First meeting of foreign secretaries since Pathankot; terror, Kashmir their concerns

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar (left) with his Pakistan counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry (centre) and Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit (R) after a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. Tribune Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

India and Pakistan foreign secretaries met finally on Tuesday, their first interaction since the Pathankot terror attacks, and both countries put forward their concerns: India raised the issue of terrorism and Pathankot, while Pakistan harped on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir being the core issue between the two countries.

Pakistan also raised the issue of the arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav, a man it accuses of working for the RAW. India flatly refuted these allegations and, according to sources, India’s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar even told his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry that no spy agency would put their agent in the field with his own passport and without a visa.

India also pressed for immediate access to Yadav, something that India has been asking of Pakistan since Yadav’s arrest. What raised eyebrows was the fact that Pakistan released a statement on the talks even while the meeting was in progress.

In a meeting that lasted 90 minutes, Jaishankar told Chaudhry, “Terrorist groups based in Pakistan targeting India must not be allowed to operate with impunity.”

India also rebutted all allegations of its involvement in Baluchistan. Dismissing allegations of Yadav being a spy, India pointed that he was an abducted naval officer.

India also demanded early and visible progress on both Pathankot and 26/11 attacks.

The statement released by the Pakistan High Commission said that Chaudhry had taken up the issue of Yadav and expressed serious concern over the RAW’s alleged involvement in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

“He said such acts undermine efforts to normalise relations between the two countries. He also conveyed concern over efforts by the Indian authorities for the release of the prime suspects of the Samjhauta Express blasts,” the Pakistan statement said.

It is simple: New Delhi needs American power to compete with China.

INDIA’S agreement with the US to allow access to its defence facilities to American military on a reciprocal basis, in philosophical terms, a great leap but makes sense in today’s geopolitical environment. India has strayed from its proclaimed non-aligned policy in the past in seeking US military assistance during the India-China conflict and in signing an Indo-Soviet pact before the Bangladesh war, but the logistic agreement has a different resonance because much of the rhetoric in the developing world was directed against the US. The Modi government’s decision to go ahead with the agreement against the expected opposition of the Congress and the Left parties flows out of a stark fact. An assertive China is seeking to expand its influence on land and sea in the region and beyond it. In sea power, Beijing’s action in building islands on shoals in the South China Sea and militarising them to claim most of the two seas — the other being East China Sea — against claims by regional powers has led to a new ball game, with the former enemy Vietnam seeking close relations with Washington and the Philippines, which closed American bases in the early 1990s to invite them back in.India is not quite in the league of these smaller South-east Asian nations but has the bigger task of prevailing in the Indian Ocean and needs greater heft to do so in the face of an expanding Chinese naval power. In other words, New Delhi needs American power to compete with China. The direction of Indian policy was clear for some time even during the UPA regime as joint exercises with countries such as Japan, Australia and the US grew in size and frequency. The Modi government has now taken this trend to its logical conclusion.Yet the emotional wrenching it causes among old-time liberals and nationalists is understandable. Long after New Delhi discarded the increasingly flexible concept of non-alignment in framing its policies, the emotional pull of the glory days of the movement in the era of Nehru with India being relatively weak in military terms made Indians 10 feet tall. In time, NAM the movement became like the Janata train with everyone clambering into it, whatever their ideological predilections.Today we live in a dangerous and changing world, with the old Soviet Union gone, replaced by a diminished Russian Federation, and China being increasingly treated by the only remaining superpower as nearly its peer. The Middle East continues to be a region of great instability and the European Union is increasingly facing its middle age blues without the will to act purposefully on such issues as the influx of refugees from wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.The US’ famous “pivot” to Asia has been slower in the making, thanks to its preoccupations in the Middle East and other parts of the world, but a gradual US shift will be completed. In the meantime, Washington is implementing policies underlined by Defence Secretary Ashton Carter’s swing through India and the Philippines to shore up friends in the event of China seeking to challenge a traditional area of American influence.There are not many alternatives New Delhi has in safeguarding its interests against China while seeking a saner relationship with a hostile Pakistan. NAM has long been a broken reed and while the nature of future agreements with the US can be debated, a closer defence relationship is inevitable. It is no secret that New Delhi’s deeper relationship with Vietnam is determined by the China factor on both sides.Equally, Mr Modi’s efforts to build an equation with President Obama and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are guided by India’s need to buttress relations with two key countries. Besides, Australia’s strategic location and military capabilities have become a new factor in New Delhi’s strategic calculations. And these countries support Mr Modi because he is seen as a clearheaded leader who does not suffer from the liabilities of his predecessor who was saddled with a dual key leadership arrangement and had to cope with grasping coalition partners.To an extent, geostrategic equations in the world are evolving and the nature of future logistic and other defence relations with the US will depend upon the scale of China’s assertiveness, the compulsions of the next US President and the strength of other major countries such as India and Japan in coping with President Xi Jinping’s ambitions. It will be crucial for Mr Modi to build a new national consensus despite his BJP’s and Sangh Parivar’s pursuit of a divisive domestic agenda promoting the denigration of Muslims in particular and endorsing a Hindutva campaign that sits ill with a diverse country of many faiths and beliefs. The problem is the ideological belief of the Sangh Parivar that its path to glory is the only one India should adopt.For the critics of the Modi government, it would be well to recognise that the old world facing the Independence generation has gone and they must face the future with new realities. It was particularly distressing that Mr AK Antony, who held the defence portfolio in the UPA for long without distinction, should have made the statement he did.According to Mr Antony, the logistical agreement with the US “would open the door for India becoming part of American military bloc…There was pressure to sign such a pact when UPA was in power. But we resisted it because we felt it was against national interest”. More predictably, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo declared, “Unlike what Defence Minister says, refuelling, maintenance and repair facilities for American ships and airplanes will require stationing of US armed forces personnel on Indian soil on a regular basis”.The Communists miss the whole point of the changed world we live in. Americans are no longer untouchables and we need them to protect the country’s security.

Mumbai: Three naval sailors were injured, including one who lost a leg, when a bailout bottle exploded aboard diving support ship INS Nireekshak. The mishap occurred around 40 nautical miles from Vizhinjam near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, while the ship was on way from Visakhapatnam in AP to Mumbai on April 16. The diving bailout bottle is a small 12-inch oxygen bottle carried by divers in their helmets for use if the primary oxygen supply fails. The blast occurred during the refilling of the bottle. IANS

New Delhi, April 18

The Supreme Court today granted interim stay on an appeal filed by the Centre against the Armed Forces Tribunal’s decision granting permanent commission and reinstatement of a retired lady wing commander. The court issued notice to Namrita Chandi for May 9.A Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and UU Lalit passed the order after hearing Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand and Advocate Col R Balasubramaanian, who explained that none of the women officers from Short Service Commission have been given a permanent commission since 2004.They submitted that only women officers in the administrative, education and accounts were considered for permanent commission from the SSC.The Centre has challenged the Armed Forces Tribunal’s order granting permanent commission to the Wing Commander. — PTI

Srinagar, April 17

The girl, who is at the centre of the Handwara molestation storm, has recorded her statement before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in which she stood by her earlier statement that she was not molested by any Army soldier on Tuesday.

The girl along with her father was presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Handwara last evening and her statement was recorded, the police said in a statement.

“In her statement before the Judicial Magistrate she reveals that on 12-04-2-16, after school hours while proceeding to her home along with her friends she entered in a public lavatory near main chowk Handwara for answering the call of nature.

“As soon as she came out of the lavatory, she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched among whom one boy was in school uniform,” the police said.

The cops presented the girl before the Chief Judicial Magistrate following orders by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court yesterday on a petition filed by the mother of the girl.

The petition was seeking release of the girl, her father and aunt who are in police custody since the day when the allegations of molestation resulted in violent protests in Handwara town.

The mother yesterday claimed that her daughter, who is 16 years old, was pressurised into making the statement that had exonerated the army personnel of the molestation charge.

“The production of the girl along with her father before the learned CJM also complies with the order of the Hon ble High Court,” the police statement said.

Three persons were killed in security forces firing on protestors in Handwara town on Tuesday.

Another youth was killed in Drugmulla area of Kupwara during protests against the Handwara incident a day later.

In fresh violence on Friday, 18-year-old Arif Hussain Dar was killed while three others sustained bullet injuries when the Army opened fire to disperse stone-pelting protestors outside a camp in Nathnusa area of Kupwara, 100 km from here. — PTI

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, April 13

The Army has stepped up surveillance system, both on technical and human intelligence gathering fronts, in many parts of south Kashmir, particularly along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.CCTV cameras have been installed at many important places along the highway, besides an elaborate survey of major concrete buildings along the highway is being carried out by the Army, sources said.The sources said the steps were being taken after militants carried out attacks along the national highway, particularly the Srinagar-Khannabal stretch, in recent months.The attack on the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) in February this year, in which three Army men were killed during a 48-hour-long gunfight, is being considered as the wake-up call.Three militants, believed to be of Pakistani origin, used the EDI building to their advantage to inflict damages on the Army.To pre-empt any such attacks in future, the Army has asked for site maps and other architectural details of almost all major concrete buildings in the area.“We were asked to provide the blueprint, site map and other details of our shopping complex,” said a businessman from Bijbehara town. He said the Army had asked him the details of every shop in the complex.“Moreover, information on the number of people working in the complex along with their identities was also sought by the Army,” he said.Many other establishments and owners of private buildings have been summoned by the Army and sought such details.“We were asked to provide details such as the exact number of entry and exit points in the building, number of rooms, location of the rooms and every minute detail and we have provided the details,” a school administrator said.Defence spokesperson Col NN Joshi said he was not privy to the operational details and would not be able to comment on the nature of the surveillance measures.

CCTV cameras installed

• The Army is installing CCTV cameras at many important places along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in south Kashmir
• It is carrying out an elaborate survey of major concrete buildings along the sensitive highway, asking owners for site maps and other architectural details

New Delhi, April 8

India is in talks with the US to purchase 40 Predator surveillance drones, officials said, a possible first step towards acquiring the armed version of the aircraft and a development likely to annoy Pakistan.India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned technologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its firepower along the vast land borders with Pakistan and China. It also wants a closer eye on the Indian Ocean.New Delhi has already acquired surveillance drones from Israel to monitor the mountains of Kashmir, a region disputed by the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals and the cause of two of their three wars.As defence ties deepen with the US, which sees India as a counterweight to China in the region, India has asked the US for the Predator series of unmanned planes built by privately held General Atomics, military officials said. “We are aware of Predator interest from the Indian Navy. However, it is a government-to-government discussion,” Vivek Lall, chief executive of US and International Strategic Development at San Diego-based General Atomics, said.The US government late last year cleared General Atomics’ proposal to market the unarmed Predator XP in India. It was not clear when the delivery of the drones would take place.  — Reuters

Rajnath holdsreview meeting

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday chaired a meeting with NSA Ajit Doval and chiefs of security agencies in view of developments following Pakistan’s refusal to allow a National Investigation Agency team to visit that country in connection with the Pathankot terror attack probe.
• US for India-Pak talks
• Our longstanding position is that we believe India and Pakistan stand to benefit from normalisation of relations and practical cooperation. We encourage India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue aimed at reducing tension. —Mark Toner, dy spokesman of US state dept

MY father-in-law, a product of Dufferin, joined merchant navy before the Partition. Later, he shifted to Calcutta Port Trust where he spent his formative years before retiring as engineering superintendent. After six decades in Calcutta, he decided to shift to his house in Chandigarh.The anusashan which he acquired during training has become a part of his life. He is a voracious reader and spends four-five hours reading on Kindle. His day starts at 0400hrs with path-puja and rigid meal timings. “What is the need of getting up so early and disturbing everyone in the house?” I asked once. “It gives me pleasure,” he replied. One day, all of a sudden, he was hospitalised with high temperature and uncontrollable shivering. His condition, though critical, was stable. His granddaughter, a doctor in the US, would guide us and regulate the treatment. She paid a flying visit to the city to rejuvenate the morale of the family. Gradually, his condition stabilised and he was sent back home to continue the medication. One day when his condition improved significantly, he came out with a wish that stunned everyone. He desired that his body be pledged after his death, giving the go-by to normal rituals. There was unusual silence in the house. The proposal, on the face of it, was turned down by a majority vote, but he was unwilling to relent. I, for one, however, was inclined to his decision and supported the idea. The skin of dead animals is used for making leather products, the worth of a dead elephant is more than the living one, it is only the human body which is not put to any use after death, I argued. We pondered over the issue, and ultimately, with a heavy heart, decided to accede to his wish. The spade work for pledging the body was initiated, forms were filled and documents submitted to hospital. The day he received the donor’s card from the hospital authorities, he felt content and heaved a sigh of relief. Now, he was certain that his last wish would be fulfilled.The other day, we celebrated his 94th birthday with fun and frolic. I thought it would be a befitting gesture to pledge our bodies on the occasion of his birthday, but there were no takers for my proposal. But I have decided to donate my body. It will contribute immensely to the education and training of medical students. Let the human body be put to some use after  death. A meaningful life can go beyond one’s death. As conscious individuals, we should all pledge to donate our body/organs to society.

QUOTE: “The Army has not been allowing us to undertake development works in Chumar village. Last week, we started work on the construction of a road towards a village located close to the LAC, where the local grazers of our side go along with their cattle, but soldiers forced the contractor to abandon the project. Local Army officers had given a lame excuse that they had been directed by their higher-ups not to allow any kind of development work in the area,” Sonam Dawa Lonpo, CEC, LAHDC

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 13

In a major standoff, the Army has forced the civil administration to stop all development works near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Chumar area of the Ladakh region for “unspecified” reasons.Enraged over the development, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, which governs the district politically, has shot off a correspondence to the Defence Ministry, besides lodging a protest with local Army officers.This is the second major strategic area along the LAC where the Army has forced the civil administration to stop all development works. Last year in September, the Army had reportedly disallowed the administration to undertake development works in Demchok village after Chinese grazers had put up tents in a common grazing ground along the LAC.The Ladakh region has 225-km-long Line of Control and 955-km-long LAC that includes some portion of the international border and 122-km-long Actual Ground Position Line with China.A senior official of the district administration, who wished not to be named, said local Army officers had also approached the District Magistrate, Leh, seeking early stoppage of development works in the area.“The Army has not been allowing us to undertake development works in Chumar village. Last week, we started work on the construction of a road towards a village located close to the LAC, where the local grazers of our side go along with their cattle, but soldiers forced the contractor to abandon the project. Local Army officers had given a lame excuse that they had been directed by their higher-ups not to allow any kind of development work in the area,” said Sonam Dawa Lonpo, Chief Executive Councillor (CEC), LAHDC, Leh.The CEC said the development works in the area were being executed under the Border Area Development Programme and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme.“It is quite illogical that aggressive China has resorted to rampant development works and construction of roads on the other side of the LAC while the Indian Army has stopped us from undertaking development works for basic amenities to the people,” he said.He said they had taken up the matter with local Army officers and lodged a protest. “We have dispatched a letter to the Defence Ministry, requesting it to immediately solve the issue,” the CEC said.