India is now keen on isolating Pakistan. It must evaluate the long-term implications

One of the victims of the military exchanges between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control is the civilian political leadership of Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had developed a certain cordiality with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, over the past two years. By all accounts, Mr Modi saw in him a leader who had a pragmatic view of how the two nations should handle their many differences. But Mr Sharif had no authority to pursue this moderate view of India. This is the monopoly of the generals in Rawalpindi and their hostility to India is implacable. When he authorised the military strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, Mr Modi concluded that investing in Mr Sharif is a political dead end.

Various Indian prime ministers have faced a similar dilemma. Many have taken heart from Pakistan’s democratically-elected civilian leadership and sought to promote their authority over the men in khaki. Prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee pursued this path. Mr Vajpayee even seeking an accommodation with Pervez Musharraf. At the heart of their view was a belief India should continue to talk with whoever was in power in Pakistan, irrespective of the terrorist attacks and other forms of violence that militants inflicted on India. These attacks were secondary to a larger vision of seeking to engage the civil societies of the two countries and help Pakistan move away from the path of religious fundamentalism and State-sponsored violence that it had taken since the dictatorial rule of Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq. India’s underlying policy was to save Pakistan from itself. This was not an easy policy to sustain. Terrorist attacks of the scale of Mumbai 26/11 or border wars of the Kargil variety would wreak havoc with public support in India for any engagement with Pakistan and strengthen a belief that the only way to handle India’s rogue neighbour was through the barrel of a howitzer.Mr Modi seems to have pursued a version of this enlightened policy for two years, cultivating ties with Mr Sharif even though a diplomatic harvest seemed unlikely. But the prime minister has now concluded that he can no longer afford this policy. The sacrifice of the Saarc summit in Islamabad, humiliating Mr Sharif, is a case in point. In this, he is following the view of PV Narasimha Rao who concluded he was better off reducing his Pakistan contacts to just photo ops. The flip side of this attitude, however, is to give up on civil society engagement and focus more on isolating Pakistan internationally and building the political and military equivalent of a wall between the two neighbours. This has obvious benefits in the short-run but, ultimately, reflects a view that Pakistan is a problem that should be managed rather than solved

CHANDIGARH: Indian Army chief General Dalbir Singh visited the Western Command, headquartered at Chandimandir near here, on Saturday to review operational preparedness in wake of surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir recently.

HT PHOTOArmy chief General Dalbir Singh (left) with Western command chief Lt Gen Surinder Singh at Chandimandir on Saturday.

The army chief interacted with senior commanders, including Western Command general officer commandingin-chief (GOC-in-C) Lieutenant General Surinder Singh, and exhorted them to continue to maintain highest vigil and alertness on the western borders.

Earlier, he had visited the Northern Command.

A senior official of the Western Command said: “There is no troop mobilisation or deployment along the border, but routine army exercises are continuing.”

At present, it is the Border Security Force (BSF) that is manning the International Border with Pakistan in Punjab.

But no army official who HT talked to has denied that an alert has been sounded to all forward posts and cantonments.

In the past seven days, Lt Gen Surinder Singh has twice reviewed security arrangements along the border. On September 23 and 24, he had visited forward areas in Jammu, Samba and Pathankot, where he interacted with field commanders and troops, besides meeting the northern army commander.

On September 29 — the day the news of the surgical strikes broke out in the morning — the army commander embarked on a two-day tour to the Vajra Corps headquarters in Jalandhar besides forward locations in Gurdaspur and Amritsar to review the troops’ preparedness.

It was the 25th edition of the programme. PTI file

Paying tributes to soldiers, who sacrificed their lives retaliating to Pakistani forces and terrorists at the Line of Control (LoC) in the past few days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated this Diwali to the security personnel.

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 30Amid tension on the border with Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday saluted the valour of the armed forces and lauded their sacrifice while dedicating the festival of Diwali to them.He hailed the people, including celebrities, for sending overwhelming messages to his Sandesh2Soldiers campaign.In his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme on All India Radio, Modi urged all citizens and state governments to find ways of forging unity across the country and working to defeat separatist tendencies and mentalities.

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

In the wake of the ongoing troubles in the Kashmir Valley, he said, “Unity in diversity is our strength. It is the responsibility of every citizen and all governments to forge unity and curb separatist tendencies to save the country.”In an apparent reference to tension on the Indo-Pak border, Modi credited the soldiers for maintaining peace and security in the country and called upon everyone to remember their gallantry while celebrating Diwali.“In the wake of recent events, our soldiers have been sacrificing their everything for the safety and security of the country. Their dedication has overwhelmed me completely. Let us dedicate this Diwali to our armed forces.“I had invited everyone to participate in the Sandesh2Soldiers campaign and I have been humbled by the response. From students, villagers and traders to political leaders and sportspersons, everyone has sent a Diwali message for our soldiers,” he said while referring to the jawans who are stationed in deserts and on the icy heights of the Himalayas and security personnel who are guarding our industries and airports.“Our forces endure grave hardships for our security. Someone is stationed in a desert, someone on the Himalayas, someone is guarding our industrial installations and someone is protecting our airports. Everyone is fulfilling a mighty responsibility. If we remember them while being in a festive mood, our remembrance will give them strength and renewed energy. I thank everyone for responding to Sandesh2Soldiers,” Modi said in over half-an-hour address on the occasion of Diwali.In a veiled reference to the unrest in Kashmir Valley, the PM also called for forces of unity to be strengthened and those of separatism to be defeated.“Unity in diversity is the strength of our country. Every citizen and every government must work to find ways of forging unity and defeating separatist mindset and tendencies,” he said as he remembered Sardar Patel who strove hard to forge unity in the country and bind it together.As Modi paid tributes to Sardar Patel whose birth anniversary falls on Monday, he also remembered Indira Gandhi whose death anniversary also falls on the same day. He, however, lamented that on a day we celebrate the birth anniversary of Patel, thousands of Sikhs were killed in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of Gandhi.Reiterating his message of cleanliness on Diwali, Modi said the festival is a marker of “swachhta” with every family taking it upon themselves to clean their house.The PM, however, said, “The call of time is to extend this campaign of cleanliness out of one’s house to one’s surroundings.”The PM also took the occasion to note how the Indian festivals are environment friendly and urged parents to stand with their children as the latter burnt crackers.The Prime Minister also remembered Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, who fought against social evils and discrimination and called for making society free from any kind of discrimination.

The Prime Minister also lauded the role played by jawans in natural calamities and said they kept working with patriotic spirit and national interest in mind, be it showing courage in fighting the enemy or in bringing the misguided youth back on track or maintaining law and order.

He lauded the efforts taken by Himachal Pradesh in becoming open defecation free and said it is the second state after Sikkim to be so.Modi said Kerala would become open defecation free on November 1 and Gujarat and Haryana were also making efforts in this direction and many districts in these states had already achieved the goal.In making these states defecation free, Modi highlighted the efforts and contribution of many individuals in helping construct toilets.These included those of an ITBP jawan in Himachal’s Sirmour district who donated Rs 57,000 out of his salary to construct toilets in his village and make it open defecation free, besides those of engineering students in Kerala who helped construct a toilet in Edamalakul of the state.He also praised Haryana, which is celebrating the golden jubilee of its formation on November 1, for taking upon itself to declare the state kerosene-free by linking all LPG beneficiaries with Aadhar card.“Some seven or eight districts have already become kerosene-free in Haryana.“The way they have taken upon them, I am sure they will succeed and help stop pilferage, save environment and conserve foreign exchange, besides helping the people of the state and putting an end to corruption that middlemen indulged in,” he said.Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, whom he described as a guide, Modi said policies should be evolved in such a manner that the poorest of the poor should be kept in mind as the Father of the Nation envisioned.“It is the need of the time to address the problems of the poor.“We must come out of our orthodox thinking and make society free from any kind of discrimination,” he said, while also calling for ending any kind of discrimination towards girls and sought construction of toilets for the girl child too.Wishing countrymen on Diwali, the Prime Minister said India is a country of festivals and today these festivals are celebrated across the world.He highlighted that the US Postal department brought out a postal stamp on this Diwali.Modi said Deepawali gave the message of ‘darkness to light’ and this darkness included the darkness of superstition, illiteracy, poverty and social evils which should end too.He also recalled that people would celebrate Chhat puja in a few days and the festival carried the message of worshipping the Sun. With PTI

srinagar, October 28

A soldier was beheaded by militants as Pakistan army engaged in cross-border firing along the Line of Control in Machil sector of Kupwara district, Army sources said on Friday.The slain soldier, rifleman Manjeet Singh of 17 Sikh Light Infantry, belonged to Haryana. “This act will invite an appropriate response,” said an Army spokesman.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)He said the soldier was killed during an encounter late on Friday. A militant was also gunned down. An official statement initially said: “In a despicable act, the terrorists mutilated the body of the soldier before fleeing into PoK,” adding they were provided cover by Pakistan troops. — TNS

Fearing tit-for-tat retaliation from Pakistan-based terrorist groups post Indian cross-LoC strike, home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday reviewed country-wide security measures, particularly in Kashmir, with reports of an eight-strong fidayeen (suicide) squad sneaking into Srinagar.

All western states bordering Pakistan have been placed on alert with state chief secretaries instructed not to go on leave.

Authoritative sources said that the government was expecting a retaliation from Pakistan with the target being Indian Army establishments in Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.

On Thursday, the security agencies issued an alert about a possible suicide attack by Pakistani jihadists in Srinagar, with security forces as target.

Singh discussed all possible measures with senior officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and intelligence chiefs.

The home ministry assessment is that after the Indian Army inflicted serious and large scale casualties by attacking the terrorist launch pads in Jammu and Kashmir, terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed may activate their border action team for retaliation.

Security agencies expect Pakistani border action along the LoC in Machhil, Nowgam, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors — where the Indian Army destroyed seven terrorist forward staging locations.

There was firing by unknown militants on a CRPF-J&K police check post on Shopian-Kulgam road on Friday evening with no casualties.

While the security forces have gone on high alert in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh also reviewed security arrangements in the Indian hinterland, particularly in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Senior officials of the home ministry have issued instructions to Delhi and Mumbai police to ensure that any terrorist action in the form of indiscriminate firing or bombs is either prevented or foiled.

The Indian Army and defence establishments in the Capital have been particularly secured so that they are not targeted by terrorists to avenge the cross-LoC strike.

New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence on Thursday said there has been no “downgrading” of service officers in rank parity vis-a-vis civilian staff, this even as serving and retired officers said it was reiterating previous orders.The MoD said: “The reiteration of rank equivalence is only for matters of assigning duties and functional responsibilities as is existing in different offices of the service headquarters of the Army, Navy and IAF having component of service personnel as well as civilian officers”. This has no bearing on civilian staff outside these offices.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The forces opine there cannot be multiple parameters for ‘equivalence’ of ranks. With the MoD letter there will be a separate equivalence, one for ‘functionality’, another on ‘Warrant of Precedence’ (WoP). There has to be only one regime of equivalence, they say,  based on WoP and aligned with relative pay-scales. — TNS

HOLD SWAY: Media can’t be the mouthpiece of the government of the day.

IN these difficult times in Indo-Pakistan relations, the biggest casualty on the Indian side has been the credibility of privately-owned Indian electronic media. Many of us have experienced how quickly the printed press folded up during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. The wonder is that under the Modi dispensation electronic media have lined up behind the government on its own. Many channels have become super patriots joining the most jingoist voices, but most channels have succumbed to the use of adjectives that give the game away. There is no fairness in presenting facts and it is a toss-up whether Indian channels are copying their Pakistani counterparts or chasing TRP ratings or both. We all honour soldiers who die in the line of duty and pay them due respect, apart from compensation to their families. But for our television channels to describe every such death as that of a martyr is stretching the use of the English language. And covering Pakistan, TV scrolls describe Prime Minister Nawaz Shatif’s presentation at the UN as a “rant”. Where is the dividing line between the duties of media as opposed to acting as a propaganda megaphone for the government?It is true that our private electronic media live in different ages. One channel has adopted what was in vogue 25 years ago, if not longer, in the West by de-sexing genders. Thus their cameramen and women are always “persons”. Another channel continues to beat its drums over the non-interview it had with Prime Minister Modi in how dramatically it has affected its TRPs.Are we then in the game of TRPs without any responsibility to be fair in our reporting? There is not a squeak from the concerned broadcasting organisations on the merits of unbiased reporting. In relations with Pakistan, anything goes, the harder the punch, the better. One channel seems to have opened a direct line to India’s RAW to get the lowdown on the inner recesses of the Pakistani state.What our electronic media do not realise in their cheerleading for chauvinist forces is that this phase will pass, as all phases do, but restoring their credibility with their audiences will be a long-haul problem. As their print colleagues will tell them, even after wearing sackcloth and ashes it took a long time to convince readers that newspapermen were trying to tell the truth.There are, of course, exceptional times such as during the Bangladesh war when media went with the swing. But mercifully, we are not at war with Pakistan and can attempt to present a fairer picture of what is happening. For instance, there was not one commentator to make the point that but for Ms Sushma Swaraj’s inability or unwillingness to make her presentation in English, half of its impact was lost. Except for South Asia, the world is not familiar with Hindi and listening to a translation can never have the impact of an original presentation.How then can we get electronic media to do a fairer job of reporting? One would have expected broadcasting organisations to take the call and seek answers. But they seem to be strangely tongue-tied leaving it to each channel to win its spurs in the propaganda war against Pakistan. The golden arches of TRPs are inviting them — and who cares about credibility?The record of press commissions in India is hardly inspiring. Rather, we must make a new foray in getting the combined weight of serious citizens to lobby against a pernicious trend that threatens to destroy the freedom of media. The forms can vary from small seminars to larger meetings and neighbourhood conclaves focused on one problem: how to keep media from becoming cheerleaders of chauvinist forces?Until the Emergency came, print media were patting themselves on the back that having fought for the country’s freedom, they were the great upholders of the freedom of the press. And yet more than 99 per cent of the press crumbled overnight. The moral of the story is that press freedom should be fought each day because it is the authority’s effort to exploit weaknesses. It would be unfair to paint all television channels with the same brush and the demands of TV as a medium are very different from those of print. But this is certainly a time for introspection if even a man of the calibre of Rajdeep Sardesai can fall a victim to chauvinist trends. The atmosphere is simply too corrosive. There is no substitute for self-policing and it is time for veterans of Indian TV to get together to frame a set of working rules that distinguishes between fair reporting and propaganda. It is not the task of private TV channels to beat the drums of chauvinism. Such an assertion will present two kinds of problems: pressure from the owners and the commercial wings in charge of TRP ratings.But this is a battle journalists have fought all the time everywhere. The question for TV journalists is that time has arrived in India and it is up to them to show their mettle. I am not disparaging the commendable efforts of many channels for their pioneering investigative reporting of trends and controversies and enlarging the Indian viewers’ ken by demonstrating to them the wonders of nature and animals. And some channels make room for serious discussions although the highly accented Indian English of one anchor takes away part of the charm. What I have described above relates to English language channels; channels in Hindi and regional languages are often even more extravagant in presenting news and views. They would of course need separate treatment.As a nation, where do we go from here? First, we must separate fact from fiction and draw clear lines between responsibilities of media and the task of governance. It is not the task of media to become cheerleaders of the government of the day. Second, broadcasting organisations responsible for overseeing TV channels must come out in the open and take charge.

US Ambassador to India Richard Verma (L) with CMs of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal and Arunachal Pema Khandu during a recent visit to Tawang. — PTI

Beijing/New Delhi, October 24

China today warned the US that any interference by it in the Sino-India boundary dispute will make it “more complicated” and “disturb” hard-won peace at the border, days after the US envoy in India Richard Verma visited Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as southern Tibet. India reacted saying there was “nothing unusual” about the trip to a state which is an integral part of the country.Asking the US to desist from interfering in the India-China border dispute, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China was firmly opposed to the visit. Referring to Verma’s October 22 tour to Tawang at the invitation of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Lu said the US envoy visited a “disputed region”. “We have also noted that the place visited by senior US diplomatic official is a disputed region between China and India. We are firmly opposed to his visit,” he said.China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet and routinely protests visits by Indian leaders, foreign officials as well as the Dalai Lama to the area.External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: “The US Ambassador visited Arunachal Pradesh, a state which is an integral part of the country to which he is accredited. There is nothing unusual in it.” — PTI

Will complicate dispute: China to Washington

• The place visited by US envoy is a disputed region between China and India. We are firmly opposed to it… It will only make the dispute more complicated —Lu Kang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman

Nothing unusual about it, says India

• The US Ambassador visited Arunachal Pradesh, a state which is an integral part of the country to which he is accredited. There is nothing unusual in it —Vikas Swarup, MEA spokesperson