When Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria took over the Indian Air Force (IAF), we were wondering how time passes so quickly. As part of the family of a Pakistani army officer deputed for the Staff Course at the Defence Services Staff College Mirpur (in now Bangladesh), we had the opportunity to interact with the Bhadauria family as Rakesh Kumar was a Wing Commander doing a staff course at Mirpur, Dhaka. Our experience with Indian officers was that they were sharp, wily and hardworking, but had a complex about Pakistan which became more visible as time passed.

Coming back into present times, we have found the same complex about Pakistan, but more pronounced due to the Sanghi rule in India. RSS Bhakts and neo-Nazis have turned every ministry and department into the Sangh Parivar (family). Professionalism is taking a back seat and the Modi cult is the ultimate recipe to fix everything bad in India, whether it’s the downturn in economy, crash of Indian rupee, loss of millions of jobs or the Balakot tree strike; “Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai” (with Modi it is possible).

The February 27 counterstrike by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), which shot down two IAF intruders, including Wing Commander Abhinandan (some social media activists call him “Abhi none done”), shattered many myths regarding the Indian armed forces and the false aura they had created in the past 20 years.

With the Balakot tree strike, which killed a brave Pakistani crow and injured 10 trees, Indian politico leadership started a blitz of lies and deceits and as “Abhi none done” was “undone” by the PAF and was escorted across the Wagha border in shame, this charade of lies and deceit became a shameless cover-up. Unlike a head of any professional force, former IAF chief Dhanoa was forced to become the face of this cover-up. Despite all the twists and fake stories telling the brave intrusion of Abhinandan and shooting down of a PAF F-16, the international experts on air warfare did not buy the Indian charade of lies and Dhanoa had to do a catwalk with Abhinandan till the last day to keep up the IAF’s morale.

Bhadauria, like a true Rajput, did acknowledge part of the truth that the IAF air defence system had shot down their own helicopter right at the Srinagar Air Base and that a military court would sort out those responsible. Our advice would be to put ex-chief Dhanoa into a lie detecting test and maybe Bhadauria will have to court-martial a lot of the top brass of the IAF for covering up this blatant lie. Unfortunately, the Modi-Amit-Doval circus won’t allow that, as accountability of the military would mean accountability of the political decision makers who wanted to take advantage of the clouds to hide their radar signature.

If one looks at the PR media campaign of the Indian military after February 27, one can see a deliberate attempt on giving more space to the IAF. This campaign has four major facets.

The façade of bravado and fakery to cover up the faux pas of the Balakot incident; project IAF’s technological and numerical superiority by advertising the latest procurements on an almost daily basis; conveying to the PAF that India has taken a head lead over Pakistan in acquiring modern hardware; and lastly, showing political pooja paat as essential element of military power and use of nimboo narial and laddus (lemon, coconuts and sweets) to justify the Shastra Pooja.

Maintain the bogey of limited conventional war under nuclear overhang.

But there are sane and serious voices in India, who are cautioning the politico military leadership. Pravin Sawhney has been regularly commenting on why Pakistan is not a walkover and the fact that Chinese military has marched ahead of India in almost every field and this illusion of machismo and false bravado was of no use.

Although Balakot tree strike and the PAF counter-strike lasted for few hours, the PAF’s aggressive response sent some very strong strategic signals across the globe. Pakistan conveyed to the world that it can display a sure footed response based on political intent and was ready to climb the escalation ladder in a nuclear overhang, when it comes to territorial integrity and honour of the nation. The PAF proved that Indian technological and numerical superiority was a myth and the PAF could dominate the skies over South Asia by displaying superiority over the IAF in technical, technological, training and operational domains. The PAF also displayed unwavering faith in Allah Almighty and the cause of Pakistan.

Pakistan also re-established nuclear deterrence by a quick and bold conventional response, the mere fact that Indian politico military leadership did not venture across the LoC or the international border after 27th February proves that India chickened out in this brinkmanship.

Pakistan’s defence forces displayed that a battle-hardened force can compensate for technological or numerical asymmetry, and there is no alternative to experience.

This takes us to our last part of the paper, an advice to Air Chief Marshall Bhadauria: It’s the spirit and real force which fights in battle. The US-led coalition has the best weapon systems, smart bombs and even nuclear power, but they still failed in achieving their objectives in Afghanistan. Induction of modern weapon system is a common feature in all defence forces, but the Indian military is reminding the hapless people of India that next time they will overpower Pakistani military through numbers and technology. Is this advertisement born out of fear?

Dhanoa, the ex-IAF chief, had a peculiar habit of answering every question with the word ‘No’ and he kept lying through his teeth to convince a Bollywood Zombified audience of more than a billion people that Balakot tree strike was real and ‘Abhi Non Done’ really hit an F-16 before going down. Rakesh Bhadauria should avoid that.

The IAF has the worst air safety records in South Asia and they have lost more than a dozen aircraft in the past one year. When Modi said that he wished Rafale was there on February 27th, it was a slap on the face of the largest air force in the region. This statement by Modi points out that the IAF was unfit for war without new inductions. Should Dhanoa and his team be made accountable for this admission? While we congratulate Mrs Asha Bhadauria on becoming the Chief Parton of AFWWA (Air Force Wives Welfare Association), there is a need to control AFWAA Sazi (Fake news in Urdu) in IAF. The new IAF chief should try enroll some real pilots: Coconuts won’t work in war.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2019.

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Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria while interacting with media for the first time very bluntly refused to place additional orders for 36 Dassault Rafale and instantly also killed any speculation of India buying Russian developed Su-57E Stealth fighter jet and for the first time in decades its seems IAF got chief who had clear cut vision for Indigenous airforce and it seems to have dubbed badly on some so-called Defence analysts in the country who have attacked both MWF-Mk2 and AMCA programs off late. IAF is on verge of placing fresh orders for 83 Tejas Mk1A by end of this year and has backed the development of 200 Medium Weight Fighter program (MWF) and also India’s lone 5th generation AMCA fighter jet program, which leaves little space for induction of new jets in the coming decade rather then what already has been planned out earlier. IAF Chief has called for the induction of 114 new fighter jets under MMRCA Tender along with additional orders for the 21 Mig-29 and 12 Su-30Mk1 but out rightly rejected any further orders for additional 36 Dassault Rafale and has also backed away from buying 100+ FGFA fighter jet from Russia, which means that MMRCA tender for 114 units might be last foreign fighter jet type inducted into IAF if for some reason Dassault Rafale is not chosen by India. With little or no scope for any new import of fighter jets, MWF-Mk2 and AMCA programs have come under intense attack in India even before the program has lifted off the drawing board. The MWF-Mk2 program has been attacked for being a 4.5 generation fighter jet program even when air force around the world is making a gradual shift towards 5th generation fighter jets and country is investing in 4.5 gen technology. The second lobby has attacked the AMCA fighter jet program since according to this experts India doesn’t have any technical expertise in undertaking such complex project and others have criticized it timeline which they believe will be difficult to fulfill due to constant delays which we saw in past with LCA-Tejas program.  Two front attacks on countries two upcoming fighter jet programs suggest that new IAF Chief has rattled Arms Lobbyist who see clear backing of the Indigenous programs who can sense that future programs will revolve around Indigenous programs with little or no chance of any imports any further.  Disclaimer : Articles published under ” MY TAKE ” are articles written by Guest Writers and Opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. IDRW.ORG is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of IDRW.ORG and IDRW.ORG does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. article is for information purposes only and not intended to constitute professional advice .

idrw.org .Read more at India No 1 Defence News Website https://idrw.org/why-arm-lobbyist-seemed-rattled-after-new-iaf-chief-backed-indigenous-programs/ .

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 14

After 70 days of communication blockade, postpaid mobile services were restored in the Valley today. People were seen calling up friends and relatives as the service was reactivated around 11.45 am.

“I finally managed to call my sister in Delhi after 70 days. She broke down on hearing my voice,” said Imtiyaz Ahmad, a local.

Chaos was witnessed at offices of mobile operators where people queued up for new connections or clearing bills. On October 12, government spokesperson Rohit Kansal had said services would resume on Monday noon, adding there were 40 lakh postpaid subscribers.

There is, however, no word on restoration of prepaid services. The Internet blockade imposed on August 5 remains.

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, October 14

In order to combat the threat posed by unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) from across the border, the BSF will soon purchase a ground-based anti-drone system with a 360-degree surveillance mode equipped with radio frequency receiver, electronic-optical sensor and a jammer.

Sources said the tenders for the system would be floated soon. The easily deployable anti-drone equipment will be able to work day and night and able to detect multiple drones simultaneously.

In addition to procuring the state-of-the-art system, the BSF has also stepped up vigil and devised several other counter measures to deal with air intrusions in future.

“We had fired on the drones when these were sighted last time. Since then, no drone has been seen,” said a BSF official, adding that the troops manning the border had been directed to scan the skies regularly.

Rubbishing recent reports of the force ‘getting a nod’ to bring down the drones, the official said the option of opening fire in any such exigency was already available to them and was being exercised.

The sources said in places like Ferozepur and Amritsar where the cantonment was located close to the border, the drones were also used for tactical surveillance.

Apart from boosting its technological prowess, the BSF has also started sensitising the border residents about the need to identify drones or flying objects.

According to information, the Central and state security and intelligence agencies have also evolved a joint strategy to deal with any such misadventure along the border.

Though there have been no sightings of drones in the past few days, the security agencies are working out a strategy to prevent any possibility of arms and drug smuggling through the UAVs.

Last week, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta had also convened a meeting of various security establishments, including the Air Force, Military Intelligence, BSF, Intelligence Bureau, NIA besides other intelligence agencies.

The meeting was called following the seizure of a huge cache of arms, satellite phones and grenades from the modules backed by Pakistan-based handlers of Khalistan Zindabad Force which were dropped by drones.

IN his customary address at the Vijayadashami function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its chief Mohan Bhagwat tried, in vain, to kill several birds with one stone. He claimed that the term ‘lynching’ was a western construct that was being used to defame India as well as Hindus. He also attempted to dissociate the Sangh from any kind of mob violence and denied charges of Islamophobia against the right-wing outfit. Bhagwat only ended up displaying selective amnesia.

With apologies to Shakespeare, a lynching by any other name would be as heinous. In July last year, the Supreme Court had told the Union and state governments that ‘horrific acts of mobocracy’ could not be allowed to become the new normal, while underscoring the urgency to protect India’s ‘pluralist social fabric’ from bloodthirsty mobs. Five months later, Manipur had become the first state to pass a law against lynching. The fact that a government, and that too BJP-ruled, promulgated the Protection from Mob Violence Ordinance, flies in the face of Bhagwat’s ‘alien concept’ theory.

In most cases of lynchings in recent years, the role of cow vigilantes or religious fanatics has come to light. The chilling murder of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer, at Alwar in 2017 and other such hate crimes prompted the Rajasthan Assembly to follow in Manipur’s footsteps. In June this year, Jharkhand’s Tabrez Ansari had died after he was beaten up with rods while tied to a pole and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ over an alleged theft. These incidents have largely been the handiwork of elements emboldened by the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva push amid the BJP’s pan-India hegemony. The RSS has been generally loath to condemn violence directed at the minorities and has made little or no effort to allay their fears. Hate-mongers like Pragya Thakur and Sakshi Maharaj have been allowed to spew venom. The sincerity or otherwise of Bhagwat’s message of maintaining harmony and upholding the rule of law would be demonstrated by how RSS workers and supporters acquit themselves on the ground.

Capt says won’t quit politics till Punjab restored to its number one position and is cured of all ills

As the Congress regime in Punjab completes two and a half years in office, The Tribune correspondent Sanjeev Singh Bariana talks to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on a host of issues, including the promises that have been fulfilled and what are the government’s priorities for the remaining term.

You had promised to wipe out the drug menace within four weeks, but the state is still grappling with it.

I had said I will break the backbone of the drug business within a few weeks and I have done that. This is evident from the data available in public domain. Our special investigation team (SIT) has filed 31,081 cases against drug suppliers and 38,117 persons have been arrested so far. Over 12,000 have been put behind bars and our teams have secured at least 3,600 convictions. Efforts are on to root out the problem completely.

Halfway into the current term, drugs continue to be the biggest problem afflicting Punjab. 

Punjab continues to be a big market for drugs and alarmingly, the drug habits of youth have changed too. Instead of traditional ‘bhang’ and opium, youth are now hooked to synthetic drugs. There are several supply lines, including from Pakistan and neighbouring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, which has compounded the problem. Then there is supply from other countries too.

Do you think the drug menace can ever be rooted out?

At the 29th Northern Zonal Council meeting earlier this month, we asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to immediately formulate a national drug policy. In the earlier meeting of the Chief Ministers in July, we had agreed upon to set up a joint group to eradicate the menace. We are moving ahead… Also, as pointed out earlier, before curbing the supply, we must cure addiction.

Sacrilege of religious text during the previous SAD-BJP regime in 2015 continues to be the Achilles’ heel of your government. Why was the CBI asked to re-probe the case when the SIT was already on the job?

There is no confusion in our commitment to unravel the truth. The Punjab Assembly decided to take back the case from the CBI after it couldn’t make any headway for three years after being assigned the probe by the previous SAD-BJP regime. We constituted a SIT and it took up related cases, including those involving officers. After we heard about the CBI closure report being taken up in the court, we realised the case may be closed in case the court accepted the report. So, the Director of Bureau of Investigation Parbodh Kumar filed the letter showing inadequacy in the CBI report, which forced the central agency to say it will reinvestigate the cases.

It is said that the illegal sand and liquor mafia continues to rule the roost despite change in regime. There are also reports of some Congress leaders being involved.

I am aware about the involvement of politicians, some even from our own party. I don’t deny the existence of sand mafia and am also apprised of the collection of ‘goonda’ tax. We are faced with the problem of liquor mafia sending their supplies from adjoining states. We are actively working on these issues. Following a clearance in a case stuck up in the court, we were recently able to auction sand mines worth Rs 306 crore (compared to Rs 5 crore earlier). So, we are hopeful things will improve drastically once people get easier sand supply.

Teams are being deployed on supply routes of liquor from adjoining states to check smuggling.

Punjabis can’t ride on government luxury buses on important routes, including the one to Indira Gandhi International Airport, as the routes are dominated by private transporters.

I am aware about the problem. I am also aware of the allegations against our government that it is purposely ignoring illegal transport businesses, particularly those owned by the Badal family. The allegations are baseless. The matter is pending in the Punjab and Haryana and High Court. We won the case once, but the affected parties immediately approached the court again and were granted stay. The tragedy is that we cannot have a timetable on certain routes under the current situation. The court, probably, needs to have a hurried look into the crucial issue facing the state so that we can act.

You recently said that the state government had fulfilled 60 per cent of its pre-poll promises. But the Opposition disagrees. 

We have been able to deliver on a majority of promises concerning good governance. We have given loan waivers worth Rs 4,600 crore to farmers. Our job fairs have been a major success and around seven lakh youth have got employment. Around 40,000 have got government jobs and another 19,000 will be recruited soon.

What about the remaining issues?

We inherited empty coffers from the SAD-BJP government. Our share of taxes through the GST is also not coming in regularly. Instead of scheduled three months, we get it after four months. If the money inflow is right, a lot of problems concerning public welfare can be taken care of.

How do you see the ‘Howdy, Modi’ programme in the US? 

I got to know from newspapers about the good response that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received in the US.

How are your government’s relations with the Centre? 

Despite former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley being my opponent during the last Lok Sabha election (2014), I had very good working ties with him. Whenever we approached him with any problem facing the state,

he would always help. The Centre does hear us out.

Will you contest the next elections?

As I have said earlier, I cannot think of quitting as long as Punjab people need me. When I took over as the Chief Minister for my second term in 2017, I promised to wipe tears from the eyes of each and every person in the state. And I will not give up till I have done that. Punjab and its people suffered for 10 years under the SAD-BJP rule. It is my commitment that I will wipe even the memories of those dark years and restore the state’s No. 1 position. If that means contesting the next Assembly polls and leading the state for another term (maybe even more), so be it, as long as I have the physical and mental capabilities to work for the people.

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 22

Despite ban on most Pakistan channels, residents of Jammu and Kashmir are receiving all such channels on a free-to-air dish available easily in the market.

Ever since the abrogation of Article 370, demand for the dish has grown manifold as the authorities have imposed restrictions on local cable operators from transmitting certain channels allegedly spreading vicious propaganda to instigate people. A free-to-air dish launched last year had been popular among subscribers as they received all Indian channels, excluding few paid channels, on one-time payment. However, a bigger dish launched a few months ago has been lapped up by subscribers in the Valley and Muslim-dominated districts of Jammu region as it beams Pakistan channels.

“There is little demand in Jammu city, but people from Doda, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri come looking for the dish, as it is in short supply in their area. Dealers from these districts and the Valley procure it directly from Delhi,” said a Jammu dealer.

China recently released a white paper titled “China’s national defence in the new era”, which sets the template and vision for her strategic architecture. The basic thrust is to create modernized People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by 2035 and establish global presence (implying dominance). Considering our geopolitical realities, paper surprisingly has not evoked adequate analysis and debate. While the paper makes only passing and even reassuring references to India, suggesting carrying forward experiences gained in resolution of Doklam crisis to other contentious issues.

The dynamics of unresolved border dispute with continued transgressions, trade war and impending visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping mandate objective and detailed appraisal of document. Paper is in keeping with articulation of ‘aggressively rising China’ and confirms jettisoning of Deng’s approach of ‘hide your shine, bide your time’.

It seeks to upscale and give global context to limited wars under conditions of informationalization (Chinese formulation for high-tech conditions), which was initially spelt out in ‘war zone concept’ in 2004. Leveraging of Belt Road Initiative (BRI) is envisaged to extend footprint to bases like Djibouti and Gwadar, thereby giving PLA capability to manage localized regional environments, in faraway lands. This outreach includes cyber dimension through ‘digital silk road’, backbone architecture of digital and convergence technologies with clear cut aim to achieve spectrum domination. It also places heavy reliance on technology and in specific on non-kinetic cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, quantum convergence technologies among others. At the same time, kinetic delivery means like hypersonic missiles and rocket force continue to provide hard under pinning.

Considerable share of resources is planned to be re-appropriated for Navy to make it truly blue navy. Consequently, only credible official reaction came from Chief of Naval Staff, “We will have to watch China carefully”. The need for dispassionate and thorough analysis is also warranted as psychological warfare is an essential part of ‘three warfares’ mandate of newly configured PLA Strategic Support Force. The exercise will indeed be painstaking one as war zone concept that generated much hype and even some panic till we realized limitations of translation from Mandarin to English. It is also pertinent that many technologies are yet to be operationalized and applied. Most importantly, performance of Chinese troops in low-grade conflicts, even in relatively benign UN deployment, raises its own set of concerns and cynicism. Similarly, sceptics may cite BRI overstretch and fatigue, but Dragon has tentacles firmly in place in relevant places. While we cannot allow ourselves to be psyched or intimidated, yet complacency will be suicidal. The abiding reality is that China is prosecuting long term strategy, which may include some hype but is essentially ‘on course’.

The obvious question is how do we cope with the second largest spender PLA, which, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), has increased its military expenditure by 5% to $250 billion in 2018 against our measly $66.5 billion? It is interesting that China maintains that it is reducing its defence spending as share of GDP. In a burgeoning economy and with high current GDP share, both are indeed possible. Coping, in our context is limited to bare essentials, which are, building ‘credible dissuasive deterrence’ and retaining ‘strategic autonomy’ in our immediate neighbourhood and core areas of interest like energy.

The foremost requirement is to reset strategic compass and, borrowing Admiral Raja Menon’s expression, “Defining our Strategic Environment”, especially with projected aspirations to become $5 trillion economy by 2030. Analytical exercise obviously cannot be driven by gut feelings, hunches and impulses, which appear to be the current trend. This presumption is based on the fact that very limited information on security dialogue is being disseminated by official agencies. It is possible that secrecy is partially driven by urge to build ambiguity and keep others guessing. Ambiguity is normally applied by stronger power against weaker one, but it has its inherent limitations specially when not backed by will and capability. Weaker nations like Iran in standoff with USA and Pakistan have nuanced irrationality to their advantage. We certainly are not aspiring to join this league. It has dangerous implications in exchanges among nuclear powered adversaries and, above all, can even confuse own forces. Hence, it will be in order if we have more inclusive dialogue and apply quantified net assessment and operational research techniques, which currently seem to be on back burner, to forecast and validate.

The dialogue should aim to build national policy after consultations with all parties and political consensus on key parameters. The role of bordering states is also catalytic as progress on key irritants like sharing of river waters as also economic co-operation needs to be driven by states concerned. Our efforts in the past have been stymied by lack of capability and infrastructure, both requiring considerable financial outlay.

Without creating capability for envisaged role of regional security and disaster relief provider, our endeavours even in immediate neighbourhood will remain contingent on friendly governments in power. It is heartening that issue of finding money, including non-lapsing funds for defence capital expenditure has been referred to Seventh Finance Commission. It is hoped that correctives will be applied on priority as with lapsing of time, another election will loom large adding to compulsion for populist measures like subsidies. The stability and political capital of current government should also be leveraged to push down reforms like CDS, theatre commands, National Defence University and genuine integration in MOD.