Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. File photo

Islamabad, August 14

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday urged the international community to play its due role in resolving the Kashmir issue with India.“It is incumbent upon the international community to play its role in the resolution of the regional conflicts, particularly the Kashmir dispute, in conformity with the UN Resolutions on the subject with a view to ensuring durable peace in the region,” Abbasi said in his address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan’s Independence Day.

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He said Pakistan desired to have positive and constructive relations with all countries of the world, especially with its neighbours, on the basis of sovereign equality.“The people of South Asia have suffered enormously in the last 50 years due to the festering conflicts. Until and unless those conflicts are resolved amicably, the people of the region cannot achieve prosperity and progress,” he added.Praising the freedom fighters of the country, Abbasi said, “We are greatly indebted to our ancestors for their sacrifices and we can repay that debt only by making Pakistan a free and independent country.”He noted that the recent transition of power through a democratic process was quintessential of the accelerated strengthening of democratic values in the country.Abbasi stressed on strengthening and reinforcing the state institutions so that they could play their prescribed role within the limits of law and the constitution.Asserting that a strong economy could ensure a strong defence, Abbasi said a moderate society guaranteed stability of the state, where people enjoyed all their fundamental rights and national resources were equitably and judicious distributed.Pakistan was created out of a partitioned Indian subcontinent on August 14, 1947. ANI

Army men near the police complex in Pulwama which came under Jaish attack on Saturday. Tribune Photo

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 30

At the crack of dawn on Saturday last week, three fidayeen militants stormed a heavily fortified police installation in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Their intention was to go for the maximum kills and their message was terse: Jaish-e-Mohammad is back, and it has the capability to mount deadly attacks deep inside the Kashmir valley.The Jaish, which faced near extinction of its cadres in the Valley till recently, has made a quiet entry in recent months into south Kashmir — the epicentre of the region’s new-age militants.The police now estimate that the Jaish has around a dozen militants in south Kashmir who operate in three units, one of which moves around the fringes of Srinagar.“We have reports that their two groups (with possible strength of six to eight) are floating in south Kashmir and one may be on the fringes of Srinagar,” Kashmir IGP Muneer Khan said, adding that another Jaish unit was suspected to be hiding in Tral sub-district.The Jaish militants operating in south Kashmir are believed to have infiltrated this year, with the latest unit of six to eight militants that operates around Pulwama town suspected to have infiltrated only a month ago. Abdul Mateen and Muhammad Bhai, both foreigners, are believed to be commanding the Jaish in south Kashmir, police sources said.The sudden surge in the Jaish strength in the Valley comes after years of lying low; even though, in recent years, it had launched devastating attacks against security installations along the Line of Control and the International Border.The Jaish was formed in January 2000 by militant cleric Maulana Masood Azhar, days after he along with two others were released in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in exchange for release of passengers aboard the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814. Azhar had spent six years in Indian jails before his release in December 1999.The group had emerged on the militant scene in Kashmir within months after its formation and marked a dramatic escalation in the conflict. The first attack, which signalled its arrival, targeted the Army’s 15 Corps Headquarters in the city here when an 18-year-old Srinagar boy detonated a car bomb outside its main entrance in April 2000.However, the militant group faced an existential crisis in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks on the United States and as Pakistan became a frontline ally in the ‘war on terror’, the Jaish faced desertions with its leadership staying quasi-neutral.In subsequent years, the Jaish strength came down and by July 2013 it had only eight cadres left in the Valley. The last known Jaish militants — Adeel Pathan and Chota Burmi — who operated in south Kashmir were killed in October 2015.So far, six Jaish militants — including the three foreign fidayeen, who attacked District Police Lines on Saturday last week — have been killed this year in south Kashmir. Two local Jaish cadres — both south Kashmir residents — have also died this year.Pulwama SP Mohammad Aslam told The Tribune that the police were investigating whether the three fidayeen, who attacked the police installation in which eight security men were killed last week, were part of the older group that was in the area for the past month or whether they had freshly infiltrated.“Some Jaish militants have managed to infiltrate and there is a movement of eight to ten militants in this area,” the police officer said.The entry of Jaish makes an addition to the number of insurgent groups and militants operating in south Kashmir, dotted with dense orchards and ringed by forests and mountains.Another police officer said the entry of Jaish militants would impact the overall security scenario in the region. “They are better equipped, better committed and better trained than militants from other groups,” he said.

FIGHTING TERROR: The US State Department”s “Country Report of Terrorism, 2016” notes that Pakistan has failed to act against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network

G. Parthasarathy

The Trump Administration is dithering and the President has inexplicably blamed his military commander, General Nicholson, for not securing “victory” in Afghanistan. This is naturally promoting unease in Kabul about what US policies are going to be in a country, where the 9/11 masterminds plotted and planned the attacks, under Taliban rule. There are, however, indications that despite the President’s dithering, the State Department, the Pentagon and even the White House staff are clear on how to proceed ahead. Trump is, therefore, expected to adopt the policies advocated by the US Congress and the professionals in his Administration, as he has done in relations with Russia, the Gulf Arab States and North Korea.Led by the ailing head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and once pro-Pakistani Senator John McCain, the US Congress is now proposing closer oversight of how US funds are utilised by the Afghan Government. The US legislation, for the first time, proposes “imposing graduated diplomatic, military and economic costs on Pakistan as long as it continues to provide support and sanctuary to terrorist and insurgent groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani network”. It links American assistance to “cessation by Pakistan of support for all terrorist and insurgent groups and playing a constructive role in bringing about a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan”. In diplomatic terms, it calls for “working through flexible frameworks for regional dialogue, together with Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other nations.” The proposed legislation also calls for strengthening the Afghan security forces and authorises the use of US forces to target militants of the Haqqani network, the Taliban and others. The US   House of Representatives is moving in a parallel direction, reflecting a broad national consensus on Afghanistan.In the meantime, the State Department’s “Country Report of Terrorism, 2016” has noted that Pakistan has failed to take action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, which continue to operate from “Pakistan-based safe havens”. The Taliban and the Haqqani network are described jointly with India-centric terrorist groups like Lashkar e Taiba and Jaish e Mohammed as “groups located in Pakistan, but focused on attacks outside the country.” The report avers that the Pakistan Government did not take any significant action against Lashkar and Jaish, “other than implementing a publicity ban on their activities”. This is the first time that the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Congress have come out so openly against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism across its borders. It now remains for President Trump to make up his mind on how to move ahead. Indications are that the US will not be averse to calibrated drone strikes on the Taliban and Haqqani safe havens within Pakistan. Trump takes a more cautious line on issues involving American lives than his advisers, though it remains to be seen how much isolationist advisers like Steve Bannon influence him.I had an occasion to spend four days last week in Kabul and the picturesque Panjshir Valley, which was the home of national icon Ahmed Shah Masood. Panjshir is the heartland of anti-Taliban sentiments. It is clear that the domestic military and diplomatic situation is challenging and complex. The role of Daesh (ISIS) is deliberately exaggerated by Pakistan to divert attention from its own pernicious role in backing the Taliban and the Haqqani network, which enjoy sanctuary and support from the ISI, on Pakistani soil. During the course of my stay, the Iraqi Embassy, located in the heart of Kabul, was attacked by the ISIS, in revenge for the ISIS defeat in Mosul by the Iraqi Army. The next day the famous Shia Mosque in Herat close to the Iranian border was attacked and 32 worshipers were killed. The Taliban imposed a 24-hour blockade of the strategic southern highway linking Kandahar to Kabul, effectively shutting down movement between the capital and southern Afghanistan. An American convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber near Kandahar, resulting in the death of seven soldiers. The internal situation remains complex, with First Vice President Rashid Dostum being accused of rape and influential leaders calling for a “Loya Jirga”, which would inevitably undermine the influence of the present dispensation. Afghanistan also faces significant external challenges. The most serious challenge comes from Pakistan, which is determined to make Afghanistan a client state, ruled by its proxies like the Taliban and the Haqqani network. There is recognition that Pakistan would like to promote a dialogue between the Taliban and the government, treating both as “equal participants.” China is lending formidable support to this Pakistani effort. The Russian effort to take the lead in Afghan “reconciliation” by joining China has not exactly been welcomed by the Afghans, especially as the Russians are known to have supplied weapons recently to the Taliban. While Iran joined India in backing the anti-Taliban “Northern Alliance” in the days preceding 9/11, Teheran has, in recent days, faced criticism because of its clandestine links with the Taliban, whose former supremo Mullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike, while returning from Iran. In these circumstances, Afghans openly and enthusiastically welcome India’s steadfast economic, military and diplomatic support. A major reason for this goodwill has been the economic assistance that India has provided, including building the Salma Dam to provide water and irrigation facilities for the Herat region, building a high voltage transmission line, bringing electricity across high mountains from Uzbekistan to Kabul, mid-day meals for school children, aiding dozens of micro-projects across the country and providing training facilities for thousands of Afghan students and professionals.The diplomatic and security challenges that India faces in Afghanistan are formidable, primarily because of the brazenness of Pakistan support for the Taliban. The stakes are high. An ISI-backed Taliban triumph in Afghanistan will stimulate and encourage a surge of ISI-sponsored terrorist activity in India. Afghanistan and India need to carry out a relentless diplomatic campaign worldwide against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Afghanistan will have to be supported in facing machinations by China and others like Russia, to give the Taliban increasing recognition, as a legitimate stakeholder in Afghanistan, with status on a par with the constitutionally elected Afghan Government. Priority also needs to be given to drawing up a five-year plan for economic assistance, with initial emphasis being given to improving connectivity through Chah Bahar in Iran.

China”s first domestically-built carrier ”Type 001-A”. Reuters file

Washington, August 30

China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond the country’s shores, a congressional report said.

Chinese navy ships in recent years have begun to conduct operations away from China’s home waters, including the broader waters of the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the waters surrounding Europe, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Consistent with these goals, observers believe China wants its military to be capable of acting as a force that can deter US intervention in a conflict in China’s near-seas region over Taiwan or some other issue, or failing that, delay the arrival or reduce the effectiveness of intervening US forces, Congressional Research Service said in a recent report.

China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s shores, the report said.

The CRS as the name indicates is an independent and bipartisan wing of the US Congress, whose experts prepares reports and research materials for US lawmakers on issues of their interest for them to take informed decision.

Prepared by experts, these are not considered as an official policy of the US Congress.

In its report, dated August 18, the CRS said additional missions for China’s navy include conducting maritime security (including anti-piracy) operations, evacuating Chinese nationals from foreign countries when necessary, and conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.

“The issue for Congress is how the US Navy should respond to China’s military modernisation efforts, particularly its naval modernisation effort. Decisions that Congress reaches on this issue could affect US Navy capabilities and funding requirements and the US defense industrial base,” it said.

Although many of China’s long-distance naval deployments have been for making diplomatic port calls, some of them have been for other purposes, including conducting training exercises and carrying out antipiracy operations in waters off Somalia, it said, adding that China is now looking at military bases overseas.

Its first such military base has been established in Djibouti.

“In March 2017, it was reported that China might deploy a contingent of Chinese marines to the commercial port at Gwadar, Pakistan, to help maintain security at that port,” CRS said.

The report said some observers are concerned that a combination of growing Chinese naval capabilities and budget- driven reductions in the size and capability of the US.

Navy could encourage Chinese military overconfidence and demoralise US allies and partners in the Pacific, and thereby destabilise or make it harder for the US to defend its interests in the region. PTI

The Indian Army has ordered to vacate villages near the Indo-China border in Sikkim.

Following the almost two month old stand-off between India and China over Doklam, the Indian Army has asked the villagers near the Indo-China border in Sikkim to vacate. Nathang, a village 35 kilometers form the border has been ordered to be vacated immediately.

However, the reason for such an order remains unclear. Hundreds of soldiers are moving from Sukhna towards the border and the order could have been issued to accommodate the soldiers in the village. It could also be a precautionary order to prevent villagers from harm in case any skirmish takes place.

While the Nathang villagers have confirmed the heavy troop movement in the area, the Army has said that it is a part of an annual exercise which takes place in September but has been advanced this year. The Army has also said that this troop movement is a regular maintenance exercise since the snow has melted and severe maintenance work has to be carried out. India is supposedly maintaining a strict “no war, no peace” mode.

The Chinese media had published an editorial titled “New Delhi should come to its senses while it has time” and said that,

The countdown to a clash between the two forces has begun, and the clock is ticking away the time to what seems to be an inevitable conclusion.

This editorial has triggered worldwide speculations and analysis. Some of the Chinese defense analysts have taken to the internet to suggest to the two nations that war is economically not feasible. The Indian government has repeatedly asked its Chinese counterpart for a dialogue to solve the dispute. However, the Chinese have maintained that India must withdraw troops if it wants a peaceful dialogue.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 7

The Army is in the middle of a “socially sensitive issue”. With its military farms slated to be shut within three months, it does not know what to do with more than 25,000 head of cattle at these farms. Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha will chair a meeting tomorrow to deal with the issue of allocating the cattle to the Agriculture Ministry for further use by the Animal Husbandry Department.Some of the cattle at the 39 military farms across the country are of a specific high-yield variety. These farms meet 14 per cent of the 210 million litres of annual milk supply needed for the 1.3 million strong Army. The rest is procured through various coops.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)These   farms, started by the British  in1889, have outlived their utility as milk supply is no more an issue.  The farms are spread over 20,000 acres of prime Defence land that is now needed for new projects, such as upcoming ground-based missile storage, aviation, new raisings and for housing for jawans.The decision to close down the military farms was in fact taken in 2013 after a meeting of Army Commanders. While 29 farms were to be shut between 2013 and 2015, the remaining 10 were to be closed by 2017. However, there were some hiccups in implementing the decision and the MoD handed over 30 acres of land under the Military Farm Meerut to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for developing a cow breed.Earlier, the cantonments were largely isolated from towns and cities. But with rapid urbanisation, most cantonments are now located within population clusters. The ‘white revolution’ in the seventies changed everything and now milk availability is  a non-issue. On June 1 this year, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh reeled out figures at a public function, saying “India is a world leader in milk production for the past 15 years… milk production is (now) 465.5 million tonnes”.The military farms are located in places like Ahmednagar, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Secunderabad, Mhow, Jhansi, Dimapur, Guwahati, Jorhat, Panagarh, Kolkata, Ambala, Jalandhar, Agra, Pathankot, Allahabad, Lucknow, Meerut, Kanpur, Ranikhet, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil and Udhampur.Personnel at the military farms, including more than 20 officers, will be progressively transferred to other wings and departments.

39 farms in all

• At Ahmednagar, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Secunderabad, Mhow, Jhansi, Dimapur, Guwahati, Jorhat, Panagarh, Kolkata, Ambala, Jalandhar, Agra, Pathankot, Allahabad, Lucknow, Meerut, Kanpur, Ranikhet, Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil and Udhampur

File photo for representation only.

New Delhi, August 15Three-year-old Maru had a tiring day at the Red Fort on Tuesday but that did not stop him from dutifully springing up when the National Anthem played.The fawn-coloured Labrador was on its four feet—or paws—the moment his trainer stood at attention as the anthem played to mark the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence. He kept an eye on his trainer, relaxing only when the policeman by his side did so.Maru was among the 20-odd dogs put into service by the Delhi Police to ensure security at the 17-century iconic monument, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation.“He has been here at the Red Fort since 1 am, so has got tired,” said Maru’s trainer, who accompanied him to the Mughal-era fort.During the course of the celebrations, which began at around 7:30 am, Maru and two other Labradors were seen slouching below the chairs kept on the front lawns in the audience section, clearly tired after hours of hard work, sniffing around for danger.Maru’s canine colleague, Mahan, also three in dog years, was at one point seen frolicking with his trainer.“They are fed vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. They eat fruits, vegetable and rice in the morning and meat in the evening. Diet is very important to keep them fit,” the trainer told PTI.A senior police official said the Delhi Police has 60-70 dogs in service at present.“About 40-43 are sniffer dogs and 15 of them trackers. About 20 canines were deployed at the Red Fort today, while the rest were stationed at public places such as stations and markets,” he said.Besides the Delhi Police, paramilitary forces too had put their dogs into service.Rex, a 10-year-old dog attached to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), was among those guarding the venue.“We either take in dogs when they are six-to-nine months old and then train them or we get them from the Army Veterinary Corps in Meerut, where dogs undergo training for 15 months or so,” the police official said.During the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 110 dogs were on duty, he said.Besides Labradors, the Delhi Police also has German Shepherds and other breeds. — PTI

China’s strong-arm tactics with India and Bhutan with regard to the trilateral border dispute in the Doklam region could push New Delhi further away from it and may make it an enemy, feel Macau-based China experts quoted by the South China Morning Post.

“The protracted eyeball-to-eyeball border stand-off now over 40 days old in a desolate region of the Himalayas, has not only raised tensions between the two Asian giants but could also potentially threaten China’s trade and infrastructure One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative,” the South China Morning Post has quoted experts, as saying.

Currently, both sides are blaming each other for escalating the dispute by deploying troops in the area.China has called on India to withdraw its troops first before agreeing to any kind of dialogue.

The South China Morning Post quoted Macau-based military expert Antony Wong Dong as warning Beijing to avoid playing psychological warfare with New Delhi.
 

“It (China) should realise that even if it defeated India in a war on land, it would be impossible for the PLA Navy to break India’s maritime containment,” he said, pointing to the importance of the Indian Ocean as a commercial lifeline for Beijing.

Official statistics indicate that China is heavily reliant on imported fuel, as over 80 per cent of its oil imports travel via the Indian Ocean or Strait of Malacca.

“Unlike Southeast Asian countries, India has never succumbed to China’s ‘carrot and stick’ strategies.India is strategically located at the heart of China’s energy lifeline and the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, and offending India will only push it into the rival camp, which [Beijing believes] is scheming to contain China by blocking the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean,” Wong added.
 

The South China Morning Post quoted Sun Shihai, an adviser to the Chinese Association for South Asian Studies, as expressing his concern over what he described as probably the worst military stand-off in more than three decades.

He cautioned that this could fuel anti-Chinese sentiment in India, as mistrust and hostility between the two countries runs deep.

He said that if the border row is not properly handled, China’s efforts to expand its diplomatic and economic influence beyond the Asia-Pacific region through OBOR could be severely impacted.

“India is one of the most important strategic partners for China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ because of its geographic location,” Sun said.
 

The latest border dispute relates to the remote Doklam Plateau, known as the Donglang region by the Chinese.

China’s assertiveness in protecting its sovereignty “at all costs”, will only deepen the political trust deficit between China and its Asian neighbours, feels Dr.Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, Research Associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.

“China’s ‘my way or the highway’ approach has complicated problems further,” he added.

In India, China is widely blamed for the standoff in Doklam after it attempted to build a motorway in the area. Beijing insists that the road construction project is on its side of the border.

India has so far refused to join OBOR due to sovereignty concerns over the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan,both of which New Delhi considers Indian territories.

However, experts on both sides agree that the odds of the two countries going to war are slim, and would prefer a diplomatic solution.

Taking it too far: A tank should have no place on any campus.

S Nihal Singh

THE amazing proposal of JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar to station an Army tank on the campus is the tip of the iceberg. In reality, it represents the second phase of the Sangh Parivar’s programme to change the idea of India.The first phase of the ruling dispensation was to “catch’em young”, as the old adage would have it. It began with the indoctrination of young schoolchildren by revising textbooks, banning foreign language instruction. For older school-goers, a drastic revision of textbooks was undertaken, with the Mughal period airbrushed, new heroes lauded and the myths of the RSS propagated. The indefatigable RSS warrior, Dina Nath Batra, is still at it, calling for editing of India’s Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore to take out words of foreign origin.   The second phase of the BJP’s programme is the militarisation of Indian society. The Parivar has always been jingoistic in its nationalism and what the world witnessed in the 20th century through the rise of Nazism and Mussolini’s fascism comes naturally to it. Employing the venue of the JNU has a ring of triumphalism for the Parivar’s supporters because the institution has long been in its sights. The JNU is all that the Parivar abhors: free thinking along several shades of the Left, a fraternity of rebels, as every such institution should be, and scholarship combined with testing the limits of conventions. Like the early morning drills with staves that are the staple of the RSS, the Parivar prizes obedience also to the myths of a bygone age.Thus the appeal of Jagdesh Kumar to the former Army chief and now a junior minister, Gen VK Singh (retd), to get him a tank for the university is a natural follow-up of the Parivar’s philosophy. Nationalism has to be clothed in the Tricolour to be effective after the examples of Hitler and Mussolini. And with the elections of 2019 looming on the horizon, few high-level decisions are taken without the electoral calendar in mind. The Parivar misses few occasions to conflate religion with politics. Its very ideal of a Hindu India derives from the nation being a Hindu country with Muslims and other minorities living on sufferance, as it were. Religion can be a potent force, as we have seen in the Arab world in more recent times, but it is ultimately raw nationalism that, given the right circumstances, drives peoples to frenzy.Cow protection vigilantes, fake or genuine, and their fondness for lynching those transporting cattle often to death are one aspect of mixing religious creed and the Hindu veneration of the cow with criminal activity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dilemma is that he cannot cross the red lines drawn by the RSS and after long delays in commenting upon brutal acts of barbarity, he has now chosen to pass on the buck to the BJP-ruled states. But the problem will not go away.The problem of the militarisation of the country is of a different order. It is, in a sense, moulding the mind of the young into an attitude of obedience because discipline is a sine qua non of a good Army. And in the Parivar, discipline and obedience are valued above all virtues. The Parivar is obsessed with discovering the cause of foreign conquerors ruling India over centuries. Its simple conclusion seems to be that it was the people’s unpreparedness for war and the martial arts that let foreigners invade and rule. Thus far, its recipe is two-fold: the morning drill with staves substituting for guns and building of and conjuring up a golden ancient age in which India was a superpower.We have it on the authority of Modi that modern planes flew in ancient India, a country then proficient in cosmetic surgery and transposing heads and reaching a very high level of knowledge. His speech at an opening ceremony of a Mumbai hospital lauding the wonders of ancient India was quickly deleted on the web, but his beliefs are a reminder that he spent his formative years in the RSS cradle.Thus far, the JNU Vice-Chancellor’s suggestion of installing a tank on the campus has invited much derision and a riposte from the JNU Teachers Association suggesting that the university cannot be made into a “theatre of war”, and that the JNU was not a “boot camp”. But the ruling dispensation is serious about its intent to spread the message across institutions of learning that the armed forces must be an object of adulation and the discipline that keeps them alert and ready for all eventualities is the new motto of the patriotic student.This new campaign to reboot the country’s student population is bound to fail because although the BJP’s student wings will do all they can to burrow their way into unions’ leadership posts, the young are by nature rebellious and somewhat wild. It is an acknowledged fact that every conservative in later life was once a fire-breathing Left-wing student. If the space for dissent in student politics is closed, the young can only go to extreme philosophies to express themselves. There is little reason to doubt the seriousness of the Parivar in militarising the student body. But it remains an open question whether it has thought through the seriousness of the consequences of its decision on the country’s future. Leaving students with no option but to espouse extremist creeds to express their rebelliousness even as the country’s security forces are already fighting Maoists and others is a bad idea.The occasion for pronouncing Kumar’s words of wisdom was the celebration of the Kargil Vijay Diwas for the first time in the university’s history. Whether the tank will duly arrive remains to be seen but the thought processes of the Parivar and its supporters are clear. The RSS has reluctantly given up shorts for trousers for its obligatory morning drill but its thought processes have not changed.