Kalyan Das

kalyan.das@htlive.com

Dehradun : Pakistan has made terrorism as its state policy and despite losing four wars against India, it has not learnt its lessons and continuing its misadventures against us, said defence minister Rajnath Singh said here on Saturday.

He was addressing the Gentlemen Cadets (GC) at Passing out Parade (PoP) of Indian Military Academy (IMA) after inspecting the PoP as the chief guest.

“India has a hostile neighbour at its western front with Pakistan which has terrorism as its state policy. Because of that you (GCs) have to be prepared all the time to fight terrorism,” said Singh.

He said, “Our government has adopted a multi-front strategy against terrorism which is yielding results. However, we still need to be on alert because the Pakistani non-state actors involved in terrorism activities have become so powerful that the state actors have turned into mere puppets at their hands there.”

Continuing his attack, he said whole world knows that Osama Bin Laden, who planned the 9/11 attacks was found in Pakistan.

“History proves that India has never attacked any foreign country nor has ever interfered in their matters. But Pakistan always does that.”

Singh said, “The leaders of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) who planned the deadly 26/11 attacks in Mumbai are also sitting in Pakistan. The families of victims of that the attack would only get justice when they (LeT terrorists) will meet their end. They won’t be save themselves from India’s security apparatus for long.”

During his address, Singh also stated about the requirement of being vigilant at the northern and northeastern front against China.

“India has some territorial differences against China as the border between them is yet to be clearly demarcated. However our armed forces need to show both courage and wisdom at the Indo-China border which it has done in the past like in Doklam dispute where they showed extraordinary determination to avoid an armed conflict,” he said.

Addressing the GC who got commissioned as officers in Indian Army on Saturday, he also warned them about the “future challenges” apart from conventional war.

“There would be challenges like fake news, use of false identities to create doubt and confusion in the armed forces and hacking into critical infrastructure by enemy countries to access sensitive information which are all a step the act of terrorism. To fight these, you (GCs) should also gain expertise in cyber weaponry apart from conventional weaponry,” said Singh.

He assured the newly commissioned officers of standing alongside them whenever needed and said, “From now on the Defence ministry would take care of the well being of yours as well as your family members.”

“It is the matter of great pride for the families who have handed their son for the security of the country for which I am grateful to them.”

A total of 377 GCs, including 71 from friendly countries, passed out at the Passing out Parade.

Officer from Valley wants state youth to serve the nation

HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Dehradun : Among the newly commissioned officer, there was a 24-year-old from Kashmir who stood out calm and composed brimming with a passion to serve the country.

A resident of Kashmir valley, Shahid Shah was accompanied by his parents and younger sister to the Passing out Parade.

Shah had joined the army at the age of 17 years and 6 months as a sepoy.

“It was my childhood dream to join the armed forces as my father was also in one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF),” said Shah.

He served as sepoy for two years before joining the Army Cadet College (ACC) in IMA, Dehradun.

Terming the day as a moment of pride Shah, who claimed to be the first officer in Indian Army from is town in Kashmir, said nothing can be great than getting a chance to serve the country.

“I can’t describe the feeling but would want the youths in my town to have the same feeling by joining the army to serve nation. I would be happy if they draw inspiration from me,” he said.

His father, Mohammed Shah, who served in different places of the country while being with the CAPF said, “I am proud of my son. He always wanted to become an officer in the army in which I always motivated,” he said.

First cadet from Sri Lanka in NDA passes from IMA

Kalyan Das

kalyan.das@htlive.com

Dehradun : It was a moment of immense pride for 25-year-old Udara Abesinghe from Sri Lanka who became the first one from his country to pass out from IMA in Dehradun after pursuing the initial training course from National Defence Academy (NDA). Hailing from Colombo, Udara was among the three Gentleman Cadets from Sri Lanka who passed out after the Passing out Parade on Saturday in IMA.

“I was the first one from my country to be selected in NDA. I faced difficulty in the initial stage as I couldn’t understand a word of Hindi,” he said. He, however, claimed that his classmates helped him a lot. HTC

Anupam Pateriya

letters@hindustantimes.com

Bhopal/Sagar : The army cantonment in Sagar, 186 km from Bhopal, and residents of around 12 villages in the same district have been locked in a dispute over water from the Chitora stop dam.

Matters have reached a stage where half a dozen army men have been deployed to guard the stop dam, the source of water for the cantonment as well as farmers from the villages. The army men are patrolling a 12-km stretch near the dam, preventing them from drawing water, allege the villagers. In the past fortnight, they add, the army has seized 14 electric water pumps and water pipes.

Chitora village sarpanch Vijendra Singh said: “This has caused problems for irrigating farmland. Every year, we irrigated our crops with the water from this dam but this year they (the army men) are even stopping the farmers from tapping water from canals connected to the dam.”

Army officials say the water body was designated to army by the Sagar municipal corporation in 1995. Sagar Army Headquarter Commandant, Colonnel Munish Gupta, said: “This is not the first time we have deployed a patrolling party. We are guarding our quota of water which was permitted by the Sagar municipal corporation.”

Sagar municipal corporation commissioner RP Ahirwar said, “It is true that we have permitted the army to draw water from Chitora stop dam but why are they stopping villagers from drawing extra water from canals? We will inquire in the matter.”

“Last summer, we faced a water shortage. So, this year we came up with a strict plan to guard the water. We have seized as many as 14 electric motor pumps from farmers,” Commander Gupta added. Vinod Thakur, a farmer of Barkheri village is one such farmer. “I was irrigating my land with an overflowing canal connected to the dam but the army patrol seized my motor and pipe. Now, I don’t know how to irrigate my 12 acres of land.”

The villagers claim the water body has traditionally irrigated their land. Farmer Jahar Singh said: “We have lodged a complaint with the district administration against the army.”

Deputy director of agriculture department, GD Nema, said, “This is an illogical step by army men as the district received 1717 mm rainfall this year, which is higher than average rainfall of 1124 mm and there is no fear of water crisis. If farmers don’t get water, it will affect the production of wheat.” Sagar district collector Preeti Maithil said the administration is “looking into the matter.”

HT Correspondent

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Chhattisgarh counterpart, Bhupesh Baghel, both from the Congress, on Saturday opposed a pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) that the central government has proposed to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

In a freewheeling session at the 17th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Baghel said that he is opposed to the NRC, and the exercise does not apply to his state. He added: “There is no space for fear in Indian tradition. All sections are feeling insecure. Reporters, doctors, industrialists — which section is not afraid?”

Amarinder, on his part, said that he found the whole issue “strange” and that no one could ask any person to leave the country through such a unilateral decision. The two CMs also talked about the Goods and Services Tax.

full report on 12

Amanjeet Singh Salyal

Amanjeet.singh@htlive.com

Chandigarh : The drone technology posed serious threat in the recent past and work is going on to develop a good drone system that can take care of the air defence system, said Air Marshal RKS Shera, air force commanding-in chief, maintenance command, Indian Air Force (IAF), said.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the one-day national-level Nodal Technology Centre (NTC) symposium in association with PHD chamber of commerce at the Harjinder Hall in 3 BRD Air Force, Chandigarh, on Friday.

He sought cooperation from industry, academia and defence public sector undertakings to find a good solution.

He said we have seen how drones were used in conflict zones (like Syria) and they pose a threat.

He said it is a huge challenge to maintain vintage assets and modern, state-of-art aircraft which are getting inducted to its fleet.

“There is a large canvas of vintage and state-of-art aircraft and imagine the kind of challenge the maintainer has to ensure that legacy machines fly safely. We have to find out what is bothering us in those machines as ten years technology changes and the component starts becoming obsolete. So we have to put a system in place where we can see forward what will happen after five years as far as components are concerned,” he said.

Senior officials and domain experts from Ministry of Defence, air headquarters, headquarters of maintenance command, army headquarters, naval headquarters, Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, Defence Research and Development Organisation, academia and industry, including Confederation of Indian Industry, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India andFederation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry alsoparticipated.

The event witnessed presentations, display and demonstrations of niche technologies under development by the academia and industry, who together discussed ways to exploit the indigenisation opportunities in the Indian Air Forc

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : Within a few minutes on September 21, 2018, Commander Abhilash Tomy’s 32-feet-long boat Thuriya was knocked down by the waves as tall as a six-storey building — flinging the then 39-year-old out to the water before he only just managed to hang on to one of the two masts. In the following moments, he fell from a height of nine metres and broke his spine — the beginning of a three-day nightmare that ended with one of the most anticipated rescues of recent times.

Tomy, speaking at the 17th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2019 on Friday, gave details of the harrowing moments that abruptly ended his participation in a race around the world but thrust him into the spotlight for surviving an ordeal that tested the limits of human endurance.

He also said he is raring to get back on the sea.

“When the boat turned upright after the second knockdown, my wrist was stuck on wires connecting the mast. At one point, the strap of my watch broke, and I fell nine metres on a piece of aluminium called the boom. Then I fell to the deck on my back. I cleaned up some of the broken equipment, but half an hour later, I could not stand,” said Tomy of the moments that turned out to be the point when he broke his spine in four places.

Tomy was participating in the 50th edition of the Golden Globe Race, using a boat that was a replica of Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili – the winner of the first edition in 1968. The Thuriya was only equipped with technology that existed in the 1990s.

After 82 days at sea, his yacht lost its mast in a storm. Tomy was in third position at the time in the race, which began with 18 participants.

Severely incapacitated, he survived only on iced tea. “I had massive amounts of hiccups… I tried to vomit, and that controlled my hiccups. I secured myself on the bunk where I kept drinking iced tea, vomiting, and sleeping,” he said.

But was he scared? “I don’t feel fear when I am in the sea. It is people who scare me,” he said.

Tomy said while being stranded, his thoughts would often go to his wife, Urmimala, who was pregnant at the time. “I thought about the stress that she would be going through. I wanted to be with my child when he or she was to be born.”

When a rescue team – a coordinated effort of four nations – finally reached him, his first thought was that he was hallucinating. “After 48 hours of sleep deprivation, hallucination is common. When I heard the knock, I thought this could be a hallucination and I must be prepared for that. But then they were there, [real] people — and I told them you are like angels to me,” he said.

The first team to reach him was from a French shipping vessel, Osiris, which had been close to his location and responded to his distress message.

However, after his return to land, he still had to face an uphill battle in recovering strength in his body. “After the accident I had to learn to walk again. I was so weak that brushing my teeth felt like spending an hour in the gym,” he said, adding: “But it was a good year of recovery. Exactly one year later, I was back kayaking. Every part of my body hurt except my spine.”

The incident in 2018, the sailor added, gave him a new perspective. “For so many days then, I survived on so little. When I came back, I realised life was excessive. In that sense, the sea gave me perspective,” he said.

Tomy said that he now plans to participate in the 2022 edition of the Golden Globe Race – and, to his delight, he said, his wife and mother have given him the green signal. “Maybe some day I will also fly around the world in a light aircraft,” said the navy man who is posted as a maritime reconnaissance pilot in Goa.

“The navy has taught me that it is the will to survive that matters. They don’t teach you how to have the will to survive but you learn,” he said.

Tomy became the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe onboard his boat Mhadei – solo, non-stop and unassisted in 2013. He was awarded India’s second-highest peace-time gallantry award, Kirti Chakra, for the feat. He has sailed more than 52,000 miles in his naval career spanning 18 years.