Chandigarh, January 29  

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday underlined the need for high-end equipment for security forces to detect drones used by Pakistan to smuggle weapons into the border state.

The issue was discussed during a meeting convened by the CM with Congress MPs from both the Houses and to discuss budget proposals for the next fiscal and issues pending with the Centre, a government statement said.

On the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal issue, Singh asked the MPs to push for amendment in the Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2019, pending in Rajya Sabha, to protect Punjab’s water resources, it said.

The Bill seeks to expedite and streamline resolution of inter-state water disputes through a single central tribunal instead of the existing numerous ones.

The linking of the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers through a canal has been a contentious issue between Punjab and Haryana. Punjab wants a reassessment of the volume of water in Ravi and Beas rivers while Haryana seeks completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet of the river waters.

Last week, an all-party meeting in Punjab called for a new tribunal to assess river water availability. Saying that Punjab does not have surplus water, the parties urged the Centre to ensure that the river water from the state is not transferred to non-basin areas.

During the meeting, the CM also expressed concern over the increase in activities by the Pakistani spy agency ISI near the borders and reiterated the need for developing infrastructure that can detect various kinds of drones.

Singh said he had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs back in August 2019, when the first instance of use of suspicious drones came to light.

A GPS-fitted drone was detected to have dropped weapons and money in August last year. Earlier this month, Punjab Police found two drones used for smuggling drugs from Pakistan.

During the meeting, it was also decided that Punjab Congress MPs would urge the Centre to immediately lift food grains from the state in the wake of shortage of storage facilities and tardy procurement of wheat and rice by central agencies.

The statement said 140 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 95 LMT of rice belonging to the central pool are currently stored in the state.

As much as 70 LMT of wheat is lying in the open (covered area plinth), including 16 LMT wheat purchased under relaxed specifications (URS) during 2019-20 and 10 LMT wheat procured in 2018-19.

The MPs urged the Punjab CM to approach the prime minister over the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices’ reported recommendation to review MSP policy, dubbing it a “serious threat” to the state’s farmers.

Any change in minimum support price procurement policy will adversely impact Punjab’s economy, they felt, expressing the fear that the Centre would limit procurement as the first step towards putting an end to MSP purchase.

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said all MPs should take up in Parliament the issue of the delayed SGPC elections “to break the stranglehold of the Akalis”. The tenure of the current SGPC ended in 2016. — PTI

Shyam Sood

Rajouri, January 24

Various organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the Sikh community, have been holding protests against senior revenue, forest officers/officials for “evicting” the Sikhs from their homes/agriculture land alleging the forest land has been encroached.

Members of the Sikh community residing in Qila Darhal Tehsil in Nowshera sub-district in Rajouri district, alleged that since 1947 they had been living in the area, and had constructed their homes and fields.

“Many among us and our ancestors have fought against Pakistani soldiers and tribesmen in 1947-48 and had forced the invaders to leave the Qila Darhal Fort and other areas” said Balbir Singh.

After the creation of Qila Darhal as a tehsil, the revenue officials in nexus with forest officials have changed their land records and by claiming their lands as encroached, has evicted about eight Sikh families so far, alleged those residing there.

“The Divisional Forest Officer, Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildar, Forest Range Officer and others, instead of taking action against the actual encroachers, have been harassing the Sikh families” said Zorawar Singh.

Shiv Sena activists have held protest at Sunderbani against the revenue and forest officials.

“Stop harassing those who had saved the mother land in 1947 and appeasing encroachers of forest land from a particular community on monetary consideration” they said.

Members of the Sikh community, Bajrng Dal and Shiv Sena have appealed to the Lt- Governor to intervene in this matter and also demanded CBI inquiry against the erring officials.

“In nexus with revenue and forest officials, many families from a majority community have encroached the forest land in Qila Darhal and other areas and have constructed their homes/fields” said Sushil Sudan, a former State Bajrang Dal president.

No action has been taken against such encroachers while the Sikh families living since 1947 have been evicted from their homes and agriculture land. This process should be stopped immediately, added Sushil.

People have warned to block the Jammu-Poonch highway if the administration failed to resolve the issue.

Rahul Bedi
Senior journalist

The federal government has decided to include the poignantly melancholic Christian hymn Abide with me as the penultimate score played at the grand Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on

January 29. A January 23 official notification by the Indian Army has refuted numerous media reports that Vande Mataram, a Sanskrit poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870, would replace Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn, which has been part of the Retreat ceremony since the 1950s.

The announcement, following widespread criticism of dropping the hymn, has declared that alongside Vande Mataram, which has acquired politically incendiary Hindutva overtones over the past five years under the BJP rule, the hymn will feature at next week’s dazzling Retreat.

Official sources claim the government’s earlier consideration to terminate Abide with me at the Retreat, emanated from its broader, but woefully feeble, Make in India, initiative. It was deemed to be part of its policy to progressively include more indigenous tunes for the three services’ splendidly attired buglers and trumpeters alongside pipe, fife and brass bands to stage at the Retreat ceremony with digital wizardry.

It is unlikely, given the level of scholarship amongst the BJP’s upper echelons, that the Hindu nationalists were conversant with the hymn’s moving lyrics, which are simply about life’s vulnerabilities, omnipotence and the magnanimity of a compassionate, merciful and forgiving God.

Written by Henry Francis Lyle, a curate from the county Wexford in Ireland in the early 19th century, who later became a vicar in England, the hymn’s haunting Eventide score was composed in 1861 by William Henry Monk, an English organist and church musician. Other than the Mahatma, the hymn was also a favourite of England’s King George V and is sung at the annual Anzac Day services in Australia and New Zealand and at assorted military Remembrance Day celebrations in Canada and the UK.

Its widespread acceptance springs from its simplicity, sensibility and grace. It talks profoundly of human loss, as it was composed after Lyle visited a dying friend, who continually and fearfully asked the priest to ‘abide with me’. Ironically, the hymn was first sung at Lyle’s own funeral in Nice, years later.

The sanguine hymn rejoices in God’s steadfastness: Even as earth’s joys grow dim and its glories pass away. It exhorts God’s presence — every passing hour through cloud and sunshine — to assist the helpless ‘shine through the gloom and point to the skies’.

The hymn’s tone is unquestioningly moral, decent and lofty, and despite being Christian in origin, its sentiments and tone remain universal and non-denominational. But for the BJP and its Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS minders, it has one fundamental flaw and one that both believe needs erasure in keeping with their enduring nationalism and chauvinism: it is Christian in origin. After all, it is no secret that the fundamental role of the RSS, founded in 1925 as a right wing paramilitary volunteer organisation based on the Italian fascist Black Shirts, is to defend Hinduism by keeping it ‘pure’ from outside influences like Islam and Christianity. This is a goal that the Sangh and BJP continue to avidly pursue.

More importantly, Abide with me is part of India’s post-colonial history, crafted largely by the rival Congress party, in which the RSS and fellow Hindu nationalists were not even a footnote, or, at best, were a disparaging fragment.

Hence, irrespective of the Mahatma’s partiality to the hymn, its rendering at the showcase Retreat ceremony had made the RSS uncomfortable since 2015, even as its rendition unfailingly demonstrated its stirring and pathos-laden potential at Vijay Chowk in twilight.

The stunning backdrop of the red sandstone Rashtrapati Bhawan, the motionless line of resplendent Border Security Force camels lining Raisina Hill and the equally dramatic and cleverly illuminated adjoining North and South Blocks were consummate props in the hymn’s rendition.

Its intense climax, however, peaks every January, with the purposeful pealing of bells from the nearby Cathedral Church of the Redemption, also known as the Viceroy Church, leaving in its wake few dry eyes in the audience and few throats without an emotional lump.

Meanwhile, like most things military, particularly those that are pageantry related, the choice of tunes at the Retreat follows a well-determined procedure directed by the Indian Army that manages the Republic Day parade and the follow-on Retreat.

The Army’s Adjutant-General shortlists the tunes for the Retreat ceremony, but only under the overarching supervision of the Defence Ministry that is the final arbiter in the matter. In 2016, for instance, the newly elected BJP government tried nativising the Retreat, by incorporating classical instruments like the sitar, santoor and tabla into some bands. Fortunately, this unprepossessing spectacle was subsequently discontinued, following widespread censure by the military officers.

Laughably, this misadventure prompted a former Army Vice-Chief to bluntly declare that bringing the sitar, tabla and violin was fine for shows or concerts, but not to a military parade. The Retreat, he fulminated, was a parade with dignity, sanctity and tradition and one that could not be reduced to a tamasha.

Meanwhile, the ‘Indianisation’ of tunes at the Retreat has progressed gradually over the decades. Last year, for instance, 19 of the 27 tunes, like Jai Janam Bhumi, Kumaoni Geet and Veerta Ki Misal, presented at the Retreat, were by local composers. The remaining eight, which included robust martial tunes like Fanfare by Buglers, Drummers Call and Post Horn Gallop, were English in origin.

Thankfully, Abide with me, that also featured in this list, has survived another year.