O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

No half-hearted action
Pakistan must root out terrorists from its soil
THE arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar by the Pakistani security agencies is a step in the right direction. That Indian and American pressure is mainly to account for the action is indisputable. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had during her recent visit to Islamabad told Pakistan that it could not get away with the claim that terrorist acts like the one against Mumbai were carried out by “non-state actors”

Return of the Congress
Self-goals sealed BJP fate in Rajasthan
At a time when the Congress has retained power in Delhi and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Ms Vasundhara Raje will be wrong in ascribing her stunning defeat in Rajasthan to anti-incumbency factor. Many shortcomings have been instrumental in the downfall of her government. 

Vote for governance
BJP retains MP, Chhattisgarh
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have saved the BJP’s self-esteem. Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chauhan (MP) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) fought on development and both won decisively. The party’s victory in MP is significant because in the 320-member House, it won 144 seats as against the Congress’s 70. Others got just 16. 

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

The flawed system
Bipartisan approach on vital concerns needed
by O.P. Sabherwal
This is not the end but the beginning: this formulation may be true, but generalisations will not do. The Mumbai terror attack is Jihadi terrorism’s war on India. Countering organised terror by religious fundamentalism is specialised business. Even more, it is political business, which means harnessing the political system to meet the new threat. Between these twin facets, it is the political inadequacy that poses a bigger challenge.

MIDDLE

Telling lies
by Harish Dhillon
IN the past children were taught that telling lies was a deadly sin and there would be dire punishment waiting for a liar in the afterlife.  By now  this fire and brimstone attitude has gone, though children are still taught that it is wrong to tell lies.

OPED

What went wrong?
And whose failure led to Mumbai mayhem?
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd )
No event in recent history has drawn so much national attention and brought out people’s anger to such an extent as the terrorist strike in Mumbai. Much has been written on the state’s inability to come up with a viable strategy to meet the menace of terrorism in a speedy, coordinated and efficient manner. Very many suggestions and ideas have been floated such as framing new laws, creating immense security set-up and enlarging intelligence organisations.

A mine field of mistrust
by Ned Parker
Tariq Jawrani inspected his brother’s corpse. Blood crusted the nose and mouth, his skull was fractured, and bruises covered his stomach, back and legs, his brother said. Holes were gouged in Bashir’s flesh. Baqouba police said the marks were from tubes inserted because of kidney failure, but his family said the 34-year-old had been in good health before police detained him at a checkpoint late last month.

Imperative to make military service attractive
by Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi
Later this month, my alma mater, the prestigious National Defence Academy (NDA), will commence celebrating its diamond jubilee. It was the New Year’s Day of 1949 when the fledgling Inter Services Wing (later renamed the Joint Services Wing) was set up at Dehradun.

EDITORIALS

No half-hearted action
Pakistan must root out terrorists from its soil

THE arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar by the Pakistani security agencies is a step in the right direction. That Indian and American pressure is mainly to account for the action is indisputable. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had during her recent visit to Islamabad told Pakistan that it could not get away with the claim that terrorist acts like the one against Mumbai were carried out by “non-state actors”. So long as such actors used its territory for their nefarious purposes, Pakistan could not absolve itself of blame or responsibility. The Pakistani terrorist who was caught in Mumbai has given graphic details of how, for instance, Lakhvi had masterminded the whole Mumbai operation. Masood was released in exchange of Indian Airlines passengers held hostage at Kandahar in 1999.

Merely placing the two under house arrest, as Pakistan has done, is not sufficient. Both of them have to be brought to justice for their involvement in terrorist attacks in which hundreds of innocent people were killed. Since Pakistan has no intention to hand them over to India, it is doubtful whether it is serious in its pursuit of the terrorists. To gain credibility, Pakistan should extend all help to India to arrest all those who were involved in planning and training the ones who landed in Mumbai on 26/11. India had in the past given evidence of as many as 48 terrorist camps operating in and around Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Destroying the camps is a prerequisite for gaining confidence about Pakistan’s determination to fight terror.

Although India is a special target for the terrorists, it is not the only victim of Pakistani terrorism. By now it is a given that wherever a terrorist attack takes place, be it London or Lexington, it has a Pakistani connection. Pakistan itself is a victim of the activities of its so-called “non-state” actors, who were behind several terrorist attacks in the country, including the latest one against Nato vehicles at a container terminal near Peshawar. It is, therefore, in Pakistan’s own interest to finish the terrorist outfits operating from its territory. Public opinion within and without Pakistan should force the Pakistan government to come down heavily on terrorism. Any failure on this account will have dangerous implications for not just South Asia but the whole world. Pakistan’s drive against the terrorist groups should be relentless. Any action taken against them just for effect will neither convince the world about its sincerity, nor will it serve any purpose.

Return of the Congress
Self-goals sealed BJP fate in Rajasthan

At a time when the Congress has retained power in Delhi and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Ms Vasundhara Raje will be wrong in ascribing her stunning defeat in Rajasthan to anti-incumbency factor. Many shortcomings have been instrumental in the downfall of her government. What should be all the more galling for the BJP is that the November 26 terror attack in Mumbai, which the party had tried to exploit to target the Congress, has not yielded any dividend in the state. The main cause of the reverses that is has suffered has been the faulty ticket distribution. These went to Raje favourites, without taking into account their winnability or merit. Infighting in the state unit made the situation worse.

Except for her sworn enemies, all others admit that development work has been rather satisfactory during her regime. It is just that this task was not combined with adequate “social engineering”, just another name for keeping various castes happy. The BJP government was debilitated by the agitation by members of the Gujjar community on the issue of reservations. As if that was not enough, the last-minute defection by powerful Jat leader Vishvendra Singh and Kirori Lal Meena made things worse for it.

The results of the 13th Vidhan Sabha elections are a virtual reverse replay of the 1993 elections. If this time the Congress has 96 seats and the BJP 78, in 1993 the BJP had 95 and the Congress 76 and Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had formed a government with the help of independents. This time the Congress is set to get similar help to reach the magical 101-mark in the 200-seat Assembly. That means that the lone rangers will be toasted and feted lavishly. Many of the Independents are Congress rebels. How stable and effective the next government proves to be will depend on the caliber of the new Chief Minister. The claim of former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has become stronger with the shock defeat of stalwarts like PCC president C P Joshi.

Vote for governance
BJP retains MP, Chhattisgarh

Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have saved the BJP’s self-esteem. Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chauhan (MP) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) fought on development and both won decisively. The party’s victory in MP is significant because in the 320-member House, it won 144 seats as against the Congress’s 70. Others got just 16. Mr Chauhan had a good rapport with people for his various schemes on rural development, education, agriculture, girl child and women. To ward off anti-incumbency, the BJP did not re-nominate 56 MLAs. Yet, it got 30 seats less than its 2003 score. Former chief minister and expelled BJP leader Uma Bharati, who herself was trounced in Tikamgarh, has failed to emerge as a force in state politics. UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party could pocket only seven seats. Obviously, she failed to replicate her concept of social engineering outside UP.

The Congress made its own contribution to the BJP’s victory in MP. It has been a divided house with too many chief ministerial aspirants – Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath, Suresh Pachauri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jamuna Devi and Subhash Yadav. Motilal Vora and Arjun Singh had their own agenda. Factionalism, favouritism in ticket distribution and rebels cost the party heavily. In the absence of organisational cohesion because of the wrangling leaders, the party units at the state, district and block levels lacked direction and were working at cross-purposes.

No less significant is the BJP’s victory in Chhattisgarh. It bagged 50 seats in the 90-member House as against the Congress’s 38. It notched up a vote share of 42 per cent compared with 38 per cent by the Congress. Mr Raman Singh is known as a good administrator. Though the Naxalite problem took much of his time, he never lost touch with the masses. Through various developmental schemes, he could convince the people about his political will to help the poor, including the tribals who constitute 34 per cent of the state’s population. Apparently, his promised cheap-rice scheme worked. The Congress also played the same card, but failed. Mr Ajit Jogi was clearly the wrong choice for spearheading the party’s campaign. For Mr Raman Singh now the priority should be to root out naxalism from the state.

Thought for the Day

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a value; and (3) by suffering. — Victor Frankl 

ARTICLE

The flawed system
Bipartisan approach on vital concerns needed
by O.P. Sabherwal

This is not the end but the beginning: this formulation may be true, but generalisations will not do. The Mumbai terror attack is Jihadi terrorism’s war on India. Countering organised terror by religious fundamentalism is specialised business. Even more, it is political business, which means harnessing the political system to meet the new threat. Between these twin facets, it is the political inadequacy that poses a bigger challenge.

The task of trimming the anti-terrorism apparatus, making it ever vigilant and professional has been terribly neglected. Pitiably, it was discovered during the Mumbai mayhem, that the firepower and weapons of the Mumbai police cops were no match for those wielded by the terrorists. About the intelligence system — intelligence dissemination even more than intelligence gathering — the less said the better. The shock administered by the Lashkar terrorist assault on Mumbai will hopefully lead to rapidly filling the gaps in building a strong, intelligent, professional anti-terrorism mechanism. First steps in this direction have been initiated: no half-way house is acceptable here.

The same cannot be said about the challenge in respect to political inadequacy. That is going to be an arduous, complex, and a painstaking endeavour. What we have to grapple with is the working of the Indian political system, which has lately been displaying several negative features. Some of these shortcomings have tended to overshadow the plus points of Indian democracy. It is increasingly clear that this country’s political texture has become vulnerable, with several ailments now surfacing.

Even before the challenge of Jihadi terrorism made its grotesque presence felt, the Indian political system was out of sync with the dynamics of building India's economic prowess. Rather, the cleavage between politics and economics has been growing, with the former acting as a halter round the neck of economic advance. It should now be clear that projections of India becoming an economic super power during the decades ahead will remain a mere dream unless the political system is cleaned up and stinking dead wood removed.

Why has this feature become more pronounced in the last decade? A closer look at the Indian scenario shows that the political system is losing track because its evolution is not in full conformity with the agenda of national development. Essentially, this means the emergence of several flaws in the working of Indian democracy. Vote-bank politics at the cost of national priorities, an ugly communal agenda, casteism, and, above all, rampant corruption at the apex of power have corroded the texture and vibrancy of the Indian political system.

How and why have these features emerged in the widely admired working of Indian democracy? And what are the remedies?

The basics have to be examined. Democracy as a political system is a product of the industrial era, a mismatch with feudalism and its legacies. Universal adult suffrage is unthinkable in the feudal era, where the relationship between the feudal lord and the serf leaves no place for democracy. India — a developing country imbibing modern industry, science and technology but with strong feudal remnants — has to find safeguards and correctives against the inflow of its feudal past and feudal institutions in the working of the Indian political system. This the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution provided for, to a large extent, but not in its entirety.

The induction of modern democracy in India became possible to a large extent because of Jawaharlal Nehru, and sustained by the Indian heritage, the Indian freedom movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy. Universal adult suffrage was not a widely acceptable political framework in Asia in the forties of the last century, but the character of the Indian freedom movement made this the base of free India's political system. This valuable gain was consolidated by the Indian Constitution. Seen thus, the Indian Constitution is an admirable document — among the best in the world — bearing comparison with political frameworks of Western democracies.

The working of Indian democracy over five decades has shown its resilience, with strong positive features. Governance that derived its mandate from a vast population and a pluralist nationhood lent strength to the Indian state and spurred development. But the implanting of the democratic system on a variegated society which embraced not only a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population but also a large tribal populace and an even larger dalit segment treated for centuries as untouchables, left gaps. Industrial societies that have adopted the democratic political system do not account for such a societal make-up.

To a considerable extent, the founders of the Indian Constitution took these Indian societal characteristics into account and made special provisions for a period of transition. The injustice to dalit populace over centuries, uneven development embracing tribal society, the religious diversity — specially the Hindu-Muslim diversity becoming a chasm because of the partition of India on a religious base — were all sought to be dealt with by the framers of the Constitution. A secular constitution, with stress on equality and the special needs of dalits and the tribal populace, gave a big push to the developmental agenda — and to modernity by Nehru's stress on modern science and advanced technology. The plus points of Indian democracy were widely accepted the world over; Indian democracy emerged with flying colours through electoral tests such as the dethroning of short-lived Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the early seventies, and the Hindutva- leaning BJP rule in the late nineties, despite a liberal Vajpayee being at its helm.

Yet there were gaps in the Indian democratic political system which became chasms during evolution through five decades. Vote-bank politics based on communal, caste and ethnic diversity have become not only an aberration but a big hurdle in drawing up the system of democratic governance that delivered expected results. This vote-bank politics has prevailed even where national priorities were at stake. The communal diversity has grown into a chasm, the secular character of the Indian state is threatened. More: These flaws have been magnified into a monstrosity of corruption by the nexus of power and money. That this nexus of money power and political power has been derived through adult suffrage that democracy confers makes it almost sacrosanct.

These flaws in the working of the Indian political system do not negate the overall strength of democratic rule. But the aberrations undermine economic advance, and in times of a national challenge such as the threat from Jihadi terrorism, they subvert the national agenda.

Surely, these gaps in the Indian political system can be covered. What is the remedy? First and foremost, the remedy is to strike at the nexus between political power and money power. Corruption at the apex and monopolisation of power by coteries of political parties has to be strongly curbed, if not rooted out. Lessons of the Indian experience have to be merged with knowhow of democratic governance in industrial societies where curbing the allurement of money power by political power groups has been achieved to a considerable extent.

Second, a bipartisan approach and decision-making on major issues in the national agenda has to become the accepted norm — through consensus, cutting across party lines.

Third, the pluralistic, secular values of this country have to be firmed up through constitutional and legal means. The uneven character of Indian society, with the tribal population and the scheduled castes being placed at the lowest rung, has to be leveled, by graded, time-bound action, the sooner it is done, the better. Steps in this direction must embrace the entire spectrum of life — education, economic opportunities and elevated value-chain.

MIDDLE

Telling lies
by Harish Dhillon

IN the past children were taught that telling lies was a deadly sin and there would be dire punishment waiting for a liar in the afterlife.  By now  this fire and brimstone attitude has gone, though children are still taught that it is wrong to tell lies.

My own experience of lying tells me that once you’ve told a lie you are either found out at once or you have to tell a dozen lies to cover up for the first, and inevitably end up getting caught in the web of lies that you have woven.

My favourite story is of the school teacher who took leave because his father had died.  He returned with head duly shaven only to be summoned to the Headmaster’s office to meet his father, who had arrived in the meantime to meet his son.

I was once invited to lunch, an invitation I had accepted with the utmost reluctance:  my host loved his voice even more than I love mine! Then my girlfriend turned up with tickets for a noon show.  I rang up my host to say I was running a high temperature and could not come for lunch. We enjoyed the movie till we left the hall and came face to face with my “host”, waiting to go in for the next show.

In due course I had to go through the inevitable routine of meeting my girlfriend’s father.  I was warned that he held very strong anti-alcohol views. So when I was questioned, I emphatically claimed that I never touched alcohol. I won the father’s approval and a date was set for the engagement. 

That evening my gang got together to celebrate.  We really made a binge of it.  From time to time I caught the eye of a gentleman at the next table.  He seemed vaguely familiar, but I was too drunk, too jubilant to let this worry me.  I should have, because he was the anti-alcohol gentleman.  Needless to say that was one romance that was nipped in the bud. 

Recently I was in Delhi, waiting for a traffic light to change when my mobile rang.  It was my niece in Delhi whom I had promised to visit on this trip.  But I had so much work to do and the Delhi traffic being what it is, I knew I would not be able to keep my promise. “Where have you reached?

“I am sorry Chhottu, something cropped up in school and I just could not get away.”

As I finished speaking my head turned towards the car waiting alongside mine.  There was something familiar about the driver.  I suddenly realised that it was my niece, but before I could duck down, she too turned and saw me.

I wish I could say that because of all the embarrassment that telling lies has caused me, I have learnt to be absolutely truthful and have stopped telling lies.  But if I did, it would be the biggest lie of all.

OPED

What went wrong?
And whose failure led to Mumbai mayhem?
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd )

No event in recent history has drawn so much national attention and brought out people’s anger to such an extent as the terrorist strike in Mumbai. Much has been written on the state’s inability to come up with a viable strategy to meet the menace of terrorism in a speedy, coordinated and efficient manner. Very many suggestions and ideas have been floated such as framing new laws, creating immense security set-up and enlarging intelligence organisations.

Some of these are indeed outlandish. Such as creating a Ministry of Internal Security and posting of security guards and metal detectors at almost every conceivable point and sealing all borders.

These would require the diversion of large resources and energies to meet only the internal security challenges. Such moves will impinge on other more pressing and important demands.

However, considering the general state of anxiety, public disdain, political compulsions of the approaching Lok Sabha elections and the mounting rhetoric of the Opposition, the government is likely to stumble into overreaction and deploy excessive resources in manpower and finances.

India faces two types of terrorist threats. The first is where armed terrorists go on a shooting spree and use grenades and explosives as was seen at Mumbai and the second where improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are placed at crowded places and the ultimate precision weapon: the ‘suicide bomber.’

The two sets of terrorist acts require a completely different range of counter measures. However, to counter both together, the most cost effective and economical approach is to have an intelligence organisation, which can come up with timely and actionable intelligence so as to neutralise these threats before they materialise.

This has not been so and that has been the Achilles’ heel of the Indian intelligence organisations. Resources like commandos etc can come into play in the first case, (a rare occurrence,) and that too only when the damage is being inflicted and as such are the second best.

The government is caught in a catch-22 situation. If it takes no action against Pakistan, which is the fount of terrorist attacks against India, it comes out as weak, ineffective and incapable of providing a secure environment to its people.

India has never been able to work out a security policy framework, which would make Pakistan desist from its strategy of thousand cuts and the cheap option it has been adopting. Any move on the economic or diplomatic front by India will have no consequential impact on Pakistan. So India has few options.

Investigations are on to trace the origin of the attack and the connected links. Faheem Ahmed Ansari involved in the attack on a police station in northern India and now in police custody is one lead to go by.

However, the main source being the surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, and the cell phones: one on the ship in which the terrorists sailed from Karachi and the other at the site of the attacks.

It is evident that Lashkar-e-Taiba is at the back of this operation and the main handlers were Zaki-aur-Rehman Lakhvi and Muzammil and that the operation was being controlled from Lahore and Karachi.

The American press notes that the actions of the Indian security forces shown on TV channels were conveyed to the terrorists and instructions to counter these were passed by their handlers in Pakistan.

Indian TV channels, in their exuberance to show some action and be first at breaking news, played into the hands of the terrorist organisation, little realising the damage they were doing to the entire operation. This TV show evidently cost some lives amongst the security forces and hostages.

America can be of little assistance, except provide intelligence inputs in this case. It will urge India to exercise restraint and not to precipitate matters leading to tensions on the borders. The Pakistan army’s disengagement from the western border and move to the borders with India will seriously jeopardise American operations in Afghanistan.

Thus Secretary of state Condoleeza Rice’s recent visit to the two countries was essentially to urge India to exercise restraint and Pakistan to stop the terrorist attacks against India. The latter may not come about due to the weak nature of the government in that country and other internal political compulsions.

While LeT is a creation of the Pakistan ISI etc, it was “officially” banned in Pakistan some two years ago. So on that count the Pakistan government can deny any involvement in the case.

While Pakistan may agree to take some action against those of its citizens against whom sufficient evidence can be made available by India, but to expect Pakistan to hand over these men and those earlier listed would be naive. To expect otherwise is not to understand the internal dynamics of Pakistan.

That really leaves us with two options. One is to bolster home land security by having more security forces, which is a reactive and utterly wasteful strategy, and the other is, to revamp the intelligence set-up and improve the quality of policing. India has been repeatedly surprised and subjected to terrorist attacks. There hardly has been any pre-emptive action to forestall these attacks.

To cover up shortcomings in investigative skills, there appears to be moves to bring back some of the draconian laws, though in a different garb. Such laws turn the Indian judicial system on its head and going by the past record of their application, it will lead to further alienation of sections of our society.

Senior police officials do admit that Mumbai was the result of a systemic failure of the entire intelligence network. They close this observation with this gem: “sacking anyone or all of them would mean suddenly creating a vacuum in the security establishment of the country. And in these rather sensitive times this could send a wrong message to the world.” Simply stated it means, let sleeping dogs lie.

A mine field of mistrust
by Ned Parker

Tariq Jawrani inspected his brother’s corpse. Blood crusted the nose and mouth, his skull was fractured, and bruises covered his stomach, back and legs, his brother said.

Holes were gouged in Bashir’s flesh. Baqouba police said the marks were from tubes inserted because of kidney failure, but his family said the 34-year-old had been in good health before police detained him at a checkpoint late last month.

Iraqi police insist that before dying of what they called natural causes last week, the Sunni leader confessed that he had killed Shiite families in Diyala province. His family and supporters counter that he had fought Islamist extremists and helped resettle Shiite families in the last year as a member of the U.S.-funded Sons of Iraq militia.

His brother Tariq described his one hospital visit with his brother. “He was unconscious, and we wrapped him with a blanket. One of my relatives who wanted to test his consciousness told him: `Do you know my name?’ and he answered with one (sentence): `They killed me.’ Afterward, they didn’t let us to stay,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Multiple investigations are under way, but the episode speaks volumes to the deep mistrust among Diyala province’s Shiite and Sunni populations, and lays bare the difficulties Iraq faces reaching real reconciliation.

The conduct of senior commanders in the Shiite-dominated security forces in Diyala has been questioned in recent months, with their behavior evoking memories of Baghdad in the depths of civil war.

The Iraqi army and police have arrested hundreds of Sunni Arabs, many of them prominent members 
of the Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament.

“The Iraqi security forces have played a terrible role in Diyala,” said a close observer of the Iraqi government, who could not be identified because of political sensitivities. “I view it (Diyala) as the blackest of the black in terms of sectarian operations.”

“I have real questions about how things are done out there,” he added.

Despite the arrests and allegations of torture, U.S. officials have agreed to hand full control of the Sons of Iraq program to the Diyala security command next month. The U.S. Army has released public statements about their confidence regarding a successful transition after having handed over responsibility for the fighters to the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

“The government is doing the right thing. Baghdad has gone quite well, and we expect that the rest of the provinces will do the same,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, the U.S. military’s point man for the transition.

The streets of Baqouba serve as a rejoinder to such optimism. Its scorched walls and bullet-riddled buildings are reminders of past efforts by U.S. forces to hand over security responsibility to the Iraqi government, only to see Sunni-Shiite violence spiral out of control and shatter any stability that had started to take hold.

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Imperative to make military service attractive
by Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi

Later this month, my alma mater, the prestigious National Defence Academy (NDA), will commence celebrating its diamond jubilee. It was the New Year’s Day of 1949 when the fledgling Inter Services Wing (later renamed the Joint Services Wing) was set up at Dehradun.

The coming New Year’s Day will, therefore, be a proud day not only for those who have passed out of the Academy over the last 60 years, but also for all military persons and indeed for the entire nation.

The officer cadets who have passed out from the portals of this hallowed institution later led the defence forces of the country through wars and conflicts, which the nation had to fight and is still fighting and did so from the front, setting examples of courage and professionalism rarely seen.

When I joined the NDA in June 1957, the reins of the Academy were in the capable hands of Major Gen E. Habibullah, a versatile and lovable General officer of the old school. I use the words “reins”, both figuratively and metaphorically, for he was also an accomplished horseman, besides commanding this fine institution, which converted gawky adolescent boys into gentlemen and later officers of the defence forces.

We were also privileged to train under the guidance of two commandants, as midway during our course, Rear Admiral B.A. Samson, a smart and dynamic Flag officer of the Indian Navy, took over command of the Academy and presided over our passing-out parade in June, 1960.

I did visit the NDA on a few occasions thereafter, but the defining moment for me was in June, 2001, when I was given the exceptional honour of reviewing the passing-out parade, exactly 41 years after I had marched out past the quarter deck, hopefully smartly, and said goodbye to the Academy, which had turned me round from a boy to a man! By happenstance, it was my erstwhile Golf squadron, which had earned the championship trophy that year, making me doubly proud!

Let me share another nostalgic moment with this Academy of excellence. I was back at the NDA in June last year along with a number of course mates for celebrating yet another milestone in our lives. This was to celebrate the golden jubilee of the day, 50 years back, when our course had entered the precincts of this fine institution, which embraced us with love and care, taught us discipline and the appreciation of the good things of life, set us on the road to military professionalism and built our character for the vicissitudes of life that would follow.

Thanks to the current commandant, Air Marshal T.S. Randhawa, and his dedicated and efficient team of instructors, our brief sojourn can only be termed as momentous. We relived the life we had led as cadets and appreciated all the changes for the better, which successive commandants had instituted to ensure that the Academy continued to be the apex institution of learning in our country.

While the country, the Indian military and especially the alumni of this institution of excellence would rejoice and celebrate this remarkable and unique journey, we also need to take time out to ponder on the future.

Will India be able to sustain and excel the achievements of this exceptional institution in the face of diminishing numbers joining the Academy and the defence forces, as well as the vast shortage of officers in all the three services?

It is important to reflect on the reasons why young men are shying away from joining the defence forces, including this famed institution.

I do not subscribe to the view that in today’s consumer-oriented society, there is a paucity of patriots and warriors in our nation. Even a cursory look at our long history of wars and sacrifices by our soldiers and their leaders of yore should convince us that there is no dearth of valour amongst our countrymen. Neither can the reason be a perceived decline in the standards of the defence forces or of the NDA.

The truth is that over the years, despite many centrifugal forces working against the defence forces, they continue to serve the nation with dedication and resolve; I need not remind the readers of their sterling efforts in the successful resolution of a highly explosive situation at Mumbai only a few days back, where in the best traditions of the Army two young lads, Major Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajendra Singh, sacrificed their lives for the nation.

As far as the NDA is concerned, not only has it lived up to its glorious past but has vastly improved its academics, military training and most importantly building the highest level of character qualities.

————

The writer is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff and alumni of the famed 18th course of the NDA.