Pune, December 13

The Indian Army should not be looked upon as a job provider organisation, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said here on Thursday, and warned personnel who feign illness or disability in order to avoid duty or get benefits.

He assured all help to former and serving soldiers who have actually suffered disability in the line of duty.

“Aksar dekha gaya hai ki log Bhartiya Sena ko ek employment ka jariya manate hai, naukari hasil karane ka jariya (It is often seen that people feel the Army is a means of employment, a means to get a job,” he said. — PTI

Photo for representation only.

Shirdi (Maharashtra), December 6

A 38-year-old retired Army jawan was arrested for allegedly firing four rounds in the air from his licensed shotgun here early on Thursday, police said.

The incident took place on Saibaba Palkhi Marg near Hotel Sai Kausalya around 1.30 am, they said.

“The accused, Pushkaraj Singh, a resident of Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, fired four rounds in the air from his licensed 12-bore shotgun. He was accompanied by his two friends at the time of the incident,” police inspector Arvind Mane said.

Before that, the accused also threatened some people in a nearby locality, he added.

“The shotgun as well as 10 cartridges was recovered from the accused and he was arrested,” Mane said, adding that it was being ascertained if Singh had consumed liquor. — PTI

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 28

Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan) was reconstructed during the reign of the then Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh at a cost of Rs 1.35 lakh in the 1920s.

As the gurdwara building was in a poor condition, the Maharaja had taken the initiative to rebuild the shrine in the town where Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life.

The Pakistani authorities have been displaying a glass case containing a shrapnel of a bomb in the shrine’s courtyard. A plaque next to it reads that the bomb was dropped by the Indian Air Force during the 1971 war. The shrine, the plaque says, was saved as the bomb had landed in the well on its premises.

The Kartarpur corridor was earlier envisaged when Gen Pervez Musharraf was the President of Pakistan. A tender was floated, following which 50 per cent of the road for the corridor was constructed on the Pakistan side.

The then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had offered a golden palanquin in 2005 after paying obeisance at the gurdwara.

In 2017, a Parliamentary Committee led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had ruled out the construction of the corridor, citing security issues and India-Pakistan hostilities.

Kartarpur Sahib is considered to be the oldest Sikh shrine in the world. Its foundation stone was laid in 1572. Maharaja Ranjit Singh had got its dome gold-plated, besides offering a palanquin. The existing structure, it is learnt, was raised by Lala Shayam Dass in 1911.

Admiral Sunil Lanba is scheduled to visit the Nakhimov Naval School and Admiralty Shipyard that is building Lada-class submarines of project 677. The non-nuclear Amur-1650 submarine – an export option of the Lada-class submarine – is one of the contenders in India’s project p75I for six non-nuclear submarines for the Indian Navy.

India and Russia are exploring newer avenues for defence cooperation. In this connection, Chief of the Indian Navy Admiral Sunil Lanba is currently on a four-day visit of Russia starting Monday. On the first day of his visit, Lanba is holding bilateral discussions with his counterpart, Admiral Vladimir Korolev, commander-in-chief of the Russian Federation Navy (RuFN).

“At Moscow, the Admiral will have discussions with General VV Gerasimov, Chief of General Staff and First Deputy Defence Minister of the Russian Federation and Mr. Dmitriy Shugaev, Director, Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) of the Russian Federation,” the Indian Navy’s statement read.

The Indian Navy’s statement indicates that the two countries remain undeterred by US sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and is likely to soon clear pending deals in the maritime domain.

Earlier this year on July 6, Sputnik reported that India and Russia had started discussions on joint construction and development of a nuclear submarine at a very cost effective rate at an Indian shipyard. Going by the proposal, the two countries intend to develop a prototype for under $200 million following which the Russian firm would transfer the technical know-how and related documents to the Indian shipyard.

Only last week, India and Russia concluded a $1.5 billion guided missile frigate deal under which two 3,620-ton Admiral Grigorovich-class vessels will be purchased off the shelf by India while two other frigates will be built at a state-owned shipyard in Goa, southern India. India has so far leased two nuclear-propelled submarines from Russia, including the Chakra, which is currently in service.

Admiral Lanba will also visit the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and will deliver a talk on the “Indian Navy’s Perspective on Maritime Security.” He will also lay a wreath at Piskarev Memorial Cemetery in memory of the victims of the Siege of Leningrad.

Senior Superintendent Police Suhai Aziz Talpur led the security operation that foiled the brazen attack by members of the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, in Karachi. Photo: Twitter

Karachi, November 23

A fearless woman officer of the Karachi Police, who was once abandoned by relatives in her village for joining a private school, on Friday saved the lives of many Chinese diplomatic staff when heavily-armed terrorists stormed the mission in the Pakistani city.

Senior Superintendent Police Suhai Aziz Talpur led the security operation that foiled the brazen attack by members of the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, in Karachi.

She ensured the terrorists, armed with nine hand-grenades, assault rifles, magazines and explosives, did not reach the diplomatic staff inside the consulate building.

Police said the terrorists were carrying food supplies and medicines, suggesting they had planned to take hostages.

But as soon as they reached the gates of the consulate, the police team took positions and retaliated. Two police officials were killed in the gunfight in which all the attackers were also neutralised.

Suhai hails from a lower middle-class family of Bhai Khan Talpur village in Tando Muhammad Khan district of Sindh province. She joined the police force after clearing elite Central Superior Services exam in 2013, The Express Tribune reported.

“When my parents decided to enrol me at a school, most of our relatives started taunting my family. So much so, that my family had to leave our village and move to a nearby town,” she told the daily.

Her father Aziz Talpur, a political activist and writer, always dreamt big for his daughter.

“My relatives cut off ties with me because I wanted Suhai to study as they were only in favour of religious education,” Aziz told the daily. “But I vowed to provide my daughter quality education.”

Suhai started her primary education at a private school in Tando Muhammad Khan and joined Bahria Foundation for her intermediate studies.

Her educational path then led her to pursue B.Com from the Zubaida Girls College, Hyderabad in Sindh province.

“My family wanted me to become a chartered accountant but I found the job to be very dull as it had no social value,” she said. “That is when I appeared for CSS and cleared it in the first attempt.”

She credited her success to hard work and her upbringing. “My parents are nationalists. As a child, they used to emphasise that I memorise Sindhi poetry. This developed my interest in literature and history, leading me to secure top marks in both the subjects in the CSS (Central Superior Services) exams.” PTI

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 22

India and China have finally firmed up dates for resumption of their bilateral military exercise ‘Hand-in-hand’, with the two-week drill set to kick off at Kunming in south-east China on December 10.

The Indian Army will be represented by the 11th battalion of the Sikh Light Infantry. The exercise was originally planned in October-November last year, but China backed out in May following the 73-day (June 16-August 28) Doklam standoff. China was to be the host, as per an arrangement to conduct it in each country by rotation. India had hosted it in 2016.

So far, there have been six editions of the exercise. It was suspended for five years (2010-14) after China refused visa to then Northern Army Commander Lt Gen BS Jaswal claiming Jammu and Kashmir was a “disputed” territory. In a turnaround to that stance, the two armies conducted their first-ever joint drill in eastern Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) in October 2016.

The talk of resuming the exercise had started in March this year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had met at an informal summit in Wuhan and issued “strategic guidance” to their respective militaries. “Build trust and have a mechanism to prevent incidents in border regions,” said a statement issued from Wuhan.

In June, almost an year after Delhi and Beijing were locked in military stand-off at Doklam, the People’s Liberation Army troops conducted a three-day tactical exercise close to last year’s confrontation point at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan border. The only difference was India was informed in advance. The drill was conducted from June 6-8 near Chumbi Valley, a Chinese territory located between Sikkim and Bhutan that India literally overlooks — 25 km at widest and 2 km at its narrowest. 

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/video-on-demand/asia-in-the-great-war/india-the-forgotten-army-10909062

Vivek Katju
Ex-secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

President Donald Trump’s aggressive Afghanistan and South Asia policy has proved to be a hollow bombast. The US is in strategic retreat in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Taliban is in the ascendant; it has lost the will to militarily stem the Taliban’s creeping influence, if not, control, amid continuing instability. The world’s pre-eminent power has also given in to Taliban demand for direct diplomatic engagement.

US special adviser Zalmay Khalilzad’s meetings with the Taliban and his interactions with regional countries lead to the inevitable conclusion that the peace-making process will not be entirely Afghan led or owned but that deals will be cut between the US and the Taliban who will be guided by Pakistan. Such a process has the danger of further eroding NUG’s (National Unity Government) already strained cohesion and image. The unity of the army depends on Afghan politics holding together. It is important to ensure that different ethnic groups do not adopt independent means to safeguard their individual interests. The recent Taliban assault on the Hazaras in Ghazni may impel them to do so, for instance. President Ashraf Ghani is consulting with all political entities to form a multi-ethnic advisory group so that peace making is broad based. As the Taliban raises atavistic fears among many non-Pushtoons, it is uncertain if Ghani’s attempts to instil confidence will succeed.

Just before Khalilzad began his second regional tour, Russia organised an inter-governmental multilateral meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow on November 9. The Taliban and NUG’s High Peace Council representatives attended the meeting. Afghanistan’s neighbours and other Central Asian states also participated. The US attended as an observer. India attended the meeting through two retired diplomats. In not sending serving officials, India followed the NUG example. India and NUG’s attempts to create ‘non-official’ characters to the representations cannot mask the reality of the two countries being in the room as participants with the Taliban. While in the past Russia had failed in such endeavours, it succeeded on this occasion. This was because regional countries are sensing that international diplomacy on Afghanistan is changing. Therefore, participation in new multilateral processes is in their interest.

The Russian initiative was a valid exercise in the present Afghan context. However, along with some other countries it can only play positive or negative roles, encourage or complicate peace making. It cannot make peace. That can only be done by the principal parties to the continuing conflict — NUG, Taliban, the US and Pakistan. The last two may deny that they have a direct role in making peace. However, there can be no movement without them.

The US-Taliban negotiation process would not be easy, though some goodwill gestures may be made to show apparent progress. These may include the release of some prisoners and occasional ceasefires. Pakistan released Taliban leader Mullah Baradar who had been in its custody for many years, but his present influence on the group is unknown. Major problems between the Taliban and Pakistan, on the one side, and the US and NUG on the other include the presence of foreign troops and power sharing between the Taliban and NUG.

At the Moscow meeting, the Taliban maintained its stand that the first requisite to peace was the departure of foreign forces. Expectedly, it did not show a willingness to engage NUG. It is, though, signalling a readiness to talk to NUG, but only if the US indicates a firm withdrawal time table and some physical movement in that direction takes place. Some months ago, President Ghani had accepted that the withdrawal of foreign forces can be part of NUG and Taliban negotiations. The Taliban had then rejected the entire Ghani package.

Taliban’s intransigence flows from the US and NUG’s inability to militarily weaken it. Therefore, it has no need to be flexible. Besides, the Taliban retains full Pakistani support. It remains to be seen if it has modified its approaches on governance and human rights. Power sharing will not be easy if it wishes to restore the entire theological structure of the Islamic emirate as obtained under Mullah Omar. At the Moscow meeting, the Taliban claimed credit for eliminating opium cultivation during its rule in Afghanistan. This was no doubt to demonstrate the efficacy of its administrative systems in comparison to NUG’s weak governance and continued opium production. These Taliban claims are false: opium production was stopped for a year during its rule to staunch oversupply, and today, it benefits from the opium trade.

As a new chapter opens in Afghan affairs, India has to employ a supple strategy to safeguard its interests. This should include the continuance of full support for the Afghan government and also vigorous pursuit of its assistance programme. This is a fundamental basis of the goodwill that India has across all sections in Afghanistan. India should separately interact with all ethnic groups, especially those with whom it has had excellent ties in the past. There is a coincidence of interests with them both in the Afghan and the regional contexts.

The Modi government did well to send representatives to the Moscow meeting even if they had formally only a listening brief. It is inconceivable though that on the meeting’s sidelines Indian representatives would not have exchanged salaams, and, perhaps, more with Taliban representatives. These contacts should continue. In the past Pakistan ensured that India was out of international diplomacy on Afghanistan. Now, it will be a pity if India voluntarily shuts itself out by refusing to develop contacts with the Taliban. Contacts do not imply either support or endorsement but generally they are essential for participation in the game of nations.

The government said HAL required 2.7 times higher man-hours compared to the French side for the manufacture of Rafale aircraft in India.

New Delhi: The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) failed to become an offset partner in the Rafale deal as there were several unresolved issues it had with French company Dassault.

In the documents submitted before the top court, the government claimed that the issues pertained to lack of common understanding between HAL and Dassault Aviation.

“The contract negotiations could not conclude mainly due to unresolved issues related to 108 aircraft to be manufactured in India. These issues pertained to lack of common understanding between HAL and Dassault Aviation on following,” the documents said.

It said HAL required “2.7 times higher man-hours compared to the French side for the manufacture of Rafale aircraft in India”.

Congress has claimed that Dassault has been pressurised by the government to do away with the HAL as strategic offset partner by saying the future of India’s aerospace industry has been destroyed by snatching Rafale from HAL.

Referring to earlier aborted deal, the document said Dassault was required to undertake necessary contractual obligation for 126 aircraft (18 direct flyaway and 108 aircraft manufactured in India) as per request for proposal  requirements and contractual issues with HAL on manufacturing of 108 jets in India could not be resolved.

The submissions were made in the document titled “Details of the steps in the decision making process leading to the award of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft order”, which were made public by the Centre on Monday. The inter-government agreement (IGA) was signed by the defence ministers of both countries on Sept 23, 2016.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of forcing the French company to select a Reliance group firm of Anil Ambani as an offset partner to help it “pocket” Rs 30,000 crore.

Congress has also alleged the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by UPA government when it was negotiating a deal for procurement of 126 Rafale jets.

However, the document, placed by the NDA government, said, “It is reiterated that the procurement process as laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2013 was followed in procurement of 36 Rafale aircraft.