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The man who led the IAF in the 1965 war has sold off his farm near Delhi. File photo

Roopinder Singh

Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh, DFC, has always had a larger-than-life image, and this is one person whose deeds continue to justify it. The Indian Air Force’s only Field Marshal has inspired generations of flyers ever since he joined the IAF in 1939 and was posted to IAF’s Number 1 squadron at Ambala in January 1940, flying in frail Westland Wapitis.The man who led the IAF in the 1965 war has sold off his farm near Delhi, and entrusted a corpus of Rs 2 crore to a trust devoted to the welfare of retired Air Force personnel. Known for personal probity and punctiliousness, the MIAF has set a wonderful example in using personal wealth for the welfare of others.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“This is leadership from the front, which the IAF has seen right from the time he joined it in 1939, the gallantry in the Imphal campaign of 1944 and the conflict of 1965. It is unprecedented and completely selfless, which is what his actions have been throughout,” says Pushpinder Singh, editor of the Vayu Aerospace Review.The Marshal of Air Force and Mrs Arjan Singh Trust will seek to open avenues of financial relief for ex-IAF personnel and their dependents who need assistance.The money has been invested in RBI bonds and it is expected that the returns from it will be Rs 16 lakh and “15 per cent of the interest will be added to the corpus and the rest disbursed to those applying for assistance,” says the MIAF.MIAF Arjan Singh, his wife Teji Arjan Singh and their son Arvind Singh will be the trustees for life, but it will be run by the president of the Air Force Association and other ex-officio members of the IAF.“I had full support of the family,” says Arjan Singh. His wife, Teji recalls that when she asked him, why he had put her name on it, he replied: “If you hadn’t agreed, how could I have done it?”The farm that MIAF Arjan Singh sold was the last link he had with land, which was very dear to him. His grandfather, Risaldar-Major Bhagwan Singh, had a farm near Lyallpur, now called Faislabad, in Pakistan, where the young Arjan Singh spent his childhood, watching planes and dreaming of flying one, someday. After Partition, the family was allotted 80 acres of land in Churwali village, near Adampur, Punjab. “I was also allotted a pucca house. Kartar Singh, a good man, used to look after the land and when I sold it, I gave the house to him. I sold off the land because I could not take care of it as I was in service. In fact, when I told Sardar Swaran Singh (the then External Affairs Minister), in whose constituency my land fell, how much I had sold it for, he chided me for selling it below the market rate,” he said in an earlier interview when this writer wrote his biography. The family also had land in Terai, which was tilled by his father Kishan Singh and other family members.“I am no longer a Jat as you said in the book, I have no land now,” said Arjan Singh, recalling a comment made in the book, written two years ago, that the Jat in him was kept alive by the farm.For this Aulakh Jat, giving up his land is a great gesture, and by setting up a trust for the welfare of others, Arjan Singh has set a shining example in a nation where such things have become rare. He has also institutionalised the trust by ensuring that family members do not run it. IAF officials “who are more in touch with the current needs” control it. This makes it even more important that his example be emulated. For this a climate has to be created, where such trusts are encouraged.The founder of The Tribune, Dyal Singh Majithia, set up a number of trusts to serve the public, including The Tribune Trust, Union Academy (later known as Dyal Singh School and Dyal Singh College), Lahore, Dyal Singh Library and Dyal Singh College, New Delhi. The nation, on the whole, had gained a lot from philanthropic trusts like the Dorabji Tata Trust, which helped set up the first cancer hospital in Asia, and the Birla Educational Trust that runs hundreds of primary schools and colleges.Unlike these luminaries, MIAF Arjan Singh comes from a service background. His father, Kishan Singh, a civil engineer, worked in Ceylon Railways. However he has always been large-hearted, and eventually it is not what you have that counts, it is what you give that makes a difference. The IAF will surely remember this magnificent gesture of its Field Marshal for a long time.
This piece was originally published in The Tribune on December 24, 2004

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inside MiG-21 Bison at Uttarlai Air Force station in Gujarat. PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 11

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today issued a set of instructions under which she will meet the chiefs of three armed forces and the Defence Secretary on a daily basis.The Ministry of Defence said the minister shall meet the three chiefs of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Navy at morning meetings. A separate daily meeting with the Defence Secretary has been formatted. The ministry spokesperson said this was “a new practice for quick decision making”.To date, the chiefs of the three services used to be called by the Defence Minister as and when required or they could walk across to the chamber of the Defence Minister in South Block.Sitharaman was today briefed by senior officials to familiarise with the activities and functioning of various activities of the forces and the ministry. Yesterday, the minister had seen operations of the IAF at Uttarlai, Barmer and Navy’s flying operations at Dabolim, Goa.Today, the minister laid special emphasis on the need to step up the pace of acquisition proposals. Towards ensuring time-bound and speedy disposal, it has been decided to hold Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meetings on a fortnightly basis. The DAC is the highest decision-making body of the MoD.Sitharaman has scheduled a range of meetings with the three Defence service chiefs to review Defence preparedness and allied issues of strategic interests.Other areas of focus would be settling all outstanding land-related issues for infrastructure projects and matters relating to welfare of Defence personnel and their families.Today, Sitharaman visited a forward area along the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat. The minister and Army Chief General Bipin Rawat flew in an IAF plane to Naliya air base in Kutch, Gujarat where she interacted with Indian Army troops.

Nirmala Sitharaman inducted into CCS, CCEA, CCPA

• The government on Monday notified the induction of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman into the all-powerful five-member Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)
• Headed by PM Narendra Modi, other members of the committee are Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
• The CCS decides on each security-related issue of the country be it new weapons, new raising of forces, appointments of the top brass, military relations with other countries, among other aspects
• She will also be a member of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA)

ARMY LOWELY PAID AND STATUS DEGRADED BUT ALWAYS CALLED IN HOUR OF NATIONAL CRISIS::: DERA ISSUE EXPOSES HARYANA POLICE

ARMY RECRUITMENT RALLY::PUNJAB

SGPC TO SET UP SARAGARHI GALLERY

ARMY REFORMS ALONE WON’T WORK

 

Under Fire: The biggest setback is the mishandling of the Ram Rahim episode.

KC Singh

PAST fortnight has been a mixed bag politically for the BJP. The setbacks outnumber the lone success at handling the Doklam imbroglio effectively.  The list of missteps is long — the nine Bench judgment of the Supreme Court holding the right to privacy as a fundamental right, on which the government unconvincingly pirouetted to claim it favoured the right anyway. Trouble simmers in the Centre’s arranged marriage between two factions of the orphaned AIADMK, ignoring that Jayalalitha’s conscience-keeper Sasikala, though jailed, still possesses the legacy and vast resources. Honeymoon for another marriage — BJP and JD-U in Bihar — is interrupted by the news of a fodder scandal II that may singe two union ministers and worthies in the state alliance. The BJP’s perennial nemesis, Arvind Kejriwal, has scored a decisive win in the Bawana byelection, putting paid to attempts to marginalise him. Among the reasons is growing job losses in the informal sector due to GST implementation, hitting Poorvanchalis the most.The biggest setback has been the mishandling of the Gurmit Ram Rahim episode. The Haryana Government’s pandering to him by letting him mass-gather followers at Panchkula and then permitting him to careen through the heartland of Haryana in a 200-car motorcade was a blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary. The high court, particularly the bench of acting Chief Justice Saron, held the Haryana administration’s feet to the fire. Then special CBI judge delivered the coup de grace by upholding the might of the law. The BJP defence that the Chief Minister was beyond reproach as the outbreak of violence was controlled in hours ignores that nearly 40 lives were lost. This was not sensible policing. It was enforcement of law of the land by massacre. The governments in Chandigarh and Delhi may or may not introspect on their lapses, but the region needs to examine why common folks are flocking to the deras of conmen masquerading as messengers of God. Gurmit Rahim displayed not only extremely flawed moral sense, but even cowardice when he fell sobbing on hearing the verdict. Clearly, this was no messenger of God that humanity worships. Studies done globally on the rise of cults or alternative faith systems have arrived at different conclusions about why people flock to them. Most are idiosyncratic groupings that are generally peaceable, but some have turned violent. What makes deras dangerous in India is their ability to turn their followers into electoral behemoths that political parties woo. Dera Sacha Sauda leadership has been a political pestilence in Punjab and Haryana for two decades, blackmailing and bargaining for greater power and affluence. The fault lay with both states, which did not cater to marginalised beings, and organised religions, including Sikhism, which did not make many of their adherents stakeholders in their institutions, or sometimes even welcome in their places of worship. One baba jailed will not change the fundamental socio-religious deficiencies, which will invariably breed the next ‘Love Charger’.The only good news for the BJP comes from the successful handling of the Doklam standoff. The differences in statements by the two sides can be ignored as both needed face-savers. The crucial test of success would be if indeed China abandons attempts to build a road or infrastructure in an area vital to Indian security. The issue needs deeper analysis.Henry Kissinger is a great resource for reading the Chinese mind having interacted with all five generations of Chinese leaders, beginning with Mao. In his book On China, he narrates Mao Zedong telling his military brass on the eve of their 1962 attack on India that the two nations had already fought ‘one and a half’ wars. The first war was during Tang Dynasty (618-907) when China sent troops to help a kingdom counter a usurper. The second was the Mongol sacking of Delhi 600 years later, on the assumption that China and Mongolia then were part of the same political entity. The lesson that India needs to draw from this is that China views events through the prism of history and on a millennium long scale.Later in his book, Kissinger analyses the Chinese diplomatic strategy, explaining that diplomacy for them is the weaving together of political, military and psychological elements in an overall strategic design. Personal equations do not affect their calculations, except where necessary to advance their interests. Hence, PM  Modi sharing a swing with Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad would have minimal effect on power play at the border. Above all, China acts with suddenness after making time their ally.The Chinese did strategic cost-benefit calculations about Doklam. Threats and fire-power drills were not affecting India; the US and Japan were threatening war against a recalcitrant Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, unwilling to listen to Chinese advice; India had begun investigations against Chinese companies for suspected Indian data transfer off-shore; trade war would affect China more as their exports are nearly four times those of India; and President Donald Trump’s speech spelling out the new Afghan policy included kudos to India, imploring it to play a greater security role in Asia-Pacific. What finally clinched success for India was the shutting window for time as the BRICS summit was a week away and a boycott by PM Modi would have embarrassed President Xi on the eve of the crucial 19th Party Congress, where he names his new team and successor, if any.Paradoxically, while being resolute and unbending worked with China as geopolitics favoured India, the same when translated into cussedness domestically is bad politics. In a vast nation like India, policy making must be by building support and co-opting the Opposition. Retaining ineffective leaders like CM Khattar, or using whatever means possible to divide and pillory opposition turns the political environment toxic and the people sullen. The mood of the nation will swing away from the BJP government if the missteps persist. Doklam too could buy success in the short run as China, recalling Mao’s contextualisation of the 1962 War, has an elephantine memory. The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

The Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters at Sirsa. — PTI

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, August 27

For over two years, a local daily-wage earner is waiting for his young wife and mother of two to return from Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa where she is reportedly living in ‘servitude’.Kamlesh Raigar (27), who does not know how to use a mobile phone, is dependent on police investigation and his three brothers’ assistance to locate his wife with whom he first visited the Sirsa dera in March 2015.His wife, Guddi Devi (25) was taken by dera premis on the pretext that Ram Rahim has called her for ‘Dera Pramukh seva’ on March 28, 2015.  Kamlesh Raigar had lodged an FIR through an ‘istgasa’ (complaint in court) with the Jawahar Circle police station here in May 2015 that his wife was kept bondage in the ashram of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was on Friday convicted in a rape case.On the basis of Kamlesh’s complaint of May 5, 2015, the CJM court in Jaipur on May 7, 2015 had asked the police to lodge the FIR of missing woman who was reportedly kept as bondage in the dera. Spending a lot of money on court fee which he borrowed from relatives, Kamlesh also filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court in January 2016 for his wife’s “unlawful detention or imprisonment at Sirsa dera”.In March this year, the Jawahar Nagar police had put an “FR” in the case and filed the report in the local court, an investigating cop told The Tribune on Sunday on the condition of anonymity.The police had marked “FR” because they considered that Kamlesh himself had left his wife in the dera in 2015 and the case belonged to Sirsa police and it should be investigated by police of that state.The police had also found that the victim couple was involved in “mantra-tantra” at their home and used to attract local people for treatment of “evil spirits”.Besides, the police also alleged that the missing woman was ‘mentally challenged’.The complainant also filed a ‘protest petition’ against the police FR with the ACJM court-7 here, and its hearing is scheduled for September 7, where the police would also represent the case on which it put FR. Kamlesh went to the Sirsa dera a number of times to get his wife “relieved”, but he was told that she (Guddi) was in a pose of “samadhi” and will automatically return home.His two sons, aged 6 and 4, were not aware of the dera affairs have been given assurance by relatives that their mother will return one day, for sure. 

Pension Grievances Cell have been receiving some grievances of the pensioners/family pensioners regarding non-payment of OROP benefits

A file photo of the Pangong Tso (lake).

New Delhi, August 18

India on Friday said it will continue to engage with China to find a mutually acceptable solution to the Dokalam standoff, while confirming that “an incident” did take place between Chinese troops and Indian border guards in Ladakh on August 15.

“We will continue to engage with China to find a mutually acceptable solution,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said replying to a volley of questions on the issue.

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

He said peace and tranquility in the border areas is an important pre-requisite for smooth development of bilateral relationship.

Asked about the incident between Chinese troops and Indian border guards in Ladakh on August 15, the MEA spokesperson said, “Such incidents are not in the interest of either side.”

The incident occurred when land-based patrols of both sides came face to face north of the Pangong Tso (lake) in eastern Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.

The MEA spokesperson said two border personnel meetings (BPMs) had taken place between Indian border guards and Chinese troops recently.

He said one BPM had taken place at Chushul on August 16 and another one at Nathu La a week before.

‘Haven’t received hydrological data from China’

Asked if China has shared hydrological data with India in the backdrop of floods in Assam, Kumar said there is an existing expert-level mechanism, established in 2006, and there are two MoUs under which China is expected to share hydrological data on the rivers Satluj and Brahmaputra with India during the flood season of May 15 to June 15.

“For this year, we have not received hydrological data from the Chinese side,” the spokesperson said.

However, he added that it was “premature” to link it with the floods in Assam.

He also noted that in view of floods in Bihar, India was closely coordinating with Nepal, both at the Centre and state levels.

Asked about the reported comments of the Japanese Ambassador on Dokalam faceoff and if India welcomes it, Kumar gave a very guarded reaction, saying the remarks speak for themselves.

The Japanese ambassador was quoted in media as saying that no country should use unilateral forces to alter the status of Dokalam.

“We recognise Dokalam is a disputed area between Bhutan and China and two countries are engaged in border talks… We also understand that the India has a treaty understanding with Bhutan that’s why Indian troops got involved in the area,” the ambassador had reportedly said.

Kumar also refused to divulge details of communication by other countries to India on the Dokalam issue. PTI

A file photo of the Pangong Tso (lake).

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 15

In a serious turn to the existing tensions between India and China, troops of the two sides clashed on Tuesday, with both pelting stones and hitting each other. Men on both sides were injured.This was the first such incident in several years.Sources confirmed that the incident occurred when land-based patrols of both sides came face to face north of the Pangong Tso (lake) in eastern Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. It is an area claimed by both countries and is one of the spots where the two countries fought pitched battles during the 1962 war.The Pangong Tso, a 135 km-wide glacial-melt lake, straddles both countries. It has boat patrols from either side. The land patrols are different from these.The spurs of the mountains forming the northern bank of the lake are militarily termed as ‘fingers’. On a west-to-east axis, India claims territory till ‘Finger 8’, but is in physical control till ‘Finger 4’. The aerial distance between the two ‘fingers’ is about 15 km. The land north of these mountains is disputed.Land patrols of both sides often come face to face and a drill is followed to disengage. This includes unfurling of a banner, asking each other to withdraw. This is the first step.New Delhi has asked for a report as the pelting of stones is considered a serious matter. It is not clear who started the stone pelting or how it was triggered.A flag meeting could be held between brigade commanders of either side at the Spanggur Gap, the designated meeting point south of the Pangong Tso.