The war of the ages: General VK Singh and his date of birth

Truth, they say, is the first casualty of war. The author of this maxim was not an Indian because here truth can be maimed even during peace. The saga of a General’s age is getting curiouser and curiouser. Birth date has always been a source of dispute in the Indian context. Many are the stories of people fudging it, to get a few more years of service and the attendant perks and ego. There was also a story of two brothers in another service who were born just five months apart!

Everyone’s story begins at birth. One does not have the wherewithal then to determine, change or influence the date of birth. In the case of General Singh, the Army Hospital records show his date of birth as the year 1951. It is certain that since his father was in the army, Part II of the Army Orders issued then, would have also shown the year as 1951.

The next landmark of any Bharatvasi, as far as age is concerned, is the school leaving certificate. For most of those born before the 1970s, many at home, a birth certificate was an unknown document and the school certificate became the most important document for date of birth. The General’s school certificate shows 1951.

It is now that the documentus villainous enters the picture – the UPSC form for entry to the NDA. This shows 1950! One must note that an NDA application is hardly ever filled by the applicant who is about 15-16 then.

Usually a parent, a relative and in the case of those who went to Sainik/Public Schools and the like, it could have been the teacher or school staff.

What is intriguing is that this document surfaces only around 2005-06, 40 years later! One must also note that it is easy to alter a 1 into a 0 but not the other way round. This document needs some deep forensic study.

Notwithstanding the NDA application form, the AG’s branch in AHQ, the official record-keeper of the Army, has recorded the year as 1951. All his promotions to starred ranks, issued by the MS branch, show 1951 as the year. Now from where, why and on whose behest did the same MS branch after 2005, suddenly come up with 1950?

Only the NDA UPSC form shows 1950. Who was so interested in digging it up and why? Now, which is more authentic – a hospital record, a school certificate (none of which have been created by the General) or a form? The rule that changes must be made within two years is not applicable.

Russia to hand over India nuclear sub by year-end

India will finally operate a nuclear-powered submarine by this year-end. The Akula-II class nuclear submarine K-152 Nerpa, to be rechristened INS Chakra, will be handed over to Indian Navy by Russian Navy by November-December.

Confirming this, Russian Navy chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky has been quoted as holding that “the Indian crew is now absolutely prepared for operating the submarine”, which will be on a 10-year lease.

Over 50 Indian officers and sailors have undergone extensive training on the Nerpa, followed by testing and acceptance trials of the submarine spread over several weeks, as earlier reported by TOI.

The lease flows from an agreement inked between New Delhi and Moscowin January 2004, with India funding part of Nerpa’s construction at Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia with an initial $650 million.

Nerpa was slated for induction much earlier but technical glitches delayed the process, which included a toxic gas leak in November 2008 that killed 20 Russian sailors.

Incidentally, the `Charlie-I’ class nuclear submarine India had leased from Russia from 1988 to 1991 was also named INS Chakra but the expertise gained on it was steadily lost since Indian Navy did not operate any other nuclear submarine thereafter.

Though not armed with long-range nuclear-tipped missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Nerpa will bridge the gap now. It will help train Indian sailors in the complex art of operating nuclear submarines, which will be useful when India’s own nuclear submarine, the over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, becomes operational next year. Armed with torpedoes and 300-km Klub-S cruise missiles, Nerpa of course will also be a lethal hunter of enemy submarines and warships.

Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma had earlier announced India’s nuclear weapon triad will be completed, with the most effective and difficult-to-detect underwater leg, when INS Arihant goes on “deterrent patrols” in 2012.

The triad’s land and air legs are already in place with the Agni family of road and rail-mobile ballistic missiles as well as fighter jets like Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKIs jury-rigged to deliver nuclear weapons.

INS Arihant and its already-approved two follow-on submarines are crucial to India’s nuclear deterrence doctrine, which revolves around a clear “no-first use” policy. A robust and survivable second-strike capability is hugely dependent on having nuclear-powered submarines, armed with SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), which can operate silently underwater for several months at a time.

Afghan women’s rights under threat, say UK charities

Women’s rights in Afghanistan are under threat after 10 years of progress, two leading British aid agencies have said.

Oxfam and Action Aid said many Afghan women were worried that improvements could be sacrificed to secure a political deal with the Taliban.

Women and girls in Afghanistan continue to face enormous challenges, and we recognise that there is still a lot to do. ” – Andrew Mitchell International Development Secretary

An Action Aid survey of 1,000 Afghan women found that 86% were worried about a return to a Taliban-style government.

The UK government said it was working hard to support Afghan women’s empowerment “through transition”.

Felt safer

Action Aid said many women were still denied basic rights.

The charity found that 72% of those surveyed felt that things had improved for them since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

But 37% feared their country would become a worse place following the departure of international troops.

Two-thirds of Afghan women said they felt safer now than they did 10 years ago.

Action Aid said that under Taliban rule women and girls had not been allowed to go to work or school, access to healthcare had been difficult and they had not been able to leave their houses without a male relative.

The charity said progress had been made in the past decade but added that there was still a lot more to be done to improve women’s lives.

An Action Aid report said: “Women are free to be educated and to work. They serve as government ministers and MPs and work as doctors, teachers, professors, entrepreneurs and lawyers.

“These are significant achievements. However, huge challenges remain, with many women still denied basic rights.

“Action Aid believes that including women in the peace, reconciliation and transition processes is the best means of safeguarding and furthering women’s hard-won civil freedoms and human rights.”

The survey commissioned by Action Aid polled women in the provinces of Kabul, Balkh, Kandahar, Herat and Bamiyan.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall said that 10 years ago, improving the rights of women in Afghanistan was seen as one of the goals of outside intervention.

‘Encouraging results’

Oxfam and Action Aid said there had been real progress in girls’ education and with better health care, more women in work and a new constitution that enshrined equal rights for women.

But the charities warned that these fragile advances were already under threat from worsening security in Afghanistan and a resurgent Taliban.

Both organisations are using the 10-year anniversary to appeal to the British government to make sure that women’s rights do not end up traded away in any future peace deal with the Taliban.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the survey results were “hugely encouraging”.

“However, women and girls in Afghanistan continue to face enormous challenges, and we recognise that there is still a lot to do.

“That is why the British government is working hard to support Afghan women’s empowerment as we move through transition and beyond, focusing on areas where we can influence change such as education, economic opportunities, women’s participation in public life and rights, justice and the rule of law.”

IAF to get first lot of Mi-17 copters by October

NEW DELHI: Augmenting its chopper fleet, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will induct the first batch of Russian-origin Mi-17 V5 helicopters by mid-October.

India had in 2008 signed a deal with Russia to induct 80 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for strengthening its chopper fleet for humanitarian and disaster relief missions and transport operations. “We are going to induct the first batch of Mi-17 V5s from Russia by the second week of the month, and by March next year we will have 26 of them,” an IAF official said.

They said one of the first few helicopters would be sent to the northeast sector and will be deployed at the Bagdogra air base under the 156 helicopter unit.

The compliment of all 80 helicopters is likely to be inducted by late 2013 or early 2014, IAF sources said. The IAF is also looking to induct another 59 such choppers to replace the older Mi-17 variants and the Mi-8 choppers.

The IAF has plans of procuring over 230 helicopters.

Indian Army To Hold Massive Exercise Along Pakistan Border

Mobilising over 20,000 troops and over 200 tanks, the Indian Army will hold a massive exercise in the winters along the western border with Pakistan involving the elite 21 Strike Corps.

“The 21 Strike Corps under the Southern Command will hold its routine exercise in the western deserts in Pokharan in November-December time-frame,” Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted army officials as saying here.

The exercise will be part of the Army’s routine wargames under which it validates and fine-tunes its war-fighting concepts and doctrines.

During the exercise, the Army troops will also practice joint operations, with the Indian Air Force fighters and transport aircraft also taking part in the wargames to showcase their fire power.

“The exercise will involve precision munition and advance surveillance systems to achieve a greater degree of network centric capability,” they said.

After its experience in ‘Operation Parakram’, the Indian Army has been practising manoeuvres to reduce the time taken to mobilise its troops to attack enemy formations swiftly.

The wargames come soon after the army successfully carried out two exercises in the summer. Exercise ‘Vijayee Bhava’ involving the 2 Strike Corps was carried out in the

Mahajan ranges in Rajasthan whereas ‘Pine Prahar’ was held in the plains of Punjab by the Jalandhar-based 11 Vajra Corps.

Corruption in India has become worse: Ratan Tata

Top industrialists have expressed concerns over the impact that worsening corruption has on their businesses and said there is no short-cut to becoming a billion-dollar company other than doing things the right way.

“I think corruption has become worse and if you choose not to participate in this, you leave behind a fair amount of business,” Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said at an event on ‘Higher Ambition/How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value’, organised by Harvard Business School here on Tuesday.

Tata said that unlike in 1991, corruption is now not only seen in the grant of licence approvals, but also in the award of contracts and in changing the terms of contractual obligations.

“You have a non-level playing field and those who do not participate in this (paying bribes) live at a disadvantage. A large part of the business community is cautious,” Tata said.

“You often have young employees who ask me, ‘Why don’t you just do it (give bribe)’, but my reply to that is I would rather like to hold my head high,” Tata remarked.

“What’s happening at the Ramlila Ground signals a great shift of people wanting accountability and not just from politicians, but also from businesses,” said Mahindra & Mahindra Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra.

“There is a much greater demand for accountability. You would not be able to deliver value unless you recognise this change in consumers, who are not going to buy brands that do not signify fairness and shared values,” Mahindra said.

“One can bribe their way to make a $10 million company, but if you want to make a $1 billion company, there is no other way but to do business the right way,” the founder of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy, said at the event.

Businessmen remaining silent on corruption is also very unfair, Murthy said.

Replying to a query on why businessmen are not entering politics, Murthy said, “It is important to give an opportunity to young people. I want youngsters to join politics and we can support them.”

China deploys advanced n-missile on Indian border: US

Washington China has deployed more advanced and survivable solid-fuel nuclear capable CSS-5 MRBM missiles against India as a ‘deterrent posture’, Pentagon has said warning that a high degree of mistrust continues to strain their bilateral ties.

The PLA has replaced liquid-fuelled, nuclear-capable CSS-2 IRBMs with more advanced and survivable solid-fuelled CSS-5 MRBM systems to strengthen its deterrent posture relative to India, the Pentagon has said in its annual report on Chinese military build up to the Congress.

The report also says that Beijing is pumping in huge investments on border infrastructure developments laying more roads and rail network along the Sino-Indian border.

“Although this construction is primarily aimed at facilitating economic development in western China, improved roads could also support PLA border defense operations,” it said.

Pentagon said that New Delhi remains concerned by China’s close military ties with Pakistan and its growing footprints in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa. The report noted that Pakistan continued to be China’s primary customer for conventional weapons and sales to Islamabad included newly rolled out JF-17 fighters with production facilities, F-22P frigates with helicopters, early warning and control aircraft, tanks, K-8 trainers, F-7 fighters, air-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and missile technologies.

On Sino-Indian ties, Pentagon said, that though bilateral dialogue between the two nations increased, border tensions remained an irritant.

“China deepened its ties with India through increased trade and high-level dialogues in 2010, though border tensions remained an irritant in the bilateral relationship. Bilateral trade in 2010 reached nearly USD 60 billion,” Pentagon said.

The two neighbours have held several rounds of dialogue over disputed territorial claims. Sino-Indian defense ties were institutionalised in 2007 with the establishment of an Annual Defense Dialogue, the report said.

“Though India cancelled high-level military exchanges following China’s denial of visa to a senior Indian general in 2010, both sides agreed to resume exchanges in April 2011,” the Pentagon said.

The US Defence Department in its assessment said that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s trip to New Delhi in 2010 attempted to smooth over differences following a year of uneasy relations, but he did not address serious irritants.

“A high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral relationship,” it said.

New Delhi may have anti-missile shield by 2014

According to a new Pentagon report on China’s military, Beijing has paid India a sort of compliment. The People’s Liberation Army now targets India with its best and latest nuclear-tipped missiles, the solid-fuel Dongfeng-21 (NATO designation: CSS-5) medium range ballistic missile (IRBM), tipped with a 250-kiloton nuclear warhead that would flatten a large part of Delhi. Until now, India had been considered deserving only of China’s oldest and most decrepit missile, the primitive, liquid-fuelled Dongfeng-3 (NATO designation CSS-2).

India’s defence establishment is taking this new threat seriously, as also that posed by Pakistan’s nuclear-tipped MRBMs — like the Ghauri-2 and the Shaheen-2 — which can strike targets 2300 kilometres away. In an exclusive interview with Business Standard, the Defence R & D Organisation’s chief missile scientist has announced that, within three years, India will have a fully deployed missile-defence shield to safeguard a city like New Delhi from missile-borne nuclear attack.

Termed an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) shield, this complex system has been in the making since 1996. The DRDO is satisfied with the system’s ability to detect and track an incoming missile, and then launch an interceptor missile to destroy it while it is still in space (exo-atmospheric interception). If that misses, there is a second interceptor that homes in on the enemy missile while it is in the upper atmosphere (endo-atmospheric interception). In internationally watched tests, these interceptors have been tested thrice each.

But only now has the DRDO announced that a fully integrated ABM system is close to deployment. Says Dr Avinash Chander, the DRDO’s Chief Controller for Missiles and Strategic Systems; “We can deploy an effective ABM system for a single city within 3 years from now. We can definitely ensure the safety of one city in that time frame. After that, the [ABM shield for] other cities will follow.&”

Chander will not confirm that Delhi will receive India’s first ABM shield but, given Delhi’s vulnerability to MRBMs from Pakistan and China, and its status as the capital city, experts predict that it will almost certainly be the first city to be safeguarded.

“We are planning more ABM trials in a month or two. Both exo and endo-atmospheric interceptors are doing well in development. We already have a demonstrated capability against enemy missiles that are fired from up to 2000 kilometres away. After some more trials we will be going into deployment mode. The ground systems and the missiles are going to be available… there is no issue,&” says Chander.

The sophistication of an ABM system depends upon the range of the incoming enemy missile. The longer the range of the incoming missile, the faster it travels and the more difficult it is to it detect and shoot it down. The missiles that currently target India — the Shaheen; the Ghauri; and the Dongfeng-21 — can all be successfully intercepted, says the DRDO.

“Pakistan can only target India with missiles that have ranges of less than 3000 kilometers, otherwise the missile will overshoot India. Our ABM system will be capable of detecting and shooting down incoming missiles from those ranges,&” says Chander.

However China, with its arsenal of longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and the geographical space to launch missiles from thousands of kilometres away, is capable of defeating India’s ABM system in its current form. The DRDO says that it will gradually enhance the ABM system to enable the interception of longer-range missiles.

For now, deployment is on track, says the DRDO’s missile chief. The radar network that is needed to detect an incoming enemy missile is already being sited. This includes a Long Range Tracking Radar (LRTR), which Bangalore-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) has developed in collaboration with Israeli company, ELTA. The LRTR picks up incoming missiles at ranges out to 300 kilometres.

The ABM system also has a “guidance radar&”, which tracks the incoming missile in its terminal phase and guides the interceptor missile onto the target. The DRDO developed the guidance radar in collaboration with French company, Thales. In addition, ABM systems also use satellite-based detection systems to detect enemy missile launches.

ABM systems are controversial; strategists argue that they destabilise a nuclear balance, incentivising the production of more nuclear weapons to defeat an enemy’s ABM shield. Indeed, Pakistan now has the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenal after it aggressively expanded its Khushab reactor complex to produce more plutonium for bombs.

To counter China, India needs to do naval diplomacy

It was 500 years ago that the Portuguese captured the Malacca Strait, establishing supremacy in the East Indies. Despite limited military might, Portugal set up active sea-trading outposts in Asia such as Goa, Malacca, Kochi, Macau and Nagasaki and controlled trade between Europe and Asia.

The region between the Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Aden is now hailed as the “centrestage of the 21st century”. If India has to graduate from being a regional power to a great power in Asia-Pacific, it needs to control these vital links in the Indian Ocean.

India shows both continental and maritime country characteristics. With a growing economy, it can re-link its historical maritime and cultural contacts politically through naval diplomacy.

For example, India’s ‘Look East’ policy boosted its trade relations with Southeast Asia, complemented by naval diplomacy which involved regular visits of Indian Navy officers to Southeast Asia. However, there’s a need to extend India’s Look East policy till the South Pacific by utilizing its peninsular characteristic for its strategic objective. For this, one must draw lessons from history.

India’s relations with countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are historically interlinked. So far, India hasn’t fully understood the strategic dimensions of its winding coastline as other great powers did in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Countries such as Britain, the US and Japan (naval powers) and the Soviet Union, Germany and France (continental powers) maximized their geographic position to exert maximum strategic maneuvering when they were considered Great Powers.

India 3rd best investment destination in clean energy

New Delhi, Aug 29 (IBNS) Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah informed that a recent report by independent consultants E&Y (Ernst & Young Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices, May 2011) has ranked India as the 3rd best investment destination in renewable energy sector, next only to China and USA.

An investment of about Rs. 4900 crore has been received as FDI equity inflows in the renewable energy sector during the last three years and the current year, he said in the Lok Sabha on Monday

The Minister said that FDI up to 100% under the automatic route is permitted in Renewable Energy Generation and Distribution projects subject to the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003.

He said, besides existing policy enablers under the Electricity Act, other key initiatives taken in the recent past to attract foreign private investments including from foreign countries in the Renewable Energy  sector, include introduction of Generation Based Incentives scheme for wind power to promote projects under IPP mode, launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission with 22,000 MW target for solar power by 2022, Payment Security Mechanism for Grid Connected Solar Power Projects under the Mission, Launch of Renewable Energy Certificate mechanism and Amendment in National Tariff Policy to enable Solar specific RPO.

India Speed Up Work On PAK-FA After Getting Competetion From Chinese J-20

India and Russia should speed up work on their joint fifth-generation fighter plane to meet the challenge from the Chinese rival unveiled earlier this week, said a leading military expert.

“The Chinese prototype of a fifth-generation aircraft, J-20, appears to be a long-range strike aircraft and as such it will pose a potential threat to India,” said analyst Konstantin Makienko of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST).

China’s stealth fighter made its first 15-minute flight on Tuesday over an airfield in the south-western city of Chengdu. Mr. Makienko called the test flight an “unquestionable success” for the Chinese defence industry.
“China has emerged as the third nation developing the fifth-generation fighter plane after the U.S. and Russia,” he told The Hindu.
The Russian expert said India and Russia should intensify efforts to build their advanced fighter plane if they are not to lose the race to China.
“The J-20 fighter will be a direct rival of the Russian-Indian fifth-generation aircraft. The Chinese plane will be ready by 2020, so time will be a crucial factor.”

The Russian prototype, T-50, made its first flight a year ago. India joined the project only last month when the two sides signed a contract for the preliminary design of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft to be called Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF).

Iran Is the Biggest Threat to Iraq, Says U.S.

Militias backed by Iran are the greatest security threat to Iraq, the top spokesman for American forces in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, said August 16. These groups are larger, better organized and better funded than terrorists linked to al Qaeda, Buchanan said, even though al Qaeda is believed to be behind a spate of deadly attacks that took place on August 15.

Meanwhile, Iran is already dictating Iraq’s foreign policy. While much of the world, including Arab states, has condemned Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is following Iran’s lead and supporting Assad. Iraq has called for Syria to “reach a dialogue with the opposition,” urging the “armed gangs” not to “sabotage” the state.

“Mr. Maliki’s support for Mr. Assad has illustrated how much Iraq’s position in the Middle East has shifted toward an axis led by Iran,” writes the New York Times.

The Iranian-backed militias have the ability to cause serious problems for Iraq if it doesn’t toe the line. They are smuggling in Iranian-made weapons, some of which were manufactured just last year.

Buchanan said there is “a significant increase in support” from Iran’s Quds force, the elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

“The Quds force is providing direct support (to the militias) in terms of manning, equipping, provision of intelligence,” he said. “They have been at least exhibiting the behavior that lines up with a strategy that wants to keep Iraq weak and isolated from everybody else, all of its neighbors and the United States. And so they’ve been employing political means, economic means, security means in the way that these militant groups operate.”

Iran’s pushy tactics are alienating Iraq’s Sunni population, who sympathize with the Sunni rebels in Syria. Last month, Iran signed a contract with Iraq to build a 1,500-mile pipeline across Iraq to Syria. Representatives of Sunni Iraqis who live in the areas that the pipeline will cross have said they will sabotage it. “Such terror attacks, Iraq fears, are likely to cause Iran to demand placing its own security forces there and thus make an Iranian military presence in Iraq a fact on the ground,” writes Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

No wonder Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said this week that “The occupation of Iraq by the U.S. did only good things for Iran. Iran became more influential than it ever dreamed.”

This what the Trumpet has been saying for years. As America prepares to pull out of Iraq at the end of the year, watch for Iran to continue to take over.

Iran plans to set up nuke plant by year-end

TEHRAN: Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said Wednesday his country is planning for the official inauguration of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran in mid-November or in December, the local satellite Pess TV reported.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant is currently nearing its pre- operation phase which means that initial tests for its reactor and turbine are in the final stages, Abbasi was quoted as saying.

He said that the steam which had already been produced in the plant is currently injected to the turbine and electricity is generated which is tentatively and in intervals connected to the electricity grid for the tests required.

Abbasi said Sunday that the first phase of Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned by the end of August if the tests underway are completed.

If the tests are completed, the first stage of the Bushehr nuclear power plant will surely become operational by the end of Ramadan (August), said Abbasi.

He added that the nuclear power plant will join the national grid at the first phase and can consequently generate 40 percent of its total power generation.

Construction of the Bushehr plant began in 1975 by several German companies. However, work was halted when the United States imposed an embargo of hi-tech supplies on Iran after the 1979 revolution. Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998.

Completion of the plant’s construction has been postponed several times due to technical and financial challenges and pressure from the United States. – NNI

TEHRAN: Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said Wednesday his country is planning for the official inauguration of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran in mid-November or in December, the local satellite Pess TV reported.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant is currently nearing its pre- operation phase which means that initial tests for its reactor and turbine are in the final stages, Abbasi was quoted as saying.

He said that the steam which had already been produced in the plant is currently injected to the turbine and electricity is generated which is tentatively and in intervals connected to the electricity grid for the tests required.

Abbasi said Sunday that the first phase of Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned by the end of August if the tests underway are completed.

If the tests are completed, the first stage of the Bushehr nuclear power plant will surely become operational by the end of Ramadan (August), said Abbasi.

He added that the nuclear power plant will join the national grid at the first phase and can consequently generate 40 percent of its total power generation.

Construction of the Bushehr plant began in 1975 by several German companies. However, work was halted when the United States imposed an embargo of hi-tech supplies on Iran after the 1979 revolution. Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998.

Completion of the plant’s construction has been postponed several times due to technical and financial challenges and pressure from the United States. – NNI

Iran accepts Russia’s ‘step-by-step’ plan

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran agreed with Russia’s “step-by-step” plan to resolve its nuclear issue ahead of talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow Wednesday.

Salehi made the remarks during his Moscow meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss Russia’s proposal for a “step-by-step” plan that rewards Tehran for greater transparency with a gradual easing of UN sanctions.

“If one is starting on a long journey, one has to take the first step,” AFP quoted Salehi as saying, adding that “the Russian proposal has good elements, and we will study all the details of this proposal. It is positive.”

Salehi’s statement came a day after Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said Russia’s proposal was a basis for discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, adding that “the proposal by our Russian friends can be a basis to start negotiations for regional and international cooperation, specifically in the field of peaceful nuclear activities,” The New York Times reported.

Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times that the Russian proposal would help revive talks on Iran’s nuclear program, but would not resolve the nuclear issue.

Iran insists that all its nuclear activities are peaceful, while the West accuses Iran of not being fully forthcoming about its nuclear aims. 

Shi said that while the stances of both sides will not change, a “step-by-step” plan could give the required push to negotiations.

Previous attempts by Russia to mediate between its traditional Middle East partner and the West have been viewed with suspicion by the US administration, and Washington has thus far taken a wait-and-see approach to the latest bid.

Russia’s foreign policy toward Iran has changed since last year, as Moscow wants to improve its economic ties with the West, Shi said.

The idea has been agreed by other major Western powers and “has received their supports,” an unidentified Russian diplomat told AFP.

However, US officials think that “Lavrov’s plan is unlikely to succeed” and would much prefer to put additional pressure on Iran through stronger sanctions, he added.

The Passion of Rakesh Maria

In an overworked, often-maligned but still impossibly glamorous force, he is at the top and – after the horrifying attacks of November 2008 – is the cynosure of all eyes. Yet the Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Rakesh Maria is a private man in an extremely public role. The officer speaks to Shraddha Jahagirdar-Saxena about its effects on his life, his commitment to the job, and his role in keeping the city he loves safe.

Terror attacks and bomb blasts. Undercover agents and secret informants. Bulletproof jackets and AK-47s. 9/11 and 26/11. Nabbed suspects and solved cases. Fact or fiction? Real or reel? All these and more are the stuff that Bond movies, detective novels and Hindi films are often made of. Yet, with nail-biting action and bullet-riddled encounters, they are willy-nilly also the elements that make up the life of the many who work 24/7 so that we can live and sleep safely. Closer home, in Mumbai, the task of assuring immunity from terror attacks is in the hands of the Anti-Terrorism Squad. In April this year, this squad was entrusted into the able hands of 52-year-old Rakesh Maria who was promoted to the rank of Additional Director General of police and made the Chief of the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).

To try and pin him down for an exclusive session for Verve, I make my first trek to his eminently-missable Byculla office and go through the routine checks with equanimity. A flight of wooden steps up and I am on a verandah where an armed cop keeps vigil amidst a few potted plants. A plainclothes officer peers out through a room, in between monitoring his console. A very short wait outside Maria’s cabin, and then I am ushered in by his assistant. About a dozen chairs are lined like sentinels opposite his huge desk. The niceties over, after some initial reluctance, he agrees to speak and shoot on another day. Two appointments are fixed – both cancelled as some last-minute urgent assignment that crops up in his schedule eats into my allotted time. Finally, on a Saturday, I am headed first to his home on an off-shoot of Napean Sea Road and then to his office, where the top cop will later delve into the memories that make up his life.

As we walk into his apartment, it is a few minutes before Maria appears. His wife, Preeti and sons, Kunal and Krish, express immediate surprise that the officer has agreed to do this! Talking about life with their father, they comment that they have got used to living with a top cop and Preeti says, “He tries to switch off before walking in through our door. But from his face I can read how the day has gone. Luckily he is one person at work, another at home.” Yet life with a cop has touched them, as Kunal, who is studying law at Government Law College, admits, “The psyche of terrorists fascinated me. For a while I thought of following Dad into the profession but then the idea fizzled out.”

As I wonder aloud if it was seeing the pressure of their father’s life that turned him off, Maria interrupts with a smile, “Don’t start them on that trip.” I turn around to find that he has entered the room, clad casually in a Tee and trousers – he walks softly for his six-foot-plus build. Game for the shoot first, Preeti dishes up slices of mangoes with cups of chai as the Maria boys settle down comfortably around the table. The shots over, with a quiet swiftness, Maria leaves for office, having changed into a more formal garb – “He will never be seen at work in a Tee,” interjects his wife. We quickly follow suit…and soon I find myself back in a familiar zone.

Walking up the steps to his first-floor office, I see a board on which his name is painted – just a little above is one more familiar name, that of Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief who died on 26/11. Naturally, as I sit on the middle chair in the first row, the conversation kick-starts from that crucial night, for even though Maria has been instrumental in cracking other crucial cases – the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar blasts case, the 1993 serial blasts – 26/11 was a watershed day.

Rewinding to those traumatic nights, Maria says softly, “The training and outlook of the police changed after 26/11. One was used to bomb blasts, in a taxi or a cab at iconic locations, transport systems, but an incident like that, not at all. The conspiracy was hatched abroad, the terrorists were trained, equipped and launched abroad and the plan was only executed here. The sheer ingenuity of the operation left everyone stunned. I remember how after 9/11 in America, the commission set up asked if it was an intelligence failure. They said it was a failure of imagination. Here for us also it was the same. I don’t think even films had ever depicted something like that.”

As cops and citizens perished on the roads of Mumbai on a night that no one will ever forget, many questions were raised. One that referred directly to the present ATS chief was ‘Where was he that night?’ Unhesitatingly, Maria replies, “I had come to the crime branch to rush with my boys to the Taj. But the Commissioner of Police asked me to go to the control room and take charge there. I was there right through the period. My son was taking a bus from Sion to go to Ahmednagar. When my wife spoke to me soon after the trauma started – it was the last conversation I had with her for 24 hours – she asked me if Kunal should travel or return home. At the back of my mind, like any father, I thought God forbid if this whole city is finished, we are all finished then there is someone in the family who will be safe. After that I did not speak to my wife at all.”

The scars of that night have remained – as they have on all of us – on his sons and wife. As his attendant brings in a tray with tea on it, Maria continues, “Krish often phones me up in the office just like that. I know, even though he will not tell me, that he wants to assure himself that his dad is safe. Even my wife, after I have left home, around the time that she expects me to have reached office, calls me up. It is to find out if I have reached safely. The safety factor does bother them. Repeatedly information comes in that you are on the hit list of so-and-so gang or terror group but as I told I am not afraid of being on the hit list. The only thing that frightens me is the failure of not performing.”

Maria himself brushes the fear fixation aside; it’s something that does not bother him. “In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the police had an aura about them,” he remembers. “It was only later on when terrorism increased and organised crime raised its head and became powerful, the police force began to experience greater levels of danger. The serial blasts saw the fear factor emerge. But, our training helps, the force is there. And I am sure that this also will pass.”

The tray of tea has been completely forgotten as our conversation delves into the mind of an officer who is the man who has to ensure that Mumbai remains safe and terror-free. He is aware of the huge burden that he shoulders, for he says, “It is the responsibility that is frightening. People expect a lot from us and that is evident from the messages one gets, the letters that are sent to us and the people who meet us every day. Everyone feels we must deliver and deliver fast. I am not afraid of the terrorists. I am not afraid of the underworld. But my biggest fear is the fear of not delivering.”

It’s not an easy job especially in these tough times. The man in the hot seat states, “The force looks up to you. You have to constantly motivate your men, inspire them to action and finally have to lead by example. That itself is a challenge. Performing all the time, not letting the people down, not letting the department down, not letting your bosses down; that I feel is the biggest stress of all. And given the nature of the department, at the ATS we have to collect intelligence to prevent an attack not just cope with one. In short, we are constantly trying to remain one step ahead of the terrorist. For this we need a very elaborate and good informant network system. And in the eventuality of an attack taking place, one is required to nab the terrorists as soon as possible. No time can be lost.”

It is said that the character of Ajay Lal in Suketu Mehta’s novel Maximum City was inspired by Maria and in the movie Black Friday, actor Kay Kay Menon plays a role based on him. An IPS graduate from the batch of 1981, Maria interestingly hails from a film family that has their own production house Kala Niketan and has grown up on a diet of films. “Thanks largely to what the film industry portrays, everyone thinks that third degree is the only way interrogations take place. This is absolutely off the mark. Just beating and torture does not get you answers or answers that will stand up. The terrorist today is completely indoctrinated. One needs to understand his or her psychology, break his or her mind to get information from him or her. Apart from this there are lawyers, courts, NGOs and strict laws in place. So, the general perception that a criminal breaks down after a beating, is not true. We use a lot of mental games when we interrogate the accused. I often step in and do it myself. Kasab was interrogated by me for the first time on the 27th at around four or five a.m.”

That night is just one example of the round-the-clock commitment that his work entails. And it is the sign of the changing times that “you cannot afford to relax for a bit with all that is happening, not just in the city but in the whole world. There is simply no time. Maybe God has willed that this lifetime of mine is not to be spent with family but focussing on my career and job. Every night I leave office at 11.00 or 11. 30 p.m. Till two or three in the morning, the telephone calls continue – informants phone in, operations are on. And the first call comes from the control room at 7.30 a.m. My wife Preeti has stoically accepted it. She takes all the decisions and informs me at night. Luckily, when there are holidays and the kids can afford to stay up, I call them into the room when I return and we sit up and chat.”

While we were at their home, I heard Maria telling his wife that he cannot make it for a wedding at night, just one of the many family occasions that he has missed out on. Maria says, “Kunal was four when the serial blasts took place. From that time, life changed. And all of a sudden, he passed out from school and I didn’t even realise where time had gone. I should have gone to his football or basketball games but could not. These are things which don’t come back and even if you have photographs, it is not the same thing. Now being Joint Commissioner of Police Crime and Additional Director-General, ATS, with my younger son, I think life is going back to ’93. I am missing out on the same things again. Kunal understands, but Krish still throws tantrums. I had promised to attend his finals of an under-14 cricket tourney, but on that day we received an important intelligence input that needed to be worked on. At night, when I returned home, he refused to speak to me till Kunal reasoned with him. And, I had to apologise. I have also told the family not to expect me to take any holidays or spend time with them throughout the year. But at the end of the year in December I take ten days leave and am at their beck and call. I still feel that it is not enough. There are so many things I would love to do with the family. Just playing basketball, cricket or football outdoors with the boys is so relaxing but they are growing. Soon they will be leaving home, getting married and that is the time that it is going to hit me the most. That I did not enjoy their company when they were at home.”

This is the life that Maria has chosen for himself, having dreamt of joining the force right from the time he was a kid. He smilingly admits, “I always wanted to join the uniformed service. I was infatuated by the uniform, its dignity and the discipline. When I look back I remember that I was class monitor right from the second or third standard, ultimately becoming head boy of my school. Even the teachers and principal knew that if the class had to be controlled I was the one who could do it and I would be be invariably picked up. Maybe from childhood policing was there in my nature. Later, I knew that for me it was very specific. It was either IPS or nothing else.”

All things taken into account, the journey so far has been satisfying. Cases have dotted his career and given him the satisfaction he seeks. “I find it all very thrilling. You get a case; you get a lead and work on it. Often the chase is there and the thing develops. You plan out operations, arrest someone and a big group is neutralised. That gives me a high. It is also extremely satisfying that one can help so many people. In the Neeraj Grover case, the parents came and cried; their son was missing. Unfortunately we could not save the boy, but they later came and thanked us. The look on their face when they do that is more than enough compensation.”

The job satisfaction apart, there have been plenty of moments that have given him heartburn. With great power come great responsibility and a fair degree of isolation. Often in the news when things go wrong, more than when they have gone right, for as Maria says, “Success is shared by everyone but when failure comes to your doorstep, you fail alone. In this time, executive decisions are solely yours. If you fail the blame is yours, accountability is there. You cannot share it. The force looks up to you for prompt, clear and correct decisions.”

Uneasy lies Maria’s head for he wears the ‘crown’ – and, like Atlas, he cannot shrug off the load at will. No wonder then that he admits, “I don’t think I have slept for more than three to four hours at a stretch for the last three or four years. Today, something happening in New York or London or Pakistan directly affects some other part of the world. After 26/11 the police force all over the world learnt lessons but unfortunately it was at our expense. Every decision has two sides. And the scrutiny is terrible.”

It is the scrutiny and glare of public attention that has messed up another pitch that Maria ‘plays’ on. While cases are being solved or events are in progress and action is being taken, he feels, “Breaking news reveals plans. In investigations, the element of surprise is essential to nab the accused. So, the handlers and bosses know what is happening. We have to keep that in mind while investigating. Policing has become more difficult today than what it was in the early ’80s or ’90s. I would prefer the ’93 era any day.”

In the course of the conversation and his swift forays to the covered verandahs for the photo-shoot, I have noticed a couple of rings on his fingers and I also recall seeing beautiful statuettes of Lord Ganesha in his home. Given the level of danger and risk that he lives with, it would be natural to turn to some sort of religious solace or talisman. But, no that is not for Maria, for he says, “I am not superstitious. My mother gave me these rings. I am a private person when it comes to religion and very rarely go to religious places. My wife comes from a family of Arya Samajis so at home expression of religions is not formal. And believe me, in the police department you cannot afford to be superstitious. You take each day and situation as it comes.”

One of the many phones that are on the table on his left, rings; he picks it up and is for a moment distracted. Just realising how swiftly time has flown in this gripping interaction, I fire my last salvo at the man who is focussed on keeping Mumbai safe: ‘Any regrets about joining the profession?’ Maria thinks for a moment and confesses, “I do not regret joining the force. If I could rewind my life, I would do the same thing again. But in all the years, I have only one regret – the loss of the three officers on 26/11. I wish I could have told them not to go there; it was not a feasible act. But that was not possible given that we were entirely dependent on wireless messages to know what was happening. Post 26/11, we have got fantastic equipment; the government has given us everything – speedboats, jackets, bullet-proof vehicles, sophisticated communication technology. It required a crisis to get us that. If only I could go back….”

 

The Crime Buster

 RAKESH MARIA
An Officer and a Gentleman

Seated in his impressive office, the Maharashtra Police Crest in spit-polished brass mounted on a cheery peachy-gold wall, which his wife suggested he have when he assumed office (“to add some warmth to a cold room”), Rakesh Maria is an unlikely foodie. Why? Because, with his harried life, he eats lunch at four in the afternoon (“Sometimes, if I’m busy, I may skip it”), and dinner’s always after he gets home post-midnight!

Fortunately, Sundays are relaxed. “We have brunch with eggs, sausages, salami, ham… I’m completely carnivorous,” he smiles. More recently (“I’m touching 50!”) he has switched to one vegetarian meal (lunch) and one non-vegetarian one (dinner). Despite an incurable sweet tooth, he has given up desserts to maintain his weight! A healthy start with fruit for breakfast, after a workout, sets him up for the day. His fitness drill is self-improvised, with yoga, crunches, and free-hand exercises done in the privacy of his home. “I used to go to a gym, but simply ended up listening to people and sorting out their grievances!” grimaces the top cop.The thrill of his job, he avers, more than compensates. Born to a father who came to Bombay from Punjab, to join the movies in 1950, he grew up in Bandra.

After graduating from St. Xavier’s, he applied for the common entrance test to the services. When asked to list his options (IAS/IFS/IPS etc.) in order of preference, he listed IPS five times! Clearing with flying colours, he began a glorious career that has taken him from early postings like A.S.P. Khamgao (rural Maharashtra) and Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone IV (Mumbai), to S.P. Raigad, D.C.P Traffic (Mumbai) and D.C.P. – Crime, Mumbai (he was the first D.C.P in the Crime Branch), to Commissioner of Police – Railways, D.C.P. Detection (he investigated the Mumbai Bomb Blasts), to A.I.G. Law and Order, I.G. Anti-Corruption, I.G. Training (he introduced the constabulatory to psychological profiling and life skills like swimming, driving, and speaking English), to his current plum assignment as Jt. Commissioner, Crime.

“I’m inspired by the discipline and dignity of the police service. The thrill of cracking a case, and ensuring justice to the aggrieved, cannot be matched,” he stresses.

Through it all, especially the inevitable trials and tribulations, he has been lucky to have the support of his wife, Priti, who was studying in Hanover, Germany, when their marriage was arranged, and came down for their wedding, only to discover it had to be called off. Mr. Maria explains, “I took my wedding card to my senior, requesting leave. He said, did you ask me before fixing your marriage? There was major bandobast happening and I couldn’t be spared. The cards had to be torn and the wedding postponed, until I could be spared for two days to go to Delhi and get married.”

Since then, though, an annual family holiday has become a given. They were in London last year for a fortnight, and have visited Vietnam, Australia, Europe, Egypt, and the Far East, including Japan. This year, they’re heading to Turkey and Greece. “We love going to new places. And I really enjoy spending uninterrupted time with the kids!”

He filters his Sundays to ensure as much. A sports buff (he has played football, hockey and cricket in school/college and represented Maharashtra in the 1979 National Games in karate), he joins both his boys in their games and matches. The family dinner is generally at a restaurant of choice: Thai Pavilion, India Jones, Ling’s Pavilion, Kebabs & Kurries, Don Giovanni at Atria Mall. One thing he doesn’t enjoy is Bombay’s Page 3 circuit. “I’m petrified of parties,” he confesses. “Crowds of 30-40 people frighten me. I think hosts should do full justice to their guest and call only as many people as they can personally attend to.”

The Bandwagoning-Balancing Game: Contradictions of the India-US Partnership

By Yogesh Joshi

The last decade saw the world’s largest and strongest democracies – India and USA – getting closer after a tumultuous period of bilateral relationship during the Cold War. The bonhomie between the two countries started with the dialogue between Jaswant Singh and Strobe Talbot during the Clinton administration. However, it was the Presidency of George W. Bush that saw the relationship blooming to its fullest; President Bush was the one who called India and US as “natural partners”. Such has been the legacy of India-US ties during the Bush era that even President Obama has found it difficult to fit in the shoes of his predecessor. In fact, it is because of the momentum generated during the Bush regime that the new Democratic administration could not change the direction of the Indo-US strategic partnership.

However, the continuing saga of US-India relationship is not without contradictions. These contradictions are most evident in India’s foreign policy vis-à-vis USA. On one hand India seems to use the USA’s global clout to its advantage. Whether it is the permanent seat for India of the United Nations Security Council or Indian membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), India has been constantly entreating the USA for its support. On the other hand, India is also trying to softly balance American hegemony by challenging America’s approach on democracy and human rights as well as ganging up with other rising powers to lobby for a multi-polar world. Therefore, leaving aside the rhetoric of US-India strategic partnership, it is important not to overlook the contradictions that beset India’s relations with the USA.

Strategy of Bandwagoning

During his visit to New Delhi last year, President Obama hailed the India-US partnership as “the most defining and indispensable relationship of 21st century”. It was also during this visit that the USA for the first time openly supported India’s bid for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council. On India’s persistence, it also agreed to help India obtain the membership of four important instruments of the non-proliferation regime – the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. Finally, India also successfully lobbied for removal of technology restrictions on its space and defence establishments.

Clearly, India’s relations with the USA are in tune with the phenomenon of “bandwagoning the powerful”. Rising powers often piggyback on strong states to smoothen their rise in the global order. The most crucial evidence of India’s bandwagoning strategy is the India-US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement of 2008. Having decided not to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, for more than four decades India remained on the margins of the global nuclear order. It was President Bush who initiated the dialogue on bringing India back into the mainstream of international nuclear politics. And when push came to shove at the Nuclear Suppliers Group and International Atomic Energy Agency, the USA ensured India’s accommodation into the non-proliferation regime which it had so assiduously built during the Cold War. France and Russia – the so called other great powers – always wanted to do nuclear business with India, but it was only the USA that who could bring India out of its nuclear exile. The very reason why the nuclear deal was perceived as the cornerstone of a rising India was the fact that the USA, the world hegemon, had accepted India’s candidature in the great power club. Simply put, beyond the rising state’s power capabilities, the perception of its rise by other Great Powers, especially the hegemon, is what matters in global politics.

The Balancing Game

India’s foreign policy, vis-à-vis the USA, however, appears to be, to borrow a phrase from Robert Kaplan’s Monsoon, an “ultimate paradox”. A number of recent incidents indicate that India is trying to softly balance America’s global hegemony while simultaneously bandwagoning with it. India, for instance, refused to vote in support of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 and thereby implicitly supported the murderous regime of Col. Gaddafi in Libya. Though its anxieties about Kashmir are obvious, it is far too apparent, given India’s stature and power capabilities, that external intervention in Kashmir is just not possible. When seen in combination with India’s decision to support Syria in its candidature for the United Nations Human Rights Council even in the light of serious human rights violations by the Assad regime, it is amply clear that India is uncomfortable with the American discourse on democracy and the promotion of democracy.

India also vehemently supports the idea of a multi-polar world order, most evident in the proceedings of multilateral settings such as the BRICS. Interestingly, neither is India a pole in global politics since its power capabilities are limited, nor has there been any thorough appraisal in New Delhi of the consequences of multi-polarity on global stability and peace. India seems to have taken for granted the advantages of an anti-hegemonic alliance even though its own rise partially depends on America’s continued hegemony.

Lastly, even after the personal exhortations of President Obama, India did not consider the bids of two US aviation giants for providing the Medium Multiple-Role Combat Aircraft to the Indian Air Force. Many prominent strategic analysts such as Ashley Tellis had called the successful fruition of such a deal, worth more than $10 billion, as the next important step in bilateral relations. The official response from the Indian side for the rejection of these bids has been that the aircraft offered by Lockheed Martin and Boeing fall short of the criteria set by the IAF and, therefore, on purely technical grounds the bids of these two companies was rejected.

However, in all these foreign policy decisions of India, the attributes of a soft balancing strategy are quite evident. First, at least in principle, India does admit that the promotion of democracy is good for peace and stability. Its constant complaints about authoritarian governance in Pakistan and the role of the Pakistan military in fomenting trouble against India is a case in point. Further, India’s peaceful rise on the global stage has been attributed to India’s democratic credentials and India is gung-ho about it. Clearly, therefore, India’s uncooperative attitude on the issues of Libya and Syria is not based on principles but basically aims at balancing the influence of those states, especially the USA, which currently control the dynamics of global politics.

Second, even though India’s continued rise in global politics is contingent upon America’s global primacy, it openly sides with the other rising powers when it comes to extolling the virtues of multi-polarity. For instance, most of India’s immediate objectives on the world stage – a permanent seat in the UN Security Council or membership of multilateral groups like NSG – very much depend upon the support of the USA and the latter’s ability to play a global leadership role. But, India’s rhetoric on multi-polarity dents the legitimacy of US global hegemony.

Lastly, as far as India’s arms procurement policy is concerned, India has often purchased weapons based on shrewd political calculations rather than on technical capabilities alone. India’s decision to buy weapons from the Soviet Union during the Cold War and its attempts to diversify its arm supplies after the Cold War were both motivated by politics and what suited India’s national interests, and not particularly the requirements of its defence forces in that particular global context. Therefore, the argument that technical specifications determined the course of the MMRCA decision is a non-starter. Therefore, what can be inferred from the decision is the presence of latent scepticism in India about the United States as well as the imperative of not becoming overly dependent upon the USA.

Conclusion

Locating the irony of abysmally low living standards in a huge economy, Martin Wolf calls India a “premature superpower”. However, the metaphor is equally befitting for the strategic thought presently ruling the roost in India’s approach towards the USA. This simultaneous bandwagoning-balancing game reflects nothing more than overconfidence in India’s strategic elites that India has already arrived on the global stage and that it is far too important for the USA. Another factor which may explain this paradoxical foreign policy is India’s unhappiness with certain American policies especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which it considers inimical to its national interests. However, if India wants the USA to be more sensitive to its regional concerns, positive engagement is the only way forward; India cannot influence American policies by working against US interests.

In Politics among Nations, Hans Morgenthau noted that the most rational foreign policy is the one defined by national interests and dispassionate assessment of national power; and not a policy defined on the basis of how states perceive themselves or their value judgements. In a world where US primacy will remain a distinctive feature for a considerable time to come, India will require American global leadership to realise its own national interests. For that to happen, Indian foreign policy should remain sensitive to US interests and concerns.

Five Reasons Why India Can’t ‘Do A Gaza’ On Pakistan

By Mr. T. Vardarajan.

Over the last week, many Americans (and not a few Indians) have asked me why India does not “do a Gaza” on Pakistan, referring, of course, to an emulation of Israel’s punitive use of force against Hamas-run Palestine, a territory from which rockets rain down on Israeli soil with reliable frequency (if not reliable destructiveness … but that is not for want of Hamas intent).

My answer, given with the heavy heart that comes always with a painful grip on reality, is simple: India does not because it cannot.

Here are five reasons why:

1. India is not a military goliath in relation to Pakistan in the way Israel is to the Palestinian territories. India does not have the immunity, the confidence and the military free hand that result from an overwhelming military superiority over an opponent. Israel’s foe is a non-sovereign entity that enjoys the most precarious form of self-governance. Pakistan, for all its dysfunction, is a proper country with a proper army, superior by far to the tin-pot Arab forces that Israel has had to combat over time. Pakistan has nukes, to boot. Any assault on Pakistani territory carries with it an apocalyptic risk for India. This is, in fact, Pakistan’s trump card. (This explains, also, why Israel is determined to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.)

2. Even if India could attack Pakistan without fear of nuclear retaliation, the rationale for “doing a Gaza” is, arguably, not fully present: Israel had been attacked consistently by the very force–Hamas–that was in political control of the territory from which the attacks occurred. By contrast, terrorist attacks on India, while originating in Pakistan, are not authored by the Pakistani government. India can– and does–contend that Pakistan’s government should shut down the terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil. (In this insistence, India has unequivocal support from Washington.) Yet only a consistent and demonstrable pattern of dereliction by Pakistani authorities– which would need to be dereliction verging on complicity with the terrorists–would furnish India with sufficient grounds to hold the Pakistani state culpable.

3. As our columnist, Karlyn Bowman, writes Israel enjoys impressive support from the American people, in contrast to the Palestinians. No other state–apart, perhaps, from Britain–evokes as much favor in American public opinion as does Israel. This is not merely the result of the much-vaunted “Israel lobby” (to use a label deployed by its detractors), but also because of the very real depth of cultural interpenetration between American and Israeli society. This fraternal feeling buys Israel an enviable immunity in the conduct of its strategic defense. India, by contrast–while considerably more admired and favored in American public opinion than Pakistan–enjoys scarcely a fraction of Israel’s “pull” in Washington when it comes to questions of the use of force beyond its borders.

4. Pakistan is strategically significant to the United States; the Palestinians are not. This gives Washington scant incentive to rein in the Israelis, but a major incentive to rein in any Indian impulse to strike at Pakistan. However justified the Indian anger against Pakistan over the recent invasion of Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists, the last thing that the U.S. wants right now is an attack–no matter how surgical–by India against Pakistan-based terror camps. This would almost certainly result in a wholesale shift of Pakistani troops away from their western, Afghan front toward the eastern boundary with India–and would leave the American Afghan campaign in some considerable disarray, at least in the short term. So Washington has asked for, and received, the gift of Indian patience. And although India recognizes that it is not wholly without options to mobilize quickly for punitive, surgical strikes in a “strategic space,” it would–right now–settle for a trial of the accused terrorist leaders in U.S. courts. (Seven U.S. citizens were killed in Mumbai: Under U.S. law, those responsible–and this should include Pakistani intelligence masterminds–have to be brought to justice.)

5. My last, and meta-, point: Israel has the privilege of an international pariah to ignore international public opinion in its use of force against the Palestinians. A state with which few others have diplomatic relations can turn the tables on those that would anathematize it by saying, Hang diplomacy. India, by contrast, has no such luxury. It is a prisoner of its own global aspirations–and pretensions.

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at the Stern Business School at NYU and research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, is opinions editor at Forbes.com, where he writes a weekly column.

India rules out confrontation with China

“India’s interest is clearly in an inclusive world order, with China as one of its cooperative members. That is clearly what we need to work towards, along with China itself,” National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said, delivering the 16th Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture entitled “India and the Global Scene” here.

“Bilaterally, India-China relations today have elements of cooperation and competition at the same time,” Menon said while singling out the rise of China in Asia as one of the key factors that will impinge on India’s quest for transformation and its emergence as a power in the world.

“We have a boundary dispute, and our overlapping peripheries in our extended neighbourhood which is also China’s extended neighbourhood,” said Menon, also a former ambassador to China.

“So long as both of use continue to be primarily concerned with our internal transformations, cooperate in the international arena on our common interests, and do not see the other affecting our core interests, we can expect the present relationship to continue as it is,” he said.

Menon, however, cautioned that in order to have harmonious relationship with China, it will require much “better communication between each other and no misunderstanding of each other’s actions and motives”.

Indian Navy gets new ‘teeth’

 Moscow: Indian naval aviation has acquired new teeth with induction of nine MiG-29K carrier-borne fighter jets from Russia with an extended range of 3,000 kms and capable of firing air-to-air and air-to-sea missiles.

 The Russian MiG Aircraft Corporation has delivered the second batch of five MiG-29K fighter jets to the navy, to add to its four, for which it has raised the new “Black Panthers” squadron. India along with Russia, the manufacturer of the naval fighter, are the only countries to have acquired these fighters, which will be deployed on the INS Vikramaditya (former Gorshkov) aircraft carrier, under re-fit in Russia.

 The newly acquired Russian carrier-operated MiGs are considered to be far superior to Indian Navy’s current Sea harrier jump jets. Under the Gorshkov aircraft deal inked between the two countries in 2004, Russia is to supply 12 single-seater MiG-29K fighters and four two-seater MiG-29KUB trainer-cum-combat jets.

India successfully conducts user trial of BrahMos supersonic guided missile

NEW DELHI: India successfully conducted the user trial of a BrahMos supersonic guided missile capable of hitting targets that may otherwise be inaccessible like in hilly areas, defence ministry sources said.

The trial was conducted in Pokhran in the Thar desert region of Rajasthan.

The test met all the mission parameters, said the sources.

The launch was the 25th launch of BrahMos missile for the Indian Army. The version of BrahMos that was tested can be guided through mountainous terrain to hit the targets that may be located in hillocks.

It is a stealth supersonic cruise missile that can be launched for ground targets from a very low height – as low as 10 metres. It is believed to be best for surgical operations as it has a very low radar signature.

The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg.

It has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile. This makes BrahMos one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world.

BrahMos Aerospace Ltd, set up in 1998 as a joint venture of India and Russia, manufactures supersonic cruise missiles based on the Russian-designed NPO Mashinostroyenie 3M55 Yakhont.

It can be launched from submarines, ships and aircraft. Sea- and ground-launched versions of the missile have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and navy.

Trials of India-bound Russian nuke submarine in final stages

MOSCOW: The pre-delivery trials of the Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine K-152 the “Nerpa” are expected to be completed by the end of August for handing over to the Indian Navy on a 10-year lease.

In the course of the trials in the Sea of Japan under the supervision of the Russian naval personnel and experts of the manufacturer, Indian crew is honing the skill to handle the deadly weapon platform before sailing for home port some time in autumn (September-November), according to state-run ITAR-TASS news agency.

“The Indian crew is giving a kind of proficiency test to the Russian experts. After the completion of trials in the end of August, the process of transfer of the nuclear submarine to the Indian Navy will commence,” the agency reported quoting unnamed officials of Amur Shipyard – the manufacturer of the Nerpa.

“The Indian side has no complaints about the boat,” the shipyard officials said.

The Indian crew underwent almost a two-year-long training course including a six month crash course in Russian language in India and about 18 month training in St Petersburg to sail and operate the weapon system of “Shchuka-B” class (NATO codename Akula-II) of Project 971.

The Indian crew will take the vessel from Vladivostok to India and a group of Russian submariners will accompany it “just in any case”, who will then return to Vladivostok.

The Nerpa designed by St Petersburg-based “Malachite” and “NPO Avrora” is a third generation nuclear submarine, which was laid at Amur Shipyard in 1991 just before the Soviet collapse and its construction was frozen in mid-1990s due to cash crunch.

India had financed its completion under a USD 650-800 million deal according to various Russian media reports.

The Nerpa was commissioned by the Russian Navy in December 2009 after several delays, including the delay caused by the deadly release of toxic mixture of Freon gas in the sleeping quarters during trails in November 2008, when 20 sailors and technical staff of the shipyard were killed.

Like the earlier, Charlie class nuclear submarine leased by the Indian Navy from the erstwhile USSR in early 1980s, the Nerpa will also be christened INS Chakra.

Why US foreign policy invites blowback

Put what follows in the category of paragraphs no one noticed that should have made the nation’s hair stand on end. This particular paragraph should also have sent chills through the body politic, launched warning flares, and left the people’s representatives in Congress shouting about something other than the debt crisis. Last weekend, two reliable New York Times reporters, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, had a piece in that paper’s Sunday Review entitled “After 9/11, an Era of Tinker, Tailor, Jihadist, Spy.” Its focus was the latest counterterrorism thinking at the Pentagon: deterrence theory. (Evidently an amalgam of the old Cold War ideas of “containment” and nuclear deterrence wackily reimagined by the boys in the five-sided building for the age of the jihadi.) Schmitt and Shanker’s article was, a note informed the reader, based on research for their forthcoming book, Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda. And here’s the paragraph, buried in the middle of their piece, that should have stopped readers in their tracks: “Or consider what American computer specialists are doing on the Internet, perhaps terrorist leaders’ greatest safe haven, where they recruit, raise money, and plot future attacks on a global scale. American specialists have become especially proficient at forging the onscreen cyber-trademarks used by Al Qaeda to certify its Web statements, and are posting confusing and contradictory orders, some so virulent that young Muslims dabbling in jihadist philosophy, but on the fence about it, might be driven away.” The italics are mine, and as the authors urge us to do, let’s consider for a moment this tiny, remarkably bizarre window into military reality. As a start, just where those military “computer specialists” are remains unknown. Perhaps they are in the Pentagon, perhaps somewhere in the National Counterterrorism Center, but whoever and wherever they are, here’s the question of the week, possibly of the month or the year: Just what kind of “orders” can they be posting “so virulent that young Muslims dabbling in jihadist philosophy, but on the fence about it, might be driven away”? And even if our computer experts really were capable of turning wavering young Muslims back from the shores of jihadism — and personally I wouldn’t put my money on the Pentagon’s skills in that realm — what about young Muslims (or older ones for that matter) who weren’t on that fence and took those “orders” seriously? What exactly are they being “ordered” to do? Talk about a potential Frankenstein situation — and all we can do is ask questions. Just what monsters, for example, might the military’s computer specialists be helping to forge? And who exactly is supervising those “specialists” and their vituperative messages? (Especially since they are unlikely to be in English, and we already know that Arabic, Pashto, Dari, and Farsi speakers at the higher levels, or even lower levels, of the Pentagon are, at best, few and far between.) Keep in mind that we already have an example of a similarly wacky program lacking meaningful oversight that went awry, hit the headlines, and resulted in the perfectly real deaths of at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent and undoubtedly many more Mexicans. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives launched its now infamous gun-tracking program in Arizona in late 2009, under the moniker “Operation Fast and Furious” (a reference to a series of movies about street car racers). It was meant to track cross-border gun sales to Mexico’s drug cartels by actually letting perfectly real weapons cross the border — more than 2,000 of them, as it turned out. ATF agents, according to a Washington Post report, would be “instructed not to move in and question the [gun runners] but to let the guns go and see where they eventually ended up.” And so they did for more than a year and, not exactly surprisingly, those weapons ended up “on the street” and in the ugliest of hands. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart asked an apt question about the program: “The ATF plan to prevent American guns from being used in Mexican gun violence is to provide Mexican gangs with American guns. If this is the plan that they went with, what plan did we reject?” Assumedly, the same question could be asked of the military’s online anti-jihadist program, involving as it evidently does messages believed to be too extreme for wavering young Muslims with an interest in the jihadi “philosophy.” Shouldn’t someone start asking whether those Pentagon’s “orders” to jihadis might not turn out to be the online equivalent of so many loose guns? After all, what are those specialists ordering them to do? And if actual jihadis actually tried to follow those “confusing and contradictory orders,” possibly being confused and contradictory kinds of guys, if they took them seriously and interpreted them in ways not predicted by their putative Pentagon handlers, is there a possibility that anyone could die as a result? And if such messages turn off some prospective jihadis, isn’t it possible that they might turn on others? And could they, for instance, have been ordered to commit confused and contradictory acts that might end up involving Americans? Really, someone should blow Schmitt and Shanker’s paragraph up to giant size, tack it up somewhere in the Capitol, and call for a congressional investigation. If the ATF could do it, why not the Pentagon? And honestly, is this how Americans want to see their tax dollars spent? Read the Schmitt and Shanker piece and you’ll get a sense of what Shakespeare might have called the “oerweening pride” rife in the Pentagon when it comes to their skills and their ability to put one (or two, or three) over on the jihadist community. So pleased with themselves were they, that they evidently couldn’t help bragging to the two reporters about their skills. The old phrase “too smart for your own good” comes to mind. It’s enough to make you worry, even based on so little information (which the new book from the two reporters may significantly amplify). And by the way, if you want another unsettling analogy, when it comes to off-the-wall ideas for “deterring” jihadist networks, check out the major record companies and their efforts to deter communities and individuals from illegally downloading music. The Recording Industry Association of America, representing the four major record labels, decided to make a cautionary example of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mom, by suing her “for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs on the peer-to-peer file-sharing network Kazaa in 2006.” So far, the organization has dragged her through three trials, getting terrible publicity. Even if they win and leave her in hock for the rest of her life, do you think for one second that they will have made a dent in the world of illegal downloads or deterred anyone? Just ask your kid. Don’t think deterrence here, think blowback. Honestly, if Schmitt and Shanker’s claim is accurate, you should be shaking in your boots. And someone on Capitol Hill should be starting to ask some relevant questions, including this one: Could “computer specialists” in the employ of the Pentagon be responsible for your death in a future terrorist attack? Bio: Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s as well as The End of Victory Culture, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. His latest book, The United States of Fear (Haymarket Books), will be published in November. This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Russia Warns US Communist Threat Endangering Entire World

In a chilling speech to Russian defense experts on March 1, Prime Minister Putin ordered the buildup of strategic weapons and warned that the growing threat of the expansion of American Communism is endangering the entire World and bringing the Motherland closer to war than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Putin had previously warned the United States against its planned adoption of Communism during his January, 2009 speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland upon Obama taking office, and had stated:

“The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation. In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”

Unfortunately though, Obama, and those Communist forces backing him, do want to see this monster of a system repeated and have in the past year accelerated the United States descent into the abyss of total state control over all aspects of Americans lives and have created one of the most all encompassing “surveillance societies” our World has ever seen.

So dire has the situation become in the United States that one of their most dissident lawmakers, US Congressman Ron Paul, took to the floor of their House of Representatives this past week and warned that Obama’s forces were now openly stating that they have the power to assassinate any American citizen they deem to be a terrorist threat against them.

And not just from the right are these warnings against Obama coming, but also from their furthest left-wing ones too as the powerful black-Muslim leader and Obama ally, Louis Farrakhan, of Chicago’s Nation of Islam warned his followers this week that America is facing “imminent disaster” and they all must start “preparing for the worst”.

Obama, however, has chosen not to listen to these warnings and this past week accelerated his Communist takeover of America by appointing the powerful head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and avowed Communist, Andy Stern, to the top US government commission to oversee its economy.

Victims of Communism

Though most Americans have never heard of Stern it was recently discovered that he has been Obama’s top visitor to the White House and is described as the President’s “right hand man”. But what should strike fear into all of them is Stern’s calling for the “workers of the world to unite” and destroy the United States to remake it as a Communist Nation. To Obama’s planned remaking of America into a Communist state Stern has further warned that if the “power of persuasion” doesn’t work, “the persuasion of power will”.

Not being understood by the American people is that their economic collapse has been long planned by their Communist elite leaders who know that the success of their takeover of the United States lays it its destruction from which their new “peoples utopian paradise” will arise from its ashes.

And to how successful the Communists have been in destroying America there remains no doubt as since upon Obama’s taking office, and for the first time in the history of the United States, more of their citizens are working for their government than in either their manufacturing or construction industries, and when combined with the 22% of their unemployed means that over 40% of Americans are now beholden upon their Communist leaders for economic support and are dependant upon the other 60% of their citizens to support them in what is the largest transfer of wealth in US history.

Worse still for those 60% of Americans desperately trying to keep from becoming wards of their new Communist government are the plans to throw millions of them from their homes by bankrupting them with catastrophic tax increases and making them dependent too, and as we had previously reported on in our February 16th report “Obama Plot To Throw Millions Of Americans From Homes Uncovered”.

Interesting to note is that a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released this past Friday shows that 56% of Americans think their federal government has become so large and powerful that it “poses an immediate threat to their rights and freedoms”, but contrasts sharply with the fact, and as reported by the Washington Times News Service, that “for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.”

To those Americans knowing of the Communist takeover of their government, and as reported by the New York Times, they are currently banding under the banner of the so called “Tea Party” movement which some of their politicians by alluding to Patriot dogma.

This New York Times article further states about this movement, “At a Tea Party protest in Las Vegas, Joe Heck, a Republican running for Congress, blamed both the Democratic and Republican Parties for moving the country toward “socialistic tyranny.” In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican seeking re-election, threw his support behind the state sovereignty movement. And in Indiana, Richard Behney, a Republican Senate candidate, told Tea Party supporters what he would do if the 2010 elections did not produce results to his liking: “I’m cleaning my guns and getting ready for the big show. And I’m serious about that, and I bet you are, too.”

And to how dangerous this “big show” will be that candidate Behney is warning his fellow American citizens about was further echoed by the renowned economist Dr. Marc Farber before a gathering of 700 pension and sovereign wealth fund managers in Tokyo last week where he warned that the situation in the US had become so dire that he was advising all of his clients to buy farmland and gold and to be prepared to evacuate their cities at a moments notice.

Not known at this time, and as Obama’s Communist forces continue to gather strength in their destruction of the United States, is if the US Military will come to defense of their citizens, but it is worth noting that their Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who was appointed by the former President Bush, is still in firm control of Americas military might and has continually rebuffed Obama’s attempts to change their war fighting strategy.

The same, and sadly, cannot be said for America’s over 800,000 federal, state and local police forces who were given new powers by Obama this past week when in the middle of the night he signed the dreaded Patriot Act extension into law that has destroyed more freedoms for these people than any other legislation in US history in a “Yes We Can” slam against the Bill of Rights these people had so long enjoyed.

Even worse for these Americans is that their ability to defend themselves is soon to be lost as their Supreme Court is set to rule in a 2nd Amendment (gun rights) case that will outlaw their being able to own any type of firearm and that Obama’s recent appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayar [backed by the Communist Party in her nomination as a “way to end “right-wing” terrorism in the U.S.”] , who is firmly opposed to gun rights, holds the key “swing vote” on.

Unknown to virtually all of the American people is that last years US Supreme Court ruling upholding the 2nd Amendment gun rights of residents of Washington D.C. ONLY applies to those citizens, and NOT to the citizens of the individual States, and as quoted about the current case to be heard this week by the court by the New York Times News Service: “Under the doctrine of “selective incorporation,” the Supreme Court has ruled on a case-by-case basis that most, but so far not quite all, of the Bill of Rights applies to states and cities. The court should dispense with the selectivity and make clear that states and cities must respect the Bill of Rights.”

Sadly for the American people (and Obama’s Communist “fellow traveler” Justice Sotomayar will make sure of it) they are not now, nor will they ever be afforded the full protection of the Bill of Rights given to them by their Founding Fathers and their descent into the darkness will continue.

Putin in his aforementioned remarks stated that he never would have believed that the United States would take the Iron Curtain surrounding the former Soviet Union they had helped to destroy, pack it up, and the re-erect it around America, but that is exactly what they done. And if any American today wants to know what it was really like living under the tyrannical rule of the Soviet Communists they need only look around them at what their Nation is becoming, and then get very prepared for what is to come.

India to get nuclear submarine from Russia by year end

Russian Navy will hand over its newly built nuclear submarine to India on a 10-year lease by end of this year and the Indian crew was ”absolutely prepared” to take its charge, the Russian Naval Chief today said.

“We will hand this submarine to the client by the year end,” Naval Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

“The Indian crew is absolutely prepared for operating the submarine,” he said.

Earlier last month a top official of the defence cooperation service said the Indian naval crew was already on board the K-152 Nerpa nuclear submarine and was carrying out pre-delivery trails on the high seas.

Under the lease contract, estimated to be between USD 650-900 million, India had funded the completion of the Nerpa nuclear submarine at Amur Shipyard before the Soviet collapse.

The Nerpa was to be inducted into the Indian Navy like INS Chakra by mid-2008 but on November 8, 2008, shortly after the sea trials commenced, as many as 20 sailors and technical workers were killed onboard, while they were asleep, due to the release of toxic
Freon gas following a technical problem in the automatic fire suppression system in the vessel.

The Pacific Fleet’s Naval Court currently hearing the case has established that a seaman pressed the button of fire suppression system “out of curiosity”.

Captain of the submarine has also been charged for “abuse of authority” by allowing the use of a cheaper toxic mixture of Freon gas in the fire suppression system.

Indian Army to begin new training academy

Grappling with a shortage of 12,510 officers as against the sanctioned strength of 47,864, the Indian Army is to begin a new training academy for Short Service Commission (SSC) Officers from July 18, 2011 but the inaugural batch will not be an SSC one.

The officers in Army informed TSI that the inaugural batch will be comprised of cadets joining through Technical Entry Scheme (TES) and Special Commission Officers (SCO). Both the entries are meant for Permanent Commissions.

The TES cadets were earlier training 1 Year at IMA Dehradun for the basic military training and then they used to get divided into three parts as per the merit and used to go for a three year Degree Course at CME Pune, MCTE Mhow and MCEME Secunderabad.

The SCOs are the soldiers serving as Other Ranks and are given opportunity to become PC on the recommendation of the Commanding Officers, Brigade Commanders and the Division Commanders. They appear for Selection Board and then go to IMA for their training. But this year these two batches will be the inaugural batch of OTA Gaya.

“The first batch of trainee cadets reporting on July 15 will be of 135 cadets. The second batch will be twice as that of the first batch and will have 270 trainee cadets,” Officers informed. As per the sources this arrangement to train the PC officers is planned for the first two batches and subsequently the cadets for SSC will start training.

The 1.13 million strong Indian Army has sanctioned officer strength of 47,864. But the shortage of 12,510 officers in its current strength has affected the functioning as the shortage is at the operational level of captain, major and lieutenant colonels who lead troops.

The proposal to start a second OTA to supplement the army intake was given in 2008. The approval from Cabinet Committee on Security came in December 2009.

The capacity of the academy is to train 750 cadets a year and the fund requirement would be to the tune of Rupees 364 crore for non-recurring expenditure and Rupees 44.75 crore recurring expenses every year. Apart from this, the army gets a maximum of 600 SSC officers from the Chennai OTA and another 1,100 PC officers from IMA annually.

OTA Gaya has an important role in the future planning of Indian Army force restructuring as Armed forces want to gradually increase the number of SSC officers in their ranks to maintain a youthful profile of its troop commanders. The SSC officers will leave after serving either for 10 or at maximum 14 years with the Army hence the profile will remain young. The plan is to finally have a ration of two SSC officers to every PC officer (2:1 ratio).

The extent of shortage of officers is around 1,818 in the Navy and 837 in the Air Force. Air Force has a Shortage of about 426 fighter pilots.

Indian Army gets nod to fire back at Maoists

New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) The government has permitted the Indian Army to fire back at the Maoists in self-defence by amending the rules of engagement, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Tuesday.

‘The army is not there to fight against Naxalism (Maoists). But at the same time the government gave them some standard operating procedures for their self-defence, that is all,’ Antony told reporters here on the sidelines of a seminar.

An army officer said: ‘The changes in the rules of engagement entails that troops can fire back if fired upon.’

The army had early this year requested the government to change the rules of engagement for it in Chhattisgarh, where it is setting up a training centre. The army wanted to defend itself if fired upon by the Maoist rebels.

The changed standard operating procedures for the troops was for the less-than-a-brigade sized force of about 3,000 soldiers sanitising a 75-km stretch of highway in Bastar’s Kondagaon in Chattisgarh.

The force is headed to Narayanpur, also in the central Indian state, where the army has been allotted a 750-sq km area of land as a ‘manoeuvre range’ for training in jungle warfare.

The changes in the rules of engagement comes at a time when the Indian Army’s top seven commanders, led by its chief General V.K. Singh, recently met in Lucknow to brainstorm the red terror issue and voted to leave the fight against the Maoist for the state and central police forces.

Antony acknowledged that the army commanders did meet to discuss the Maoists threat, as the army troops were now moving into areas where the Maoists operate.