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Terrorism a menace which is spreading its head like a `multi-headed monster`: Army Chief Bipin Rawat
Speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue in the national capital, the Army Chief said that terrorism is a menace which is spreading its head like a `multi-headed monster`.
Army Chief Bipin Rawat on Wednesday warned that terrorism cannot be wiped out untill “nations continue to sponsor it as state policy”. He stated that terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue in the national capital, the Army Chief said that terrorism is a menace which is spreading its head like a “multi-headed monster”.
Terrorism is here to stay as long as there are nations that continue to sponsor it as a state policy, Rawat said, without naming Pakistan.
“Terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare. A weaker nation is using terrorists as a proxy to put pressure on another nation to come to terms with it,” he said. He also asserted that Pakistan has always kept the Taliban in its backyard and should be concerned about it. On the Afghan peace process, he said there should be negotiations with the Taliban, but without conditions.
Rawat also said that there was a need to control social media as it was becoming a source of spreading radicalisation. He said a different kind of radicalisation was being witnessed in India and in Jammu and Kashmir, the youth were getting radicalised due to a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and a lot of falsehoods on religion being fed to them.
Radicalisation through social media is becoming one of the reasons for raising funds for terrorists organisations. “That is why you find more and more educated youth being drawn into terrorism,” he said.
“Terrorism is here to stay as long as there are nations that continue to sponsor it as state policy. Terrorism now spreading its head like a multi-headed monster. Terrorism becoming a new form of warfare,” said General Rawat.
“Pakistan always kept Taliban in its backyard. Pakistan should be concerned about it. There should be negotiations with Taliban, but without conditions,” he added.
“Need to control social media as it is becoming a source of spreading radicalisation. Radicalisation has taken a different form in our country. In Jammu and Kashmir, youth is getting radicalised due to misinformation & falsehood about religion being fed to them. This is becoming a form of warfare,” he further said.
“Biggest issue is that the social media needs to ensure that radicalisation does not happen through false information and misinformation. Radicalisation through social media is becoming one of the reasons for raising funds for terrorists organisations,” he added.
Raisina Dialogue is India’s annual flagship event on geopolitics organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
Mamata remembers brave soldiers, hails Tashkent Agreement
he 1965 armed conflict was formally brought to an end by signing this agreement at Tashkent on January 10, 1966. File photo
Kolkata, January 10
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday remembered the soldiers who laid down their lives during the India-Pakistan War in 1965, following which the Tashkent Agreement was signed on this day.
“On this day in 1966, Tashkent Agreement was signed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan, ending the war between Pakistan and India. Homage to all the soldiers who laid down their lives for the country. Jai Hind,” Banerjee tweeted.
The 1965 armed conflict between India and Pakistan was formally brought to an end by signing this agreement at Tashkent on January 10, 1966. PTI
Ex-servicemen air grievances in Nurpur
Photo for representational purpose only.
Our Correspondent
Nurpur, January 4
The Sainik Welfare Board (SWB) organised a sammelan to redress the grievances of the ex-servicemen of the area and to sensitise them and their families about the welfare schemes launched by the Centre and state government. Local MLA Rakesh Pathania presided over the camp.
Officials of the Defence Pension Disbursing Officer (DPDO), Pathankot, listened to the grievances of the ex-servicemen and redressed most of them on the spot.
Brigadier (retd) SK Sharma, Director, Himachal Pradesh Sainik Welfare Board, addressed the ex-servicemen on the occasion. He briefed them about the activities of the board.
A free health camp was also organised on the occasion.
Pathania said the state government had approved a war memorial for Nurpur for which 22-kanal area had been transferred in the name of SWB and Rs 1 crore had been earmarked. He said the Centre and the state government were committed to the welfare of the Army and para-military forces. He also exhorted the ex-servicemen to take benefit of the programmes and schemes launched by the state and Central Government for their welfare. The state government had started to identify land for the proposed central school sanctioned for Nurpur area, he added.
Two-minute silence was observed on the occasion to pay homage to martyr Lance Naik Sapan Chowdhary of Sihal village in Kangra who lost his life as an avalanche hit an Army post in Poonch district of J&K Thursday.
Case filed against Anupam Kher, others over ‘Accidental Prime Minister’
The Accidental Prime Minister. Photo Credit: Twitter.
Patna, January 3
A case has been filed against actor Anupam Kher and others associated with upcoming film ‘Accidental Prime Minister’ in a Bihar court on Wednesday for damaging the image of some top people.
Lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed the case in Muzaffarpur’s Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court. The court has admitted the case and fixed January 8 to hear the case in Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate court.
Ojha in his petition complained that Anupam Kher and Akshay Khanna, who have played the role of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his press advisor Sanjaya Baru in the film, have damaged the image of both of them. “It hurt me and many others,” he said.
In his complaint, Ojha said others who have played the role of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra also damaged their image. He has also complained against the film director and producer. IANS
Army chief Bipin Rawat’s flights of logic on women in combat roles reveal sexist assumptions, double standards
In 2014, Air Force Chief Arup Raha said that women pilots were not suited to fighter jets. I had argued back then that he was right, women wouldn’t be able to fly fighter jets. Until they trained for hundreds of hours. Just like the men. But I also tickled myself with preposterous things people could have told the child Arup Raha warning him off his Air Force dreams. “A teacher telling 10-year-old Arup Raha when he was in Sainik School, Purulia that Bengalis famously disappear in airplane crashes so he shouldn’t dream of flying. Or some hard-ass, reality-loving trainer at the National Defence Academy, Pune telling an 18-year-old Arup Raha that he shouldn’t join the Air Force because that would distract him from his cultural heritage of writing poetry or singing Rabindra Sangeet.”
I wish my flights of hyperbole had been as enjoyable as army chief Bipin Rawat’s recent flights of logic. On 15 December, in an interview with the TV channel News18, Rawat stated his many opinions about women while deploying a Trumpian syntax. So many opinions that it’s hard to decide where to start discussing them.
Back when Arup Raha’s hot take was the subject of many hot takes, a serving major-general was quoted as saying, “As a society, we are not ready for our women in combat roles. What if they are taken PoWs?” Rawat has similar concerns and is worried that women would die. The most touching illustration of mortality that Rawat could come up with? He said, “A lady who died was in service for 7-8 years. She has a kid of 2 years. He is in Delhi or Chandigarh and parents are taking care of the baby. So what I am saying is, now do you think we are ready for this?” One can only guess that the “he” in Delhi/Chandigarh is the father of the child. What is clear is that Rawat is not ready for the idea that the grandparents are taking care of the baby. That’s just too negligent of the dead mother.
Rawat agreed with the News18 interviewer that women could and do die in other situations such as road accidents but he felt the nation was not ready for women to die in combat, to return “in body bags.” Rawat and the rest of the leadership of the armed forces in India have no issue with women dying every week if they are non-combatant residents of the North East or Kashmir or even baby girls like Heeba, 19 months old and severely injured by pellet guns. For that matter, we don’t need to face the army and its cloak of patriotism to become an unworthy dead girl. One could just stay at home and be killed by our husbands. As a 2017 British Medical Journal study indicateddomestic violence was found to increase the risk of death in Indian women by nearly 40 times than among American women.
While we are on the subject of American women, I have to share the amazing stream-of-consciousness style anecdote Rawat narrated about doing a course in the United States and how he had to change for the gym several times a day in unisex locker rooms. “I did a course in US. We had 4 ladies and 10 male officers. So what happens is after every 3-4 hours you get a break of 1 hour in which you are supposed to have your lunch or you can go to the gym. Now when we go to the gym, we all change in the gym clothes in classroom all of us. When I was new, I would look the other way because ladies were also there but that is the culture there. They do it… then even in Delhi, ladies tell me that people peep. I am talking about isolation situation when she has 100 jawans around her but it happens here also in Delhi.”
The mash-up soundtrack for Rawat’s life-changing event is a combo of maami saying Shiva Shiva and Victorians looking for sofas to faint on. Has Rawat not been living in India, where people find ways to change in close quarters all the time without shaming each other – from temple ponds to railway waiting rooms and handkerchief-sized homes?
Rawat would appear to be like a person whose mind, when asked about women in combat, suspects the Savita Bhabhi-style scenario. He says, “now what will happen if there will be a lady officer here? Our orders are that a lady officer will get a hut in the COB, then there are orders that we have to cocoon her separately. She will say somebody is peeping, so we will have to give a sheet around her.”
Since we are on this topic, it might not be out of place to point out that sexual harassment in (and by) the armed forces is a giant issue, around the world.
I have never understood why any woman would want to join the armed forces, but women do all the time, all around the world. Those who want to join the Indian army in combat positions might want to consider the career risks they face not from the enemy but the friendly fire of the high command.
In Rawat’s interview with News18, as soon as he is confronted about his sexist assumptions, he promptly absolves himself and blames the sexism of the entire military machinery on the purported parochialism of the soldiers. He said, “Even today, our jawans come from villages, so that acceptance will take time.” Now that move is what they call in military parlance, goli dena.
The Ladies Finger is India’s leading feminist digital magazine.
“Have To Cocoon Her”: Army Chief On Difficulties Of Women In Combat Role
General Rawat said that in frontline combat there are risks of officers getting killed.
General Rawat said there are non-combat roles where women are already being inducted. (File photo)
NEW DELHI:
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said there are women officers engaged in exercises like mining and de-mining operations and also manning the air defence system, but cited difficulties in assigning them frontline combat role.
He said that in frontline combat there are risks of officers getting killed. “See, I am not saying a woman who has children doesn’t die. She can also die in a road accident. But in combat, when body bags come back, our country is not ready to see that,” General Rawat said in an interview to CNN News 18.
“We have women officers as engineers, they are doing mining and demining work. In air defence, they are manning our weapon systems. But we have not put women in frontline combat because what we are engaged in right now is a proxy war, like in Kashmir,” he said.
He cited logistical reason also behind not posting women on frontlines. “Our orders are that a lady officer will get a hut in the COB, then there are orders that we have to cocoon her separately. She will say somebody is peeping, so we will have to give a sheet around her,” General Rawat said.
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The Army Chief questioned whether a women officer with commanding responsibilities can stay away from her post for long? “I am ready, it is not that army is not ready (for combat role for the women). Will she command? Okay, so now I make her a commanding officer. She is commanding a battalion. “Do I put a restriction on her to say that in that command tenure you will not be given maternity leave? If I say that, there will be ruckus created,” he added.
“Where Is CAG Report On Rafale Deal? Show Us”: Congress Ramps Up Attack
“Where Is CAG Report On Rafale Deal? Show Us”: Congress Ramps Up Attack
Rafale verdict: The Congress said it has not seen the Comptroller and Auditor General or CAG report on the Dassault Aviation Rafale jet deal
NEW DELHI: A big political storm is brewing over the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Rafale fighter jet deal. The Congress says the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has not seen the report by the government’s auditor or Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the pricing of the 36 Rafale jets to be purchased from France’s Dassault Aviation, which was referred to by the Supreme Court on Friday when it ruled that there was no reason to doubt the process that the government followed to buy the Rafale jets. Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the Public Accounts Committee chairman, today said he will request all members of the panel to summon the Attorney General and the CAG to ask them when was the auditor’s report tabled in parliament.
Here are the 10 latest developments in this story:
- Mr Kharge accused the government of “misleading” the Supreme Court by presenting incorrect facts about the CAG report on the Rafale deal and demanded that the government should apologise for it. “The government lied in the Supreme Court that the CAG report was presented in the house and in the PAC, and PAC has probed it. The government said in the Supreme Court that it (the report) is in public domain. Where is it? Have you seen it?” he said.
- The senior Congress leader also said his party respects the Supreme Court, but it is not a probe agency and only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) can investigate the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. “I will request the PAC members to call the Attorney General (AG) and the Comptroller and Auditor General to ask them when was the CAG report on the Rafale deal tabled in parliament,” he told reporters.
- Yesterday, hours after the top court verdict, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had also raised questions about the CAG report. “The basic foundation of the Supreme Court judgement is the CAG report. PAC chairman has not seen the CAG report. Yet the court has seen it. Where is the CAG report? Show us? Maybe it was shown to the France parliament? Maybe PM Modi has his own PAC in PMO (Prime Minister’s office)… since he has destroyed every institution,” he said.
- NCP chief Sharad Pawar too hit out at the government, saying “The decision of the Supreme Court was based on the information and documents sent by the government. Neither the CAG has studied nor has the PAC discussed the report.”
- The ruling BJP has demanded Rahul Gandhi’s apology after the verdict. “Disrupters have lost on all counts and those who manufactured falsehood compromised the security of the country,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, and rejected the Congress’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the deal.
- Several petitions had alleged that the government had gone for an overpriced deal to help Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence bag an offset contract with Dassault Aviation. The court rejected all the petitions. “There is no evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity,” the court said.
- The Congress has also demanded that the pricing details of the planes be made public – a demand the government has rejected citing a secrecy clause in the deal, triggering a huge political battle.
- Anil Ambani issued a statement saying the ruling “conclusively established the complete falsity of wild, baseless and politically motivated allegations”.
- “Dassault Aviation welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court of India dismissing all petitions filed on the Rafale contract signed on September 23, 2016,” the plane-maker said in a statement on Friday.
- The petitions were filed initially by two advocates, Manohar Lal Sharma and Vineet Dhanda. Later, Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Sanjay Singh filed one. Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan also filed a joint petition in the top court.
Rafale: How 126-jet deal replaced with pact for 36 fighters
Two recently recruited LeT militants killed in Sopore Arms and ammo, including rifles, recovered from encounter site
Soldiers near the encounter site in Sopore. Amin War
ibune News Service
Srinagar, December 13
Two recently recruited local Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmir’s Sopore sub-district on Thursday, the police said.
The 14-hour-long gunfight erupted at Brath Kalan in Sopore, some 60 km from Srinagar, on Wednesday evening when joint teams of the security forces were conducting a search operation in the area following a “credible intelligence input” regarding the presence of militants in the area.
“As the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by the terrorists hiding in the area. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists associated with the Lashkar-e-Toiba were neutralised,” a police spokesman said. “A huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including rifles, were recovered from the site of encounter.”
The two slain militants were identified as 22-year-old Owais Ahmad Bhat, alias Abu-Bakar, a resident of Gund-Brath in Sopore, and 23-year-old Tahir Ahmad Dar, alias Abu-Abdullah, of Saidpora in Sopore. A house was partially damaged during the encounter.
According to police records, Owais had joined militant ranks on October 21 and Tahir was recruited into the Lashkar on November 10. Locals said Owais was a final year student of the Bachelor’s course he was pursuing before he went missing.
Intense clashes erupted in various parts of Sopore after the gunfight ended. A large number of people attended the funeral of the slain militants amid “pro-freedom and anti-India” slogans.
This year the security forces have killed the highest number of militants in the last eight years. Union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir had on Wednesday said 238 militants were killed by the forces in J&K till December 2.
Don’t look at Army as a job provider: Gen Rawat
Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat.
Pune, December 13
The Indian Army should not be looked upon as a job provider organisation, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said here on Thursday, and warned personnel who feign illness or disability in order to avoid duty or get benefits.
He assured all help to former and serving soldiers who have actually suffered disability in the line of duty.
“Aksar dekha gaya hai ki log Bhartiya Sena ko ek employment ka jariya manate hai, naukari hasil karane ka jariya (It is often seen that people feel the Army is a means of employment, a means to get a job,” he said. — PTI
