Maroof Raza

Strategic Affairs Analyst

THE just-released year-end review for 2020 by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) states that even though Indian troops countered every Chinese move along the LAC in Ladakh, maintaining “all protocols and agreements between the countries”, the PLA “escalated the situation by utilisation of unorthodox weapons” to further their ‘expansionist designs’. This is in keeping with the strategy outlined by the Chinese authors of Unrestricted Warfare, who have suggested that all means, armed and unarmed, with lethality, should be used to compel an enemy to submit to your interests. No wonder the Chinese troops of the PLA had used nail-studded clubs and other means to get the better of the Indian soldiers, though unsuccessfully so. But the challenges that China could pose may go well beyond the Himalayan frontiers, since the Indian army, with the IAF’s assistance, has “mobilised troops, including accretionary forces”, as per the MoD report. It leaves China little room for intrusions now.

Thus, the Chinese could well be preparing to use electronic warfare means instead of focusing on just the use of conventional military platforms, despite the Chinese having deployed their air assets to the optimum, as the IAF Chief had recently indicated, and India’s navy keeping a close watch on Chinese ships and submarines in the high seas. The recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan gives us one major takeaway: the nation that has more advanced electronic warfare capabilities will win battles in future. The use of drones, sensors and micro chips could be more lethal than the armada of air and naval power that had until now dominated military planning. The jamming of radars could make military users blind, and many of your systems could be rendered useless. The Chinese are working to get to the top of it, based on their 10-year Made in China plan for 2025, announced in 2015. Thus, Chinese companies, as part of a deep civil-military engagement, provide the Chinese armed forces technologies — stolen or reverse-engineered — to enhance the PLA’s space and cyber capabilities as also in artificial intelligence.

Here is an example of what the Chinese have been capable of. In November 2016, the US navy’s extremely high-tech guided missile destroyer, the USS Zumwalt — that was commissioned at a cost of $4.4 billion and billed as a force multiplier — suffered a propulsion failure on the Panama Canal. This had shocked the US defence establishment. A thorough investigation led the US to identify ‘Chinese Chips’ — microchips that were manufactured by the PLA — which the Americans had to buy in tens of thousands to cut manufacturing costs. Two days after the embarrassing failure of the US navy’s destroyer, a British hi-tech naval destroyer, HMS Duncan, suffered a similar propulsion failure. This apparently also had Chinese Chips in it! Therefore, electronic warfare is the next big challenge for militaries worldwide and China is focusing on that more than conventional military platforms. India should therefore create ‘geek brigades’ for our armed forces.

Furthermore, as articulated in Unrestricted Warfare — even though its focus is on how China could get the better of the US — it has a military and economic message that India would be foolish to ignore. While the US strategic community continues to focus on retaining its military edge with newer technologies, the Chinese have for some years quietly built up their reach within the American elites and have by now long-standing financial links even within Democrats and Joe Biden’s party members. If this requires money, so be it. And thus the Chinese plan to buy out politicians, stifle the media, steal resources and even technology, seems predictably par for the course. It is a pattern that is steadily emerging even in India, which offers both opportunities and challenges for China.

Beyond the newsmakers, China also targets the local population. Thus, it has flooded the Indian market with products and apps, since India offered one of the largest markets — with reportedly 560 million cellphone and their e-application users — with investments from Alibaba and Tencent reportedly in the likes of Paytm, MxPlayer and Gaana. These pose a big security challenge, which hasn’t been explained to Indian users. With Indians known to give out information more easily than most other people, your data can easily take away our data, especially that is privileged information of companies, allowing for their use to even reverse-engineer products. Also, the information on the Internet is controlled by two camps; the ‘open’ or the traditional camp dominated by Western companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon and the ‘closed’ one of the companies controlled by China such as Alibaba and Baidu. It’s anybody’s guess where the greater dangers lie.

It is well known that cyber and biological threats are hard to counter. Despite around 50 organisations of the US government having been recently hacked — and this includes the US Treasury, State and Homeland Security departments — their cyber security experts are clueless of the thefts for nearly nine months! And as India has ranked poorly on the cyber power index computed internationally, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that while our critical national assets are reasonably secure against the repeated cyber attacks they face, the security of our banking and business entities needs to be further enhanced. And if the pandemic has alerted us to one thing, it is the crippling effect that a biological attack may have on any society. And though most major countries are signatories to international conventions against the use of biological weapons, (while still maintaining their stocks of germs) and if and when they do decide to use it, this could have a devastating impact — for which we aren’t quite prepared.

Julio Ribeiro

The Punjab, Haryana and western UP farmers, who are spearheading the protest against the new farm laws, appear to be as determined as they were on the day they began their march to Delhi. They have braved the cold, the rain, the hardships that living in tents bring, the tear-gas shells of the Haryana Police and the water cannons. Nothing seems to deter them.

They have been called Khalistanis, pro-Pakistan, anti-national, friends of Maoists and more, but the epithets have not moved them. The allegation that opposition parties have set them up for political mileage has induced a prompt reply from the agitation’s leaders that it is not the Opposition that has led them, but it jumped aboard the farmers’ bandwagon when it sensed that the government had been put on the backfoot.

The Opposition taking advantage of the government’s discomfiture is to be expected in any democracy. The BJP would have followed the same course if it was in the Opposition. The Congress had advocated the same reforms when it was in the electoral fray, but has now gone back on its stand when the BJP initiated the reforms. This, too, can be expected in a democracy. The GST was initially proposed by the Congress, but when the BJP introduced the reform, the Congress had much to say! The people take such developments as par for the course.

There is one threat that the agitating farmers have voiced which I feel may hurt them — the threat to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations at Janpath. There are certain sacred days that every patriotic Indian must not denigrate at any cost. The Independence and Republic Days are the most sacred, along with the Mahatma’s birthday. The farmers will be making a humongous mistake if they breach that compact. The sympathy of the general public will diminish if they carry out any form of protests on that sacred day.

The farmers are a highly valued segment of society. The government knows it cannot deal with farmers like it dealt with anti-CAA protesters, even though the Shaheen Bagh crowd was mostly Muslim women, including JNU and Jamia Millia students. In Adityanath’s UP, the police confiscated the blankets brought by the protesters. This type of police action against farmers cannot even be considered, let alone tried!

The government insists that the three laws will benefit the farmers and it may well be so. Many economists and agri-experts have said so, but they are mostly intellectuals immersed in thought in the comfort of their study rooms. The farmers are the ones with hands-on experience. They do not agree with the government and the experts. It is difficult for citizens to judge. The government says the farmer is free to sell anywhere in the country, and not necessarily to the next-door mandi. That is theoretically true but there are practical difficulties in transporting the produce over long distances without incurring added costs. Added to that is the fact that the farmer is always in need of ready cash for the next sowing or for his household expenses. Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.

The government suspects that the middlemen, who it has set out to eliminate, are behind the farmers. The middlemen have the most to lose. They will naturally try to protect their turf. Very cleverly, they have sown doubts in the farmers’ mind that the government is out to fatten the rich and powerful business houses. This propaganda has been lapped up with the consequent attacks on Jio’s transmission towers in Punjab.

The government has been hoist with some of its own petards. Demonetisation was introduced overnight to surprise those with black money stored under mattresses. Black money operators were far too clever, it appears. No notable success came the government’s way. The farmers obviously do not want to become guinea pigs in another possible experiment which the government says will double their income. It may very well do so, as many experts have opined, but it is, at present, in the realm of theory only. The farmers of Punjab and Haryana are already better off than their compatriots in other states.

The government should reconsider its stated policy of foisting its ideas and calculations on cost-benefit ratios on people or segments of people without due notice. In some matters like demonetisation and last year’s action in J&K, there would be a need for secrecy but in trying to uplift farmers or favouring Bangladeshi Hindus for instant citizenship, there was no need for any surprise or hurry in ramming legislation through Parliament without adequate debate.

Secrecy could be justified in the demonetisation announcement and in the overnight detention of J&K leaders, but even then, the fact that the government is adept in secret manoeuvres resonates in the less sophisticated human minds at such times. When the government says that it is introducing laws for the good of the people or segments of the public, such promises are taken with large pinches of salt.

The government’s credibility comes into focus at such times. I, for one, do not doubt that the government’s intention was to benefit the farmers. But in the light of its low credibility index, it should have been more circumspect by taking the intended beneficiaries into confidence and convincing them that it had only their good in mind and not that of the party’s funders.

The agitation will continue till one of the parties blinks. The government cannot afford to repeal the three laws. Such a move will be disastrous for it from every angle, chiefly its impact on the image of Modiji himself. It may not trouble the poor who have crossed over to his side because of the direct transfers of government munificence to their bank accounts and the houses and toilets, electricity and roads they say he has provided. But to his traditional vote banks among the middle classes it will certainly matter!

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, January 7

“It is just a trailer and the picture will be shown on January 26 if the Centre does not repeal the farm laws. Delhi will see a tractor parade this Republic Day.” This was stated by Harmanpreet Singh, a protester from Punjab, who was enthused by the presence of a large number of farmers in the tractor march today.

Sitting beside him on the tractor, Panthjeet Singh quipped, “Like the armed forces, we are taking out the flag march as a rehearsal of the proposed Delhi march on January 26 to make the Centre realise what farmers can do to ensure that their demands met.” Jaspal Singh of Fazilka said the march had infused a new zeal among the protesters, which would work towards making the proposed Delhi march on January 26 a success.

These reactions summed up the mood of protesting farmers during the tractor march taken out from Tikri to Singhu on the call of the Sankyukt Kisan Morcha.

There was great enthusiasm among the protesters, with many participating bare-chested to protest against the farm laws. “I am participating bare-chested to make the Prime Minister realise that neither the severe cold nor rain can stop us. We have taken the pledge of not going back alive if the farm laws are not repealed,” said Simranjeet Singh, another farmer.

A considerable number of farmers from Jhajjar, Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Hisar and Fatehabad took part in the march to express solidarity with Punjab farmers. “It is a do-or-die battle and we are prepared to make any sacrifice to force the Centre to accept our demands. If the stir fails, no individual or group will dare to fight against governments in future, but we will not let it happen,” said Manjit, a young protester from Jind.

Show of unity on KMP expressway

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 7

To express solidarity with the protesters at Delhi borders, farmers belonging to various unions carried out a massive tractor march in the district. A large number of farmers riding hundreds of tractors passed through various villages and reached Fatehgarh Sahib.

Surinder Singh Lohari, general secretary, BKU (Sidhupur), said the tractor march had been carried out to create awareness among the farming community as well as the people against the farm laws and to urge them to participate in the ‘Tiranga March’ in Delhi on Republic Day. He said they were getting a good response from every section of society and thousands of tractors would reach Delhi on Republic Day. He said the farmers would not return till the farm laws were repealed.

Sameer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 7

Octogenarian Mohinder Kaur from Sangat village in Bathinda, whom actress Kangana Ranaut had termed as Bilkis Bano of Shaheen Bagh, visited the Tikri border recently and addressed a massive gathering of protesters.

She extended New Year greetings to the protesting farmers and lauded them for showing resilience in the face of adversity, exhorted them to have patience and continue their agitation courageously and stay put at the protest venue until their demands were met by the government.

Kaur was given a rousing welcome by the farm union members at the protest venue and honoured her for her active participation in the agitation. She had gone to Tikri on Tuesday and came back on Thursday late evening.

Kaur said: “I am pained to see farmers protesting in adverse weather conditions, but it gives me joy to see that they continue to forge ahead undeterred with the conviction of winning. I extended New Year greetings to them and encouraged them to stay united and keep their struggle alive until government takes back the farm laws.”

Asked about Kangna’s earlier tweets, the octogenarian said: “I don’t know her but I know farmers and their problems. She made unsavoury remarks against me but people supported me, including singer Diljit Dosanjh.” Age is just a number for octogenarian Kaur who is not only participating in the farmers’ protest back in the state, but also actively working in the fields.

Tribune News Service

Moga, January 7

Seventy-nine days after the Punjab Vidhan Sabha unanimously passed three Bills to counter the Centre’s farm laws, Governor VP Singh Badnore is yet to forward them to the President for assent, thus creating confusion among the farming community and the traders on the status of the inter-state trade and the sale/purchase of the foodgrains.

Denying that the Punjab Government had implemented the Centre’s farm laws in the state, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said: “The three state Bills are pending with the Governor … the Punjab Government will never abide by the central farm laws.”

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had already said the Punjab Government would explore legal options if the Governor does not grant his consent to the Bills.

On October 20, last year, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha unanimously passed three Bills — The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment Bill, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020. These Bills were sent to the Governor for his consent, which hasn’t been given yet.

Stressing Punjab was the first state in the country to pass a resolution in the Vidhan Sabha against the central farm laws, Ashu said the state government would not allow the farmers and traders of other states to sell foodgrains in state.

Further, he assured that wheat and paddy would be purchased at MSP either by the government agencies or the private traders. The traditional practice of purchase of foodgrains through the commission agents would continue in the coming wheat procurement season, he said.

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, January 7

Agriculture scientists led by a former vice chancellor of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University (HAU) have suggested to the Centre to keep the new Agriculture Acts in abeyance for one year and redraft the Act by setting up a committee having representation from diverse sections of the society, including farmers.

The Agriculture experts held an online meeting today chaired by former HAU vice Chancellor Dr KS Khokhar. The meeting has retired agricultural scientists from different states, agricultural universities and ICAR institutes as participants to discuss the present scenario emerging due to the ongoing farmers’ agitation. NS Verma, former Associate Director and Head of Extension Education at the HAU, was convener.

Dr Khokhar stated that the participants agreed that the demand of the farmers to give statutory provision to the minimum support price (MSP) of their produce is genuine. “The Government is also not having any objection to continue it and prepared to give a written guarantee, hence, it should be given a legal sanction through a new Act,” he said.

Besides, the former VC stated, since both the Government and the farmers are posturing their rigid stands with regard to new Agriculture Acts, the agriculture scientists suggested that these Acts should be held in abeyance at least for one year. “ln the meantime, when the aforesaid Acts are not under implementation, a committee having representatives of farmers, agricultural experts, economists, lawmakers, and other stakeholders should be constituted to redraft the Agriculture Acts so that these are acceptable to all who are having a stake,” he maintained.

The participants appealed to government to show magnanimity for accommodating the point of view of the farmers and also urged the agitating farmers to maintain their stir peaceful in any eventuality and restrain themselves from falling prey to any clandestine design to flare up the situation. The participants also pay homage to the farmers who lost their lives during the 42 days of agitation.

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 6

Revolutions can’t succeed without shedding blood, it is said. At Singhu, it’s being done literally!

For the 15th day on Wednesday, 48-year-old Taranjit Singh Nimana sits with a thin wooden straw in his hand; its tip soaked in red. He is penning a letter to the leaders of the country. On a nearby table lies 10 more letters — red on white — in Punjabi. But in place of ink, what he writes with is the blood of farmers!

Since December 20, the Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Mission Sewa Society, a Ludhiana-based NGO, has been penning letters in blood of farmers exhorting the top leaders of the country to withdraw the three farm laws. Everyday an array of blood-soaked letters are handed over to farm leaders. This blood is donated at the NGO’s blood donation camps being held behind the main stage of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha at the Singhu border.

The NGO, which has won the state award nine times for its contribution in the field on blood donation, is headed by its president Taranjit Singh Nimana. Nearly 1,000 farmers have donated blood across the 15 blood donation camps held so far. Letters have so far been sent to the Prime Minister, Home Minister, President, Vice President and the Chief Justice of India, but to no avail. Nimana now plans to send a letter written in his blood to the UNO on his birthday tomorrow (January 7) in honour of those, who died at the Delhi protests.

On his recent visit to the Singhu border, environmentalist Seechewal also called upon Nimana, his old acquaintance, after Seechewal’s speech on stage.

Such is the spirit that after a storm uprooted the backstage tent and damaged the mattresses and equipment at the camp, it has been shifted to a safer shed, where the camp resumed today.

Nimana, says: “Ehnan chitthiyan vich kisanan da khoon raleya hai. Asi bhejde rahange jad tak kale kanoon vapas nahi hunde. Singhan de hausle chikkar vich vi buland ne. (These letters are soaked in farmers’ blood. We will keep writing these until the black laws are withdrawn. Singhs are full of courage even in mud).”

Nimana adds: “We sent back doctors yesterday. Our backstage tent lost its roof. It was very windy and the tent ended up dripping in rain. We resumed at another place today. It’s my birthday on January 7. In memory of lives lost at Singhu, I shall donate blood and write in blood to the UNO to get the laws withdrawn.” Blood collected from the camp has been donated to blood banks at Ludhiana, Patiala and now to UP, Delhi and Haryana (Faridabad, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Delhi (Mayur Vihar).

“While there is already a blood shortage during the pandemic, we would want the blood to be used for any emergency case. Anyone who needs blood is free to take it from us,” Nimana says. While Nimana planned to send blood-soaked letters to the PM from Ludhiana, he shifted to Singhu border when the idea was discussed with morcha leaders, who asked the NGO to shift base to Singhu.

Lahore, January 7

In a significant development, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar on the charges of terror financing.

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Gujranwala issued the warrant during a hearing in a terror financing case instituted by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police against some members of the JeM.

“ATC Gujranwala judge Natasha Naseem Supra issued an arrest warrant for Masood Azhar and directed the CTD to arrest him and present him in the court. The CTD told the judge the JeM chief was involved in terror financing and selling jihadi literature,” an official told PTI.

He said the ATC judge issued the arrest warrant for Azhar on the request of a CTD inspector.

Azhar is believed to be hiding in a “safe place” in his native town – Bahawalpur.

Following the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019 in India, Pakistan’s Punjab province police had launched a crackdown on terrorism financing and in this connection arrested six activists of the JeM in Gujranwala, some 130 km from Lahore.

The CTD said its teams raided the whereabouts of the JeM’s “safe house” and arrested its members—Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Amir, Allah Ditta, Muhammad Iftikhar, Muhammad Ajmal and Muhammad Bilal Makki—and recovered lakhs of rupees from their possession.

“The suspects were collecting funds to finance activities of JeM. The chargesheet against them has been submitted to the Anti-Terrorism Court Gujranwala and they are being interrogated,” the CTD said.

Following immense international pressure after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government had arrested over 100 members of banned militant outfits including the JeM chief’s son and brother. The government also took control of the JeM, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Haifiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (uD) and Falahai Insaniat Foundation (FIF) properties including seminaries and mosques across the country.

JeM had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers.

Pakistan’s Punjab government claimed to have taken over the administrative control of the JeM headquarters — comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah – in Bahawalpur.

According to the government, some 600 students are studying there and none of them is associated with any banned outfit or involved in any terror activity.

In May 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world body for the first time on the issue.

The UN committee listed Azhar on May 1, 2019 as being associated with Al-Qaeda for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material to”, “recruiting for”, “otherwise supporting acts or activities of”, and “other acts or activities indicating association with” the JeM.

Azhar is a fugitive released by India in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999.

After his release in 1999, Azhar formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed and scripted many audacious terror strikes in India.

On February 26, 2019 India had launched air strikes on what was said to be JeM’s biggest training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot.

The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is instrumental in pushing Pakistan to take measures against terrorists roaming freely in Pakistan and using its territory to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere.

The Paris-based FATF placed Pakistan on the Grey List in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to COVID-19 pandemic. PTI