Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

The fifth submarine of the Kalvari-class submarines, Vagir, was delivered to the Indian Navy today by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai.

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6th undergoing trials

• The first of the Kalvari-class sub was commissioned into the Navy in December 2017
• Vagir, which has been delivered to the Navy, will shortly be commissioned into the force
• Vagsheer, the 6th & last sub, undergoing sea trials and is likely to be delivered next year

The induction of the submarine, built under Project-75, is set to bolster the Navy’s combat capability.

India has been focusing on shoring up its maritime capability with a focus on the Indian Ocean in the backdrop of concerns over China’s growing foray into the region, considered the backyard of the Indian Navy.

In all, six submarines of the Kalvari class, based on the Scorpene design of the Naval Group of France, are being constructed at the MDL in collaboration with the Naval Group of France. Launched at sea in November 2020, Vagir commenced sea trials in February 2022. The vessel has completed all major trials, including weapon and sensor, in the shortest time as compared to the earlier submarines of the same class. The submarine will shortly be commissioned into the Navy.

The first of the Kalvari class was commissioned into the Navy in December 2017 and at present, four submarines of this project are in commission in the Navy. Vagir will be the fifth while the sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer, is undergoing sea trials and is likely to be delivered next year.

Respected ESMs and Veer Narees
1.Writ petition has been filed for further extension of OROP arrears
2.All ESM and Veer Narees are requested to take out Rosh Rallies in respective Districts/Tehsil/Blocks on 20 Dec 22.
3.Vernacular media coverage in respect of Pathankot is enclosed
May I request all Ex Dist Heads to pl organize Rosh Rallies at Dist and Tehsil levels.

For 20 Dec 22 Motorcycle Rosh Rallies Shall have Two Mudhas

1. Implement OROP web 01Jul 19.
   2.Implement GoG Scheme Pan India as was done by Ex CM of Punjab for Punjab State
2. Warm Regards
3. Brig Prahlad Singh Veteran

defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday called a high-level meeting to discuss the India-China border clash in Arunachal Pradesh. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval along with chiefs of all three defence forces-Army Chief General Manoj Pande, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar and Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari- arrived at Defence Minister’s Delhi residence for the meeting.

As per defence sources, during the meeting, CDS Chauhan, and the chiefs of three defence services will brief Defence Minister on the security situation along LAC with China. The security forces have updated him recently on the clashes between troops of both sides in Tawang, they said.

Singh is also likely to address the Parliament over the issue amid Congress and other opposition parties’ call seeking a discussion on the border situation in both houses.

Army on Monday said that Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, resulting in injuries to a few personnel on both sides. The clash near Yangtse along the LAC in the sensitive sector took place last Friday amid the over 30-month border standoff between the two sides in eastern Ladakh.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 18

Two students of the Mai Bhago Armed Forces Preparatory Institute for Girls, Mohali, added another feather in its cap when they graduated as officers in the Indian Air Force.

Sehajpreet Kaur and Komalpreet Kaur were commissioned as Flying Officers from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad on Saturday. They were ‘pipped’ by Air Chief Marshal Shaikh Abdul Hannan, Chief of the Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force, who was the chief guest and reviewing officer of the combined graduation parade.

Flying Officer Sehajpreet Kaur, who will be joining the Transport Stream of the Flying Branch, is the daughter of a serving Subedar Major of the Army and hails from Amritsar district. She performed creditably at the academy and was adjudged the best cadet in officer-like qualities and general studies.

Flying Officer Komalpreet Kaur’s father is serving in the Punjab Police and belongs to Gurdaspur district. She will be joining the Navigation Branch of the Air Force.

Mai Bhago AFPI is a unique initiative of the Punjab Government under the Department of Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training, enabling girls from Punjab to become commissioned officers in the Armed Forces. The institute is a fully residential campus with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and the only one of its kind in the country.

PTI

Pune, December 18

A book on Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Prasad Purohit was launched here on Sunday amid protests from some groups who claimed it was inappropriate to hold such an event when the trial in the case was underway.

The launch of “Lt Colonel Purohit — The Man Betrayed”, written by Smita Mishra, took place in SP College in the presence of retired IPS officer Jayant Umranikar, with the programme being hosted by defence expert and television personality Major Gaurav Arya (retired).

Some local outfits, including the Bhimarmy Bahujan Ekta Mission and the Mulnivasi Muslim Manch, staged protests during the day after their plea to SP College authorities to cancel the book launch event did not elicit a response.

“It is inappropriate to hold such an event to launch a book such as this when the trial in the Malegaon blast case is underway. Our protest is against Purohit,” Mulnivasi Muslim Manch president Anjum Inamdar said. Six persons were killed and over 100 hurt in the 2008 blast.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 18

A Pakistani minister has resorted to nuclear threats in the ongoing spat between India and Pakistan that began with a verbal exchange between their Foreign Ministers in New York and has escalated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name was also dragged in.

Pakistan People’s Party leader and Minister Shazia Marri in an interaction with the local media said, “India should not forget that Pakistan has an atom bomb. Our nuclear status is not meant to remain silent. We will not back down if the need arises.”

She was holding a press conference to back Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who is also the Chairman of PPP and his father is the President.

“If you keep making allegations against Pakistan again and again, Pakistan cannot keep listening silently, this will not happen,” she added. Pakistan Foreign Office has also complained that India is defaming Islamabad at all international forums.

Pakistan’s FM responded to inciting comments by the Indian Minister. Pakistan has sacrificed far more than India in the fight against terrorism,” she tweeted.

She later tried to retrieve ground by blaming the Indian media for creating panic. “Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state. Some elements in Indian media are trying to create panic. Pakistan’s FM responded to inciting comments by the Indian Minister. Pakistan has sacrificed far more than India in the fight against terrorism.Modi Sarkar is promoting extremism and fascism,” she tweeted.

The diplomatic spat began when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar exercised the right to reply to Bhutto’s statement at a UNSC debate in which he raked the Kashmir issue. To Jaishankar’s retort that those who have hosted Osama shouldn’t sermonise before the UNSC, Bilawal said while Osama is dead, “the butcher of Gujarat is still alive and he’s the PM of India”.

Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Meenkashi Lekhi as well as the MEA responded to Bilawal’s ‘uncivilised’ remarks, with MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stating that, “these comments are a new low, even for Pakistan. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister’s frustration would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their state policy. Pakistan needs to change its own mindset or remain a pariah”.

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, December 18

The Navy’s project to construct six next-generation conventional submarines has been further delayed.

A source said the Project 75 India (P 75I), under which six submarines had to be constructed, would be unable to meet its December 31 deadline. It has been allowed an extension till the middle of 2023.

• The Project 75 India, under which six submarines had to be constructed, is unable to meet its December 31 deadline
• It has been allowed an extension till the middle of 2023, say sources
• The Indian submarine plan, announced in 1999, set a target of 24 modern submarines by 2030; so far, the Navy has 16

It is learnt that “more time” has been allowed to companies to submit their bids to the request for proposal (RFP). An RFP is part of the tendering process to elicit financial and technical bids.

One of the reasons for allowing the extension is India’s insistence on the fuel cell technology-based air independent propulsion (AIP). India wants an operational AIP before it inks the contract. Barring two foreign manufacturers, other three are still in the process of operationalising their AIP technologies.

The AIP technology allows the submarine to remain submerged for almost 8-10 days otherwise they have to surface to charge their batteries after 4-5 days, making them vulnerable to enemy satellites.

Indian submarine action plan that was announced in 1999 spoke about having 24 modern submarines by 2030. So far, the Navy has around 16.

The next generation submarines will have advanced torpedoes, modern missiles and state-of-the-art countermeasure systems.

The project has seen many ups and downs. It was in 2007 that the Defence Acquisition Council of the Ministry of Defence accorded the acceptance of necessity (AoN), the first of the many procurement steps.

In 2014, a high-level committee was set up to identify which Indian shipyards had the capability to make such a vessel.

A formal request for information was issued in 2017 under the strategic partnership model. This allows an Indian shipyard to have a tie-up with a foreign manufacturer to make a submarine in India

In June 2021, an RFP was sent out to two Indian submarine makers: Mazagaon Dockyard Limited, Mumbai, and Larsen & Toubro.

Dies at AIIMS Jodhpur

PTI

Jodhpur/New Delhi, December 19

Bhairon Singh Rathore, a BSF veteran of the 1971 India-Pakistan war whose bravery at Rajasthan’s Longewala post was portrayed by actor Suniel Shetty in the Bollywood movie ‘Border’, died in Jodhpur on Monday.

He was 81.

“The braveheart took his last breath at AIIMS, Jodhpur, today,” the Border Security Force said in a tweet.

Rathore’s son Sawai Singh told PTI on Saturday that his father was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Jodhpur on December 14, two days before the 51st anniversary of the war, after his health deteriorated and his limbs got affected in what seemed like a paralysis.

“Doctors told us that my father had possibly suffered a brain stroke. He has been in and out of ICU over the past few days,” Singh said. The Singh family lived at Solankiatala village, about 120 km from Jodhpur.

Rathore was deployed at the Longewala post in the Thar desert, commanding a small BSF unit that was accompanied by a company of the Army’s 23 Punjab regiment. It was the bravery of these men that decimated an assaulting Pakistani brigade and tank regiment at this location on December 5, 1971.

He received the Sena Medal in 1972 for his gallant action. Posted with the 14th BSF battalion during the war, Bhairon Singh Rathore retired from service in 1987.

According to BSF records about the 1971 war at Longewala post, “When one of the 23 Punjab boys was killed, Lance Naik Bhairon Singh took his light machine gun and inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing enemy.

“It was only their courage and determination to do or die that won the day and Lance Naik Bhairon Singh became a great inspiration to his other comrades on the post,” the official records state. 

New Delhi, December 19

Indian Army will not let China change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) “unilaterally” and its current deployment along the frontier was not seen before, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s handling of the border row.

Jaishankar said the deployment of the Army was made on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Army did not go to the frontier region because Gandhi asked them for it.

“Today we have a deployment of the Indian Army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment which was scaled up massively since 2020,” Jaishankar said.

He was replying to a question during India Today’s India-Japan conclave.

“If we were in denial then how is the Army out there? The Army did not go there because Rahul Gandhi asked them to go. Army went there because the prime minister of India ordered them to go,” Jaishankar said, replying to Gandhi’s allegations that the government was hiding the fact that China took Indian territory along the LAC.

The Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a fresh clash in Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9.

The incident came amid the over 30-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

“People will say things; they may not be credible, they may sometimes contradict their own positions, their own behaviour. All that could happen. But the fact is what is finally the proof of the pudding. The proof of the pudding is that the Indian Army is deployed today to counter any attempt to unilaterally change the LAC,” Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister said it is the commitment of the Indian Army to not let China change the LAC unilaterally.

“I am saying that it is the obligation of the Indian state and that is the duty and commitment of the Indian military that we will not let any country, and in this case China, change the LAC unilaterally,” Jaishankar said.

“I think it is fairly obvious and most people in the country see that. You can make your polemical points. I think people will treat it as politics,” he added.

Asked about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s criticism of the government for increasing trade volume with China notwithstanding the border row, he said that India continues to import from that country because there was no adequate focus on the manufacturing sector.

Jaishankar said not much attention was given to the MSME sector and building supply chains as well after India opened up its economy in 1991.

“When somebody says why imports are coming out of China, there are imports coming out of China because for 30 years, you did not give your industry the kind of support and protection you should have,” Jaishankar said.

“It is only now in recent years that you have started to do it. Now you cannot reverse in five or 10 years what you have done in 30 years,” he said.

Speaking at the conclave, Jaishankar made 12 points about India-Japan ties and said the two countries have a “positive history” that will be an asset in the coming times.

He said Japan is perceived in India as a model of harmonising modernity and tradition, adding there is a strong national consensus in India on developing ties with that country.

“Traditionally, this was an economic relationship. In the past, global strategy had little impact on India-Japan ties,” he said.

“Businesses have long had a footprint in each other’s economy. But, this did not become a deep one. Japan started approaching India with a strategic outlook under former PM Shinzo Abe,” he said.

Jaishankar said Japan has been a catalyst of “change” and referred to Maruti bringing a lifestyle shift and Metro networks, an urbanization experience. “Bullet Train will have major consequences,” he said.

Japan has been significantly supporting the Delhi Metro network.

“Our strategic compulsions are much stronger today as we are united to secure a multipolar Asia. And to ensure that Asian diversity is reflected in its power structure,” the minister said.

He noted that the maritime convergence between India and Japan is particularly strong and will grow in the years ahead.

“The energy of the Quad will charge up our bilateral ties and reinforce them for mutual benefit,” he said, adding the big question is whether Japan will see India’s growth as a strategic goal.