New Delhi, November 10
In keeping with his oft-repeated line of seeing the “made in India” tag to military equipment, Defence Minister AK Antony today announced a radical shift from the past.

In a significant statement, Antony stunned slow-paced Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) saying “from now on, there will be no hand holding and no nominations” for the DPSUs to participate in defence projects.

“They will have to compete with the Indian private sector,” Antony announced at a function where he was to give away awards for Excellence to Ordinance Factories (OFs) and the DPSUs.

In a way, Antony signalled one of the most important shifts in Indian defence production that is restricted only the DPSUs controlled by the Ministry of Defence. “From next year, there will be open competition and Indian private sector will participate”, Antony said.

Later, he explained to reporters that from January 2011 the ministry was bringing in a new “defence production policy”. The ministry already has a defence procurement policy. From the next year the shipbuilding (for Navy and the coast guard) will not be nominated to one of the DPSU shipyards. There will be open competition. Sources said the private shipbuilding industry can take the load.

The Navy has been persistently asking for speedier construction and adding newer technology to ships. China is producing some five to six ships a year while in India it is one ship a year.

Antony said “We are going to take some more drastic steps to achieve our goal of speedy indigenisation. Our aim is to have a strong defence industrial base in India.”

The Defence Minister reminded that at the time when India was seeking a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), heavy dependence on foreign companies for defence acquisition is not good.

He clarified that whatever money was needed for modernisation of the DPSUs will be given and they will be prepared to compete with the private sector. For long the DPSUs are seen as slow-paced developers of equipment.

The DPSUs alone will not be able to meet the requirements of the armed forces which are increasing, the Defence Minister remarked while adding “…..There was no option, but to remain globally competitive and efficient and not rest on past laurels”.

New Delhi, November 10
Breaking his silence on the Adarsh Housing Society controversy that saw Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan being axed from his post on Wednesday, Defence Minister AK Antony today said the CBI probe ordered yesterday would not bring down the morale of the forces.

“It is not a political decision but (the probe) has been ordered on the recommendation of the Army Chief (Gen VK Singh)… The Army Chief, after analysing the matter, had said the issue was so complex and serious that we must have a CBI inquiry,” the Defence Minister told reporters.

Antony also rejected senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh's contention that the CBI inquiry into the scam would dampen the morale of the armed forces. Jaswant Singh is a former officer of the Army and was a former Defence Minister too during the BJP-led NDA regime.

Notably, Antony ordered a CBI probe into the alleged scam yesterday to look into the circumstances under which a no objection certificate was issued to the Adarsh Housing Society to construct the 31-storeyed building at Colaba in Mumbai. The land was in the "de facto" possession of the Army.

The Defence Minister came down heavily on the Defence Estates officials, some of whom are beneficiaries in the project. Antony said: “We are giving more attention to Defence Estates. A new Director General has joined and I told him that his first task is to clean up the organisation." The Defence Estates is the custodian of the 7,000 square km defence land.

The names of former Army Chiefs, including Gen Deepak Kapoor and Gen NC Vij, besides former Navy Chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh, have figured in the list of allottees in the housing society. About 40 officers from the armed forces and Defence Estates, too, had got flats allotted in the society.

New Delhi, November 10
Stung by the lack of conviction on the part of senior Army officers in opposing wrongs like the Adarsh Housing Society scam, Chief of the Army General VK Singh has asked Army men that they should fearlessly stand up against wrongs in the force. “You will get my full support…the system will protect you,” he told the army men. Speaking to a news channel here tonight, the Army chief asserted that “institutionally there is nothing wrong with the Army as a whole. It is the action of individuals that has brought a bad name”.

Narrating how he was lifting up the morale, the General said: “…We are telling our people that we cannot allow such a thing to happen ever again…If they find something is wrong they should speak up…and not sign documents which someone has asked them to sign on”.

New Delhi, November 10
Hit by scams and increasing clamour for the removal of Telecom Minister A Raja, the Congress today accused BJP president Nitin Gadkari of holding a flat in the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Mumbai by proxy.

It was a charge that BJP rebutted with full force. Demanding an apology, BJP spokesman Prakash Javedekar termed it an attempt by the Congress to deflect attention from issues like spectrum scam and accountability of other party players in Adarsh housing and other scams. Rubbishing the allegation made by Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, Javadekar said if Congress spokesmen did not give a proof or apologise in the next 72 hours, the BJP would file a criminal complaint and a defamation suit against them.

Tewari, however, is certain that the flat owned by driver of BJP national executive member Ajay Sancheti belongs to Gadkari. “Ajay Sancheti, who is a member of the BJP’s national executive, is a proxy for Nitin Gadkari. I am making this charge with all responsibility. The benami ownership needs to be investigated to determine who the real owner is,” he said.

Making light of Javadekar’s challenge of the BJP filing a defamation suit against him, the Congress spokesman said: “It is my profession to go to the court every day. It would be my pleasure to see the BJP president in the court as at least this way we would be able to expose the larger Sancheti-Gadkari nexus.”

Lending support to Tewari’s claim, another Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed also tried to put the BJP in the dock, alleging that one of the Adarsh beneficiaries was “very very close” to Gadkari. “While raising the Adarsh issue, they are not taking the name of Suresh Prabhu, who was a minister in the NDA regime, or Sancheti, who is supposed to be very very close to Gadkari. According to reports, the driver of Sancheti, whose monthly salary is just Rs 8,600, paid Rs 60 lakh for the flat. Sancheti’s driver is a proxy for Gadkari,” Ahmed said.

The Congress, which has already removed Ashok Chavan as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra following allegations that some of his family members owned flats in the Adarsh society, now expects the BJP, “which has been making a huge noise over the scams demanding a JPC probe”, to follow same rules for its members.

Ahmed said Chavan resigned due to Adarsh housing controversy. Similarly, Suresh Kalmadi resigned from the post of Congress Parliamentary Party Secretary due to row over Commonwealth Games. “The BJP should explain what action it proposes against its senior leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Tarlochan Singh, NCM chairman during the NDA regime, who were defending Kalmadi and even seen in TV footages along with the CWG chairman. They also need to spell out their stand on Sancheti and Suresh Prabhu,” he said.

New Delhi, November 10
In a disclosure that may have the Union government worried, at least 50 IPS officers selected directly through the UPSC civil services exam have resigned over the past seven years.

A reply in this regard was given by Ajay Maken, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, in the Rajya Sabha to a query by BJP MP from Punjab Avinash Rai Khanna.

The Minister said the resignations came between 2003 and 2009, citing “better prospects” and “personal reasons” behind their quitting the jobs.

Maken admitted that there was a shortage of IPS officers and the number of direct recruits had been increased from 53 officers in 2003 to 130 for the 2009 batch of the Indian Police Service.

Meanwhile, in reply to another query in the Lok Sabha, Maken said “as on January 1, 2010, the strength of IPS officers was 3,383, against the authorised number of 4,013”. In order to increase the number of IPS officers as per requirement, the strength and composition of the state cadres has been reviewed and the total cadre strength has been raised to 4,730. The annual batch size of regular recruits will be 150 from the current batch onwards.

New Delhi, November 10
An Indian Air Force MiG-27 fighter crashed near Jodhpur in Rajasthan today shortly after taking off for a routine sortie. The pilot, however, managed to eject safely and there was no damage reported to life or property on the ground either, an official said.

An IAF spokesperson said Flight Lieutenant A Patni was “on a routine training mission” when the aircraft crashed 60 km south of Jodhpur. Patni “ejected safely and no damage to civilian life or property was reported on the ground”, the spokesperson said.

The crash took place 15 minutes after the take-off at two-kilometre height, according to the official. The IAF has ordered an inquiry into the mishap -- the fourth crash of a plane of this type in the country this year and crucially the sixth after the entire fleet of MiG-27 was upgradeAjit Pawar is new star of M’rashtra NCP

Defence Minister AK Antony later said: “We have viewed the matter seriously.”

Notably, the entire fleet of about 100 odd ground attack fighters comprising five squadrons had been grounded in February this year following a fatal crash over Hashimara in which a squadron leader was killed. A major engine snag was stated as the reason when the fleet was grounded. The flaw seemed to have crept during the overhauling of the aircraft by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), it is said.

In June, the fleet was made airborne after clearing various tests. And in July, the second crash of the year occurred -- near Jalpaiguri in West Bengal; three civilians died. The third crash occurred in September near Kalaikunda in West Bengal.

Notably, India had procured 120 of the fighter aircraft from Russia in the late 1980s and had started production in India at Nashik HAL factory. The IAF has lost close to 35 of the aircraft to accidents in the past two decades.

New Delhi, November 10
Armed with America’s support to India’s candidature for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is likely to take up the issue of UN reforms with his Chinese Yang Jiechi when the two leaders meet on the margins of the Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting in the Chinese steel city of Wuhan on November 14-15.

Officials in New Delhi today said they had taken note of the Chinese foreign office’s statement yesterday in which Beijing favoured ‘reasonable and necessary’ reforms in the UN while reiterating its stand that it understood India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the UN.

Sources said India looked forward to an explicit endorsement of India’s quest for a permanent seat at the high-table from China. Beijing had recently voted in favour of making India a member of the Security Council in the non-permanent category for 2011-12. In recent years, top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabo, have gone on record saying they wanted to ensure "a greater role for India in the UN, especially in the Security Council. However, all these pronouncements have fallen short of India’s expectations.

With US President Barack Obama endorsing India’s candidature, New Delhi is quite sure that the process of reforms in the world body will gain momentum.

Though initially China was opposed to the expansion of the Security Council, recent history shows that its support for New Delhi at the high table has turned from negative to neutral to positive, apparently in view of growing economic ties with India.

The sources believe that tension with China over a spate of political issues will not come in the way of China backing India’s case.

The two countries are going to hold a series of bilateral meetings in the coming months and this will provide them an opportunity to discuss threadbare various issues, including UN reforms.

National Security Adviser Shivshanker Menon is scheduled to travel to China towards the end of this month for the 14th meeting of the Special Representatives of the two countries on the boundary issue. The Chinese Premier will be visiting India before the end of the year on a bilateral visit.

One view in official circles is that Premier Wen may make a dramatic announcement like President Obama did endorsing India’s bid for a permanent seat during his visit to New Delhi.

New Delhi, November 10
The Centre may have chosen to stay silent on the alleged seditious remarks by former Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy and Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani at a recent Kashmir seminar here, but the matter is far from over.

A group of three complainants led by a Kashmiri Pandit, Abhishek Kaul, today filed a criminal complaint against Roy, Geelani and a former professor acquitted in Parliament attack case, SAR Geelani, accusing them of sedition, waging a war against India, disrespecting the National Flag, creating hatred among communities and criminally intimidating those who protested their seditions remarks.

Kaul along with former president of Delhi University Students Union Nakul Bhardwaj and local advocate Juhi Arora approached the Patiala House Court here today, alleging the respondents had at the seminar made inflammatory remarks to incite the youth of the Valley to work for the separation of Kashmir from India and to stand against the Indian Armed Forces.

Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Bagga has fixed November 25 as the next date of hearing, asking the petitioners to cite pre-summoning evidence in the case. The complaint follows a vain attempt by petitioners to get cases under the IPC registered against the respondents at Tilak Nagar police station here. Another request to DCP, Delhi, to register FIRs in the matter was declined, states the complaint, mentioning the petitioners were forced to take legal recourse.

The complaint seeks the registration of cases under the following sections against the respondents -- Section 153, 121, 124, 121 A of the IPC, Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Act and Section 505 (1), 506 and 511 of the IPC.

The complaint states, “During a seminar titled ‘Kashmir: Azadi the only way’, the respondents made anti-India, anti-national statements aimed at provoking and inciting Kashmiri youth to stand against Indian armed forces; the National Flag was torn apart at the seminar and those protesting inflammatory speeches were manhandled and criminally intimidated”.

Chandigarh, November 10
Less than six months after the Centre launched the “National Litigation Policy” to transform the government into an efficient and responsible litigant, additional solicitor-general of India Mohan Jain has been entrusted with the task of implementing it in this part of the region.

Former advocate-general of Haryana, Jain will ensure the adoption of necessary measures for implementing the policy in the high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, along with Jammu & Kashmir.

Already, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice has constituted an empowered committee at the national level to monitor the policy’s implementation in courts across the country. Attorney-General for India G.E. Vahanvati has been appointed chairman, while Mohan Jain and five others have been appointed committee members.

For preventing the Central government from becoming “a compulsive litigant” and to reduce average pendency time from 15 years to three years, Jain has already sought details of cases pending in the High Courts of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, along with Jammu & Kashmir. Jain has, in fact, shot off commutations to Central government counsel in the three high courts.

The National Litigation Policy was only recently announced by Union Minister of Law and Justice Dr. M.Veerappa Moily.

The policy is based on the recognition that the government and its agencies are the pre-dominant litigants in the courts and tribunals in the country. The policy is also based on the recognition that it is the responsibility of the government to protect the rights of citizens, to respect fundamental rights and those in charge of the conduct of government litigation should never forget this basic principle.