NEW DELHI: With just three weeks to go for the closure of cl ..
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NEW DELHI: With just three weeks to go for the closure of cl ..
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Afghan President said the spectre of violence needs to be removed. Reuters file

Washington, November 15

Asserting that Islamabad’s support to violence has not benefitted either Pakistan or Afghanistan, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said that the “undeclared war” between the two neighbours must end.

Ghani said the spectre of violence needs to be removed and that Pakistan needs to support direct discussions between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

“The undeclared war between Afghanistan and Pakistan must end,” he told a Washington audience through video conference from Kabul.

“We have not supported any movement against Pakistan from Afghanistan. The Afghan soil is not being used. We’ve exercised immense restraint and control because we seek a cooperative relationship,” Ghani said in response to a question at the School of Advanced international Studies of the John Hopkins University on Monday.

Of the view that there is a need to define “what is a normal relationship” between Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said Kabul can offer a lot in the way of cooperation. “We are the key to Central Asia. How will Pakistan get to Central Asia without a stable Afghanistan?” he asked.

Ghani said Afghanistan and Pakistan need to together agree with the US and the rest of the world community on counter terrorism. These three sets of relationship, he said are the key.

“From the day that President Donald Trump announced the South Asia strategy, I extended the hand of friendship. We have engaged in several rounds of discussion,” he said, adding that Afghanistan and the US have arrived at a document on what is their expectation, what needs to be done to translate commitments into reality and to help reduce the level of violence in moving forward to lasting peace.

Ghani said that he has not seen “urgency” from the new Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding holding concrete dialogue with Afghanistan to fight terrorism or to assist in holding fruitful talks with the Taliban.

“We have not yet seen the sense of urgency. We hope that sense of urgency can be brought to the picture. We have a framework which is a Afghanistan-Pakistan agreement. The key is to move from talking to taking action,” Ghani said.

“Our national interest is to keep engaging with Pakistan. We seek a stable Pakistan. We need to see substantive and measurable change. As of now that substantive and measurable change with the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has not been seen. This is what needs to take place,” said the Afghan president.

Ghani said that the Taliban is not in a winning position. “Let them disclose their casualties. Let them answer to the mothers who have lost their children. Let them answer to the wounded and let them answer to communities that because of their interference, have been deprived of education, of health, of services. Where is the positive model of the strength?” he said. PTI

Lt Gen NS Brar (Retd)

The year 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War I. ‘The War to End All Wars’ or ‘The Great War for Civilisation’ did not achieve what the belligerents or its protagonists imagined. Neither did it end ‘Before Christmas’, as the British expected, nor ‘Before the Leaves Fall’, as per the German objectives. The armistice was signed at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 in the railway carriage of Marshal Ferdinand Foch in the Forest of Compiegne, north of Paris. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. November 11 is commemorated as Remembrance Day.

Major-Gen Ganga Singh (Maharaja of Bikaner) was a member of the Imperial War Council in 1917. India was a separate signatory to the Treaty of Versailles and a founding member of the League of Nations. It was the only non-independent territory to have this status. Ganga Singh was the sole Indian or ‘non-white’ representative at the signing of the treaty. The iconic painting, The Signing of Peace, shows an imposing Ganga Singh in uniform with the traditional safa.

The Great War was dominated by technological developments of the barbed wire, heavy artillery, magazine-filled rapid-fire rifles and belt-fed machine guns. All contributed towards the butcher work. The industrialised fighting changed the nature of war. About 70 million military personnel were mobilised and 16.5 million killed. Of the million horses employed, only 60,000 survived. India provided 1.73 lakh horses, mules and camels for the war and recruited over 14.40 lakh men, sent more than 13.81 lakh for service overseas, of which 74,187 officers and men were killed and another 70,000 wounded. Of the killed, 13,516 names are inscribed on the India Gate Memorial, New Delhi, completed in 1933. India bore the cost of these men, besides an outright contribution of £100 million towards the overall war effort. India’s contribution was never fully acknowledged by Imperial Britain. Independent India remains indifferent, labelling it as ‘not our war’ and participating reluctantly in events commemorating the war centenary.

An Indian soldier wrote home from the Western Front: And so the war is raging by sky and land and sea,/And underneath the water, five kings are fighting three/The cannon roar like thunder, the bullets fly like rain,/And only the hurt, the maimed and blind will ever see home again. (Shrabani Basu; For King And Another Country.)

Renewed interest and research prompted by the war centenary 2014-18 has thrown up material on India’s critical contribution, especially in the initial phases on the Western Front and in the closing stages in the Middle East. While the larger issues of empire, colonialism, class and its effect on an entire generation impacted the world at large, the war also left some memorable terms and phrases on the military and everyday lexicon. Even vernacular languages felt the effect. When the German warship ‘Emden’, prowling in the Bay of Bengal, shelled Madras harbour and the city on September 22, 1914, causing mass evacuation, it brought the war to India before Indian troops went into action on the Western Front. The Tamils, evidently impressed with the demonstrated German capability, coined a new word — ‘emden’, meaning ‘an enterprising, resourceful and meticulous person’. Sikh soldiers returning from the war and evidently impressed by officer ranks went on to name their children Kaptan, Major, Karnail and Jarnail Singh.

The war produced some outstanding poetry and prose, mostly by young men who saw the horrors first-hand in the trenches. Some are universally inscribed on memorials and cemeteries. The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen, published in The Times on September 21, 1914, has come to be the universal ‘Ode of Remembrance’ read at most commemorations: They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn./At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We shall remember them.

Lt Col John McCrae, a Canadian, seeing poppies near the grave of his dead friend, in lament wrote In Flanders Field: In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row,/That mark our place; and in the sky/The larks, still bravely singing, fly/Scarce heard amid the guns below.

In Flanders Field struck a chord with the public and poppies soon came to be associated with the war dead. Poppy wreaths are today symbolically laid on war memorials. Some countries like Canada have a poppy imprinted on the car number plate to signify the owner as a veteran. Remembrance Day is also called Poppy Day. In India, we do not have any such symbolic association to remember and commemorate the war dead, though in our tradition and culture marigold flowers find prominence both to celebrate and to mourn. In Indian life, colours hold especial importance. White is widely accepted as the colour of peace and purity. Yellow symbolises sanctity and therefore yellow marigold are used on auspicious occasions while saffron represents courage and sacrifice.

The Armed Forces Flag Day observed on December 7, since 1949, is the only official annual event related to the soldier. It is a day dedicated to the collection of funds from people for the welfare of the armed forces personnel. Perhaps it would be appropriate to institute the saffron marigold as our symbol of recognition of the dead soldier and upgrade the Flag Day into Remembrance Day.

Innefu an AI & Predictive Intelligence Research Lab showcased their solutions to Indian Army on Artificial Intelligence at Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow MP. The two day seminar saw discussions on the increasing application of artificial intelligence in military context.

Artificial intelligence has a wide scope of applications in military context and is widely getting used by Armies all over the world to enhance their capabilities and optimize resources. Innefu showcased their trademark product – Prophecy which is in use multiple intelligence organizations in the country and abroad. Prophecy has trained Artificial Intelligence models to provide valuable insights such as predicting border infiltration routes, identifying potential suspects, predicting CFV’s, border incidents, force preparedness, intelligence grading and validation etc

Prophecy is a Big Data Analysis framework developed by Innefu. It uses state of the art AI models for Text analytics, Image and Video Analytics, Satellite Images and Predictive Intelligence specifically trained for Law Enforcement Agencies. The system merges data from disparate sources including CCTV/Body worn cameras, crime dossiers, Intelligence inputs etc under one roof for a 360-degree view.

Pakistan is indeed a strange country beyond any sense of rationalism. Only three days ago Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari presented a strategic conflict resolution model for Jammu and Kashmir with the intent that the international community could get India to negotiate on the alleged dispute.

Since his election to office, Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged India a number of times to engage in talks without offering any commensurate commitment towards cessation of sponsored terror in Jammu and Kashmir or elsewhere in India.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which identifies national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse, has placed Pakistan on its grey list for its failure to take sufficient action to curb financial networks that support and assist terror-related activities.

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Down to just $8.5 billion in foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan, which has been struggling with a failing economy, has just been given a short lease of life in the form of a $3billion deposit and similar quantum of energy support, by Saudi Arabia.

Even as Pakistan reportedly seeks a $9-10 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organisation majorly controlled by the US, on 26 October, 2018, Pakistan took the decision to lift its internal ban on the JuD and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), headed by 26/11 mastermind and well-known terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed. Both the organisations and Saeed had been banned by a presidential ordinance after they came on the UN Security Council terror list. Saeed recently challenged the ordinance on grounds that the Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has taken no action to convert the ordinance into law within the prescribed 120 days.

The United Nations Security Council had designated JuD as a terrorist organisation under Resolution 1,267 after the Mumbai attacks. In 2014, the US administration had added JuD in the global terrorist organisations’ list.

Though Khan’s government has the option of extending the ordinance for another four months after which if not converted to law by the legislature, the ordinance will lapse, it hasn’t.

Most times, it’s extremely difficult to understand Pakistan as a nation. At one end, its citizenry fully acknowledge that Saeed and his organisation only mean trouble for Pakistan’s already low international reputation, especially at a time when the nation is in dire straits on the economic front. But internally, there is, a fairly large segment which is enamoured by the JuD and FIF’s social activities. The organisation under its original avatar Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was at the forefront of rescue and relief work during the 2008 earthquake in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and runs several charity organisations which draws to it a degree of emotional support but does not manifest into political dividend.

Since the JuD creates no internal disturbances and largely focuses on terror activities in India (more specifically in Jammu and Kashmir) and to an extent in Afghanistan, it’s supported by the deep state and evokes a positive response from common citizens.

Fund collection drives in the name of jihad in Jammu and Kashmir are extremely popular. However, the reputation it carries internationally, especially after the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks, has placed it on watch lists and constant surveillance. Branded as friendly terrorists in the parlance of Pakistan’s strange internal security environment the JuD’s virulent anti-India stance helps keep it afloat and accepted despite a $10 million bounty on Saeed’s head.

It’s not as if the JuD’s nuisance potential is not recognised by the deep state. A senior retired US Army officer mentioned that when the Pakistan Army Chief was once privately queried on why doesn’t, in the interest of better India-Pak relations, the Pakistan Army stop the JuD from carrying out infiltration into Indian territory, the reply was that: it was a good safety valve to let out the steam. He felt that by being focused towards India, the JuD remained a strategic asset which could otherwise be an immense nuisance internally if restrained from its objectives.

None can, however, explain how Pakistan runs the risk of large scale hostilities with India given that the JuD’s actions lead to events that act as triggers for India to respond militarily.

Pakistan appears convinced that India is unprepared to risk a nuclear conflagration and therefore feels confident that it can continue this policy within India’s limits of tolerance. A greater Indian demonstration of will could act as a restraint on Pakistan’s use of JuD as a strategic asset.

The above notions now appear at risk. Clearly, the combined effect of national financial bankruptcy, FATF monitoring, application for IMF bailout, India’s diplomatic offensive, the lack of any commensurate Chinese initiative for economic bailout, and the questioning about the viability of coercive debt traps in nations partnered by China for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (Pakistan being one of the flag bearers with its CPEC), should place Pakistan under immense pressure. The only explanation for Pakistan remaining fairly unconcerned about the risk it is running for — a potential meltdown financially as well as from a law and order angle — is that it realises its own nuisance potential. Its geostrategic location being such it demands international attention.

The US under President DOnald Trump has displayed a higher level of coercive capability against Pakistan but at the end of the day it’s only Pakistan’s cooperation which can stabilise Afghanistan to allow the US to leave with its head held high. Its strategic nuclear assets remain a source of great worry so a meltdown is not something that the international community can ever allow in Pakistan.

The deep state led by the Pakistan Army thus has its stakes high and is willing to run risks. Actions against Saeed and JuD constitute disturbing the internal balance, and drawing down from a proxy war against India — that Pakistan perceives it is winning — is not acceptable. So, nothing is likely to happen on the lapse of the ordinance.

At the most, a second ordinance for another 120 days will be issued and a forced constitutional amendment could well be on the cards to overlook the JuD and 66 other organisations which come under the purview of the ordinance. While many in the Pakistan government will offer oversight as a reason for this lapse with supposed ‘more important’ issues occupying Khan’s mind, it is clear that Saeed, JuD and FIF are strategic assets in more ways than just terrorists aimed at India. They give enough cause for concern to those who worry for Pakistan’s overall nuisance potential especially in the context of the compulsive issue of strategic nuclear assets. The more that threat is subtly played out, the greater the chances of bailout packages being made available. As stated earlier rationality is not something which can be applied in analysing Pakistan.

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 6

Lt Gen YK Joshi, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Fire & Fury Corps, on Tuesday interacted with troops deployed in sub-zero temperature on the rugged and mountainous locations of western Ladakh on Diwali-eve.

Lt General Joshi greeted the troops and their families on Diwali.

He complimented the soldiers for their service to the nation in remote and inhospitable terrain and weather conditions.

Later in the day, the GOC paid homage to martyrs at the Kargil War Memorial, Drass, and also interacted with troops.

United Nations, October 31

India has slammed Pakistan for raising the Kashmir issue at a UN General Assembly session, saying it has become Islamabad’s habit to misuse any forum for “narrow political gains” and asserting that the right to self-determination cannot be abused to undermine a nation’s territorial integrity.

First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Paulomi Tripathi was responding to Pakistani envoy Maleeha Lodhi’s remarks at the session that the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination had been suppressed for decades.

Lodhi said the Kashmir issue would remain on “the UN agenda until the Kashmiri people are allowed to exercise their will, according to the agreed method prescribed by the Security Council–a plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations”.

“We reject the unwarranted reference made by one delegation to the state of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India,” Tripathi said at a UNGA Third Committee session on Tuesday on Elimination of Racism, Xenophobia and Right of People to Self-determination.

She said it had become Pakistan’s habit to misuse any forum for narrow political gains.

“In reality, it is the people of India as well as those of our region and beyond who have to suffer most egregious violation of human rights inflicted by terrorism emanating from beyond our borders,” she said.

“The right to self-determination cannot be abused and misrepresented with the aim of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a Member State,” Tripathi said.

She asserted that self-determination had long been recognised as the right of peoples of non-self-governing colonies and trust territories to independence and self-government. Pointing out that there were still 17 non-self governing territories which are in various stages of decolonisation, Tripathi said the international community must step up efforts to reach the conclusion of this long-drawn process.

She described Palestine as the “unfinished task” in the realisation of the right of people to self-determination, saying India is committed to the cause of the people of Palestine and the country had substantially scaled up bilateral development partnerships and increased contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

On the issue of racism, Tripathi said despite efforts made in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, these pernicious ills continued to persist in different forms and manifestations.

“Rise of exclusionist ideologies inciting discrimination and violence threaten to subvert the globalised economic order and social cohesion,” she said stressing that there is need for comprehensive legal and administrative responses to counter emerging challenges.

She voiced India’s concern over the alarming rise in use of digital space for dissemination of racist and xenophobic material as well as for recruitment, networking and fundraising by groups espousing these ideologies.

“We must acknowledge that racial equality and freedom of expression need not be pursued in a zero-sum manner,” she said, adding that private entities, including conventional and social media and civil society, needed to develop and observe codes of conduct that embodied commitment to racial equality and non-discrimination.

Immunities enjoyed by the social media platforms for contents by users must be counterbalanced with responsible content moderation and norms for removing objectionable contents on voluntary basis, Tripathi said.

She further said that complementary domestic action and international cooperation is necessary to effectively implement the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to realise inclusive growth envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. PTI

THE INDIAN ARMED forces is bulging and greying.

That is partially owing to what it first thought would make the services attractive to young talent. Following repeated representations by the armed forces, the Union government substantially raised salaries and perks of its personnel through multiple pay commissions and the recent One Rank, One Pension policy. This, however, has led to a problem of plenty, as even officers who have been superseded during promotion are not leaving the force. Earlier though, such officers would opt for early retirement rather than work under junior officers. According to the Army headquarters, the number of officers who took premature retirement after being superseded every year came down to 170 from around 300 in the last two years. Thus, the Army has more senior officers and fewer vacancies.

Also, owing to ballooning salaries and pension bills, the government has no money for modernisation of the defence forces. While the ideal ratio between revenue and capital expenditure in the defence budget should be 60:40, it is 83:17 now. For instance, in this year’s defence budget, the Army’s revenue expenditure (salaries, excluding pensions) was Rs1,28,076 crore, while the capital allocation for modernisation was only Rs26,688 crore.

So, Army chief General Bipin Rawat plans to make the 13 lakh plus Army leaner and meaner by whittling down troops and turning it into a technology-driven force. Four committees, headed by the military secretary and director generals of perspective planning, financial planning and infantry, were formed this April to conduct studies on restructuring the Army headquarters, force reorganisation that includes pruning, cadre review of officers and review of terms and conditions of junior commissioned officers and other ranks. This month, six regional Army commanders along with Rawat met in Delhi and brainstormed on the recommendations of the committees. The recommendations have been sent to the ministry of defence.

Restructuring became a priority in 2016, when defence minister Manohar Parrikar set up a committee under Lt General (retd) D.B. Shekatkar to suggest measures to trim, redeploy and integrate the manpower under the defence ministry to have an “effective military”. Shekatkar was an obvious choice because he, as additional director general of perspective planning, was involved in the 1997 exercise of reducing 50,000 troops. The government accepted 65 of 99 recommendations made by the Shekatkar panel, including redeployment of 57,000 troops to combat formations.

To begin with, the Army plans to cut 50,000 troops in the next two years and another one lakh in five years. Rawat wants to start with an overhaul of the Army headquarters in Delhi. The Directorate General of Military Training, which has nearly 40 officers and hundreds of supporting staff, can easily be merged with the Shimla-based Training Command of the Army, as their functions like training plans for operations, war games and joint training overlap.

The next step would be shutting down its divisional headquarters, comprising about 10,000 officers and men. The committees suggest closing down 25 of 40 plus division headquarters, except those functioning in Jammu and Kashmir and under the mountain strike corps on the eastern border. That would save around 350 officers and several thousand men working under them, who could then be redeployed in operational areas to improve the Army’s teeth-to-tail ratio, an officer explained. Combat troops fighting on the frontlines are the ‘teeth’ of the Army, and the supply or maintenance or support troops are its ‘tail’. Military experts say that against a fighting element of approximately 9 lakh soldiers, there are 4.5 lakh uniformed personnel in the combat support services along with six lakh civilian employees.

Lt General Vinod Bhatia, former director general, military operation, who was part of the Shekatkar Committee, said the need to rightsize the Armed forces is to meet the imperatives of raising cyber and space commands and to cater to the growth of army aviation, electronic warfare and unmanned aerial vehicle units, which are the future of the Army.

The Military Engineering Service (MES), with more than 80,000 personnel, is another white elephant. Seventy per cent of its Rs14,000 crore budget is spent on salaries. The MES, said officials, can be easily reduced to one-third of its strength by outsourcing the maintenance services to cantonments and military stations in peaceful areas. Likewise, the corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME), the third largest force in the Army after the infantry and artillery, can be brought down to 30,000 from around 42,000 personnel. Vehicle repair and servicing can be outsourced to the manufacturers, who now have service stations in most border areas. Only the maintenance of specialist vehicles should be given to the EME. The Army Service Corps, which provides ration to soldiers, too, needs to close its butcheries and resort to procurement through trade. Also, those in the Corps of Signals can be redeployed to fight cyber and electronic warfare.

Also, the military secretary, who is conducting cadre review of officers, will suggest measures to reduce the intake of permanent cadre and to enhance the recruitment of short service commissioned officers. “We should induct more short service recruits (say five years), as it will not only reduce pension bills, but also make the armed forces young and stronger,” said Lt General Mohinder Puri, former deputy chief of Army.

Lt Gen Bhatia, on the other hand, talked about synergy in armed forces. “Indian military is among the least ‘joint’ major militaries in the world, and can optimise resources especially by in-house reforms enabling joint intelligence, planning, training, communications, logistics and force development prior to structured joint operations,” he said. A proposal for creation of two joint theatre commands—western theatre command for Pakistan and an eastern one for China—is under consideration with the government.

India is not the only nation in attempting to prune its armed forces. In 2012, the United Kingdom announced to cut the strength of its army to 82,000 combatants by the end of this decade. Similarly, China is planning to reduce three lakh of its 23 lakh army personnel by 2020. The Russian army has done away with large-size divisional headquarters, and the US had announced a reduction of 80,000 troops by 2017.

But, downsizing an army is not an easy exercise. China took three years to deliberate before the reforms were made public. In India, with elections round the corner, the government will have to be cautious. States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, from where the armed forces get maximum recruits, would be annoyed. The Congress has already criticised the move. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “Instead of creating the promised two crore jobs per year, the Modi government is hell bent on destroying more jobs.” Shekatkar, however, said that giving jobs was not the real task of the Army. Major (retd) Ved Prakash, chairman of the ex-servicemen cell of the Congress, said the government should spell out its plan—whether the move is only to enhance combat strength of our armed forces or it intends to retrench people.

BJP spokesperson on economic affairs Gopal Krishna Agarwal, however, said it was the Army’s decision, and not the government’s, to downsize the troops. “We are trying to expedite the modernisation of defence forces,” he said. “To my knowledge, several pending proposals for defence procurement have been cleared by the government.”

Sadly since Independence, India’s tryst with this sensitive post has been increasingly time serving, patronising or political.

 In the Indian narrative of the 26 ministers of defence till date, only Jaswant Singh could claim any functional and emotional affinity with the military. (Representational image)