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An ex-judge in the dock Live-in relationships |
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Has India learnt any lessons?
Two sides of the same coin
Dangers of cuts in the defence budget
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An ex-judge in the dock It
is for the first time that any judge of the Supreme Court, serving or retired, has faced the ignominy of being publicly charged with sexual harassment. It is, therefore, understandable if the Supreme Court took some time and held a preliminary inquiry before making the name of the accused judge public. There was a growing disquiet over the secrecy that shrouded the judge's case, especially when juxtaposed with the other high-profile case of Tarun Tejpal. Questions were raised about equality before the law. The law provides no immunity to a judge from prosecution for a criminal offence. The immunity is limited only to acts performed as part of the official duty. It was also necessary perhaps to name the judge because the reputations of other recently retired judges were at stake. Each was viewed with suspicion until it was revealed that the judge the law intern had accused of sexual misconduct was Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly. Even though Justice Ganguly has denied the charges, he must willingly go through the legal process, like any other suspect. The message must go out that no one is above the law. The three-judge inquiry committee report should be followed up with the necessary police action. If Justice Ganguly remained in the shadows initially, it was perhaps because, unlike the Tejpal case, the victim did not name him. The Chief Justice of India acted with commendable alacrity in setting up the inquiry committee to investigate the girl's complaint but only after the charges came out in the public domain. After the December 16 gang rape and murder the media has become very aggressive and the general public is angry about crimes against women. The CJI saw the writing on the wall. A cause for concern that emerged in the process was that, like many other private and public institutions, the country's highest court did not have an internal committee until then to look into complaints of sexual harassment. Just as the media, the judiciary must practise what it preaches. |
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Live-in relationships In
times when morality is in a constant state of flux, when moral values are being redefined with each passing day, it's heartening to note that the apex court is in sync with the changing social ethos. A Supreme Court bench of Justices
K.S. Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Ghose has observed that the ambit of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, does not cover live-in relationships in general and turned down the petition of a woman seeking maintenance and independent residence from the man. To many the order may seem regressive. But the fact that the court has asked Parliament to consider enacting laws to deal with the problems faced by a large number of women in live-in relationships "not in the nature of marriage" is itself a proof that the judiciary is well aware of the social reality that often works against women. For quite some time judicial pronouncements have tried to look at live-in relationships with a fair degree of empathy for women who invariably are the aggrieved party. Ever since the landmark Domestic Violence Act 2005 brought live-in relationships in the nature of marriage under its ambit, a prolonged domestic relationship resembling marriage has been considered enough to entitle a deserted woman to maintenance. Of course, every now and then there is confusion about man's obligations towards his live-in-partner confounded further by certain befuddling rulings. Some judgments have been blown out of context as well. Justice C.S. Karnan of the Madras High Court's inarticulate comments confusing sex with marriage created quite a furor. Whichever way one may look at the paradigm of live-in-relationships and view it as "socially unacceptable, and alien to our nation" or "neither a crime nor a sin" as the apex court has pointed out, there can be no two opinions on the need to protect women and children born out of such liaisons. While the law can't intervene in what is strictly a private and personal matter, it can certainly ensure that the vulnerable get what is their legitimate due.
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Thought for the Day
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed. —
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The Arya Samaj anniversary The
anniversary of the Arya Samaj was celebrated in Lahore with great enthusiasm. The subscriptions promised for the college section amount to more than Rs. 87,000 of which Rs 50,000 represents Lala Lajpat Rai's donation. It would be remembered that Lala Lajpat Rai was, in accordance with a promise made in one of his speeches, donating every year the surplus amount to his professional income to the college. During the last four years he, owing to reasons which are best left unstated, did not make the usual gift. The amount of Rs. 50,000 donated by him this year, he explained
in his speech the other day, represented more than his professional income for the last four years, and he desired that out of this amount Rs. 30,000 should be applied for the elevation of the depressed classes. Irishmen and self-government
One of the grounds on which Ulsterites are opposing Irish Home Rule is that Irishmen are disloyal and that they are unfit for self-government. We are pleased to find that Mr. C. J. O'Donnell, writing to the Times, meets this argument by instancing the success of Irishmen as administrators in India. In refutation of the argument of Irish disloyalty, Mr. O'Donnell … writes that … we believe we are as a race specially gifted in the art of government. The most disturbed part of India at the present hour is the Punjab, where the two war like communities of Sikhs and Musulmans are giving equal trouble and anxiety.
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Has India learnt any lessons? It
is now five years since the attack on Mumbai took place in a brazen manner, blackening the faces of the security agencies of the country and demonstrating India's vulnerability to such attacks. The attack was carried out by a Lashkar-e-Taiba team at the instance of the ISI which sent the attackers on a boat from Karachi on November 22, 2008. The team encountered an Indian boat off the Gujarat coast, captured it and killed the occupants and threw them into the sea and continued their sailing to the Mumbai harbour. After reaching Mumbai, they landed at leisure and barged into the Taj Mahal Hotel and carried out a systematic killing of occupants, resulting in the death of 166 people. The attackers split into various groups and one of the teams went to Chhatrapati Shivaji terminal. One of the attackers, Ajmal Kasab, was wounded in the exchange of fire with the Mumbai security forces who were out on the streets. Kasab was the only person who was arrested alive and his interrogation yielded horrible facts of the ISI-LeT attack on Mumbai. Kasab was tried and sentenced to death, and was hanged on November 21, 2012, in Yerwada jail.
The main actor in the Mumbai attacks was a Pakistani American called David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani by birth. Headley was a CIA trained agent who was infiltrated into LeT by the CIA for finding out activities of al-Qaida. Headley became an ardent convert to the Pakistani cause. He was thoroughly brainwashed by Hafiz Saeed at Muridke headquarters of LeT. Headley also came under the influence of Ilyas Kashmiri, LeT commander and senior al-Qaida operative, and considered a potential successor to Osama bin Laden. Headley was able to visit Mumbai regularly on his American passport. Levy and Scott-Clark, investigative journalists, have come out with their book "The Seige", describing in detail how the Mumbai attacks were conceived and carried out. The Americans "sacrificed Mumbai" by not tipping either the IB or R&AW. The CIA, which was the prime mover with the ISI taking the secondary role in operating Headley, chose to keep quiet about the activities and plans of Headley. This is because it considered Headley as the only person who was close to al-Qaida for snooping out their plans in the western world. The CIA put the blame on the Indian security agencies "for their incompetence" but never bothered to explain their deliberate silence over Headley and his activities in Mumbai. On reflection, the Headley factor only shows how R&AW and the IB were conducting themselves in splendid isolation when so many things were taking place around them. Even without a special liaison arrangement with the CIA, there is a time-worn long-standing arrangement between the IB and MI5 as well as R&AW and its British and American counterparts for normal liaison on threats emanating and affecting the security of either country. Be that as it may, can India ensure that there would be no more Mumbai-type attacks henceforth? I am unable to give an answer in the affirmative since there are so many holes in the security system which could be exploited by hostile forces. When Headley made as many as five trips to Mumbai and carried out extensive reconnaissance, it failed to arouse the curiosity of the security agencies of the city, much less the Central security agencies. The least that should have been done was to have kept Headley's movement under close watch to see what he was up to, whom he was meeting, etc. Regrettably this was not done. There is a case going on in a Pakistani Court against those who participated in the Mumbai attacks. The case is being conducted at a leisurely pace and no worthwhile outcome is expected after the court proceedings. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had recently demanded that Pakistan should punish those involved in the Mumbai terror attacks since enough evidence had been given to it and all the relevant proof had been handed over to Pakistan. He asked Pakistan to expedite the trial. Shinde also said that the terror infrastructure remained intact in Pakistan. Despite repeated appeals, Pakistan has not taken any action. Former Home Secretary Ram Pradhan had written to the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram about the possibility of a mole in Mumbai who had assisted in the terror attack. Pradhan said he was not aware what was done by the Central agencies on his suspicion about the mole and almost hinted that the Centre did not pursue the matter for various reasons. This is indeed surprising. Ram Pradhan, as Home Secretary, had supervised the work of the IB and he knows how the system works. A report from Mumbai that there was probably a mole who helped the Mumbai attackers was too serious a matter to be ignored. It is never too late to find out what exactly was done on Ram Pradhan's report. A premier think tank on security affairs has commented that five years since the Mumbai terror attacks, the coastal mechanism remains weak. It is right time to seriously consider the Indian Coast Guard as a single authority responsible for coastal security and accordingly amend the charter of the Indian Coast Guard. There is also a report that the Coast Guard is being made responsible for the security of the southern coast which houses the Kudankulam nuclear reactor for producing power. Indeed the time has come to review the coastal security of the entire country both in the West and the East. The newly acquired aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is being parked at Karwar in the south-western coast preferably to take care of the entire western coast from Kutch downwards. Correspondingly, in the eastern coast of Vishakapatnam, the older aircraft carrier is parked. It is right time that the coastal security system should be reviewed thoroughly and updated so that there are no further rude surprises like the one which India suffered on 26/11/2008.
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Two sides of the same coin In
the Army one is required to be a jack of all trades as also the master of some. The change of role can be dramatic; from the frontline to a smart classroom as a faculty member in a training establishment, organising a mega ceremonial event, peace-keeping in distance lands under the UN banner or aiding civil authorities in the face of disasters. So mine was the fourth study table in the house, with two school-going children and wife on sabbatical pursuing a Ph.D. accounting for the other three. Despite my intense dedication, I was not taken seriously at home. The tape recorder, my most valuable learning aid, was seen as a nuisance. I had to often take refuge in the outhouse to practise my lessons. Even in the class where fellow students were half my age, I was treated as a guest artiste. Nevertheless, I surprised everyone by completing the course with distinction. The ordeal did not end as one had to acquire insight into four millenniums of the Middle Kingdom's history, diverse culture, politburo-based political system and home-bred socialism. This required engaging with various think tanks, institutions and experts. The final leg was in the form of an orientation capsule to comprehend the nuances of diplomacy. During one of the interactive sessions, a seasoned diplomat went at length to define the thin lines between defence and diplomacy. According to him, "When a diplomat says yes, it means perhaps, when he says perhaps, it means no, and the one who says no is not a diplomat". As regards a soldier, his take was, "when a soldier says yes it means yes, when he says no, it means no; and when he says perhaps, then he is not a soldier". In the lighter vain, with due respect to the fair sex, his analogy was "when a lady says no, she means perhaps, when she says perhaps she means yes, and if she says yes then she has to be an extraordinary woman". Finally on landing in Beijing, one had to further hone up a few more skills. It was an experiential learning to see senior Chinese leaders performing multiple roles: political, diplomatic and military. The moment they donned the military hat, the top brass was rather tight-lipped, cut and dry. In the diplomatic garb, they charmed everyone with their suave demeanour. After all "Defence and Diplomacy are the two sides of the same coin; while the former acts in silence, the latter makes all the right noises."
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Dangers of cuts in the defence budget India
must strive to develop Comprehensive Nation Power (CNP) to tackle the challenges posed by the shift in the global strategic focus towards the Asia-Pacific region, marked by jostling between the US and China, as well as the intense competition among nations in the security arena despite growing inter-dependence”. The statement was made by the Prime Minister at the Combined Commanders Conference as reported by the media on November 23, 2013. In his address, to quote media reports, he warned that India might have to trim the defence budget due to the economic slowdown over the last two years. The armed forces will have to exercise “prudence” and “cut our coat according to our cloth” in their defence acquisition plans. This comes three days after the media reported that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) had finally issued the Government Sanction Letter (GSL) to the Army for raising of the new Mountain Strike Corps (or as some insist to term it as ‘Strategic Reserve’) based on the approval of the same by the Cabinet Committee on Security on July 17, 2013. The GSL is the authority for the Army to initiate all processes for physically raising, equipping, locating and operationalising the Corps. It is also a concrete acceptance by the government of making available funds for this new raising. However, the PM’s warning of a defence budget cut sends dichotomous signals. In addition, with the PM directing that there is need to exercise prudence in defence acquisitions and that the defence acquisition plans should bear in mind the need to cut the coat according to the cloth hints at a substantial slow down in the whole exercise. This latest direction of the PM will render the new Mountain Strike Corps as the first casualty of a budget cut. As reported earlier in the media, General VK Singh, former Chief of Army Staff, had apprised the PM of the existing “critical hollowness” of the Army in ammunition and equipment which was pegged at a staggering Rs 41,000 crore and would take several years for 100 per cent operational capability to be achieved, provided the defence budget caters for it and the procurement or indigenous Defence Public Sector units can manufacture and deliver these as required.
With another Rs 90,000 crore, as is being quoted, required for the operationalising of the Mountain Strike Corps, the situation seems grimmer and pessimistically dismal. Logistic infrastructure that will be required to be constructed for locating and then operationally deploying such a corps will entail additional expenditure. Figuratively, it would entail a committed expenditure of approximately Rs 20,000 -- 25,000 crore every year for the next seven to eight years. While the manpower and the headquarters will be raised by side-stepping and subsequently made up through fresh recruitment, however, initially the equipment for this corps will have to be issued from the existing reserves which are in the obsolete and obsolescence phases of their technology life-span. As a result the Mountain Strike Corps will, first, be deficient in equipment (sharing the existing poverty), and second, the equipment will not be optimally matching the role assigned to it as the long elaborate red taped procurement procedure will commence once these units start forming on ground. Maybe, the annual armed forces data compiled by the likes of SIPRI will indicate existence of such a force, but its operational potential will be long in the building up.
From the operational point of view, for offensive operations in the mountains and that too in the extreme high altitude areas, deployment of a force of this size is likely to be constrained for the type of task assigned to it, that is, “Rapid-reaction in high altitude areas”. Even for deployment piece-meal in independent brigade group or division size forces, there will be requirement of extensive and elaborate preparation in terms of infrastructure like well concealed and protected logistic areas on the various axis in Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim (as indicated by the media reports), advance landing grounds (ALG), forward area armament and refuelling points (FAARP), large helipads as forward mounting bases, road network (minimum classification 40) to induct follow on forces and to be able to logistically sustain the additional forces that will move forward in the wake of such operations. All this will require induction of weapons and equipment incorporating modern technology, most of which will, perforce, have to be imported. For example, suitable transport aircraft in the large numbers are required, such as the Hercules C-130J, six of which have been recently acquired by the Indian Air Force; rotary wing aircraft that are able to operate optimally at these extreme altitudes – the forces may even consider procurement of the V-22 OSPREY, (the successful tilt-rotor technology aircraft being exploited by the United States Marine Corps) for viable Special Forces operations as the even the best rotary wing aircraft in the global aircraft market have their limitations in performance on the Himalayan altitudes; unmanned aerial vehicles/drones for surveillance and even the armed variety for quick response; fire support assets that can be moved under-slung at these altitudes and maintaining a continuous supply of ammunition for these guns and multi-barrel rocket launchers besides so much more. All these vital weapon systems and equipment are to be acquired, either through imports or under the clause of “develop and make indigenously”. In the former case of importing the equipment, the Defence Procurement Procedure is elaborately red-taped and as a result it proceeds at a snail’s pace. Moreover, the officials and bureaucrats dread the consequences of a witch-hunt that could be initiated years after the deal is signed which seems to have become the norm. While in the latter case, the Defence Research and Development Organisation has failed the armed forces in developing or harnessing modern weapons and equipment technology so as to be able to design and produce state-of-art products to meet their requirements. All this entails heavy financial support, which seems in jeopardy. While the PM emphasised the need to tackle the challenges as will arise with the global strategic shift towards the Asia-Pacific Region, the likely defence budget cut was an immediate dampener to India’s regional power status aspirations. Merely making a statement with regard to CNP does not prepare the armed forces or the country to be able to, meet head on, the varied challenges that will arise in the evolving dynamic geo-political scenario unfolding in the Asia-Pacific Region. The PM in his address referred to Comprehensive National Power – a term made fashionable by the Chinese research endeavour of a faculty member of the National Defence University (NDU), Beijing. The Chinese NDU was established to prepare them to take on a commensurate role as a future power of global reckoning. Consequently, the Chinese NDU systematically approached the issue of national security and contributed substantially to national security strategy formulation and policy decision making. They have simultaneously addressed the aspects of economy, science and technology, education, infrastructure and defence research and development and defence industry, reprioritising in sync with economic growth. India too has initiated steps to set up the Indian National Defence University (INDU) when the PM laid its foundation stone in May this year. However, the process of it fructifying is not before 2018 that too if the bureaucracy does not throw in spanners seeing that there is not much gain in it for them or if it is perceived that the Services are likely to have a more substantive say in policy making. Till then CNP will remain an impressive figure of speech with no substance to back such reference. The Combined Commanders Conference was always scheduled in the month of October every year, when the Army had its week long Army Commanders Conference (as also similar conferences being held by the other two Services). One day out of this week was usually earmarked for the PM addressing the Combined Commanders Conference. This is an annual feature and could be included in the PM’s schedule well before time. The fact that it was now rescheduled to November is a subtle indication of the level of importance given to Service matters by those responsible in advising the PM and his scheduling as much by those accepting such a change in institutional practices. All put together, the constraints of funds, the acquisition procedures and the attitude towards national security are indicative that the forebodings for equipping and operationalising the Mountain Strike Corps in the seven years time frame, as visualised, are ominous, and bleak.
The writer is a former Chief of Staff, Eastern Command and Director General Infantry at Army Headquarters
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One such experience that I went through was gearing up for a diplomatic assignment, straight after the command of a battalion in Siachen. Although, the charm of an overseas posting with family was indeed lucrative, the process of transition was rather arduous. As I was headed for China, the first hurdle was to gain proficiency in Mandarin, which meant going through a two-year "interpretership programme".
