Talking about the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to the US on June 8th, state department spokesperson John Kirby said in a press briefing, that the ties between the two nations represented a ‘special relationship’.

Every full-term prime minister since 1984 has addressed a joint meeting of the House and Senate.

Ahead of his key address at a joint meeting of the US Congress next month, the Barack Obama government has asserted that it is looking forward to continue to work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on all fronts to strengthen ties between two nations.

Talking about the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to the US on June 8th, state department spokesperson John Kirby said in a press briefing, that the ties between the two nations represented a ‘special relationship’.

He will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, and the first since 2005. The first-ever Indian premier to make such a speech was Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, followed by PV Narasimha Rao in 1994 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000. Prime Minister Modi will be the fifth, speaking 11 years after his predecessor, Congress leader Manmohan Singh. Every full-term prime minister since 1984 has addressed a joint meeting of the House and Senate.

DEHRADUN: In the run-up to the passing out parade at Indian Military Academy (IMA), the Commandant’s Parade was held on Thursday to mark the end of training of 565 Indian and 45 foreign gentleman cadets from six friendly foreign countries.
Lt Gen S K Saini, who took over as the 46th commandant of IMA, reviewed the parade and complimented the gentlemen cadets on their “excellent’ drill movements. Congratulating the cadets on successful completion of their training, Saini said, “Army is one of the most outstanding institutions in the country and all of you have made the wisest and the most honourable choice of joining this organization irrespective of the hardships that you will have to endure in the future.”
Saini urged cadets to uphold the traditions of the Indian Army and keep the trust that people of the nation have on them.
The passing out parade for the cadets will be held on Saturday and is likely to be attended by Lieutenant General Sarath Chand, General Officer Commanding-in Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Jaipur based South Western Command.

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Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 7

The plans of the Himachal Government to start helli-taxi services may have failed to take off but the launch of a passenger service by a private airline Air Himalaya Services, connecting Shimla, Chandigrah, Kullu and Dharamsala here on June 9 will go a long way in promoting high-end tourism.The state capital here has been deprived of air connectivity for the last almost four years when the last flight took off from the Jubbarhatti airport near here in September 2012. With little hope of resumption of regular flights from the state capital here as the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, the launch of the nine seater aircraft will come as a major relief for not just tourists but also locals.Town and Country Planning and Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma will formally flag off the first flight from Shimla on June 9. The passenger service will be provided by Air Himalaya Services in collaboration with IIC Technologies Limited, Hyderabad. The flights will link Chandigarh, Shimla, Kullu and Dharamsala through Cessna Grand Master Cervan 9 seater aircraft.“In order to attract high-end tourists and to promote tourism in the state we are making efforts through these non-schedule airline operators to connect the entire region with air connectivity,” said Vijai Singh Mankotia, vice chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board.Mankotia further said in order to woo high-end tourist, reliable air connectivity is a must. “We are proposing to take up with Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India the necessity to link Dehradun-Shimla and Dharamsala-Jammu- Leh, as this will help give a fillip to tourism,” he said.Past efforts of the state government to urge the Centre to provide subsidized air fare in Himachal on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir and North East have failed to yield results. Efforts to seek viability gap funding from the Planning Commission to bring down the fares also failed as exorbitant air fares was also a major hitch.“The fare for the flight from Kullu to Chandigarh and Shimla to Dharamsala has been fixed at Rs 6,999 and inclusive of all taxes it will cost the customer about Rs 8,000,” said Budhi Prakash Thakur, Chief managing Director of Air Himalaya Service.He said his endeavour was to provide affordable and reliable air services to the locals as well as tourists as the absence of good air connectivity was a big deterrent to tourism promotion.The fare for the Shimla-Chandigarh has been fixed at Rs 2,500. The flight from Chandigarh to Kullu will take off at 8.50 a.m, from Kullu to Chandigarh at 9.50 a.m, Chandigarh to Shimla at 10.50 a.m, Shimla to Gaggal at 11.30 am, Gaggal to Shimla at 1 p.m and Shimla to Chandigarh at 2.20 pm daily.The tourist arrivals to Himachal have been on the rise over the past years and the statistics reveal that a total of 1.71 crore tourists visited Himachal. The state presently has a total of about 2,600 registered hotels.

First flight on June 9

• The state capital has been deprived of air connectivity for the last almost four years
• Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma will flag off the first flight from Shimla on June 9
• The service will be provided by AirHimalayas in collaboration withIIC TechnologiesLimited, Hyderabad
• The flights will link Chandigarh, Shimla, Kullu and Dharamsala through Cessna Grand Master Cervan 9 seater aircraft

Airfare

• The fare for the Shimla-Chandigarh flight is Rs 2,500
• The flight from Chandigarh to Kullu will take off at 8.50 am and from Kullu to Chandigarh at 9.50 am, Chandigarh to Shimla at 10.50 am, Shimla to Gaggal at 11.30 am, Gaggal to Shimla at 1 pm and Shimlato Chandigarh at 2.20 pm every day

Dinesh Kumar
India’s 58-year-old Defence Research and Development Organisation has 50 laboratories, eight defence public sector units and 40 ordnance factories. However, India’s armed forces are still dependent on imports for 70 per cent of their defence equipment .

The Bofors gun played a critical role in the 1999 Kargil War. For long the “Bofors syndrome”impacted India’s big-ticket defence buying.

Another scam, another ban. This has become the standard practice of every Union government each time allegations of kickbacks surface after a defence deal is signed. The latest major company to be banned is Agusta Westland owing to allegations of kickbacks in the purchase of 12 AW 101 transport helicopters. The government, which signed the contract in February 2010, froze it in February 2013 barely two months after a first batch of three helicopters arrived in December 2012. But even these three choppers fitted with special security features, meant for high-value dignitaries such as the President and the Prime Minister, have been unable to fly. Reason: they are grounded due to a crisis of spares and after-sales support along with the absence of political clearance. India’s continuing legacy of banning firms started in the mid-1980s when the government blacklisted the Swedish company, Bofors and the German company, HDW following allegation of graft in the purchase of 410 pieces of the 155mm FH-77B Howitzer and four Type 209 submarines, respectively. The “Bofors syndrome” ended up causing such an atrophy in decision making that for almost two decades thereafter successive governments either shied from purchasing big-ticket items from any major private foreign vendor or ended up banning companies each time allegations of kickbacks surfaced. Purchases during this period were mostly made on a government-to-government basis which, though relatively kickback-free, is an expensive route that limits options.Due to severe shortcomings in indigenous capability despite a 58-year-old Defence Research and Development Organistion with 50 laboratories, eight defence public sector units and 40 Ordnance Factories, India’s armed forces are dependent on imports for 70 per cent of their defence equipment. Due to this high degree of import dependence, every such ban has adversely impacted the modernisation of the armed forces and therefore India’s defence capability. The fact is only a limited number of foreign firms are producing high-end defence equipment. In the corporate world’s fast- paced environment, firms keep acquiring or merging or form conglomerates. They are also constantly collaborating with, sub-contracting or outsourcing components to other firms located in various countries. This has combined to complicate the world’s defence military-industrial complex. Thus, a ban on one company may in effect tantamount to blacklisting other firms from which India may have bought an entirely different set of defence equipment. Blacklisting on occasions has been wholesale. For example, when allegations surfaced that the former Director-General of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) had taken a bribe, the government ended up blacklisting six firms — four foreign and two Indian — at one go in March, 2012. Among the four foreign companies was the Israeli Military Industries (IMI) which, in 2009, had won a $300 million contract for building a chain of ordnance factories in Bihar to manufacture ammunition for the Bofors 155 mm artillery guns. In addition to depriving the artillery of much-needed ammunition for the gun which played a critical role during the 1999 Kargil War, the government then almost put into jeopardy upgrade programmes of the Jaguar, MiG-21, MiG-29 and Mirage-2000, fighters, the An-32 transport aircraft, the M-1 series helicopters and supply of the Phalcon radars for India’s Airborne Warning and Control System. The other three foreign firms banned were Singapore Technologies (meant to supply ultra-light Howitzers), Germany’s Rheinmetall Air Defence and Russia’s Corporation Defence. Such is the level of petty politicisation that in February 2000, then defence minister George Fernandes went to the ridiculous extent of ordering an inquiry into every defence procurement made since 1985. Yet corruption in defence purchases seems near epidemic. In 2005 alone, the CBI was investigating as many as 47 cases of defence procurement. In the subsequent five years (2005 to 2010), India went on to cancel deals involving import of 400 anti-material rifles, 197 light helicopters (to replace the ageing Cheetah and Chetak) and 400 pieces of 155 mm towed artillery guns (from South Africa’s Denel) after years of technical trials and negotiations. Then in just three years, from 2012 to 2014, the Central Vigilance Commission referred nine cases for inquiry; the CBI registered 23 cases in connection with defence purchases and the Defence Ministry debarred 10 firms for 10 years. After spending much time and money, the fact remains that in most cases, starting with Bofors, investigative agencies have been unable to obtain evidence. Neither are firms taken off the blacklist. Due to the blacklisting of Bofors and Denel, the Artillery has been unable to add a new gun for the last three decades. It currently has less than the original 410 155 mm guns in service which is a far cry from the original 1,840 Bofor guns that were planned to equip 92 artillery regiments and 3,600 guns envisaged by 2025. Similarly, the Indian Navy, which is currently down to just 13 conventional submarines, lost an opportunity to acquire more HDW submarines. What a waste!As it is India’s procurement procedure involves 13 different agencies reporting to different functional heads. There are, by turn, eight stages of processing. Each consists of nine to ten approval points, with each approval point having at least three submission points. With India expected to spend about $100 billion over the next decade on modernising the armed forces, surely there is a need to further simplify procedures and consider devising pragmatic policies in case allegation of kickbacks surface. Bribes must be investigated and the guilty punished but cancelling deals and blacklisting a firm in today’s global village after such lengthy and cumbersome procedures that is always followed by a long delivery schedule is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. It only harms the country’s armed forces and national security considering that “Make in India”, although ideal, is currently only a slogan.

dkumar@tribunemail.com

Sartaj Aziz. PTI file photo

Islamabad, June 6

Pakistan is not desperate to resume peace talks with India, a top official has said.There was no restlessness on the Pakistani side for a dialogue, Sartaj Aziz, the Adviser on Foreign Affairs to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was quoted as saying in a news report on Monday.But he quickly added on Sunday that if South Asia had to see peace, there had to be “coordination first”.Aziz also said that India never opened a window of opportunity for dialogue and goodwill with Pakistan.The Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying that all developments in this regard were sabotaged when the talks between the countries were postponed after the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot in January.“It is a very strange thing to say as it was decided here on December 9 that the dialogue would resume but then the Pathankot incident occurred and everything vanished into thin air,” Aziz said.Aziz was speaking during Geo News show ‘Naya Pakistan’.He referred to Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement on the “slowly closing” window of goodwill and dialogue with Pakistan.Parrikar had said that Pakistan separated terrorists between “good ones and bad ones”.“They (India) say they will talk if we (Pakistan) make some progress on terrorism but we say that they (India) should talk on all issues, including Kashmir,” said Aziz.“The whole world agrees that India and Pakistan should have composite dialogue.” IANS

Kochi, June 4

The Army’s decision to dismiss a sepoy who refused to remove his beard on religious grounds has been upheld by the Kochi Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal.An application had been filed before the Tribunal by Maktumhusen challenging the order of his discharge from military service for refusing to remove his beard.Maktumhusen had joined as sepoy in Army Medical Corps in April 2001 and was transferred to 371 Field Hospital in 2010.On his request, the Commanding Officer had granted him permission to grow beard on religious grounds.He was given directions to apply for fresh ID card imposing conditions that he had to give an undertaking in writing to keep the beard for remainder period of his service. However, the permission was withdrawn later. — PTI

I MARRIED a girl from a civil background who had no clue about matters military. All she knew was that we wore the olive green uniform and defended the country deployed at the ‘border’. Blissfully unaware of the hierarchy of the organisation, it took a while for her to understand the difference between a GOC (General Officer Commanding) and a JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer). The jargon used by my colleagues was Greek to her and she found the use of abbreviations in writing very amusing.Curious like a kitten, she would bombard me with questions: What do we do when there is no war? Why do we have so many types of dresses to wear? Why do soldiers wear a woollen beret even in summer? Why do we drink standing and not sit in parties when all chairs are empty? Why does the Commanding Officer salute me when in uniform? It took some effort to educate her about our customs and traditions.Married to an aviator gave her a sense of pride in her circle of friends and one got a lot of attention and ‘likes’ even when Facebook and Whatsapp were not conceived. It was only after a couple of helicopter crashes and a few deaths in the squadron that reality dawned upon her. The Army was not about picnics and golfing alone, we had serious business to do and the risk to life was higher than any other profession. The agonising separations that followed due to one’s postings to the Siachen Glacier and the Valley introduced her to the concept of God. Her baptism into the Army was complete when the Kargil war broke out and she would feel the pain of every family which received ‘body bags’ from the frozen frontiers.    As I grew in service, she got involved in the welfare of families and children of troops under my command. Dealing with cases of marital discord, counselling children and efforts to improve their quality of life became her priority. My professional commitments did not give me enough time for my own family. Single-handedly, she reared up our children, and before I realised, they grew up into confident youngsters ready to explore their dreams. Wedded for two decades now, her approach to life is regimented. Before any ‘project’ in the house, she holds a family ‘conference’, giving out the ‘aim’. Options are discussed and she decides upon the ‘most preferred option’. She takes into account ‘contingencies’ and keeps ‘reserves’. A ‘recce’ is carried out and she insists on ‘feedback’ after it is accomplished to ensure ‘economy of effort’. Having started the journey as a fiancée of a Captain, she has traversed a long distance and stands tall. As I fade away from the olive greens, all that remains for me is to salute this person who stood by me without demanding any acknowledgement.