A pillar being installed on the Pakistan side near Sadiqi Joint Check Post in the Fazilka sector. Tribune photo

Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, December 20

Pakistan today started the installation of a tall flag post at the India-Pakistan Joint Check Post, Sadiqi, in Fazilka sector. Sources said Pakistan would install 360-feet-high iron pillars and flag on top of them at a stone’s throw from the International Border. Big cranes have been pressed into service for the work.The BSF has expressed concern over the move. Notably, Fazilka is a strategically important area as it is surrounded by three sides from Pakistan. The security forces have to be more watchful in this area, especially during a tense situation. In 1960s, the Government of India had offered land to Pakistan in the Fazilka area in exchange of territories when India retrieved Bhagat Singh’s memorial its neighbour near the Ferozepur border. India’s concern revolves around security and surveillance issues. The security forces fear that the new masts could be used for spying. However, the BSF authorities are tight-lipped over the issue.A large number of residents who thronged the JCP, Sadiqi, to witness the Retreat Ceremony also noticed the installation of flag today.

The best cadet trophy being presented to Arunav Laroiya by Lt Gen TS Shergill (retd), senior adviser to Punjab CM, at the MAFPI in Mohali on Thursday. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 14

As many as 26 former cadets of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI), Mohali, who joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) during the current year, were honoured and presented with “Achiever Award” by Lt Gen TS Shergill, senior adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister, during a function held at the institute today.Special prizes were given to cadets who excelled in various fields.Neerpreet Singh won the Academics Trophy, Shashank Sharma the Best Officer-Like Qualities Trophy and Loveneet Singh the Sports Trophy.Shashank had stood first in the all-India merit list for entrance to NDA’s 138th Course. The Best All-Round Cadet of the fifth AFPI course was Arunav Laroiya.Appreciating the ebullient spirit displayed by cadets as well as the AFPI’s outstanding results, Lt Gen Shergill advised the cadets to continue to work hard and bring more laurels to their alma mater. He narrated incidents from military history to highlight leadership qualities required in leaders in uniform and briefed the cadets about the Code of the Warrior.The AFPI was set up by the Punjab Government to train selected young men for a commission into the armed forces through the NDA. The first batch completed its two-year training in 2013.The institute has so far sent 83 cadets to the armed forces. This is a marked improvement over the previous years when the entire state of Punjab was contributing a mere 6-8 cadets in a batch of over 300.Maj Gen BS Grewal (retd), Director General, AFPI, said the institute had on two occasions — in January 2015 and in June this year — produced an all-India merit list topper.This year, the institute has sent as many as 26 cadets to various service academies.Further, nine cadets are expected to join NDA in Jan 2018. At present, 30 cadets of the institute are undergoing training for SSB interview after having cleared the NDA entrance examination.Maj Gen Grewal also spoke about the new venture being undertaken by the AFPI for training students in selected schools under a scheme, Cadet Training Wings (CTW). AFPI trainers would visit such schools where CTWs would be established and impart training akin to what is being given at the AFPI.

Beijing, December 11

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China handled the Indian troops’ “trespass” into Doklam area with “restraint” and through diplomacy, demonstrating the “value and emphasis” Beijing attaches to its ties with India.Ahead of his visit to India, Wang said China always values the good-neighbourliness and friendship with India “as we are each other’s big neighbours and ancient civilisations.” “In the meantime, China is also firm in upholding its sovereign rights and interests and territorial integrity,” Wang told a symposium here on Saturday.“We handled the Indian border troops’ trespass into China’s Dong Lang (Doklam) area in our national interest, on just grounds and with restraint,” Wang was quoted as saying by the Foreign Ministry, which posted an English version of his speech on its website. “Through diplomatic means, we engaged with the Indian side and it withdrew its equipment and personnel,” Wang said for the first-time outlining China’s approach to ties with India post Doklam standoff. — PTI

(From left) Brig OS Goraya (retd), Maj Gen VK Singh (retd), Maj Gen Rajendra Nath (retd) and Gp Capt CS Sandhu (retd) at a session on Lt Gen Sagat Singh.

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9

Lt Gen Sagat Singh was brought alive today at the Military Literature Festival when his audio recording was played at a session where he talked about his role in transporting nearly 2,500 men across Meghna river to the gate of Dhaka in helicopters.“…I was commander of para-brigade and I had full experience in the use of helicopters in offensive role… the directive was issued that helicopter could carry one company only and they also asked for my firm plans… I told them I couldn’t give firm plans…” said Lt Gen Sagat, in an audio recording of 1974.Maj Gen Rajendra Nath (retd), who fought the 1971 war on the eastern front, said Dhaka was well defended by rivers on two sides, so crossing over in helicopters was decisive. “Lt Gen Sagat was the best commander the world has ever seen. Had he not been commanding 4 Corps in the 1971 war and Group Captain CS Sandhu (retd) not been there, Bangladesh would still have been East Pakistan. He had the courage to say no to his superiors,” said Major Chandrakant Singh (retd), who was part of the first sortie of helicopters that flew across the Meghna. He won the Vir Chakra for his role in the war.Major Singh said Lt Gen Sagat crossed the Meghna without any orders as he wanted to capture Dhaka. Defying orders, Lt Gen Sagat had opened artillery fire on the Chinese to defend Nathu La in 1967. Thereafter, he was sidelined and given an administrative post. Group Captain Sandhu said they only had five Mi-4 helicopters that carried 17 troops each, five more than their capacity. Hundreds of sorties had to be carried out despite the copters being hit by small firearms. Group Captain Sandhu, squadron leader during the war, also got the Vir Chakra. Pakistan surrendered on December 16, 1971.Maj Gen VK Singh (retd), who has written biography of Lt Gen Sagat, said, “He was the best combat leader who never got any gallantry award.” About his plans to airlift troops, he said, “The Air Force Headquarters said they wouldn’t take the risk of landing at an unknown place. Group Captain Chandan Singh told them that the biggest boots had left his footprint there. He was referring to Lt Gen Sagat. So, without permission, they landed at an unknown location.”Lt Gen GS Sihota (retd), former Army Commander of the Southern Command, who too was part of the 1971 war, said, “None of us dared to say no to him. He never showed he was worried.”

Inching close: Despite differences, the US and China are warming up to each other.

MK Bhadrakumar

WE have begun to clutch at small successes to proclaim victory — a seat in the International Court of Justice or a Western rating that we aren’t quite junk economy. But the big picture remains very depressing. An autumnal wind has been blowing the leaves and trees look bare and withered. Three hugely consequential regional events recently exposed that Indian foreign policy us adrift — the party congress of the Chinese Communist Party, President Trump’s Asian tour and the APEC and ASEAN summits. There are some profound inferences to be made. The Asian power-dynamic is making a historic transition. Indian analysts blithely borrowed from Western attitudes to view the contemporary Asian scenario through the prism of the so-called “Thucydides Trap” — coined by an ingenuous American think-tanker to expound the thesis that when an established power (read US) begins to fear a rising power (read China), things escalate toward war. The Americans do not make great historians and have a habit of encapsulating broad sweeps in neat conception. In reality, though, the strength of Spain and Portugal gradually began to decline in the early 1800s when their colonies in Latin America rebelled. The account of British decline was not different, either. Britain’s decline can be traced to its loss of relative economic dominance since the mid-19th century — although, paradoxically, Britain continued to remain the strongest European power militarily and economically until the early 1950s. The US’ decline bears striking similarity with Britain’s in modern history. Indeed, the eclipse of the Empire is always incremental. If only we had a Sardar KM Panikkar with us today, he’d have pointed a finger at the inexorable march of history in Asia (which he’d anticipated some 60 years ago in a classic work). The Party Congress in Beijing proclaimed that China is no longer “rising”, but has already “risen”. It is the principal driver of growth for Asian countries today (including, ironically, the lone Anglo-Saxon outpost of Australia). If Trump’s Asian tour has been a virtual acknowledgment that containment strategy toward China is no longer feasible, the flurry of Asian summits highlighted that the US’ continuing pre-eminence as the global military power is all but becoming irrelevant to the ASEAN region, where although military power still matters, economics has taken centre stage and infrastructure has become a more important tool for accumulating power as well as exercising it. All this leaves India in a quandary. A terrible beauty is born. The Asian Century was Nehru’s dream. But in Manila, not too far from Bandung, it was instead the China Dream that everyone within the earshot of PM Narendra Modi was compulsively talking about. The PM’s aides scheduled some meetings for him in Manila, but, largely, the impression accrued that the India which he represented has become somewhat peripheral to the animated discourses. We lurked in the shade furtively watching, holding uncertainly the can of “Act East” — for which there are no serious takers in Southeast Asia anymore. As a sideshow, the Indian officials huddled together with their colleagues from the US, Japan and Australia to explore whether to revive the moribund idea of a quadrilateral alliance of democracies (“Quad”) for marking territory on the lamppost of regional politics. They renamed the region as Indo-Pacific. (ASEAN plainly ignored the coinage.) It’s been tragi-comical in every sense. How did this burlesque happen? Who scripted it? In a nutshell, India has lost its sense of geography and history. That’s a sad remark to make for an ancient country, but it needs to be said because there is also a grievous failure of leadership involved here. Our present foreign policy elite hijacked the national interests. Geography dictates that India belongs to its region but India’s relations with China, the towering presence on Asia’s strategic landscape, nosedived during PM Modi’s watch. We barked up the wrong tree, losing precious time, crying hoarse over issues that belong to the domain of rhetoric — Masood Azhar, NSG membership, Dalai Lama, CPEC, et al. The business deals worth a staggering $250 billion agreed during Trump’s recent visit to China would create tens of thousands of new jobs in America. They not only added a new dimension to America First, but considering the very nature of the infrastructure projects on the anvil, also herald in the near term perspective the unannounced arrival of the OBOR in North America. No sooner than Trump got back from Asian tour, one of China’s top diplomats, Ambassador Cui Tiankai, nattily attired in a bow-tie suit, told an elite Washington audience of 400 invitees drawn from the US government, business and academia at a gala banquet in his honour: “We want to build a strong partnership with the US…(which) will enable each of us to better accomplish our domestic goals…(and) put both countries together in a stronger position… This is the essence of China’s policy towards the US. This is what we actually want to have in this relationship.” Aren’t we wasting time in quixotic ventures such as the Quad? At any rate, where was this “rules-based order” when Iraq was invaded or Syria brutalised or Afghanistan subjected to war crimes, which International Criminal Court plans to investigate? When Trump tossed out of the window the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which was intended as the underpinning of containment strategy against China, Asian countries took note. We should have adjusted to the emergent compelling realities — like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea did. There are signs that Japan too is trying to turn over a new leaf with China. Almost none criticised China by name at the ASEAN summit or mentioned the 2016 international ruling on the South China Sea. In fact, China and ASEAN agreed to negotiate a code of conduct. The fundamental flaw in the Modi government’s shift from “Look East” to “Act East” is that it was heavily laden with geopolitics, whereas, the Asian region as a whole — and Southeast Asian countries in particular — feel the pressure of public accountability and are focused on growth and developmental issues of trade, investment and infrastructure. India’s integration with Asia-Pacific faces serious challenges from the perspective of geo-economics. The RCEP negotiations are symptomatic of this. A leap of faith is needed. India should have the will to surrender parts of its sovereignty to regional processes, and the public opinion should be willing to support greater integration. Our predicament vis-à-vis the OBOR highlights a larger malaise. Scepticism about the benefits of the global supply chain is very high in India. Great wealth flows to the powers that dominate trade.The writer is a former ambassador

Part of the wider project to have 17 tunnels to provide all-weather connectivity.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14

Faced with the rising military might of China, the Indian Army has identified nine “top-priority” tunnels, including those in eastern Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Doklam plateau in eastern Sikkim. This is to ensure all-weather connectivity in these areas.These are part of the wider project to have 17 tunnels all across the Himalayas to provide all-weather connectivity. The Army headquarters had pinpointed its needs as per operational needs. The work on several of these projects has commenced. India and China share a 3,488-km-long undefined boundary in the Himalayas.The ones to connect Ladakh will change the lives of people and add to the military preparedness. The first is an alternate route from Himachal Pradesh that will connect Padum in Zanskar, Ladakh, with an existing jeep-track in the hill state. The Army has suggested that the jeep track from Padum to the base of the 16,700-foot-high Shingo-La on the Zanskar side be metalled and a tunnel be made under the pass that will open in Lahaul-Spiti. The proposed move, if it materialises will provide an alternative shorter route to Kargil.Ladakh has two other access roads — one from Srinagar and other from Manali via Rohtang. These remain closed for seven months — October to April — due to heavy snowfall in the higher passes. The Army priority list includes making tunnels under the Baralacha La, Tanglang La and Lachung La on the Manali-Leh route. The first two are in Ladakh and the last one in Himachal Pradesh. During winters, Army equipment and men can only be moved onboard the daily flights of IL-76 from Chandigarh.In Arunachal Pradesh, the Border Roads Organisation has already started ground work for two tunnels through 4,170-metre-high Sela Pass, which would avoid the pass that is snow bound for more than six months.The project constitutes construction of two tunnels of 475 metre and 1,790 metre each through Sela-Chabrela ridge connecting the Balipara-Chaudur-Tawang road on the Nurarang side.

Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh addresses an election meeting at Laladi village in the Haroli segment on Tuesday.

Our Correspondent

Una, November 7

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visiting every district to address public meetings because the BJP was sensing defeat in the elections.Addressing a public meeting at Laladi village in Haroli in support of Congress candidate Mukesh Agnihotri, he said a BJP rout was imminent which would be followed by another one in Gujarat.Amarinder Singh said while in the Army in 1962, he had been deputed on the Indo-China border in Kinnaur district and it took his Company 14 days to travel from Shimla to the border post, while the same distance could be covered in five hours now. He said Virbhadra, a six-time Chief Minister, had ushered in development in the state.The Punjab CM said since Himachal was a hill state, it took enormous amount of resources to provide drinking water, electricity and roads, besides other infrastructure like health and education, to the remotest corners. Despite the constraints, the successive Congress governments had kept up the pace of development.Shrugging BJP allegations that the drug mafia had spread its network in Haroli in the last five years, Amarinder said the drug mafia had established in Punjab during the Akali Dal-BJP rule, adding that after he came to power, more than 4,000 anti-social elements had been put behind bars. He said the BJP was launching a misleading tirade against the Congress which was an abuse to the honest and hard working people.

Photo for representational purpose only.

Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Anantnag, Nov 2

Two soldiers and a suspected militant were killed in a gunfight in Pulwama that erupted during a search operation in Samboora Awantipore, 30 km from Srinagar, late this evening.“During a search, hiding militants opened fire, triggering a fierce gunfight, in which a terrorist was killed. Two soldiers of 50 Rashtriya Rifles were wounded. They later succumbed to their injuries,” defence sources said.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)
In Anantnag, militants ambushed a CRPF convoy, injuring five personnel. The attack took place at about 8:30 am in the town’s Lazibal area, along the busy Khannabal-Pahalgam road. “Six buses carrying paramilitary forces were attacked on the outskirts of the town,” a senior police official said. He identified two of the injured as constable SK Mahesh and head constable Indrajeet Singh, both from 96 Battalion. The militants fled after firing indiscriminately at the convoy. A cordon was laid to nab the attackers. Locals said house-to-house searches were carried out that lasted more than two hours. Militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba has claimed responsibility for the attack. In Shopian, the BJP’s youth wing leader, Gowhar Ahmad Bhat, 26,  was found dead, his throat slit. His body was found at Kiloora Shopian, 55 km from Srinagar. Injury marks on the body indicated he was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon. “Terrorists killed  civilian Gowhar Ahmed in #Shopian. Investigation on,” the DIG, South Kashmir, tweeted. “Gowhar was kidnapped from his house at 6 pm and his body was found 15 minutes later in a neighbouring village,” BJP media secretary Altaf Thakur said. Bhat joined the BJP two years ago. He played a key role in hosting the first-ever youth convention in Srinagar recently.