Moga, December 16

A 52-year-old former Army man was allegedly beaten to death by some unidentified persons at Maur Nau Abaad village in Baghapurana sub-division of the district, the police said.The body of Gurbachan Singh was recovered from the outskirts of the village. His brother Harjit Singh said he had gone the village gurdwara in the morning and later his body was found. The police said a case of murder under Section 302 had been registered against unknown persons. — TNS

The apex court said the Constitution Bench would commence final hearing from January 17 on the petition challenging the Aadhaar scheme itself.

New Delhi, December 15The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till March 31 next year the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes.A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in an interim order, also modified its earlier order with regard to linking of Aadhaar with mobile services and said the deadline of February 6 next year for this purpose also stood extended till March 31.The bench, which also comprised Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said that for opening new bank accounts, an applicant would not be required to provide Aadhaar number to the bank.

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However, the applicant would have to show the proof to the bank that he/she had applied for the Aadhaar number, Justice Chandrachud, who wrote the unanimous interim order, said.The apex court said the Constitution Bench would commence final hearing from January 17 on the petition challenging the Aadhaar scheme itself.On Thursday, Attorney General KK Venugopal had submitted before the top court that the deadline of mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes could also be extended up to March 31 next year.Recently, a nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.Some petitioners in the top court have termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as “illegal and unconstitutional”. PTI

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh addresses the gathering during the two-day national meet, organised by The Tribune Employees Union, at Chandigarh University, Gharuan on Saturday. NITIN MITTAL

Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 9

“I only got love from the media. In the past around 50 years, I never complained that somebody wrote anything against me,” said Capt Amarinder Singh smilingly while addressing the gathering at a two-day national meet, organised by The Tribune Employees Union in association with the Confederation of Newspapers and News Agencies Employees Organisations at Chandigarh University in Gharuan here today.Saying that he always shared warm relations with the Press, the Punjab Chief Minister said the Congress government was against any kind of media censorship. “We want competition to grow. So people get news as they should be getting it, “said the CM, who was the chief guest at the first day of the meet.Nearly 120 delegates representing various newspapers and news agencies across the country are participating in the meet to discuss several key issues, including latest challenges before the newspaper industries and their employees, safety and security of field journalists, constitution of new wage board etc.Going down the memory lane when he was in the Army, Capt Amarinder Singh shared his experiences with the participants how they used to anxiously wait for newspapers while camping in Army bases.The CM added that the main challenges before the newspaper industry included social media, inclination of children towards Internet and TV and declining habits of reading among new generation. “Besides, it is your (journos) responsibility to present the news in the right way,” he said.Capt Amarinder also touched on the poor financial health of the state, claiming that the Punjab has no money for its schools, colleges, roads, hospitals etc. “We are doing our best to put the state back on track,” said the Chief Minister while making it clear that he would not stop the screening of the controversial film ‘Padmavati’ in the state.Earlier, after welcoming the CM, Anil Gupta, president, The Tribune Employees’ Union, apprised him of various issues/challenges related to the mediapersons.Demanding introduction of a national media safety law, the speakers, included Anil Gupta, MS Yadav, general secretary of the confederation and SN Sinha of the IJU, touched on various issues of newspaper employees, freedom of press, recent attacks on journalists, setting up a media commission, curbs on certain electronic channels by the previous government, abolishment of contract system, constitution of new wage board here etc. A souvenir of the Tribune Employees Union was also released on the occasion.Among those present were Mohali MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu, CU Chancellor Satnam Singh Sandhu, the Punjab Chief Minister’s media advisor Raveen Thukral, president of the Indian Journalists Union KB Pandit and president of the All India Newspaper Employees Federation SD Thakur.

120 delegates take part in meet on press issues

• Nearly 120 delegates representing various newspapers and news agencies across the country are participating in the meet to discuss several key issues, including latest challenges before the newspaper industries and their employees, safety and security of field journalists, constitution of new wage board etc.

Revelations of unsavoury truths and unfair dealings involving the armed forces have created ripples in the literary circles over the years. Books highligting corruption, strategic failures, political blunders, besides tell-all autobiographies have always stoked reader interest. Here’s a peep into some of the significant volumes in this realm, and what these said

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Himalayan Blunder: The Angry Truth About India’s Most Crushing Military Disaster 

by Brig JP Dalvi.

Thacker.

Among the books based on the subject of the 1962 India-China War Himalayan Blunder: The Angry Truth About India’s Most Crushing Military Disaster is considered to be the most striking and authentic version. It presents an account of the 1962 War, a war that India lost through the narrative of Brig JP Dalvi. He fought the war as the Commander of the 7th Infantry Brigade in NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency). His account of the war is graphic and telling. He was captured by the Chinese forces and was a PoW for seven months. Point of controversy: Based on his firsthand experiences, Dalvi recounts the events that occurred between September 8 and October 20, 1962. and the manner in which India’s own political leadership worked against its cause. In no uncertain terms, he held three men responsible for India’s defeat — Jawaharlal Nehru, Krishna Menon and Gen Brij Mohan Kaul. Dalvi claimed that the apathy and the sheer ineptitude of those at the helm of India’s political affairs sacrificed hundreds of valuable lives. The Indian soldiers — underfed, ill-equipped and unprepared as they were — never stood a chance against the well-prepared and well-endowed Chinese army. Brigadier Dalvi’s detailed narrative of the massacre of the Indian soldiers, a horror that he witnessed firsthand, is heart-rending. 

The War That Never Was: A Study of India’s Strategic Failures  

by Ravi Rikhye.

Chanakya.

 Journalist-turned-author Ravi Rikhye’s analytical book The War that Never Was puts the spotlight on 1987 Operation Trident/Brass Tacks where the Indian and Pakistan troops came within a hair’s breadth of a blood-soaked confrontation.   The book examines India’s ability to achieve an all out victory over Pakistan in the backdrop of Operations Brasstacks and Trident. Pointing out misperceptions of adversary’s behaviour, the author brings out, in different chapters, how same mistakes were committed by India in several crisis situations. Point of controversy: Rikhye points out weaknesses of  the armed forces and the political leadership and the strategic failures that could have had disastrous results.  

The Kargil War

by Praveen Swami.

LeftWord Books.

VBN Ram,Freelance journalist

A slew of setbacks in at least three nations for the OROB (One Road One Belt) initiative have dampened the spirit of Chinese economy policymakers. Pak calls off contractThe biggest setback has come from Pakistan, which has called off its $14 billion contract with China for the construction of the Daimer-Bhasa hydro-electric project. China had laid strict conditions, including ownership of the project. According to Muzammil Hussain, Chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the project is not viable and hence not doable, besides being against national interests. He stated so while briefing the Public Accounts Committee on the status of this mega water project. However, China might consider granting some concessions to ensure that its OROB remains unscathed — even though Pakistan has made it manifestly clear to China that it being shortchanged is tantamount to going against its national interest. After all, conditions imposed by China were as bad as the Merchant of Venice had imposed, and like the latter, it wanted its pound of flesh. What were the conditions imposed by Beijing: the securitisation of this project by Pakistan’s pledging of another operational project and taking charge of the entire operational and maintenance cost.Setback in NepalIn a tweet on November 13, 2017, the Deputy Prime-Minister of Nepal, Kamal Thapa, has stated that Nepal’s $2.5 billion contract with China’s Gezhouba Group in respect of the Budhi Gandhaki hydro-electric project has been scrapped. “The project was concluded in an irregular and thoughtless manner and rejected under the direction of Parliamentary Committee,” he said. The above was a bilateral deal — the MoU for which was signed in June 2017 — covered the building of a 1200-megawatt hydro-electric project at a location about 80 km from Kathmandu, as a follow-up to Nepal agreeing to join the OROB. This project is in the process of being awarded to India.

Myanmar alert

Nepal’s withdrawal from the bilateral contract comes a few years after Myanmar decided to cancel the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam, which was formalised by former President Thein Sein. China is continuing its efforts with Myanmar quite persuasively to revive this project.Myanmar has quite obviously seen how Sri Lanka has been shortchanged by China with respect to the Hambantota port project.China’s changed requirementsChina’s wily altruism to secure regional economic hegemony is being supplanted by its economic imperative, or more specifically, its necessity for reducing its debt to GDP ratio. The 19-party Congress has emphasised on market-based allocation of resources and a shift towards greater reward to risk the overall profile of investments.As a matter of coincidence, China is encountering these setbacks at a time when India’s outreach to its neighbours has become highly intense. The aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Philippines has seen significant achievements — the icing on the cake being the impelling need and commitment for a free and open Indo-Pacific region (a strategic initiative by the Quad, ie the US, Japan, India and Australia) to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and lawful commerce in international waters and overall maritime security and infrastructure development and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific. The regional reference “Indo-Pacific” instead of Asia Pacific has added significance.Mandarins in India’s foreign office can pat themselves on the back because they have been able to convince many neighbourhood nations that commercial and non-commercial ties with India can rejuvenate their economies besides rendering them more secure. India should grab the opportunities. That India is bestowed with robust technological prowess is internationally acknowledged. 

While it’s incorrect to declare ‘victory’, India seems to be on the right path when it comes to anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Even as Dineshwar Sharma, the government-appointed interlocutor, returned after his first reconnaissance of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and a round of meetings was underway in Delhi, the government gave directions for the continuation of focussed and hard anti-terror operations in Kashmir. Within days of those directions, the Bandipur operation on 18 November resulted in one of the biggest achievements in anti-terrorist operations this year. Six terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba were gunned down by the Army’s 13 Rashtriya Rifles, in conjunction with the J&K Police and the CRPF.

Operations against terrorists have two connotations in J&K. First is the counter-infiltration (CI) mode, in which the Army has established a strong and dominating grid along the LoC belt, in depth up to 20 km. This deployment is in layers. Since the strength of infiltrating terrorists can be very high, the attrition levels too are high, resulting in operations in the past where as many as 10-15 terrorists have been killed in a single encounter. These days this number rarely exceeds six infiltrators because terrorists have reduced the size of infiltrating groups to avoid high attrition.

The second mode is that of hinterland operations, or what may also be termed as counter-terror (CT) operations. In the late 1990s and before, the elimination of six or more terrorists in an encounter was considered normal and the frequency was reasonably high. That was because the Valley was full of terrorists who roamed in bands. When the attrition levels increased, the mathematics of terror started to fall in our favour. This was from 2004 onwards, once the LoC fence was operationalised. The Army could eliminate more terrorists in the hinterland than the rate at which they infiltrated.

The terrorist leadership evaluated the situation and decided to reduce the strength in the operational groups. Instead of the usual six, the terrorists began living in pairs, sometimes trios. This reduced the quantum of terrorists killed in contact operations. It was a strategy of the LeT in particular, which then needed many more over-ground workers (OGWs) for guidance to the foreign terrorists (all LeT terrorists are generally Pakistanis) for frequent movement to avoid the security dragnet.

Of course the most important issue here was the need for and existence of a large network of ‘safe houses’ in which foreign terrorists resided. In fact, I once celebrated when one of my units killed five high-level terrorist leaders who had got together for a conference in the Lolab Valley on 13 July 2011.

Ominous signs for terrorists

While a single operation is never sufficient to give us a trend, I can see a few ominous signs for the terrorist cadres. One is the drying of funding. Even OGWs need funding. The call for azadi and radical ideology can only keep passion and commitment going up to a point. Beyond that, it is a question of money.

The NIA’s recent actions and maintenance of continuity with these is having its effect. The lower strength of OGWs means a smaller number of safe houses too. So, terrorists from Pakistan have to stay for shorter periods in fewer homes, and thus have to be in larger groups. This offers greater potential for success to the ever-hungry Rashtriya Rifles troops.

Post-operation analysis will soon tell us whether this eliminated group was a resident terrorist group or a recently infiltrated one. Either way, there can be no denying that the phenomenon of infiltration is impossible to stop; the most the Army can do is contain it as much as possible. Secondly, more youth have been recruited to terrorist ranks in South Kashmir than the number killed or neutralised this campaigning season. So, we are almost back to square one in the numbers game.

The direction of the central government to the forces to not dilute the focus and intensity of operations is wise. Winter can sometimes be a period for a tactical pause when the Army, in particular, gets on to other things like reviewing conventional warfare plans and conducting war games.

My experience in Kashmir tells me that winter is a ‘high kill’ period, but this fact is not registered in the psyche of the forces due to lack of continuity management. With changed circumstances, now is the time to ginger up intelligence. But intelligence does not come cheap. There is a need to spend more money. If this advice is heeded I am quite certain we have a partridge hunt in the offing this winter.

Too many times in the past we have declared premature victory in the fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists and separatists. My sincere advice — victory is not on the horizon yet; it’s too complex a term. We just have to ensure that the CI/CT grids remain intact, and there is no attempt at premature dilution.