Vice-Admiral Ajit Kumar P., a missiles specialist, took over as the new Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command (WNC) of the Indian Navy, here on Thursday, an official said.

He succeeded Vice-Admiral Girish Luthra who attained superannuation after an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades with the Indian Navy.

At an impressive ceremonial parade held at the Naval Air Station Shikra, the outgoing and incoming WNC chiefs were accorded a guard of honour before the formal handing over, and later Vice-Admiral Luthra was “pulled out” in true naval traditions.

An alumnus of the Sainik School, Kazhakootam in Kerala, and National Defence Academy, Pune in Maharashtra, Vice-Admiral Ajit Kumar was commissioned in the Indian Navy on July 1, 1981.

A missiles and gunnery specialist, he has served onboard frontline warships of both the Indian Navy and abroad.

He has a rare distinction of commanding six warships—the guided missile corvette INS Kulism, guided missile frigate INS Talwar, guided missile destroyers INS Mumbai and INS Mysore, besides including two foreign fighter vessels.

Ajit Kumar has also completed a Naval Higher Command Course and is an alumnus of the prestigiouis Naval War College, Newport, US.

He has earlier served with the WNC in initial specialist and command appointments and as Chief Staff Officer (Operations), here.

Later, he was the Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern Fleet, Commanding Officer of Gunnery and Missiles Training School, INS Dronacharya, Chief of Staff Southern Naval Command and Commandant of Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala, Kerala.

Immediately prior to his new appointment, Ajit Kumar was the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff, Naval Headquarters, New Delhi.

In recognition of his services to the country, he has been decorated with several honours including Vishist Seva Medal (2006), Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (2014) and the Param Vishisht Seva Medal this year (2019). IANS

Author Gita Mehta, who is also the sister of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.(Photo: Twitter/@kanak_news)

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 26

The US-based author and sister of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Gita Mehta, on Saturday declined the Padma Shri citing the timing of the selection on the eve of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Mehta, who was chosen for her work on the Indian history and culture, said she didn’t want any embarrassment to be caused to herself or the government.

“The timing may be misconstrued as it comes on the eve of 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” she said, expressing regret that she would have to decline the award.

Gita Mehta and her publisher husband Sonny Mehta have documented the Indian history and culture. Gita Mehta was awarded in the category of literature yesterday night.

The Padma awards this year come on the eve of Lok Sabha polls with the BJP all set to put up a strong fight in Odisha which is ruled by Gita Mehta’s brother Naveen Patnaik of the BJD.

The return of the Padma by Mehta caused a flutter on Twitter with people recollecting the 2015 award wapasi controversy, with many saying this time the award was returned by unexpected quarters.

Many Twitter visitors also questioned Mehta’s decision saying “Padma awards are an expression of the honour by the people of India, these awards are given to select few by the people of India and should not be seen as political.”

Jammu, January 10

The Pakistan army violated ceasefire for the third consecutive day on Thursday, shelling forward posts and civilian areas along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district inviting a strong retaliation from Indian forces, officials said.

The year 2018 witnessed the highest number of ceasefire violations–2,936–by Pakistan troops in the past 15 years along the Indo-Pak border.

“The Pakistani army resorted to firing and shelling on forward posts along the LoC in Poonch sector on Thursday morning,” officials said, adding there were no casualties or injuries on the Indian side.

Indian troops guarding the border retaliated strongly, he said.

On Wednesday as well, Pakistani troops had fired on and shelled the Kalal forward area in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district twice, they said.

The continuous shelling and firing on villages has set in a fear psychosis among the border dwellers.

With the latest incident, Pakistani troops resorted to firing and shelling along the LoC in Poonch for seven of first 10 days of the New Year.

The Pakistani army fired on forward posts along the LoC in Poonch district on Tuesday as well.

Despite repeated calls, made during Indo-Pak flag meetings, for restraint and adherence to the ceasefire understanding of 2003 for maintaining peace and tranquillity, the Indo-Pak border areas witnessed shelling and firing.

The chief of northern command, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, had on Monday visited forward areas along the LoC and reviewed security situation in Jammu and Rajouri districts, officials said.

Accompanied by White Knight Corps commander Lt Gen Paramjit Singh, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh visited forward posts of Rajouri and Akhnoor sectors to review the operational preparedness and the prevailing security situation, they said. PTI

Pak targets Gulpur, locals run for safety

Our Correspondent
Rajouri, January 9

The Pakistan army again resorted to mortar shelling and firing in the Khari Karmara and Gulpur areas of Poonch district around 9 am on Wednesday.

Around 5 am on Tuesday, Pakistani troops had resorted to heavy unprovoked shelling and firing on India forward posts and forward areas in the Chakan da Bagh area.

“Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation with small arms and also resorted to shelling with heavy-calibre weapons in the Gulpur sector. The firing was retaliated strongly and effectively,” said Lt Col Devender Anand, Defence PRO.

Sources said the shelling created panic among locals as mortar shells landed in fields in civilian areas of Khari Karmara in the Gulpur sector, forcing residents to run for shelter.

Around two or three mortar shells fell near the Sarla post manned by the Maratha Regiment. No loss to life or property was, however, reported from the area, the sources said.

The sources said Indian troops were retaliating effectively to Pakistani shelling and firing.

“The Maratha Regiment has blocked all infiltration routes, especially through the Rangar Nullah. Irked by the move, the Pakistan army for the last few days has been continuously targeting areas manned by the Maratha Regiment,” said the sources.

For the past many days, the Pakistan army has been targeting Indian forward posts in the Gulpur, Khari Karmara, Degwar and Chakan da Bagh areas of Poonch district.

In the US, several official and non-official agencies are involved in countering online radicalisation. We don’t seem to have paid focused attention to this issue. Our security agencies, Home Ministry, police forces and the National Security Council might assure us that they are taking steps, but there is no transparency regarding their specific contribution.

Vappala Balachandran
Ex-Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat

BY unearthing ‘terror mastermind’ Mufti Suhail’s conspiracy, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has disproved Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s assertion, made on May 23, 2016, that there was “no threat to India from the Islamic State (IS) as people of the Muslim community are against the IS”. Rajnath Singh had repeated this argument on March 15, 2018, saying that the IS would have no impact on India. He should have known that the IS is not supported even in Sunni-majority Arab areas, not to speak of Muslims globally.

The Home Minister is not alone in going wrong on the shadowy terror group. Mathew Olsen, Director of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), had told the Brookings Institution on September 3, 2014, that he had “no credible information that the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is planning to attack the US”. A year later, ISIL (IS) organised one of the worst mass killings in the US at San Bernardino on December 2, 2015, through a Pakistani-origin couple.

Thus, even knowledgeable people go wrong in assessing the danger from the IS. Some say that the IS would not be able to march into India like the way it captured Syrian-Iraqi territories. Others think that it would stealthily infiltrate foreign cadres into target countries on the lines of al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The first scholar to describe how they operate was US journalist James Kitfield. When the IS had not even made its appearance, he wrote in the National Journal Weekly in September 2006: “Global insurgency reacts to Osama bin Laden’s radical ideology almost like distant and seemingly disconnected light particles respond in unison to an unseen wave”. This is also called ‘Do it yourself terrorism’.

No doubt the IS had raised a spectacular army and captured 60,400 sq km during 2014-17 with 31,000 foreign fighters from 81 countries. By January 2018, this area had shrunk to 6,500 sq km through allied bombing and online propaganda was reduced by over 60 per cent. Still they are able to sneak into the minds of their adherents remotely and make them zombies to obey commands. The UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee acknowledged this in November 2018. The IS’ covert propaganda is able to bypass the internet and shift to “anonymous sharing portals like Sendvid.com, Justpast.it, and Dump.to and maintain its networking structure in the face of coordinated disruption”. The UN report of December 31, 2018, estimated that 20,000 fighters might still be present in IS-controlled areas.

The IS also motivates its retuning cadres to unleash terrorism in countries of their origin. Algerian Islamists who had taken part in the Afghan Mujahideen wars (1980-89) had started it on their return to Algeria, killing thousands in the 10-year civil war from 1991. I had envisaged a scenario like this in India through my column, ‘When the Boys Come Home’, in a prominent weekly on September 21, 2014.

A tragic example of this type of terrorism happened in Surabaya (Indonesia). The families of Dita Oepriarto, Anton Febryanto and Tri Murtano, including their minor children, blew themselves up on May 13, 2018, when they attacked three Christian churches. Oepriarto, a childhood education programmer belonging to IS affiliate Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), had spent time in IS-controlled areas.

Other countries are spending thousands of man hours decoding how such remote propaganda affects the minds of people beyond national borders and how to counter them. The European Union has a staff of 550 in its Radicalisation Awareness Network on cross-border issues such as asylum, migration, border control and terrorism. The Organisation for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest security-oriented inter-governmental organisation, has programmes to prevent online radicalisation, not all very successful. An article in New York Times in 2017 says that people tend to look up to online propaganda, being dissatisfied with the mainstream media.

In the US, several official and non-official agencies are involved in countering online radicalisation following the theme paper of December 2012 by Thomas Keen and Lee Hamilton, co-Chairs of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. We do not seem to have paid focused attention to it. Our security agencies, Home Ministry, police forces and the National Security Council might assure us that they are taking necessary steps, but there is no transparency regarding their specific contribution. We have no tradition of academic institutions being involved in such serious studies, except by think tanks that might produce occasional papers.

One of the basic requirements to prevent radicalisation is to maintain an inclusive society where justice is assured to all sections irrespective of their religions or castes. The UN General Assembly’s ‘Four Pillars’ of ‘Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’, adopted on September 8, 2006, and renewed every two years speak of “addressing conditions to the spread of terrorism”, including violation of human rights. Mufti Suhail had spoken about “the persecution of Muslims in India” as one of the reasons for his joining the IS network. We should introspect whether the ‘beef lynchings’ in some states on mere suspicion had created such ‘conditions’, especially when DNA tests by the National Research Centre on Meat had certified that only 7 per cent of the suspected samples were cow meat (between 2014 and 2017).

We should also introspect how far the NDA government’s misguided policy on Kashmir has contributed to this trend even after the May 24, 2018, recommendation by the National Security Strategies Conference to Rajnath Singh on holding talks with the Hurriyat and Pakistan to stop the slide. This introspection should include policy deviations such as considering ‘separatists’ as untouchables, policy excesses like treating stone throwers as terrorists and using pellet shots on demonstrators.

On December 29, 2018, masked youths entered the 14th-century Jama Masjid in Srinagar and hoisted Islamic State flags on the pulpit, akin to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s action of proclaiming the IS from the podium of the 12th-century grand mosque of al-Nouri in Mosul on July 4, 2014. It is hoped that the present J&K administration would fully support the Hurriyat-led joint resistance in countering this sacrilege.

Our Correspondent
Hamirpur, January 1

The district administration paid floral tributes to Capt Mirdul Sharma here on Tuesday. Capt Sharma made the supreme sacrifice on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, 2004.

The brave Army officer was on night patrolling in higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir with his troops when the nation was celebrating theNew Year.

Capt Sharma’s father Col JK Sharma (retd) said that the patrolling team was informed about infiltration from the Pakistani side. Despite darkness and possibility of an ambush, Captain Sharma decided to move ahead to protect the border. During a fierce gunfight with infiltrators, a bullet pierced the ribs of Captain Sharma from the left side and it proved fatal.

The young officer was just 26-year-old when he sacrificed his life for the nation.

MLANarender Thakur said, “Borders of the country are secure only because of our gallant soldiers. People must pay respect to the martyrs and their families who had given their children for the service of the nation.”

Deputy Commissioner Richa Verma and other officials of the district administration also paid tributes to the martyr. Many serving and retired Army personnel were present.

Washington, January 1

US President Donald Trump signed into law a legislation on Monday aimed at enhancing America’s leadership in the Indo-Pacific region, strengthening multi-faceted ties with India and calling out Chinese actions that “undermine” the rules-based international system.

Recognising the vital role of the strategic partnership between the United States and India in promoting peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region, Section 204 of the Act calls for strengthening and broadening of diplomatic, economic, and security ties between the two countries.

The Indo-Pacific is a bio-geographic region, comprising the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea.

In a statement, Trump shared the objective of the Congress with respect to maintaining the strength and security of the United States, but did not guarantee to abide by the effort of the Congress to dictate the policy of the US in external, military, and foreign affairs, or to require the executive branch to undertake certain diplomatic initiatives with international partners.

The Act reaffirms its commitment to the New Framework for the 2005 US-India Defence Relationship, Defence Technology and Trade Initiative launched in 2012; the 2015 Joint Strategic Vision for the Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, and 2017 Joint Statement on Prosperity Through Partnership.

Describing India as a major defence partner, the Act says this designation institutionalises the progress made to facilitate defence trade and technology sharing between the two countries, elevates defence trade and technology cooperation to a level commensurate with the closest allies and partners of the US.

It also facilitates technology-sharing, including licence-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies, after taking into account national security concerns; and joint exercises, coordination on defence strategy and policy, military exchanges, and port calls in support of defence cooperation between the two countries, the Act says.

The Act, which was introduced in April by Senators Cory Gardner and Ed Markey, who are chairman and member of Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, along with Senators Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin, endorses quadrilateral dialogue between the United States, Australia, India and Japan.

Such a quadrilateral dialogue, it said, is vital to addressing pressing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region in order to promote a rules-based order; respect for international law; and a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Act says.

According to the Act, it is the policy of the US to develop and commit to a long-term strategic vision and a comprehensive, multifaceted, and principled United States policy for the Indo-Pacific region that secures its vital national security interests and its allies and partners; and promotes American prosperity and economic interests by advancing economic growth and development of a rules-based Indo-Pacific economic community.

“The core tenets of the US-backed international system are being challenged, including by China’s illegal construction and militarisation of artificial features in the South China Sea and coercive economic practices; North Korea’s acceleration of its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities; and the increased presence throughout Southeast Asia of the Islamic State and other international terrorist organisations that threaten the United States,” it says. PTI  

New Delhi: Amid a distant Rafale deal shadow, two senior bureaucrats handling finance in the defence ministry have been posted out, months after being appointed by the government. The replacement for the top position of the financial advisor (defence services), or FADS, is an officer from the rival audit and accounts service, something that has sent the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) cadre into a shock.

Madhulika Sukul, who took over as the FADS in August, has been moved as secr ..

While it is undeniable that it has taken over three decades to bring the accused in this case to justice, and that our criminal justice system stands severely tested in that process, it is essential in a democracy governed by the rule of law to be able to call out those responsible for such mass crimes — Delhi High Court

Manoj Mitta

Though communal violence has been a serious and recurring problem for decades, it was not until 2012 thatany political leader got convicted in this connection. But then, former BJP minister Maya Kodnani’s conviction in a Gujarat 2002 case was overturned eight months ago by the Gujarat High Court. So the conviction now by the Delhi High Court of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar for his complicity in 1984 is the only precedent left and, given the quality of the reasoning displayed in the 207-page judgment, likely to be an enduring one.

Calling such mass killings “crimes against humanity”, the verdict provided a comparative perspective on the follow-up to Delhi 1984 and Gujarat 2002. The systems had evolved in the intervening period: the National Human Rights 

Commission (NHRC) came into existence in 1993 and the Supreme Court proved receptive to NHRC’s pleas to intervene in Gujarat cases. In fact, the HC might well have recalled that when NHRC first approached the Supreme Court in 2003 after the collapse of the trial in the Best Bakery case, Justice S Muralidhar himself was the advocate-on-record for NHRC.

What the HC verdict did point out, though, was that while in the Gujarat cases the Supreme Court had set up a special investigation team (SIT) within five years, a similar mechanism meant to reduce local influences was constituted for Delhi cases only last year, after a lapse of 33 years. The HC also bemoaned the absence in Delhi cases of the witness protection measures that had been adopted in the Gujarat context. There was also a reference to the Bilkis Bano judgment of 2017 for thwarting Sajjan Kumar’s attempt to take undue advantage of the delay in the registration of the FIR.     

After all, the FIR  was filed only toward the end of 2005 following the findings of the Justice Nanavati Commission earlier that year. And even that might not have happened had the action taken report (ATR) tabled by the Manmohan Singh government in August 2005 not been vehemently opposed in Parliament and outside. Despite all the evidence, the UPA government in the first instance rejected its findings against Sajjan Kumar and its minister Jagdish Tytler. The conviction came after another 13 years as the case had to cross yet another hurdle in the form of Sajjan Kumar’s acquittal.

The main ground for his 2013 acquittal was the alleged unreliability of the complainant Jagdish Kaur. Her testimony against Sajjan Kumar was discarded by the trial court merely because her 1985 affidavit before the Ranganath Misra Commission did not name him. The HC, however, accepted her assertion that she had very much talked about him in her Punjabi testimony and that the name went missing when translated into English. Besides, the HC  rightly stressed that the judiciary was in any event bound to go only by the evidence recorded during the trial and the manner in which it withstood cross-examination. It upheld Jagdish Kaur’s testimony on the basis of a rigorous cross-examination running into 78 pages.

In the big picture, this belated conviction of the first Congress leader exposes the Rajiv Gandhi government’s culpability for not only the carnage that took place on its watch, but also the systematic attempts to shield the culprits. Even the first judicial inquiry conducted by the Misra Commission, which otherwise earned the odium of doing a whitewash in its 1986 report, recommended a further probe to identify the many cases that had either not been registered or not been properly investigated. That is how, in 1987, the Jain-Banerjee committee for the first time recommended a case against Sajjan Kumar. And when that case was actually registered in 1990 and a CBI team sought to arrest him, they ended up being besieged by Sajjan Kumar’s supporters till his lawyers obtained an anticipatory bail, making a mockery of the rule of law.

Such contrived delays, disruptions and cover-ups ensured that other Congress leaders allegedly complicit like Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao (who was the home minister) and HKL Bhagat (whose East Delhi constituency saw more killings than even Sajjan Kumar’s Outer Delhi constituency) escaped accountability during their lifetime. The most prominent among those who are left is Kamal Nath, who, in a historic irony, became CM of Madhya Pradesh the very day Sajjan Kumar was convicted. Kamal Nath was actually given a clean chit by the Nanavati panel, but the allegations continue to haunt him. For all the embarrassment to the Congress, the ruling has also put the Modi government in a fix because of its call for a law on genocide and crimes against humanity.

(The writer has penned ‘When a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage’)