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Turmoil over Telangana Time for a new crop |
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Principle versus practice
A private and public experience
All is not ship shape with the Indian Navy
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Turmoil over Telangana Given
the strong passions that the issue of Telangana has evoked and new depths Parliament has plumbed handling it, there could have been no happy ending for this emotive drama. It has seen politics and politicians at their worst. Each party has pandered to its narrow political interest. Instead of putting across their legitimate concerns in a level-headed debate, politicians from Seemandhra have held Parliament to ransom. The pepper spray marked a new low in the process of law-making in this country. Only statesmen parliamentarians can work out a consensus on such contentious issues. The absence of an enlightened leadership is acutely felt at this juncture. The people of Telangana have got a raw deal from successive governments in Andhra Pradesh which have largely been controlled by MLAs from Seemandhra. Their demand for a separate state has been kept in abeyance for too long by both the UPA and NDA governments at the Centre, though the Congress and BJP manifestos do mention the promise of a new state. With the death of former Chief Minister YSR Reddy and revolt by his son, Jagan, the political scenario changed for the Congress drastically. It has pushed for division just to grab most of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana in alliance with the TRS. For the remaining 25 seats in Seemandhra the other players, including Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Reddy, will fight each other as also Kiran Reddy, who has resigned as Chief Minister. The BJP has no MP from the state but its support to Telangana has not gone down well with its NDA partner, Chandrababu Naidu. States have been bifurcated in the past but hardly in such a charged environment. This is partly because of uneven development in the state. Hyderabad has emerged as an oasis of growth, thanks to Naidu's efforts to make it an IT destination comparable to Bangalore. There is a provision in the Bill for compensation for Seemandhra in lieu of Hyderabad, which will remain the joint capital of the two states for 10 years.
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Time for a new crop For
all the criticism of the agriculture summit held in
Mohali, it was not a bad idea to bring together diverse thought on the vast and crucial subject that encompasses everything from farmer, consumer, economy and technology to climate change. Only leaders like Sukhbir Badal should have refrained from making uninformed cynical remarks like the share of agriculture in the GDP has dropped because of anti-farmer policies of the Centre. He forgets this is a positive sign of a developing economy. What everybody at the summit seemed agreed upon was the need for diversification. How to achieve that is the challenge, which is as much a responsibility of the government as the farmer. The combination of subsidies and MSP - needed at one time to ensure food security -- is today also contributing to a distortion in production as well as the economy. It is encouraging farmers to produce crops for which demand in the market is dropping. That puts a liability on the government and leads to high prices for other farm products that consumers want. It also creates a conflict between the farmer and the consumer, as one's gain is the other's loss. Breaking free from the support system would require farmers to diversify into things like horticulture, but that requires a modern market, as is offered by large global food handling and retailing chains. Given the opposition to FDI in retail, it should be grabbed as an opportunity by Indian business houses to replicate the services. One remark of visiting farmers at the summit should make those in Punjab sit up: Why do farmers of the state lack innovation? They have been lulled into a comfort zone of help with both input and sale of the output. That has killed initiative as at least two generations of farmers have seen only this. There will have to be experimentation, there will be setbacks. The government will be needed to hold hands, but between the farmer and the trader, agriculture has to learn to walk on its own.
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Thought for the Day
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. —
George Bernard Shaw
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The pay of the army officers
THE other day a Simla telegram stated that the Government of India were about to forward a dispatch to the Secretary of State regarding the increase of pay to the officers of the British service serving in India. It is not clear whether the officers of the British service in India are proposed to be paid higher salaries in India than they are entitled to when they are in England, South Africa, Canada or Australia. We know that members of the Indian Civil Service and others whose service are lent to Native States generally obtain higher salaries then they are entitled to in British India. The Indian tax-payer is practically powerless in regulating army expenditure in his country. India has therefore become the dumping ground generally for experiments in matters of reorganisation, pay and prospects which ambitious men propose. Army officers in India get better pay, have better prospects and quicker promotion than in the Home service, and we see an agitation in the Home press that the officers' pay in British army should be placed on a level with what obtains in the Indian Army. Educational progress in India
IN spite of the increase of pupils and institutions during the five years from 1907 to 1912 mentioned in the recent report on education in India, it must be confessed that the progress has not kept pace with the demands of the country. The number of pupils has increased by 1 ½ millions in five years or at the yearly rate of less than 13 per cent. The number of colleges has doubled, but in spite of it the overcrowded state of college classes and the refusal of students seeking admission shows that the supply is not commensurate with the demand. The increase of students in the secondary schools averaged 41 per cent but here also the classes are overcrowded. It is remarked that the average primary school life is short of 4 years and 39 per cent of those educated relapse in to illiteracy. This seems to show that compulsion is necessary to some extent.
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Principle versus practice
ON Monday when Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, while presenting his interim budget in Parliament announced that the "government has decided in principle" to accept the long-standing demand of ex-servicemen for one rank, one pension (OROP), the loudest cheers came from Defence Minister A. K. Antony, sitting next to him. Normally, this declaration would have been sensational news. But Mr Chidambaram's thunder was stolen because it was widely known that a delegation of ex-servicemen had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and he had promised them that the wishes of the retired defenders of the country's freedom and frontiers would be respected. However, neither Mr. Gandhi - who welcomed the announcement as "historic" -- nor Mr Chidambaram explained why the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had resolutely refused to meet the legitimate demand of the retired officers and other ranks of the three armed forces for full five years. Whenever, during this period, I raised the issue with the bosses of the ministries of defence and finance, the off-the-record answer I got was: "The demand is just but the expenditure on it will be unbearable". No wonder that ex-servicemen agitated vigorously, held protest rallies and returned their gallantry medals to their Supreme Commander, the President, but to no avail. What has happened then to persuade Mr Gandhi to take sudden interest in the welfare of retired soldiers, sailors and airmen and the government's change of mind almost overnight? The clear answer is: the general election barely two months away which the Congress party looks like losing, judging from all public opinion polls so far. After all 14 lakh serving officers and men and 25 lakh ex-servicemen by themselves constitute a fairly large vote bank, and if you add members of their families, the number of voters soars as high as 20 million. Alas, that is precisely where the rub lies. Ex-servicemen who were initially happy with the budget speech were soon disappointed and irate. They felt let down because they discovered that the principle is one thing and its practice quite another. For the Finance Minister has provided only Rs 500 crore for equalising the pensions of all retirees of the same rank - and that, too, only prospectively - while the real requirement is at least Rs 2,500 crore a year. Mr. Chidambaram's promise to provide more money, if required, means nothing. The government's coffers don't have enough cash. Printing more currency notes would only add to the already high inflation. Incidentally, the BJP is claiming that the Congress was forced to face the problem of OROP only because at a massive rally at Rewari in Haryana, where the former Army Chief, Gen V. K. Singh, was also present, the saffron party's prime ministerial nominee, Narendra Modi, had committed himself to equalising the pensions of all retirees of the same rank, irrespective of whether they retired before 2006 or after that date. Assuming that Mr Modi does become the next Prime Minister, what will he do when the civilian retired personnel come forward with the same demand? For, to meet it would need a mind-boggling amount. The other big announcement about national defence that Mr Chidambaram made — a 10 per cent increase in the defence budget - is also a major disappointment. The so-called increase is not enough even to cover inflation. Given the decline in the rupee's external value, the defence budget for the coming financial year is indeed lower than last year's. It is $36.2 billion for 2014-15 as against $37.5 in 2013-14. The tragedy is that even the notional 10 per cent increase has gone largely to the revenue budget that meets the bills for salaries and expenditure on oil and petroleum products and other supplies for current consumption. The capital budget for modernisation and acquisition of new weapon systems - unfortunately India has to import 70 per cent of all the military hardware it needs — has actually gone down considerably. This cannot but damage or delay some of the major projects for increasing India's military power that have already been held up for long. For instance, only recently did the government formally launch the project of raising a mountain Strike Corps of 50,000 men in the North-east to improve our defence against China at a cost of Rs. 64,000 crore over the next seven years. It would be a pleasant surprise if the project is completed on time and within the allocation made for it. Similarly, the Air Force, with a rapid reduction in the number of its combat squadrons, is anxiously waiting for the 126 medium-range multi-role combat aircraft, Rafael, from France at the cost of $20 billion. All negotiations for this deal were completed long ago. But the signing of the agreement is being delayed again and again, presumably because this would require that the first instalment of payment be made to the manufacturers. It is imperative that we bridge, or at least narrow, the great and growing gap between China's military power and ours. But that is proving to be impossible. Last year China's stated defence budget was thrice ours. Its domestic production of weapons and equipment also far exceeds ours. On March 4 at a meeting of its version of Parliament the Chinese government will present its defence budget. It is well known that the People's Liberation Army - now integrated rather than divided into five autonomous regions - has demanded a big hike in its allocation, especially in view of growing tensions between China and Japan because of their dispute over the Senkaku/Diayo island in the East China Sea. It is no secret that President Xi Jinping has agreed to do so. According to The New York Times, the Chinese defence budget will be as high as $148 billion, second only to that of the United States ($600 billion which is less than last year's) and more than the defence budgets of Russia, Germany and Britain put together. The challenge before us is stark because our other adversary, Pakistan, is China's all-weather friend and receives ample military and nuclear assistance from our northern neighbour that has also established a presence in the Pakistan-held Kashmir. Are we adequately prepared to meet this challenge?
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A private and public experience Without much ado, I singled out a public sector bank for an anticipated life-long alliance. The very next day I found myself glued to a caned chair filling a five-page account-opening application form in the bank. Meanwhile, I was paying watchful attention to the instructions given by the bank's bald-headed clerk as he enlightened me about the bank's products and services. He even introduced me to a life insurance policy. “Madam, it is all about channelling your own funds, you know! Just imagine how elated your husband will be when he finds his name as a beneficiary in your life insurance policy. It will be marked as a token of your love and affection for him”, he reasoned. I beamed and within no time squarely agreed to have one. “Getting such a preferential treatment as a new customer was obviously expected”, I applauded. Thereafter, he cordially handed me a passbook and a cheque book. I admiringly clutched them and smiled back. "Gone are the days when such things used to be prized possessions among bank customers. Thanks to these government banks which still value their customers", I told myself. My transitory state of elation was soon pricked by the croaky voice of the bank's head clerk. He called for my name with a raised eyebrow as I hopped towards his desk and asked what the matter was. Without a dialogue, he ordered me to replace my recent passport-size size picture pasted on the application form as it seemed mismatched, courtesy my ultra-modern hairstyle, stylish reading glasses and Photoshop! Being a law-abiding citizen myself, I consented to provide one without hesitation. After half a day of helter-skelter, I enthusiastically marched towards a local photo studio where the photographer welcomed me with his discount offers. With greased elbows, I convinced him to click a PP size picture, and not a collage or a portfolio. Learning this, he called for his assistant to do the needful. I hurriedly collected my photograph and rushed back to the bank. As I submitted my picture to the clerk, he gave me a nonchalant look and said: "Madam, we apologise that your account cannot be opened as your specimen signatures are different at all places and this can pose as a security threat in future. However, your application for life insurance policy of Rs. 2.5 lakh has been duly accepted". Grinding my teeth, I stood up. I was happy with my mediocrity and ordinariness as it equipped me with all the services I needed to manage my account in a private bank. I called up the Client Service Manager of my old bank and booked an appointment for Sunday.
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All is not ship shape with the Indian Navy The Indian Navy, the world’s seventh largest, is in the news for the wrong reasons at a time when it has just finished hosting a major week-long 17 nation multi-lateral exercise named MILAN and is currently engaged in a massive month-long Theatre Level Readiness and Operation Exercise (TROPEX) involving 50 ships that includes for the first time India’s nuclear-powered submarine, INS Chakra, on lease from Russia. A series of mishaps and accidents – seven over last December and January alone – have rocked this highly expensive technology intensive service.The incidents are fraught with the probability of it causing a loss of image to not only the Navy but also to a geo-strategically importantly positioned nation that correctly considers naval power to be vital.
These incidents (see chart) have ranged from the Indian Navy’s first-ever sinking of a frontline submarine in a horrific explosion in August last year that resulted in the death of 18 personnel. This incidentally is the world’s only peace time loss of a submarine in post World War-II history while docked in harbour. A collision with a fishing boat that led to the latter’s sinking, an on board fire, damage caused while berthing, and damage to vital equipment that involves a sonar and a propeller thereby leading to grounding of two ships are among other recent mishaps involving Indian Navy ships. At least two of these incidents have been serious enough to warrant the Navy stripping two ship captains of their command. More significantly, the Navy has lost a total four vessels – three ships and one submarine – during peacetime over the last 24 years. Two of these major mishaps have occurred in the last three years alone. In contrast, the Navy has lost only one ship in a war – INS Khukri during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. These mishaps and accidents are being attributed to a range of factors. One such factor is the congestion of vessels around Mumbai where most of the Navy’s assets are located and where naval vessels end up having to share the entry and exit points with merchant ships in the highly busy port of the country’s financial capital. Added to this is the steady problem of silting. Since de-silting is entrusted with the Dredging Corporation which functions at its own pace, this adds to the existing congestion along the severely limited and therefore congested navigable sea lanes. But then some of the incidents have occurred near the less busy port of Vishakapatnam or on the high seas where the above does not apply. There are therefore other reasons which only the Navy can address. Firstly, direct violation of standard operating procedures by officers and sailors and secondly, possible deficiencies in the quality of recruits, training and leadership alike. The Navy further attributes the mishaps to the rapid expansion of the Navy that is inducting new and different types of vessels without a corresponding increase in manpower. The Navy’s top brass is of the view that while the number and diversity of vessels have increased, it has not been accompanied by the necessary clearances for an increase in manpower at the technical and maintenance staff level leading to faults at dock repair yards as well as the performance levels of warships. But this explanation given by the Navy runs contrary to observations made in an earlier Parliamentary Standing Committee of Defence report tabled in March 2011 which in fact has made some very laudatory observations about the Navy’s manpower planning policy. The Navy, the report states, has put in place ‘a scientific and logical system of manpower planning using available information technology.’ Manpower planning in the Navy is carried out on the basis of long and short term reviews of the Navy’s manpower requirement. While the long term review is carried out at a broad macro level and covers a period of approximately five to ten years, the short term review looks at a scenario of two to three years. This short term review ‘is able to take advantage of more up-to-date and reliable inputs and forecasts and is therefore useful for fine tuning.’ The Ministry of Defence, on behalf of the Navy, has thereafter significantly gone on to make the major claim that ‘no difficulty has been experienced in terms of manpower planning in the Navy.’ ‘The system of the Navy’, the report states, ‘has stood the test of time. The induction targets are being calculated accurately and the platforms established in respect of manpower have been observed to be satisfactory.’ Like in most cases, the truth lies somewhere in between. And it would be necessary for the Navy to look into the causative factors and take remedial measures. Some incidents, such as hitting a jetty while berthing, may not be considered unusual and that serious unless it results in considerable damage to the vessel. But overall the issue is of grave concern considering that the Indian Navy today is far more advanced, powerful and operationally engaged than before. After almost two decades, the Navy has returned to being a two aircraft carrier maritime force with one of the aircraft carrier, the Russian-origin INS Vikramaditya, belonging to a class (44,500 tonnes) never operated before. This carrier has on board Russian supplied MiG-29k aircraft which again are different to operate compared to the British supplied Sea Harrier vertical/short take off and landing (V/STOL) currently operating on board the British-origin aircraft carrier, INS Viraat. Then again, the Navy operates a range of major surface combatants that includes INS Jalashwa, a Landing Platform Dock, bought from the United States, Destroyers and Frigates with stealth features, Airborne Early Warning (AEW) helicopters (Russian supplied Kamov 31), and, for the first time, maritime surveillance aircraft with strike capability (the US-made P8i Poseidon). The Navy has contracted purchase of the more advanced French Scorpene submarines and leased a Russian Akula class nuclear-powered submarine (INS Chakra). The Indian Navy is in the threshold of acquiring INS Arihant, the indigenously built nuclear powered submarine which is to be equipped with the Sagarika SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile) considered vital for a credible nuclear triad. The Navy is busier than before engaged as it is in a wide and unprecedented range of naval diplomacy. It has expanded its frequency, number and intensity of bilateral exercises, expanded to tripartite exercises (example with US and Japan), quadrangle exercises (example with US, Japan and Australia), multi-lateral exercises and even to regional maritime groupings such as the IBSAMAR (India, Brazil and South Africa). The Navy holds exercises with every major maritime power across the world and with almost all littoral states except Pakistan. It has reached to new countries such as China, Israel and in the Gulf region and extended its area of naval exercises to beyond the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. The Navy has similarly been operationally engaged such as in anti-piracy and international disaster relief and rescue operations (example Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives post the December 2004 tsunami), It has rescued foreign vessels from the high seas; assisted countries (example Sri Lanka) with maritime patrolling; patrolled geo-strategic locations such as the Malacca Strait as part of an international maritime cooperation effort and made numerous port calls to scores of countries across the world. The Navy’s maritime responsibilities are indeed vast. With a coastline of 7,517 km, 1,197 islands located in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, an exclusive economic zone of 2.01 million sq. km stretching across 12 nautical miles (NM) of territorial sea, a contiguous zone of a further 12 NM and a total EEZ range of 200 NM from the coast and several offshore installations to protect, the Navy has a huge area to defend. The Indian Ocean is an economic, energy, cultural and military highway and a vital transit route linking the Pacific Ocean with Asia, Africa and Europe. The Indian Navy has a major responsibility to ensure control of the sea lanes of communication (SLOC) for smooth passage of oil supply and trade across half the globe considering that the Indian Ocean is straddled by the strategically important choke points of Malacca Strait and the Bab el Mandeb across the Arabian Sea and the Malacca Strait near Singapore. The Indian Navy, which came into existence 402 years ago in 1612 as the ‘East India Company’s Marine’, may never seek to emulate the 19th century American maritime strategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan who professed that national greatness was inextricably associated with the sea, with its commercial usage in peace and its control in war. But it certainly seems to have adopted the British barrister turned maritime strategist, Julian Stafford Corbett’s maxim that the object of naval warfare lies in directly or indirectly securing the command of the sea and maritime communications or to prevent the enemy from securing it. The Indian Navy certainly needs to take corrective measures to avoid such mishaps and accidents to effect Corbett’s maxims.
Other major incidents: 1990 - 2012
20 August 1990: INS Andaman, a 950 tonne Petya Class patrol boat, sunk 150 nautical miles off Vishakapatnam. This was the Navy’s first peace time loss.
November 1998: INS Jyoti, a Fleet Tanker, collided with a Panama registered Bulk Carrier ‘MV Yickwing’ in the Malacca Strait causing extensive damage to the structure. December 2005: INS Trishul, a stealth Frigate, rammed into a merchant vessel off Mumbai. April 2006: INS Prahar, sunk after a 450-tonne Guided Missile Corvette collided with a civilian vessel 20 nautical miles off Goa. All sailors rescued. September 2006: INS Dunagiri, a Frigate, collided with a Cypriot merchant vessel. 7th January 2008: A merchant ship struck a submarine 140 nautical miles north west of the Mumbai coast. 1st February 2008: Five sailors killed and two seriously injured in a hydrogen sulphide gas leak on board INS Jalashwa, a Landing Platform Dock, during an exercise in the Bay of Bengal. 30 January 2011: INS Vindhyagiri, a frigate, capsized after colliding with a Cyprus registered merchant ship ‘MV Novdlake’ at the entrance to Mumbai harbour. November 2012: INS Tarkash, a stealth Frigate, hit against a quay near Yantar shipyard in Russia. Some solutions
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