Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 5

A Kargil war veteran and India’s first blade runner, Major DP Singh, today interacted with cadets of the Chandigarh NCC air squadron and motivated them to set high ideals in life and strive for excellence, at the squadron’s annual training camp.

The officer had lost his right leg due to enemy fire in the Akhnoor Sector. He gradually started running using a prosthetic limb and has run in 26 half marathons, including several in high altitude.

As many as 33 cadets, including 13 girls, from city colleges are attending the camp being conducted here.

Inaugurating the camp, Col Amitesh Verma, Deputy Commander, Chandigarh NCC Group, exhorted the cadets to excel in all fields, enjoy the training activities and develop camaraderie and friendship among themselves.

The camp commandant, Group Capt MR Pandeya, said the camp aimed at imparting quality training to the cadets in flying, drill, weapon training and aero-modelling, besides conducting sessions on personality development, national integration, road safety, fire safety and health and hygiene.

Rajbir Deswal

An emotional averment, natural, and not manoeuvred like maverick demagogues, by the farmers’ leader, Rakesh Tikait, did what a million implorations couldn’t do. It generated unsolicited and free-flowing support from the hoi polloi, especially the farming community in UP, Punjab and Haryana. They all seemed to tell, and not ask Tikait — ‘Aap kyun roye!’

Crying is human to the core, and essentially balances the upheavals felt within. Lord Ram’s father Dashrath wailed for days over the former’s separation and going in exile, till he died. Even Lord Ram cried upon seeing his brother Laxman faint. It’s believed that Nehru cried when Lata Mangeshkar rendered the patriotic number, ‘Aye mere watan ke logon, tum aankh main bhar lo pani.’ So, nothing wrong, or unusual, even for the iconic figures to be human-like and not just flaunt the royals’ ‘stiff upper lip’.

I recall Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?’ In a similar vein, if you torment the bread-giver, does he not cry and bleed tears? Here, Tikait’s feelings of concern for his ilk have surfaced.

Crying elders move people even if they are stone-hearted. Look at the parents who lament their children deserting them! It may be only the kids and infants who may be just throwing tantrums, and feeling agitated, and making a song and dance about anything trivial, but when a mature person cries, it moves everyone around, for it’s just not for a naught that he might be thus painfully hurt. And Tikait is not a thespian, but a simpleton who bears his cross, valiantly.

In his seminal work, Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead, Tennyson talks about this very emotion, which if remains bottled up and doesn’t find an outlet, explodes. ‘She should weep or she’ll die’ — everyone is concerned about the soldier’s widow in the poem.

There is yet another story in which a tombstone cutter, who is approached by a widow for making her late husband’s tombstone, keeps standing like a statue, unmoved and listless for three days, without saying a word, and finally collapses and dies. The stone-cutter has to make two tombstones then. A tear says a million unsaid and pent-up emotions.

I once saw my father crying at the suggestion of our family’s separation. I couldn’t bear it then and to date it nearly eats up my entrails in pain. Similarly, when I came to know that my mother wept having seen me off to stay in a hostel, I cried endlessly for days together.

Julio Ribeiro

I marvel at the insatiable appetite of the Modi-Shah government and its satraps in the BJP-ruled states to take on every opponent who dares to oppose its policies and actions. It reminds me of the Great Khali and his tribesmen in the world of freestyle wrestlers, all brawny men. They challenge anyone who cares to oppose them to step into the arena and fight!

It does not appear that Shashi Tharoor or Rajdeep Sardesai or Mrinal Pande had deliberately or otherwise thrown their hat in the ring. Yet, they became the objects of ire because in their hurry to be the first to break the news, they individually tweeted that a protesting farmer on a tractor had died by a bullet injury in the melee that took place in Delhi on Republic Day. They had watched on TV a tractor breaking the police cordon. It was travelling at what could be considered reckless speed. If the police present there to stop the tractors at a predetermined line was forced to take a split-second decision, I would not fault them if they had fired and thereby prevented others from resorting to similar tactics. Both the police and farmers were keen to show restraint, and a genuine misunderstanding on the part of some journalists and a political opponent could, and should, have been overlooked.

However, our brand of the Great Khalis took advantage, more than umbrage, of the tweeters mistaken notion that the farmer had died in police firing, and filed FIRs against Shashi Tharoor and the journalists, accusing them of causing dissension between communities and sedition, of all things! The recourse to accusing opponents of the government of sedition has become a standard practice with the police in particular, despite the Supreme Court’s clear view that sedition is not to be cited unless the clear intention of fomenting violence and civic unrest against the lawfully-installed State is apparent.

Incidentally, this government has developed the fine art of turning legal process into punishment, knowing fully well that the case will not stand the test of legal scrutiny. The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (not yet applied to this case) makes it almost difficult for the judiciary to release the accused on bail. So, if the trials linger, as they always do, the arrested persons are kept in judicial custody interminably. Some of the Bhima Koregaon detainees have spent more than three years in prison without trial, which in a democracy is unacceptable.

Stan Swamy, a 83-year-old Jesuit priest, whose mission in life was to stand up for the rights of Jharkand’s Adivasis, has spent close to four months in jail, with no hope of the trial beginning in the near future. When his request for bail was heard by the designated judge, the Public Prosecutor declared that Fr. Swamy was ‘accomplishing the agenda of the CPI Maoists’! The NIA in its charge sheet in the Elgar Parishad case had described the 30-year-old People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a human rights body, as a frontal organisation of the banned CPI (Marxist)! These accusations do not have the ring of truth.

BJP ministers, the late Arun Jaitley, and Ravi Shankar Prasad, were associated with the PUCL, which was born out of the Emergency of 1975, and was founded by no other than Jai Prakash Narain! The PUCL is a well-known rights organisation and many citizens respect the intentions of its members and appreciate the work it has accomplished in the sphere of human rights.

The SC should study the UAPA and its use by the government to convert its process into actual punishment. Should people accused of unlawful activities be kept in jail for years together without trial in a civilised society? As a Jesuit priest, conditioned to obey his superiors, I cannot envisage this old man helping the Maoists in any manner. He would be contravening Church diktats and could even be defrocked if this were true.

But reverting to the original reason for this article and that is this government’s anxiety to rid itself of all critics of its policies, I have a gut feeling that the list of such opponents of the regime is lengthening so fast that the government will have to expand its security arms exponentially to keep pace. It was the cattle traders and beef eaters to begin with, then the left-wing students at the JNU and Jamia Millia, the anti-CAA/NRC protesters, the farmers opposing laws that were supposed to ameliorate their quality of life, stand-up comics and cartoonists poking gentle fun at these policies or their implementation, the Muslim boys in love with Hindu girls, and now the journalists who in their hurry to ‘break the news’ repeated what they were told by the dead man’s relatives.

I know Rajdeep Sardesai personally. His father was the one and only Test cricket player born in my ancestral state of Goa. He was my friend. His mother was the daughter of a senior member of my own service, the police. PM Pant retired as the police chief of Modiji’s own state of Gujarat. His grandmother’s brother, Gen GG Bewoor, was the Army Chief and his great-grandfather, Sir Gurunath Bewoor, ICS, was my father’s immediate boss as the Post-Master General of Bombay Presidency. My association with his family goes back 85 years when I was a boy of six.

But just as I am troubled by the sedition charges against Rajdeep, I am also troubled by the continuous assaults by this government on all and sundry who do not concur with its policies and actions. Is it that Mr Modi and Mr Shah do not want any opposition at all in this land of argumentative Indians? Or are they keen to follow the Chinese path where no contrarian voices are heard?

All along I had imagined that their goal was a ‘Hindu rashtra’ which, like Pakistan, would ensure that only the majority religion would determine the course of events and politics. But now I am confused. Farmers, journalists and stand-up comics are also in the firing line. Just like they would have been in China!

Lt Gen Gyan Bhushan (retd)

Former South Western Army Commander

Employment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones is a revolution in the making. Drone warfare is one of the most important combat-strategy developments of this century. It is proliferating rapidly and is likely to become even more potent in the coming years.

Drones are designed to deliver air strikes in a ground-guided, pilotless flight that is capable of dropping bombs, firing missiles, or even crashing into a target. These UAVs are equally useful in peacetime too, for gathering critical intelligence.

Development of drones was originally driven by commercial and agricultural demands, later finding a market in the military. Today, its presence in the armed forces is as crucial as that of tanks, mechanised armoured vehicles and fighter aircraft in the last century. As compared to fighter jets, drones serve as a low-cost weapon system, affordable to poor countries that could potentially become capable of damage and creating chaos against powerful adversaries with better traditional military capability.

Battle using drones helps reduce loss of human life. Precision is yet another advantage of using drones in the battlefield. It lowers the risk to military personnel and has less political and military ramifications.

A remote control war through the use of drones has become institutionalised as one of the major counter insurgency/terrorist strategy of the US since 9/11. The US has conducted a large number of drone strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, including attacks on non-state actors and important terrorist leadership. Turkey has employed drones against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Nigeria has used it against the Boko Haram, Iraq against the ISIS and Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Libya and Yemen. Because of the widespread use of drones in conflicts, their employment in military operations is no longer a taboo as is apparent from the recent conflict in Armenia-Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Employment of drones for offensive operations has been extremely effective from Syria to Libya and on to Nagorno-Karabakh. It is important to note that in these conflicts, drones were employed against well-equipped and well-trained forces, and not against the ill equipped armies of poor countries. In all three conflicts, employment was in the face of some of the best anti-aircraft missile defence system produced by Russia. The victory of Azerbaijan over Armenia showed the perfection of the art of drone. Azerbaijan employed Turkish and Israeli-made drones and exhibited the disparity of costs between the drone and the military assets it can destroy.

Being UAVs, drones are able to digitally and instantly provide precious operational information about the battlefield. They enhance situational awareness and target damage assessment. They have the ability to hover over a target, watching it continuously in remote and difficult areas. They are able to reach targets and obtain similar impact with lesser consequences than the penetration of hostile airspace by an aircraft.

Drones have applications beyond military use. Some regulatory frameworks exist for commercial and civilian purposes, but there are no guidelines for military application. Therefore, the use of drone technology by the military is likely to proliferate making it a lucrative option for terrorists, insurgents and non-state actors. It could become an ideal low-cost weapon system for state-sponsored terrorism.

Drones, when combined with human intelligence, can also be effective in locating and targeting known terrorist operatives. They can be employed with comparatively lower risk to life unlike piloted aircraft or ground forces. They can be employed for limiting terrorist capabilities and reducing collateral damage. This makes it more suitable for covert warfare.

We have approximately 15,000 km of land border and a coastline of over 7,500 km, including island territories. We have a turbulent and unstable neighbourhood and a wide range of non-traditional threats. China and Pakistan are our two nuclear neighbours with whom we have unresolved border disputes. Our external threats range from traditional land-centric due to disputed borders to sub-conventional, including the export of terror from across the borders. There are reports of Pakistan and China routinely sending drones into the Indian airspace. Securing the borders against hostile forces is critical to the country’s security.

The Indian armed forces have been using drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Weaponised drones which are emerging as an essential technology in asymmetric warfare have not been employed by the forces. It is, therefore, important to take a note of key developments in drone warfare to cater to these threat manifestations.

India is facing and is likely to continue to face low-level conflicts which necessitate low intensity of retaliation to avoid an all-out war. Our adversaries, especially Pakistan, should not be permitted to get away with the idea that India would hesitate to retaliate militarily against terrorist attacks. Therefore, there is a need to have low intensity retaliation capacity. Drones can inflict pointed damage on distant targets as they are particularly suitable for low-level conflicts and appropriate response in the event of Pathankot and Pulwama-like incidents. Along with focusing on expensive fighter planes, there is a need to lay emphasis on low-cost drones also and develop a comprehensive strategy for their use in our offensive as also defensive plans.

China has emerged as a major player in global arms trade. From being one of the biggest importers, it has become a leading global arms supplier, including that of UAVs. The known capability of China and Turkey in drone technology and their relationship with Pakistan is a cause of concern for India. There is a likelihood of these technologies falling in the hands of extremist groups, posing a big security risk. Therefore, a need to take note of these developments and work on a roadmap and strategy for acquisition and employment of drones is critical. It is needed to counter the envisaged drone threat to India from the neighbourhood.

PK VASUDEVA

Defence commentator

IN the Union Budget for 2021-22, the defence sector has been allocated Rs 4.78 lakh crore, including an outlay for the payment of pensions, against last year’s Rs 4.71 lakh crore. The total amount includes capital expenditure of Rs 1.35 lakh crore to purchase new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware against the capital outlay of Rs 1.13 lakh crore during 2020-21. At a time when India is locked in a prolonged standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, straining its resources, the Budget has allocated Rs 3.62 lakh crore, excluding pensions, for defence expenditure — up by 7.4 per cent from last year. The total outlay for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is pegged at Rs 4,78,195.62 crore, with pension liabilities down by Rs 18,000 crore from the present fiscal. The outlay for weapons and modernisation has been increased from Rs 1,13,734 crore last year to Rs 1,35,060 crore for 2021-22 — a rise of 18 per cent.

The increased budget for modernisation will help the armed forces equip themselves with new weapon systems and spares. In this Budget, the capital outlay for the Indian Army is Rs 36,481 crore; for the Air Force, Rs 53, 214 crore; and for the Navy, Rs 33,253 crore.

The total revenue expenditure, which includes expenses on the payment of salaries and maintenance of establishments, has been pegged at Rs 3.37 lakh crore. The total revenue expenditure includes Rs 1.15 lakh crore for the payment of pensions.

The Budget documents reveal that the MoD spent an additional Rs 20,776 crore for buying new weapon systems and spares for the armed forces in the present fiscal over and above the funds allocated for the purpose. The amount has been used to acquire equipment like the Spice-2000 bombs, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, SiG Sauer assault rifles, Excalibur ammunition, multiple types of aircraft spares from Russia along with ammunition for tanks and fighter jets.

There were expectations of a significant increase in the allocation to the forces, given the added strain of deployment in Ladakh, where about 50,000 troops have been stationed during the harsh winter. While it was the Army holding the fort at the Ladakh border amid the tensions that started in May last year, the jump in the revised expenditure for 2020-21 of the Navy and Air Force was much more. In the ongoing fiscal, the Air Force overshot its original allocation by Rs 11,773 crore and the Navy spent Rs 10,854 crore above its budget. In comparison, the Army spent Rs 821 crore above its allocation.

The MoD also carried out extensive construction work on the borders last year amid the India-China standoff. While the estimated budget for the civil work was Rs 14,500 crore, it increased to Rs 15,914 crore as the government spent on building infrastructure in border areas.

Apart from that, the allocation for civil works under the MoD is Rs 15,257 crore as against the revised allocation Rs 15,914 crore in last year’s Budget. The civil allocation includes allocation for the construction of roads and bridges, government aid to state governments and housing in the North East and border areas.

The Finance Commission’s proposal of a non-lapsable fund for the defence sector has been accepted in principle, but the modalities are to be worked out. It had been reported earlier that the MoD had proposed a roll-on non-lapsable budget over a period of five years for big-ticket acquisitions. It is proposed that a fund of Rs 2.38 lakh crore will be available for a period of five years (2021-26) that will not lapse. The fund can be used for the modernisation of forces, capital investment for Central armed police forces and also state police forces.

Amidst the ongoing standoff between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the hike in the defence budget announced is negligible. Given the expectations that a large infusion of funds would come into the sector to prepare the armed forces for the new two-front challenge and the goal of achieving Atmanirbharta in the field of defence manufacturing — with the coming up of two Defence Industrial Corridors and the target of achieving $5 billion defence equipment exports by 2025 — the outlay seems to be insufficient.

Military experts, in general, have expressed satisfaction at the overall allocation, considering the coronavirus-triggered adverse impact on the economy, though they said India would have to gradually raise its defence spending to deal with increasing external threats.

The capital allocation for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been pegged at Rs 11,375 crore, which is an increase of 8 per cent over the amount earmarked in 2020-21. The allocation for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been increased to Rs 6,004 crore, 7.48 per cent more than the amount given in 2020-21.

Keeping in view the threat perception from China and Pakistan, India needs to increase its defence outlay from 2.1 to 3 per cent of the GDP.

Barnala, February 4

After pictures of injured Jagseer Singh during the farmers’ protest in Delhi went viral, residents of his village here have come forward to support him.

Jagseer, aka Jaggi Baba, who neither has a house nor land, has been putting up at the gurdwara at Pandher village offering services there for the past several years.

As his parents live with his brother, the village panchayat has given him land and even started construction of a house. “Jagseer is illiterate but has been supporting the farm agitation since the beginning,” says Parmjit Singh Rana, a resident. Ever since his pictures surfaced, leaders from various parties have been heading to the village to honour him. — TNS

in solidarity with the ongoing farmers’ agitation, a private hospital in Bathinda treated Jagseer Singh, who was injured while participating in the “tractor parade” on Republic Day in Delhi, for free.

Jagseer, 32, hails from Pandher village in Barnala district and his photos had gone viral on the social media recently. Talking to The Tribune, neurosurgeon Dr Sorabh Gupta said: “After I came to know from my staff members that Jagseer is the same guy who was injured while participating in the tractor parade, we decided not to charge him for the treatment. At least this much we can do for the farmers of the state who have been protesting unrelentingly for their just cause. We also learnt that Jagseer comes from a financially deprived family so we decided to treat him for free.”

Jagseer said: “I am grateful to the doctors and staff who not only took good care of me but also didn’t charge me for the treatment. Initially they did charge some money, but as soon as they found out, they treated me for free. I am deeply touched with the empathy shown by them and we all should learn from such noble gestures.”

Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 5 

Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday fervently appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the contentious farm laws and show statesmanship, noting that Modi had the opportunity to come out strong like Sardar Patel.

“You have twice been the prime minister. Now is the time to be a statesmanlike Sardar Patel. Come, let’s all go to the Delhi Borders. I will come with you. Tell the farmers you brought the laws to benefit them but that you are ready to repeal if they feel otherwise. Don’t make it a prestige issue,” the former Punjab Congress chief said in a 15-minute speech during the ongoing debate in Rajya Sabha on the President’s address to Parliament.

click to open speech

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Bajwa accused the Centre of pushing the farm laws through a “back door” in Rajya Sabha last September. He said the government threw to the winds all parliamentary conventions and constitutional rights of MPs to seek division.

“Today the farmers of Punjab, Haryana and UP have lost trust in you because you rushed the law through deceit. What was your hurry to enact the ordinances? You wanted to favour some corporates. That’s why you hastened the laws through the Parliament. The farmers don’t trust your intentions now,” he said.

The MP asked the government to delineate the technical difference between suspending the laws for one and a half year and repealing them.

“You say you’re ready to suspend the laws. How are the two things different? If you can suspend the laws for a year and a half why can’t you repeal them? Reenact the laws after comprehensive stakeholder consultation,” he suggested.

Condemning the Republic Day violence the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab alleged conspiracy in the January 26 incidents and demanded a time-bound probe by a sitting SC judge into how a section of protesters was allowed to enter Delhi before the time earlier agreed upon with the police.

“Who allowed a section to deviate from pre-planned routes?” He asked.

Bajwa also recalled the execution of ninth Guru Teg Bahadur for the cause Kashmiri Brahmins.

Bajwa said the community had always made sacrifices for the country.

“You will teach us nationalism?” he asked, expressing anguish at a section of farmers being labelled as Khalistanis and anti-nationals.

The Congress leader questioned the Delhi police act of preventing opposition MPs from meeting the farmers at Ghazipur yesterday asking, “What kind of a democracy is this?”

Earlier he accused the Centre of attempts to crush the farmers’ agitation by barricading the protest sites and denying basic facilities to farmers.