Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 1

Recasting the forces into theatre commands will not be done by copying the existing western models, and the Indian military will work out a system of its own, said the first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, minutes after taking over on Wednesday. He also stressed he will ‘strive to’ complete the integration of the services within the mandated three-year timeline set by the government.

He inspected a tri-services guard of honour outside the South Block where the Chiefs of the three armed forces — the Army, Navy and the IAF — were present. The CDS will be the head of the newly created Department of Military Affairs. The three services would be under the DMA for military matters involving procurement, logistics, training, transport, maintenance, etc. On being asked that how will he complete the mandate of having theatre commands as the IAF, in the past, opposed it, General Rawat told the media: “There are methods of doing theatres we need not copy a western system. We will work out a system of our own”.

Answering a specific question if India would retain its present 19 commands or merge them, the new CDS said: “That is something we have to study. We will surely come out with a mechanism that suits the Indian system.”

On the government setting a three-year timeline for integration, and if it was possible to do it in three years or more time was needed, General Rawat said: “I will say it is possible. I cannot say we give up. The government has said three years, we will strive to achieve it in three years”.

On the role of the CDS, he said: “I can assure the Army, IAF and the Navy will work as a team. CDS will only keep control; it is not that CDS will want to run a force on his own”.

On how he felt as CDS, the General pointed towards his new military cap saying “I am wearing a peaked cap after 42 years. The last I wore this was when I passed out from IMA (Indian Military Academy in 1978). The Gorkha tilted hat is gone. This shows the CDS will remain neutral within the service and to all three services”. The General was commissioned in the Gorkha Rifles and they wear a peculiar tilted hat.

On synergy, the General said all three services cannot work on the formula that the sum total of three energies translates into ‘only three’. The total of energies has to be much more, maybe five or seven, meaning multiplication.

The forces, he said have to have best economical use of resources as we focus on integration. We can do training jointly. Procurement procedure can be made uniform.

New Delhi, January 2

US aviation regulator FAA on Thursday warned America’s airlines and their pilots that there is risk involved in operating flights in Pakistan airspace due to “extremist or militant activity”, according to an official document.

“Exercise caution during flight operations. There is a risk to US civil aviation operating in the territory and airspace of Pakistan due to extremist/militant activity,” said the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a notice to airmen (NOTAM) dated December 30, 2019.

The NOTAM is applicable to all US-based airlines and US-based pilots.

The US regulator said in its NOTAM that there continues to be a risk to US civil aviation sector from attacks against airports and aircraft in Pakistan, particularly for aircraft on the ground and aircraft operating at low altitudes, including during the arrival and departure phases of flights.

“The ongoing presence of extremist/militant elements operating in Pakistan poses a continued risk to US civil aviation from small-arms fire, complex attacks against airports, indirect weapons fire, and anti-aircraft fire, any of which could occur with little or no warning,” it said.

The FAA said that while, to date, there have been no reports of man-portable air defense systems or Manpads being used against the civil aviation sector in Pakistan, some extremist or militant groups operating there are suspected of having access to these Manpads.

“As a result, there is potential risk for extremists/militants to target civil aviation in Pakistan with Manpads,” it said.

The regulator added that pilots or airlines must report safety or security incidents — which may happen in Pakistan — to the FAA.

Pakistan on July 16 last year opened its airspace for India after about five months of restrictions imposed in the wake of a standoff with New Delhi.

Following the Balakot air strikes by the Indian Air Force, Pakistan had closed its airspace on February 26 last year.

Pakistan in October last year had denied India’s request to allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s VVIP flight to use its airspace for his visit to Saudi Arabia over the Kashmir issue. PTI

Shyam Saran
Former Foreign Secretary and senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research

It is ironic that the year in which we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, we are locked in a debate about what kind of country should India be. Was not this issue settled when, after intense, but always civilised debate, a Constitution for the Republic of India was adopted on January 26, 1950? All the diverse communities of India, all shades of opinion and political persuasions were represented in the Constituent Assembly. They worked under the shadow of the trauma of the Partition and the assassination of Gandhi. This was an India still in the making. Its future was uncertain. Yet, the leaders of independent India were still able to put together a charter to guide the newborn nation, at once practical but also visionary. The Constitution draws inspiration from what is best among India’s own civilisational attributes, but also acknowledges the imperatives of a modern, egalitarian and enlightened society. In the past seven decades, India has often fallen short of the benchmarks it set for itself. But today is different because the benchmarks themselves are being questioned, derided and violated. It is some reassurance that those who undermine the Constitution still feel compelled to swear by it. Nehru may have been discarded but Gandhi still enjoys residual shelf life.

The Citizenship Act Amendment (CAA) is significant not for this or that specific clause but because it announces an imagining of India starkly different from what the Constitution envisioned. For the very first time, there is a law which introduces a distinction based on religious faith with respect to citizenship. This is irrespective of the claim that existing Muslim citizens will be unaffected by it. This is not the same as affirmative action based on social or economic infirmities accepted in the Constitution. It is possible that the arcane technicalities will be found by courts to validate it but that will be papering over the grievous wound inflicted on the very fabric of the Constitution.

The alternative imagining of India is a country that privileges the adherents of the Hindu faith. It is based on the as yet untested assumption that an overarching Hindu identity, ranging across sectarian, caste, regional and linguistic differences can be constructed on a Hindu-Muslim binary. The Hindu rashtra concept builds on this assumption. The case of Assam may suggest otherwise. The Constitution also strives to create an overarching Indian identity but one which is based on citizenship which transcends, but does not seek to either privilege or suppress these separate identities, including religious identities. Citizenship, as defined in the Constitution, is individual based and has nothing to do with other affiliations or identities that an individual may have. He enjoys fundamental rights as a citizen and this is not subject to his affiliation with any social or religious community. It is this concept of citizenship which the CAA has violated.

The CAA is a matter of concern also because of what has preceded it and what is intended to follow it. On August 5, Article 370 was suspended, J&K was bifurcated into Union Territories, and a virtual lockdown was imposed in the Muslim-majority Valley which mostly remains in place. Internet access has been denied to the residents of the Valley but they may now take consolation from the fact that this is also occasionally the fate of fellow citizens in several other parts of the country, including UP. Then came the historic SC judgment on the Babri Masjid case. Curiously, the acts of placing idols in the precincts of the masjid and the subsequent demolition of the masjid itself were held to be criminal acts, and yet, the judgment was in favour of a Ram temple being constructed at the same location. Decisions by the ruling party to make Yogi Adityanath the Chief Minister of UP despite his record of deep antipathy towards Muslims and the nomination of Pragya Thakur, who glorifies Gandhi’s assassin, Godse, as a candidate for election to the Lok Sabha, which she won handsomely, all point to an unmistakable pattern, an incontrovertible direction. If there are doubts about where we are headed one should see the video, which has been widely circulated, of schoolchildren in Puducherry re-enacting the demolition of Babri Masjid as a glorious historic achievement and being applauded by the Lt Governor. The government’s obfuscation over the updating of the National Population Register which has commenced, the creation of a National Register of Indian Citizens which is to follow and the construction of detention centres where those of doubtful citizenry may be held, seek to camouflage an intent to create an India very different from what we signed to as ‘We the People of India’ in 1950. This is what lies at the heart of the struggle unfolding on the streets across India. It is heartening that it is young students belonging to different faiths, who are together defying the power of a coercive state to reclaim peacefully the vision of India enshrined in the Constitution.

Good governance needs credibility, transparency and accountability. These attributes are becoming hard to find in the current ruling dispensation, whether in respect of political or economic decision making. Above all, in a democratic country, the state must not raise its fists to rain blows on its citizens. ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, and the additional element the PM has now added, ‘Sabka Vishwas’, should not remain a politically expedient slogan. It should become the benchmark for all government action, for it truly imbibes the spirit of the Indian Constitution.

Our Correspondent

Jammu, January 1

The Indian and Chinese armies on Wednesday held a ceremonial Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) to mark the New Year at Chushul-Moldo and DBO-TWD meeting points in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian delegation was led by Brig HS Gill and Col Manoj Kumar and the Chinese delegation by senior Col Bai Min and Lt-Col Lee Ming Ju, respectively.

“Both delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment. The meeting reflected the mutual desire to maintain and improve relations at functional level in the border areas,” a Defence spokesperson said.

A cultural programme showcasing the Chinese culture and traditions was organised by the Chinese side. The delegations met amidst a feeling of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations and trust along the border.