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Tuesday,
June 3, 2003, Chandigarh, India   
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Guilt of
Ayodhya Rich
men’s club |
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Nepal
after Chand THE resignation of palace-nominated Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand has revived hopes of a reconciliation in Nepal. He had become a symbol of the domination by King Gyanendra and almost everyone was after his blood. His surprise resignation is being seen as a victory of the political parties which had been holding angry demonstrations demanding his ouster.
‘Operation
Sarpvinash’ in J&K
Veronica
An ideal
mix of man, machine and mission
Detained
again
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Guilt of Ayodhya JUSTICE delayed is justice denied. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Madhya Pradesh BJP President Uma Bharati will agree. All three of them are among the eight persons against whom the CBI submitted a formal chargesheet in the Babri Masjid demolition case being heard by a special court in Rae Bareli. There should be no doubt whatsoever that the Babri Masjid case has exposed the infirmities in the Indian judicial system. The ghastly act of bringing down the disputed structure in Ayodhya was performed by emotionally charged kar sevaks on December 6, 1992, in the presence of Mr Advani, Mr Joshi, Ms Bharati and five other senior Sangh Parivar leaders who have been named by the CBI as the prime accused. Given the sensitivity of the case, a responsive leadership would have ensured speedy justice in the Babri Masjid-related cases. Nero had wept over the burning of Rome. Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao, as Prime Minister, improved upon the dubious record of the disgraced Emperor. He literally slept through the demolition of the disputed structure. During the rest of his term, he never ever felt the need to provide the healing touch to the victims of mindless violence by setting up fast track courts for bringing to justice the instigators of what was described as a crime against humanity. Ideally, the process of justice should also have been speeded up in the post-Babri cases of nationwide communal violence. The Opposition parties have demanded the resignation of Mr Advani and Mr Joshi from the Union Cabinet. They are virtually the right and left hands of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had once claimed that they were in Ayodhya on that fateful day to protect the shrine and not to destroy it. BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu has already clarified that there was no reason for them to resign as no issues of moral turpitude were involved. Hence it is quite unlikely that either Mr Advani or Mr Joshi would feel the urge to resign, though such a step would be in the interest of a free and fair trial in the case, which has been allowed to linger on for political rather than legal reasons. It would be pertinent to recall that Mr Advani had himself set a worthy tradition by resigning his Lok Sabha seat when his name figured in the over-hyped hawala scam. Even his detractors had praised him for setting a robust example of political correctness. In umpteen cases, ministers chargesheeted in criminal cases have been asked to go. S. Muthiah, Buta Singh and Hiren Pathak are some of the ministers who had been asked to put in their papers by Mr Vajpayee. All of them had claimed that the cases against them were politically motivated, but that did not prevent the Prime Minister from acting tough. The principles involved in the rule of law make it obligatory for Mr Vajpayee not to make an exception in this case too.
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Rich men’s club PRIME MINISTER Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s statement, issued on the eve of the Evian summit of the G8 countries, reflects not only India’s, but also the other developing countries’ growing concern at the unfairness of the global trading regime. When the WTO’s Uruguay Round was concluded in 1994, calculations by the UNDP indicated that global incomes would grow by $200-500 billion within six years of the conclusion of the round. However, all these incomes were expected to go largely to the industrialised countries and the rest to the better-off developing countries. The poor countries were projected to lose $600 million in a year. The region of Sub-Saharan Africa alone was expected to lose $1.2 billion a year as a result of the Uruguay round. There were, therefore, high hopes as well as apprehensions from the Doha ministerial summit, which started on January 28, 2002, and will conclude on January 1, 2005. It is, therefore, natural for leaders of the developing countries to express their concerns as well as expectations from the Doha round at any platform where their voice can be heard by the industrialised nations. Mr Vajpayee’s statement should be seen against this background. He has rightly reminded the G 8 nations that unless they make available additional financial resources for development, “it is going to become impossible in most developing countries to secure political support for any further trade liberalisation or environment measures”. The Prime Minister has raised four major points that call for attention. One, he says the tariff and non-tariff barriers to exports from the developing countries must be reduced to acceptable levels. How the European nations have discouraged Indian textile exports is all too well known. They have raked up quite unnecessarily the issue of child labour to deny market access to Indian companies. Two, Mr Vajpayee has called for phasing out of trade distortions caused by agricultural subsidies. It is a known fact that the farmers in the developed world enjoy huge subsidies. Mechanised farming, subsidised inputs, research-led advanced agricultural practices and efficient marketing help them in lowering costs. The dumping of cheaper agricultural produce and milk products in the markets of developing countries is proving to be ruinous to local farming. There has to be a level-playing field and adequate protection to farmers in the backward South. Three, the Prime Minister has also taken objection to the proposed legislation in some states in the US to bar Indian professionals from working in that country. Indian companies are being denied market access through visa and non-visa restrictions in violation of the WTO provisions. The fourth significant issue he has raised relates to pharmaceuticals. The need for making available life-saving medicines to the suffering humanity at affordable rates can hardly be
overemphasised. Pharmaceutical companies can reduce their costs by relocating their manufacturing bases to low-cost developing countries. The two-day G8 summit will, hopefully, pay due regard to these pressing issues. |
Nepal after Chand THE resignation of palace-nominated Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand has revived hopes of a reconciliation in Nepal. He had become a symbol of the domination by King Gyanendra and almost everyone was after his blood. His surprise resignation is being seen as a victory of the political parties which had been holding angry demonstrations demanding his ouster. But the development may have come about because of certain other factors as well. Perhaps the King realised that it would not be prudent on his part to be directly involved in the ugly confrontation with the Maoists. He needs a political buffer which is also acceptable to the general public. Now that Mr Chand is out of the way, the hill kingdom is realising that its real need is not just the ouster of a particular man but the revival of parliamentary democracy. Even if the political parties reach a consensus on who will be the next Prime Minister, his multi-party government will be non-elected. This government of national unity can only be a stopgap arrangement. What the kingdom needs is a free and fair election. That is where the real problem starts. Maoist insurgents are dead against such elections. In fact, violence had broken out last year mainly to scuttle the polling process. It can be safely assumed that they would try to play the same mischief again. What the mainstream parties of Nepal have to realise is that it is their petty rivalries which have allowed the forces inimical to the country to gain the upper hand. It is no secret that Maoist guerrillas too have been getting clandestine support from some disgruntled leaders. Not only that, even the King has felt emboldened to take the reins of powers in his hands because the elected leaders are more busy running each other down than running the affairs of the country. India has gone out of its way to help its neighbour in every way it can but to score brownie points against each other. Nepalese leaders have made it a regular practice to misrepresent every Indian gesture as an attempt at domination. India is blamed for everything that happens in Nepal. Instead of piling all blame at the door of Delhi, politicians in Kathmandu will do well to set their own house in order. There is at least one subject — end to violence — on which they need to evolve a solid convergence. Only if they agree to fight the scourge
unitedly, can they hope to tackle the challenge posed by the Maoists directly and monarchy backers indirectly. No country can hope to have a good administration and prosper if it has 12 prime ministers in as many years. |
‘Operation Sarpvinash’ in J&K SECURITY forces in the Surankote area of Jammu division have achieved great success by eliminating a large number of terrorists who were well entrenched in the Hilkaka forests. This is the result of “Operation Sarpvinash”. As per the statements attributed to the Army, Pakistan-trained terrorists had bases in the area for the last four years and that there were at least 10 such places on the Peer Panjal ranges where terrorists had built well-fortified bunkers. According to media reports, government officials were surprised that the security forces conducting counter-insurgency operations in J&K had very little idea about such deep penetration by terrorists and that it was for the first time that the Chief of Army Staff had brought it to the notice of the Cabinet Committee on Security. There is nothing new. I am rather surprised that it had not been known to the government before. I was Addl DG, BSF, in J&K in 1993. It was in our knowledge that the mercenaries were well entrenched in the upper reaches of the Peer Panjal range. In fact, I made persistent requests to the then Adviser, Home, Government of J&K, to deploy some Army units and commandos on these ranges and conduct continuous operations against the terrorist bases. The strategy of these mercenaries then was to lie low, build up their strength to the optimum level and in due course of time confront the security forces all along the Jammu-Srinagar highway, especially from Udhampur to the Kashmir valley and create safe zones in the forests of Surankote, Thana Mandi, Kalakote, etc. In addition, the terrorists would continue with their ethnic cleansing operations in Doda, starting at the Synthan pass connecting Verinag to Kishtwar, Bhadarwah and Doda itself, to make it conform to the Chenab formula of Sir Owen Dixon, which envisaged partition of the state with areas north of the Chenab going to Pakistan. Another objective has been to keep the infiltration routes in Rajouri, Poonch and Surankote free from any Indian intervention by terrorising the Muslim Gujjar population. At that time these ranges did not have any presence of the Indian forces and the terrorists had a totally free run. The BSF had some pickets on the slopes but, leave aside launching operations, it was very difficult even to sustain them. The BSF did not have the required wherewithal. Terrorists in summer would come down from the hills, kill some Hindus and vanish in the mountain forests. By the time, the security forces reached the spot, the terrorists were out of the reach, on to the mountain tops from where they would jeer at our troops and challenge them to chase them. It was not possible to immediately follow them as they were on the dominating heights and would definitely ambush our troops and inflict heavy casualties. Sitting at a tactical position, they would observe everyone of us coming up and kill us without any fear of loss of life on their side as they would be much above our troops, safely ensconced in their defensive position. It had to be a well-planned, well-organised and well-executed operation. It is not possible to set up odd police/BSF pickets at such places as it is very difficult to maintain logistics support. Moreover, it can be targeted in a surprising manner by terrorists any time with no possibility of reinforcement coming in time. In one such anti-terrorist operation, the BSF lost about 20 of its brave men when they were ambushed by these jihadis near Desa village at a height of 1000 ft. In winter, mercenaries would infiltrate into Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh and kill innocent civilians. Himachal Pradesh had to tighten security in areas bordering Doda in J&K. What is required is continuous search and destroy missions and that too without any respite to mercenaries. The government must examine the question of raising an anti-terrorist force comprising youngsters from Doda who are the worst-affected people in the state. Train them in anti-insurgency operations. Arm them with the state-of-the-art equipment. Deploy them in the higher reaches of Peer Panjal. They being the residents of these areas, well conversant with its topography and emotionally attached to their homeland, will make these jihadis run for their lives. These troops should be put on the grid with the nearest Army or BSF unit. There should be regular communication among the security forces. Keep them self-reliant with six months of ration, etc. Provide them the high altitude equipment. Their job should be to seek and destroy these jihadis. They will be on a deliberate mission in search of terrorists but engage them at the place and time strategically suited to our troops. The fate of the Muslim Gujjars living near the Line of Control is extremely pitiable. They are being tortured, maimed and killed mercilessly. Even women and children are not spared. Their throats are slit open. Young girls are subjected to new methods of torture. These Gujjars have been traditionally in the employment of the Indian Army as coolies. So, they easily become the target of attack by mercenaries, who want a completely clear and safe infiltration route. As a deterrent, they kill any Gujjar. We should raise Gujjar scouts like the Ladakh Scouts. Train them well and deploy them along with the Army on the Line of Control. They will be a great asset to the Army. They will be beholden to the Army for providing an honourable source of employment. They will be good fighters. As they have seen their kith and kin being butchered by jihadis, they will take them on with revenge. We must adopt innovative methods to combat the proxy war unleashed by our hostile neighbour. It cannot be fought with conventional methods. Some ingenuity is must. It is high time our security forces dominated the Peer Panjal ranges and destroyed jihadis in their entrenched positions. Otherwise the Jammu-Srinagar highway, especially from Udhampur to the Kashmir valley and Northern Command Headquarters at Udhampur, will be seriously threatened by mercenaries in the near future. In times to come these jihadis, supported by the Pakistan army, may try to cut off Rajouri and Poonch from Jammu. The writer, who retired as DGP, Punjab, was earlier Additional
Director- General, BSF, Jammu and Kashmir. |
Veronica SHE came into my life 10 years ago. Of course, there had been others but none of them came anywhere near her charm. There was Sue, or Cheeky Sue as she was called because of her bold and saucy air. She stayed with me a full four years and it saddened me to part with her but she was becoming too expensive to keep and a pensioner’s purse can only stretch so far and no more. Luckily, a chap in the neighbourhood had had his eye on Sue for some time. He took her off my hands. A few months later they had an accident on Ring Road. Both survived but Sue suffered serious injuries and was never the same saucy one again. Then there was Gertie. Unlike Sue she was built more for comfort than for speed. I found her boring after a while. I missed the youth and stamina of Cheeky Sue. Quietly, as I did not want to hurt her feelings, I looked around for a likely “customer.” A strapping young Sikh came to my rescue. I didn’t know that he wanted her as a “money-maker”. I was told that he was hiring her out privately. Once I passed her on the road. She looked old and worn out. I could almost hear every joint in her body cry out in pain. “Why did you forsake me?” She seemed to ask me but I pretended not to hear her. Then I met Veronica and I knew that there could be no one else for me. Cheeky Sue had come from Madras, Gertie from Bombay, but Veronica was born in Germany though she had become a US citizen. She had been brought out to India by a fellow in the Foreign Service who had picked her up while he was posted at our embassy in Washington. He had kept her all the time he was in Delhi. When I heard that he had been posted to Sweden I put out a feeler. “Why carry coal to Newcastle?” I asked him. “You’ll get the best of them over there. It’s the most permissive society in the world.” He saw my point and over a drink we made a deal. Veronica isn’t sleek and sophisticated like Cheeky Sue. Nor has she the “come hither” look of Gertie who was all things to all men. Veronica slopes in front and at the back, instead of jutting out invitingly like her predecessors. But it’s her voice that attracts me. Sometimes it’s like the angry growl of a hungry panther, at others, like the contented purr of a well-fed cat. Mark you, she costs me a pretty penny in upkeep. Almost everything she needs had to come from abroad or bought locally at fantastic prices. All the same, I wouldn’t change her for all the jute in Bangladesh. And what Ralph Nader said years ago about a Volkswagen being a death trap doesn’t worry me at all. Veronica is “phoren” and that sends me a notch up in the social scale. |
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An ideal mix of man, machine and mission THE Northeast is abound with natural beauty and flying in this region is a wonderful experience. The landscape is a delight to watch as vast green stretches of tea gardens merge into the mammoth Brahmaputra and its tributaries followed by the thick rain forests and formidable peaks of the mighty Himalayas. But despite all this, the region can be treacherous, forbidding and inaccessible. For the sentinels of our frontiers and the sky - - jawans of the Army and the IAF pilots who fly in this area — the “land of seven sisters” is also a land of challenges. It consists of peaks as high as 23,000 feet with steep
valleys. The upper reaches of these valleys above 14,000 feet are snow bound round the year and thick jungles cover the terrain below 10,000 feet. This region is inhabited by several hill tribes and the sparse population is widely dispersed in the numerous valleys with small to medium-sized villages in each valley. Surface communication networking has remained a challenge in the area and most of the hill region continues to be isolated due to an inadequate road network. Besides the civilian population, a large number of Army personnel maintain outposts that are virtually cut off from the rest of the country. Thus, for all of them air logistics is the only means of providing rations and other essential commodities to the troops and the civil population. EAC’s air logistics operation has been continuing since the Burma campaign. The transport and helicopter fleet of the IAF has kept up the lifeline for troops and civilians alike in the remote and inaccessible terrain for the past 50 years. These magnificent men and their flying machines provide succour to several in the far-flung areas. Air logistics operations are a highly specialised job involving multiple variables which require a higher than average skill level as both the transport a\c and choppers are operated at the critical limit of the flight envelope with reduced safety margins. The East provides varied and unpredictable weather that keeps the aircrew on its toes all through the year. Sudden showers or cloud buildup combined with the hostile terrain have led to the maxim: ‘‘know your area, know the weather and know your area better in bad weather’’. The media team that visited forward area IAF bases had a taste of the fickle weather during the visit as a bright and sunny morning sky at 6.30 am transformed into a dark mass within an hour’s time. Thus the day’s plan had to be revised and replanned several times in accordance with the will of weather gods. Sometimes the clouds packed up, while the pilots strapped up forcing every one to return after an aborted flight schedule. This kind of fickle weather coupled with clear air turbulence, strong up draughts and down draughts, low clouds, convective buildup, poor visibility and hill shadow, calls for a very high level of flying skill as all the faculties of a pilot are stretched to the maximum in this region. “Flying in this sector is much more challenging than in the northern sector” — is the common reaction of most of the transport as well as helicopter pilots. Thus the advice that is the key to successful air logistics in the area is: ‘‘you can take chances with the hills and you can take chances with the weather, but it is suicidal to take chances with the hills and the weather at the same time.’’ AN32 and MI17 choppers are mainly used for air logistics in the region. AN 32, the workhorse of IAF’s medium-lift transport fleet, has been performing this duty since 1984. This multipurpose, all weather aircraft not only can carry cargo up to 6.7 tonnes but can also evacuate casualties and carry bombs externally and internally. Up to 42 para troopers can also be dropped in the tactical battle area. Different types of loads dropped by AN32 are free drop for foodgrains and other things. The Army and Assam Rifles have deployed their troops in the forward posture and the choppers are the only means to provide rations and other essential commodities to the troops. The rapid progress made by the border roads is largely due to the effort put in to airlift voluminous construction requirements like bulldozers to the remote areas. These choppers also lend a helping hand to the civil agencies during flood relief operations, casualty evacuation and search and rescue operations, apart from the “Air Sea Search and Rescue” role during air-to-air activation over the Bay of Bengal. MI17 is also a lethal war machine. It is one of the most heavily armed choppers in the world. Chetak and Cheetah helicopters have got the sobriquet of Hovering Angels due to their role in evacuating people during natural calamities. Airdropping supplies is a specialised field as the margin of error during the drop is minimal. Flying in the difficult terrain, negotiating weather, aligning the a/c correctly, ejection crew ensuring quick removal and securing of load with ramp open at an outside temperature as low as -5 C are some of the factors that test the skill levels of all crew members during a drop sortie. Drop zones are generally situated in narrow valleys on sloping grounds. The drop has to be precise and concentrated so that losses are minimum and, therefore, margins for errors are very low. There is no R/T communication to most DZs and it is identified visually. Navigation to the DZ is tricky with change of seasons, height and visibility conditions. The problem becomes more acute in the pre-monsoon season when jhoom cultivation is practised, causing widespread smog in the area. For flying to some of the DZs the aircrew has to use oxygen masks. Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) are established to provide basic infrastructure in terms of refuelling, air traffic control communication, meteorology for undertaking FW helicopter operations. These differ from normal airfields in many ways, these are semi-prepared surfaces with restricted length and width. These have runways that are half the width of normal runways and the runway lengths range from 3,600 feet to 4,200 feet. The conventional stopways over the run and undershoot needed for civil/air operations are not available. All ALGs have a unidirectional takeoff and landing. There are limited communication and fire-fighting facilities, and no navigational aids are available en route to or at these ALGs. The surface is mostly uneven. The approaches are steep due to obstructions and circuits are unconventional. Men and materials are carried from these ALGs to far-flung helipads and drop zones All flights have their ups and downs but the one to an ALG also has its lefts and rights as the aircraft negotiates the valleys and mountains and to top it is the bumpy landing experience, which leaves hordes of butterflies loose in your stomach. However, a close look at the bitumen and pierced steel plate runway after getting down revealed the level of precision required to land there. But for the villagers of the area and the jawans at the remote border post the aircraft means the supply of essential commodities like food and medicines, and is their contact with the rest of the world. It comes as a saviour when a sick or injured person is to be admitted to a hospital. Talking to mediapersons, some of the villagers said the fare charged for the flight was a bit steep. However, for Naib Subedar Nem Bhadur Rana and Havildar Janardan Prasad of Assam Rifles, our two fellow passengers from the ALG, the aircraft came as a blessing as their emergency leave had been sanctioned and it would have taken them seven days to reach the nearest town if they had to go on foot and that would have been too late to perform their familial duties. The air logistics task has reduced drastically in the past 5 to 10 years and 1084 metric tonnes load was lifted in 2002-03. The indomitable spirit of the IAF flyers has come to symbolise dependability and succour in the face of daunting odds. Their work is a living example of an ideal man-machine-and-mission mix and they sure are living up to the motto: “Touch the sky with glory”. The writer visited the Northeast as a guest of the Indian Air Force. |
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AUNG
San Suu Kyi, who went from housewife in England to one of the world’s most recognised political prisoners more than a decade ago, has once again found herself at the blunt end of the Myanmar military’s displeasure. Having spent more than half of the past 14 years under house arrest, with the last stint ending just a year ago, Suu Kyi is again in detention. The 57-year-old became an international icon when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 — during her first spell of house arrest from 1989 to 1995. Her last confinement, which started in September 2000, was imposed after she attempted to leave Yangon to visit supporters in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city. Released in May last year, the pro-democracy icon embarked on a series of trips aimed at stirring up substantive dialogue between her National League for Democracy (NLD) and the military, which has ruled for four decades. While turning up pressure on the military to allow a transition to democracy in the impoverished nation, her fight has landed her right back where she started — in the junta’s “protective custody” after clashes on Friday between her supporters and pro-government groups in the north of the country. And the 57-year-old’s unflagging campaign for an end to military rule and decades of suspicion and war between the military and ethnic minority armies has yet to bring Myanmar any closer to democracy and reconciliation. The resource-rich country of 45 million people, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since a 1962 coup. Suu Kyi’s NLD won the country’s last elections in 1990 by a landslide, but has never been allowed to govern, treated instead to imprisonment, harassment and intimidation. Suu Kyi was born in Yangon, then called Rangoon, on June 19, 1945, and educated in India and Oxford before working with the United Nations in New York. In 1972, she married Michael Aris, an Oxford academic, and they raised two sons while moving between Bhutan, India and Japan before settling in Oxford. But the idyll of Suu Kyi’s life in the English countryside ended in 1988. She returned to her family’s home on Yangon’s Inya Lake to care for her ailing mother just as resentment of military rule boiled over into nationwide pro-democracy protests. Thousands of people had been killed by the time the military finally crushed the uprising in September 1988. Suu Kyi’s struggle to lead Myanmar down a more democratic path has come at great personal cost. She has always refused to leave the country for fear of not being allowed back in, while her husband was for long periods refused a visa to visit her, even when he was dying from prostate cancer. Aris died in March 1999 and Suu Kyi declined an offer from the junta to leave the country to attend his funeral. Her determination may be a family legacy, left to her by her father, independence leader General Aung San, who was assassinated by rivals when Suu Kyi was a baby. At her first speech to crowds of democracy protesters in front of Yangon’s historic Shwedagon Pagoda in August 1988, listeners were struck by Suu Kyi’s resemblance to the hero of Burma’s campaign for independence from British rule in the 1940s. “I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on,” she told the huge crowd. “This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for independence.”
Reuters
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For mind-development there is nothing better than restricting one's desires. — Mencius 7,2,35 The good of others leads to religious merit; causing pain to others is sin. — Sanskrit saying Clever talking will not work salvation. — Uttaradhyayana Sutra 6,10 |
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