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Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

The Standing Committee on External Affairs, in its report submitted last week to Parliament, has sought an incremental approach towards the revival of dialogue with Pakistan, while acknowledging the Pakistan army’s hostility as big obstacle to peace.The report says, “The committee, headed by Shashi Tharoor, was of the opinion that peace process should not be held hostage to terror acts and both countries must keep the channels of communication open, even during the worst of crises and not let non-state actors and their state sponsors derail or dictate the foreign policy objectives of sovereign nations. It believed that the engagement between neighbours cannot be stopped indefinitely.”  It further adds, “The committee would recommend an incremental approach to such a resumption of the dialogue process by starting with less-contentious issues.”The government, in its response, said it was committed to resolving “all outstanding issues bilaterally through peaceful means in accordance with Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration”, but added this could only be achieved in “environment free from terror, hostility and violence”. Underlining that there can be no compromise on cross-border terrorism, the ministry, in its reply, has said, “The government has maintained the channels of communications open with Pakistan, including through respective diplomatic missions and regular contacts between the border-guarding forces on both sides.” The committee has called regrettable the lack of a National Security Framework for outlining a broad doctrine, response mechanism and standard operating procedures on all-possible aspects of national security concerns. It seeks establishing a joint coordination mechanism of the Army, Navy and Air Force and border-guarding forces. It advocates pursuing a proactive and assertive position on India’s rightful claims to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.“In view of the fact that India is currently occupying strategic heights and advantage at Siachen, it was Pakistan’s agenda to push for demilitarisation of the glacier. Moreover, the committee observed that the present cooperation between China and Pakistan has assumed worrying proportions,” says the report.“The committee would also desire the government to continue making concerted efforts through diplomatic outreach to sensitise China about the manner in which the CPEC and the non-listing of Masood Azhar on the UN sanction list impinges on our sovereignty and security interests,” says the report.

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 1

Having donated blood 121 times and platelets 93 times, Subedar Major Suresh Saini became a motivational figure for people to donate blood. In a blood donation camp organised by a Jalandhar-based NGO, The Blood Association (Team Baaj) Saini said, “Donating blood is one of the most supreme social causes through which one can contribute towards society.”This was the 50th huge blood donation camp organised by the NGO. The vice-president of the team, Amanjot singh said for the past three years, they have been organising blood donation camps on every first day of the year so as to inspire the people to begin new year by doing something meaningful for society. Various teams of ‘Association of Blood Donors’ societies of Punjab had reached Maqsudan chowk to be the part of the camp. The Blood Donation Camp not only focused on collecting blood for 25 children suffering from Thalassemia but also strived to clarify the misconceptions about blood donation. A total of 480 units of blood were collected in the camp.Also present at the camp was Dr Gurvinder Singh of a private hospital. Suffering from spinal cord injury and sitting on a wheelchair, he still donates blood once every three months. He was a great motivation drive at the camp and advised people to contribute towards donating blood. He also said people should drive safely to avoid meeting with any accident. It was better to donate the blood rather than drain it in accidents, he said.

For representation only. The Foreign Office said the India would also hand over the list of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Tribune News Service
New Delhi/Islamabad, January 1

A total of 457 Indian prisoners—including 399 fishermen—are languishing in various Pakistani jails, according to a list the Pakistan government handed over to the Indian High Commission on Monday.

The Foreign Office said that the step of giving the list of prisoners was consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement between Pakistan and India, signed on May 21, 2008.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Under the agreement, both countries are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody twice a year, on January 1 and July 1.

“Pakistan today handed over a list of 457 Indian prisoners—58 civil prisoners and 399 fishermen—in Pakistan, to the High Commission of India in Islamabad,” it said.

It further said that Pakistan would release 146 fishermen on January 8.

The Foreign Office said the India would also hand over the list of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Fishermen from Pakistan and India are frequently detained for illegally fishing in each other’s territorial waters since the Arabian Sea does not have a clearly defined marine border and the wooden boats lack the technology to avoid being drifting away. With PTI

Pakistan has remained dysfunctional due to its civil-military discord, its adversarial posture towards India and its growing sectarian divide. Its misfortune offers a lesson to India which is also witnessing rising intolerance.

Protesters from a religious group shout slogans during a protest in Pakistan. AFP

Sharat Sabharwal

A former diplomat

SPEAKING to an audience in Islamabad in 2010 as High Commissioner of India, I assailed Pakistan’s policy of holding lucrative trade and economic linkages with India hostage to progress on the resolution of intractable issues such as J&K and Siachen. To bolster my point, I said that gone were the days of ideological orientation of foreign policies, which were increasingly shaped by economic considerations. During the question and answer session, someone asked me how Pakistan could abandon its founding ideology of the two-nation theory. I replied that they were welcome to hold on to the two-nation theory if it gave them some solace, but they would know that it was belied by a large number of Muslims having chosen to make India their home in 1947 and it had been finally put to rest with the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Seven years later, I wonder whether I overstated my case in claiming that the two-nation theory had been put to rest, for the hatred and intolerance that underpinned it have survived and continue to thrive not only in Pakistan but also in India. Speaking to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, Jinnah said, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.” Having created Pakistan on the basis of religion, he should have known better. He did not live long enough to steer the course of the new state, but I have no doubt that even if he had, the result would not have been very different from what we see today. Within six months of his death, the Pakistan Constituent Assembly adopted an Objectives Resolution which provided, inter alia, that sovereignty over the entire universe belonged to “Allah Almighty above” and the authority which He had delegated to the state of Pakistan, through its people for being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him was a sacred trust. It also provided that the Muslims would be enabled to order their lives in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam “as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.” These provisions, however, failed to build a lasting consensus in Pakistan because as the country moved forward, it became increasingly contentious to define the branch or school of Islam that would govern Pakistan.  Having relegated religious minorities to the status of second class citizens by declaring Islam as the state religion, the Pakistani state failed to keep its Muslims together. Zulfiqar Bhutto succumbed to religious extremists in getting a resolution passed by the Parliament in 1974 to declare Ahmadis as ‘non-Muslim’. Another faultline to emerge was the traditional Shia-Sunni divide, which got accentuated after the Iranian revolution and the tussle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for the loyalty of Muslims the world over. The state under Zia turning increasingly to Wahabi Islam also placed the Shias at a disadvantage. With free availability of arms and ammunition in Pakistan because of the ‘Afghan jihad’, the Shia-Sunni rift has resulted in widespread sectarian killings from time to time. The violence, initially perpetrated from both sides of the divide, has gradually turned into a one-sided killing of Shias by Sunnis, with the former getting increasingly marginalised. The process of division eventually engulfed the Sunnis by aggravating the fault-line between Deobandis and Barelvis. The latter, though the majority among Sunnis, were for a long time at the receiving end of the violence perpetrated by the Deobandis, who were recipients of large-scale funds from Arab countries and more prone to picking up the gun. Shrines frequented by Barelvis were attacked by the adherents of Deobandi/Wahabi Islam. However, Barelvis have not been immune to extremism. A former Pakistan Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his Barelvi bodyguard because he had spoken in favour of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy. More recently, the ‘Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah’, a Barelvi extremist organisation, laid a prolonged siege to the Pakistani capital and left only following intervention by the army. The Pakistani state has remained dysfunctional as a result of the civil-military discord and the stranglehold of the army, its obsession with and adversarial posture towards the much bigger neighbour — India — and the growing sectarian divide and religious extremism. The last factor is the consequence of the hatred and intolerance that laid the foundation of the Pakistani state through the two-nation theory. The above state of affairs in Pakistan is well known and extensively written about in India. Because of our anger at Pakistan’s hostility, we look at the dysfunctionality and the resultant misfortunes of Pakistan with a degree of schadenfreude, but fail to draw the precious lesson that the Pakistani experience offers. It is that intolerance and hatred, once let loose in the name of ‘us’ vs ‘them’, know no bounds and invariably rip apart the most cohesive-looking ‘us’ groups, leaving violence and misery in their trail, which eventually afflict not only the originally targeted ‘them’ group, but also those targeting them. The lesson is particularly valuable for a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country like India. Having been the victim of the hatred and intolerance underlying the two-nation theory once, we ignore this lesson at our own peril. Who says there is no advantage to having Pakistan as our neighbour!

Views are personal

Jammu, December 18

Army jawan Koushal Singh, 19, who died in an avalanche along the LoC in north Kashmir, was cremated with full military honours at his native village in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.

Hundreds of people poured in from different villages of the district to give a tearful adieu to the soldier, who belonged to the 33 Rashtriya Rifles.

Singh was one of the five soldiers who had gone missing during the two avalanches on December 13.

Two soldiers slipped down a mountain slope in Naugam sector of Kupwara district, while three others went missing from a forward post in Kanzalwan sub-sector of Gurez in Bandipora district during heavy snowfall on December 13.

While Singh’s body was traced, rescue operations are underway to find the remaining jawans.

At least 22 Army soldiers died due to snow furry in Gurez and Sonmarg areas of north Kashmir in January alone.

Singh’s coffin draped in tricolour was brought to his hometown in the presence of senior Army officials, who paid floral tributes to him.

A gun salute was also given to the soldier by a contingent of the Army. PTI

Ex-Army officers pay tributes at the war memorial at IMA in Dehradun. tribune photo

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 15

Over 200 ex-Army officers along with their spouses gathered at the Indian Military Academy to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of their passing out as officers from the Academy on December 16, 1967. The occasion was all the more special as the passing out course that included 40th regular and 24th technical entry course was one of the illustrious batches awarded for gallantry. Capt Devender Singh Ahlawat was awarded Maha Vir Chakra, posthumously. Members of the batch were awarded two Veer Chakras, two Shaurya Chakras and six Sena Medals. The course further has the distinction of fielding nine Lt Gen rank Officers, of which one was the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, one Vice Chief of Army Staff, three Army Commanders, one Deputy Chief of Army Staff and three Director Generals of their departments. One of the batch members, Gen KS Rao, was the first Indian to circumnavigate in his yatch around the globe. Major Kiran Inder Kumar, a mountaineer, lost his life in an attempt to conquer Mount Everest. Col Pavan Nair has had the distinction of constructing the first Indian Base “The Dakshin Gangotri” in the Antartica and Col SD Umalkar captained the Services Cricket Team in Ranji Trophy matches.There was an air of great cheer and optimism at the gathering. Several formal and informal events were organised to celebrate the historic occasion. The functions commenced with the course mates and the ladies paying homage to the 42 departed comrades and to other bravehearts at the IMA memorial. Welcoming the course, IMA Commandant Lt Gen SK Jha spoke about the present day- to-day activities at the Indian Military Academy. He said it was an honour for Indian Military Academy to host such an event. Briefing the course on its post-commissioning activities and achievements, Col Atul Mehra gave a presentation with an interlude of interesting slides from the training period at Indian Military Academy. Former Army Commander Gen KS Jamwal, who was also the winner of the Sword of Honour and also gold medal awardee offered a vote of thanks to the staff of Indian Military Academy and all the participants. 

An officer takes a selfie with his family after the passing-out parade at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun on Saturday. PTI

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 9

As many as 487 Gentlemen Cadets of regular course, technical graduate course and university entry scheme course, including 78 foreign Gentlemen Cadets from seven friendly countries, passed out of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, today. Bangladesh Army Staff Gen Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq reviewed the parade. He congratulated the Gentlemen Cadets on the successful completion of their training at the IMA. He also acknowledged the commitment of instructors and the staff of the IMA and their dedication to the Gentlemen Cadets. “The IMA’s world-class reputation and achievements of its officers are attributed to the outstanding quality of its instructors and the staff,” he said.As the reviewing officer, he presented the Sword of Honour and gold medal to academy Cadet Adjutant Chandrakant Acharya. The silver medal for the Gentleman Cadet was presented to academy under officer Amarpreet Singh Dhatt while the bronze medal was presented to the battalion under officer Sourav Das. The silver medal for the Gentleman Cadet standing first in the order of merit from foreign GCs was presented to junior under officer Alexander Simonaitis. The Chief of the Army Staff banner was awarded to Naushera for standing overall first among 16 companies for the Autumn Term 2017.The GOC-in-C, ARTRAC, Lt Gen MM Naravane and IMA Commandant Lt Gen SK Jha were present on the occasion.

Comics with sagas of battles make for tremendous stories and are a good way to engage young minds

Roopinder Singh

Achtung! Nostalgia! Schoolchildren of a certain vintage, had more than a passing acquaintance with the battles and warriors of  World War II, all thanks to often-forbidden, always-frowned-upon comics that brought  alive the stories of courage, cowardice and camaraderie alive in our minds.These school-days staples were profusely illustrated with pithy stories, told from the point of view of the Allied Forces. A convenient 7×5½ inch size allowed these to be portable; the standard 68 pages ensured a good read from a comic that did not bulge out inconveniently. Commando Comics were often bartered, exchanged, begged for and even stolen. For school boys, these were the ultimate escape into a world of adventure and action that allowed them to break away from the mundane routines and the oppressive discipline that all public schools manage to impose on their students. The cover was well executed in colour while the rest of the comic was full of black and white line drawings that gave a foxhole account of soldiers in battle. The Germans, often derogatorily called Krauts, were a villainous lot, some were humane though, if the story demanded them to be so. That comfortable world of black and white had — not a shadow of the greys of political correctness, sharply delineated character lines and easily identifiable enemies. We were too young to know the difference, but the stories had a strange allure. It was only much later that the horrors of, say, the bombing of Dresden, came into our consciousness. Commando Comics eventually took up other wars, including World War I, Spanish Civil War, the Falklands War and the conflict in Korea and Vietnam. For aficionados of a certain generation, Commando Comics have a special significance. Likewise, Tin Tin was forever on one campaign or the other. Near home, Amar Chitra Katha rose to the occasion, with stories of heroes from Indian forces. The Kargil and Siachen conflicts, too, had compelling stories of courage, and became subjects of graphic publications. AAN Comics has published a number of these including Siachen: The Cold War, which Rishi Kumar wrote, and a series on Param Vir Chakra winners — Capt Vikram Batra, Lt Manoj Kumar Pandey, Rifleman Sanjay Kumar and Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav. Aditya Bakshi published Yeh Dil Maange More! on Capt Vikram Batra. Sagas of battles make for tremendous stories, and comics are still a good way to engage young minds. Commando Comics, which date back to 1961, are still published regularly, and are now available digitally as well. 

The absence of a policy on declassifying military files fuels misperceptions and impedes analysis

Defeated, not disgraced: Contrary to popular belief, Indian troops held on in Ladakh, most notably at Rezang La in eastern Ladakh, during the India-China war in 1962. photo by the writer

Ajay Banerjee

Despite four full-blown wars, a conflict in Kargil and the dramatic capture of Siachen Glacier in 1984, any history detailing the role of Indian Armed Forces remains cloaked in secrecy.

With no clear policy on declassifying military files, details are not known beyond the closed circle of armed forces; the only officially released history is that of the 1947-48 India-Pakistan war published by the History Division of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Beyond that, sources of military history in public domain are books written by retired officers. The ‘histories’ of Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 have been published by the MoD, but these carry a caveat by the authors: “I don’t consider this as an account of proper history”.

In the military, the units are building blocks. On ground, the troops have no training to document historical records. Researchers are handicapped in the absence of a system to collect and collate data, maps or sketches in archives. Transfer of post-1947 military records to the public domain has not been satisfactory.

Need to correct misperceptions

A popular belief is that India was totally ‘disgraced’ in the 1962 India-China War, all thanks to the narrative from Australia-based author Neville Maxwell’s book India’s China War that blames India for the ‘forward policy’ in the Himalayas and identifies it as a trigger point for ‘justifying’ China’s attack along the disputed frontier. But is it entirely correct?

The Henderson Brooks report on the 1962 War is classified even as Maxwell put out portions of it on a website. Another book, History of the Conflict with China. 1962, released for ‘restricted’ circulation by the MoD in March 1993, says the ‘forward policy’ — a decision taken by India in November 1961 — was to restrict the Chinese to their claim-line of 1956 and stop claims over the new territory in 1960. It was to “prevent further infiltration into unoccupied areas of Ladakh”, says the book that accepts the shortcomings, but tells how Indian troops held on in Ladakh, most notably at Rezang La in eastern Ladakh, just 5 km south-east of the hamlet of Chusul. “The Indian soldier was defeated but not disgraced in Ladakh,” it says, dispelling the notion of ‘disgrace’.

Other than the 1962 war, the book narrates the 1967 Nathu la (Sikkim, then not part of India) firing incident. It reads: “The Chinese troops suddenly opened machine gun fire on September 11, 1967, inflicting heavy casualties. The GOC 17 Div — the redoubtable Maj Gen Sagat Singh — blasted the Chinese positions with 5.5 medium guns. The Chinese agreed to a ceasefire on September 16. They had lost 400 men killed or wounded as compared to Indian loss of 65 killed and 145 wounded.” This hour of glory is officially not de-classified.

A small number of Indians, including the writer, have this book, which carefully carries the caveat: “The facts do not necessarily reflect the view of Government of India”. This indicates lack of ownership.

Change policy, declassify files

Anecdotes abound about Operation Meghdoot (Siachen), Operation Pawan (Sri Lanka) or the nine-month India-China standoff at Sum Drong Chu in Arunachal Pradesh in 1986-87. The Public Record Act 1993 does not entail automatic declassification of military records and exemptions under the Right to Information Act 2005 are a deterrent for researchers.

Nitin A Gokhale, author of books Beyond NJ 9842: The Siachen Saga and 1965: Turning the Tide — How India Won the War, argues, “Documenting history in absence of any official declassified record is tough. I go by personal accounts. It’s time to lift the veil of secrecy and have a policy to declassify.”

His views are echoed by Cmde Abhay Kumar Singh (retd), research fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. “There is no system of declassifying files. The Navy has published its history and has put it on its website, means the Navy backs it,” he says.

Since 2000, the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research (CAFHR) under the Ministry of Defence backed think-tank United Service Institute is mandated to study history and its declassification and to assist their preservation of records. Secretary CAFHR, Sqn Ldr Rana TS Chhina (retd), says, “Nations that don’t learn from the past cannot prepare for future challenges. It is imperative that Indian military history writing breaks out of the hagiographic model and develops a mature, balanced and critical narrative style that allows for analysis and debate.”

A war history cell at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) produced a paper in 2016 titled A Historiographic Analysis of the Military History of Post-Independent India. Authored by Jaideep Chanda, it is blunt in stating: “An analysis of the military historical literature in India will primarily find personal accounts mostly written by retired Army officers…. the dearth of pure objective analysis and recording of facts by trained historians is sorely missed.”

Lessons from British ‘history writing’

The British dovetailed their version of history into accounts of military-diplomatic operations during ‘The Great Game’ (1815-1907) when the British expanded into Punjab and Kashmir. They attempted to capture Afghanistan and captured Lhasa, Tibet while the Russians entered and captured central Asia.

The British changed the course of history of Punjab and documented it. Gen Sir Charles Gough, who, as a teenaged officer of the Bengal Cavalry, took part in the Second Anglo-Sikh war (1848-49), penned The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars: The Rise, Conquest, and Annexation of the Punjab State. It was released in 1897, four years after Duleep Singh, the exiled son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, died amid questions raised in Britain. In 1849, when the British had won over Punjab, JD Cunnighman came out with A history of the Sikhs, From the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej. It sets the narrative and is cited even today.

In Tibet, British Army Officer Col Sir Francis Younghusband, under the guidance of his mentor Lord Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India (1899-1905), invaded Tibet in 1904. London did not agree with Curzon-Younghusband annexation of Tibet, However, Sir Francis wrote India and Tibet in 1910, giving his point of view.

The same was true in case of Afghanistan Lt-Col Sir Alexander Burnes, a British diplomat, wrote two books — Cabool: A Personal Narrative of a Journey To, and Residence in that City and Travels Into Bokhara. Burnes got knighted in 1839 and was killed in 1841, but such was the narrative that modern-day author William Dalrymple in his 2012 book Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan narrates how Burnes is still known as ‘Sikander’ in Afghanistan.

Books by Gough, Younghusband, Burnes and Cunningham are still sold online and cited world over by researchers, historians and the media, further driving the narrative.