve in six weeks. At this point the pilot can start physical therapy to strengthen his paraspinal and core muscles. After the spine therapy programme, the pilot should be ready for fitness testing to evaluate return to flying status.

The irony is that even with all the modern testing available to us, the most important piece of information is simply looking at the patient’s ability to walk.

Dr. A.K. Ghori, is a Harvard University trained Spine Surgeon practicing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

The Russian-origin Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will be capable of carrying up to five new BrahMos missiles that are being developed by the BrahMos Aerospace – a joint venture of India and Russia.

BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world.

At present, the Su-30 MKI can carry one BrahMos missile under its fuselage. However, with the introduction of the BrahMos NG (Next Generation), the IAF fighter jet will be capable of carrying up to five BrahMos missile.

“We proceed from the fact that it will be possible to furnish Su-30 MKI fighters with as many as five new BrahMos NG missiles, which are being developed for light fighter jets. We are planning that a Su-30 MKI plane will be capable of carrying two missiles under each wing and one missile under the fuselage,” BrahMos Aerospace’s chief manager for marketing and exports Praveen Pathak said, as reported by Russian news agency TASS.

BrahMos NG is a mini version based on the existing BrahMos, and will have the same 290 km range and mach 3.5 speed, but will be lighter and shorter than its predecessor.

“Currently, Su-30 MKI planes carry only one missile under the fuselage. The new missiles will considerably boost the aircraft’s capabilities,” he added.

Dalhousie, February 20

In view of an avalanche advisory issued by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Manali, in Pangi and Bharmour of Chamba district in 24 hours, two helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) today took off to carry out a recce of the valley.

DC Harikesh Meena said the recce was part of the recent discussions held with military officials to extend help for rescue operations during avalanche-like situation and other natural calamities, especially in the snowbound areas of the district. The helicopters, however, could not be able to land in the Pangi valley due to bad weather conditions.

The district administration was in constant touch with officials. — OC

Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, February 21

Without naming Punjab directly, the Government of Canada has advised its citizens to stay away from “border with Pakistan” in view of escalating tensions between India and  Pakistan.

India has jumped to the top of the list of countries prepared by the Canadian government and where Canadian citizens have been advised to either exercise a high degree of caution owing to constant threat of terrorist activities “throughout the country at all times”.

The Canadian government has advised its citizens to ‘avoid non-essential travel’ to a number of Indian states and areas including, the border with Pakistan (it means Punjab and Rajasthan), the border with Bangladesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The reason for travel advisory against travelling to these states has been cited as “due to conflict”. The government of Canada has regularly been updating its list of travel advice and advisories so as to keep its citizens aware about changing threat perceptions and circumstances prevailing in other countries.

One of the reasons for issuing and updating the travel advisories was that a lot of Canadians venture out on travel to other countries at the outset of spring season over there and the Canadian government wants that that the Canadians should themselves apprised about travel risks before chalking out any travel plans.

If India has spiralled to the top of the list of “dangerous places” for Canadians, China figures at its end after France, Madagascar, Indonesia, Haiti, Venezuela, Philippines, Jordan, Brazil, Tunisia, Jamaica and Thailand.

In case of France, the Canadian government has advised its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” mainly owning to the “current elevated threat of terrorism” apart from the ongoing large gilets jaunes protests on Saturdays in that country.

The Canadian government has asked its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia for “political and social tensions” and has advised them against travelling to Venezuela for “significant level of violent crime and unstable political and economic situations”.

Similarly, the Canadian authorities fear high crime rates and regular gang-related and other violence in Brazil could harm its citizens travelling to that country.

The ‘Kashmiris as terrorists’ equation is framing the attack in a communal context

Rajesh Ramachandran

The more Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy continues in office and attacks Kashmiris, the greater the damage to the nation. Unfortunately, his is not a lone voice. He merely lends a face, a name and the stamp of constitutional authority to a divisive agenda. The ‘Kashmiris as terrorists’ equation is a deeply dividing political ploy, which frames the Pulwama attack in a communal context instead of what it really is — a terrorist attack backed by an inimical neighbour. The Pulwama attack has suddenly replaced Ram temple or triple talaq as a political tool to gather mobs in the name of Hindutva. The processions exhibiting muscular nationalism being taken out in the wake of the Pulwama attack in residential colonies in many parts of North India have a communal ring to their slogans. The question now being asked is not why such anger over one terrorist attack, but whether this would turn into a landslide support for the BJP in the General Election round the corner.

Pulwama has been so completely politicised and communalised that the primary Opposition party feels compelled to question the Prime Minister for hugging the visiting Saudi Arabian Crown Prince. The underlying communal message is not lost on anyone. Sure, the Saudi prince chose to visit Pakistan before touching down in New Delhi, but the reaction would not have been the same had it been a European leader. The entire polity is allowing itself to get communalised. The Kashmiri terrorist is no longer just a terrorist but a Muslim, and all victims of terrorist attacks are being seen as Islam’s victims. There cannot be a worse proposition for a diverse, multi-religious nation than this agenda. When a Kashmiri is boycotted because he or she is a Muslim by a person occupying a high constitutional office, it is almost as if the British policy of a separate electorate for Muslims — which led to the creation of Pakistan — is getting re-enacted again, this time with the active help of Hindutva politicians.

Sure, religious secessionism and the two-nation theory are at the heart of the Kashmiri insurgency. It is impossible for India to accept another Partition, particularly when Hindus and Muslims live together all over the country. So, any attempt to divide the nation yet again in the name of religion will not get contained in just one province of the country. What is applicable to Kashmir will be applicable to the rest of the country. In that context, the Kashmiri religious secessionism has to be defeated ideologically, politically and militarily; whereas isolating Kashmiris because of their religion will only exacerbate their alienation and help in strengthening their resolve to claim separate nationhood in the name of that very religion.

Have these so-called Hindutva ideologues ever thought about the politicians of the Valley who carry the Indian flag, the policemen on the ground who procure valuable intelligence to defeat the next terror attack, the local bureaucrats who run the government, and those who join the armed forces to fight their own neighbours and the foreign jihadis? Of course not! With just one tweet, all of these Kashmiris have been equated to their own enemies. And all of them, already under pressure at home, have lost their credibility. While their wards, studying in Dehradun or Chandigarh or Gurugram or Jaipur, are forced to return home, they still have to fight the Islamist terrorists every day, all day. Our ruling dispensation and dominant political shouting matches have become so shrill that there is no interlude of sanity to listen to the wails of an ordinary Kashmiri caught among the foreign jihadi, Pakistani spymasters and Hindutva zealots.

India is not Israel. We are a composite culture or a compost dump of communities, where the more divisive we get the more difficult it is to forge a nation. A Pulwama may win an election for some but at what cost? There is every possibility of an Islamist radical from Karnataka or Assam triggering a similar attack. How would that attack get framed? Well, cartoonists have a great way of explaining these complex situations. R Prasad, in one of his recent cartoons in The Economic Times posed the question: Why should Kashmiris be treated differently from Chhattisgarhias? The biggest attack on the CRPF happened in April 2010 at Chintalnar village in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, when 76 paramilitary soldiers were brutally killed by the Maoists. There was no exhibition of anger or public outpouring of grief or disbursal of relief by Bollywood to the families of the martyrs. In fact, they were not even being hailed as martyrs across the nation. Why?

Former PM Manmohan Singh had termed Maoists the gravest threat to national security. In fact, they have a history of undermining the nation even in 1971, when they supported Pakistan because China — their source of all wisdom — was supporting the rape and murder of lakhs of people of East Pakistan. Maoists are the ones who have always supported religious secessionism on various campuses, including the JNU. They made Afzal Guru fashionable and have continuously extended legal help to secessionist terrorists in jail. They had also openly worked for the Tamil Tigers all through the last Eelam war. Since universities have always been recruitment centres for all kinds of spy agencies, some of them could even have been working for one agency or the other.

Yet, they were never collectively treated as Andhraites (most of their leaders are from Andhra) or Telugus or Brahmins or Velamas because of Ganapathy’s caste or of Kishenji’s. Someone who wants to overthrow the Constitution should be dealt with as an insurgent. Let not his innocent neighbour be targeted, lest there should be no one to protect the neighbourhood.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 17

An upgraded version of the Arjun tank, having better firing and mobility, has been accepted by the Army following month-long validation trials in Rajasthan.

The trials were completed in December last and a report has followed. The Army is looking at 118 pieces of the new version. In 2010-11, the first version of the Arjun had joined the Army and 124 pieces had been ordered.

The production of the new version, dubbed as Arjun ‘Mark 1-A’, is likely to commence within this year at the existing facility at Avadi in Tamil Nadu. It has a total of 14 upgrades over the existing version. These include an auto-target tracker, automatic gear system and improvement in suspension.

Only the missile firing ability remains to be validated, which will be done once the missiles, being developed by the DRDO, are ready. The DRDO missile programme has been a major success and firing of missile from a tank is being fine-tuned.

As part of the arrangement with the Army, the DRDO has promised to set up a system to maintain the Arjun within India. It will be an annual maintenance contract with one of the PSUs such as Bharat Earth Movers Limited.

The tanks, as part of the trials, have already done some 4,000 km of run. The upgraded Arjun has a 120mm rifled gun capable of firing a full range of high explosives, laser homing anti-tank (LAHAT) missile that had a tandem warhead, which is capable of defeating all types of modern armour.

In December last year, the Ministry of Defence had informed Parliament that the ‘Arjun Mark 1-A’ was being validated at trials. This was the first official confirmation that the ‘Mark 1-A’ will be an additional version of the tank till the ‘Mark 2’ version, somewhat lighter in weight, is readied and accepted.

The development shows that the MoD is ready to keep on improving the Arjun, be addition of more power or wanting the weight to be reduced. The Army was okay with the ‘Mark 1-A’ version, but wants the next version to be lighter than its present weight of 68 tonne. Most modern European tanks are of the same weight, and tank-transporters (specialised trucks) for Arjun are available to ferry it.

The ‘Mark 2’ will have to be lighter by some 3 tonne. This may require some modification in the hull of the tank for the final contours to emerge.