http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140430/nation.htm#2
Allow Sikhs to serve in US army: US-Indians to
Defense Secy Hagel
Washington, April
29
Sixteen
influential Indian-Americans from across the country have asked US Secretary of
Defense Chuck Hagel to allow Sikhs to serve in the armed forces with their
religious faith intact.
"As
entrepreneurs and community members dedicated to advancing issues important to
the Indian-American community and strengthening ties between the US and India,
we respectfully request that the US Department of Defense modernise its
appearance regulations so that Sikh-Americans can presumptively serve in our
nation's military while maintaining their articles of faith," 16
Indian-Americans wrote in a letter to Hagel.
According to the
copy of the letter dated April 25, which was provided to PTI today, the Indian
Americans - all of whom are major fundraisers and wield considerable influence
in the nation's political circle - praised the recent efforts of 105 bipartisan
members of the US House of Representatives, who recently had also sent a letter
to Hagel expressing their support for Sikh-Americans in the US armed forces.
That letter was
led by Congressman Joseph Crowley, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on
India and Indian-Americans, and Rodney Frelinghuysen, who chairs the Defense
Appropriations Subcommittee.
"The
importance of this issue to the Indian-American community is underscored by the
fact that the Government of India issued a statement supporting the effort. As
you know, our NATO allies already permit Sikhs to serve," the letter,
which was signed by Shekhar Narasimhan, Ranvir Trehan, Shefali Razdan Duggal,
Rajeev Sharma, Parag and Usha Saxena, Reshma Saujani, Frank Ismail, Raj Goyle,
Anju Bhargava, said.
Among other
signatories to the letter are -- MR Rangaswami, Mahinder Tak, Sunita Leeds,
Aneesh Chopra, Vinod K Shah and Parag V Mehta.
"We wanted
our Sikh-American brothers and sisters to know that, at the very least, the
Indian-American community stands with them and while it may be seen as
symbolic, their cause is our cause," Narasimhan said.
In the letter, the
Indian-Americans said for more than a century, immigrants from India have
strengthened and enriched America, even after overcoming obstacles. — PTI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140430/nation.htm#3
Soldiers injured on leave entitled to
benefits: SC
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News
Service
Chandigarh, April
29
Upholding a
judgment of the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), the
Supreme Court has ruled that soldiers injured while on duly authorised leave
are entitled to grant of disability pension.
The Tribunal’s
judgment was challenged by the Central government in the Supreme Court. The
apex court dismissed the civil appeal observing that there was no infirmity in
the conclusions reached by the Tribunal.
In November 2011,
the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice Ghanshyam Prashad and Lt Gen HS Panag
had, after discussing various Supreme Court judgments in favour of and against
the proposition of grant of disability pension to soldiers injured during
leave, held that disability pension would be entitled to such persons when the
injury was not due their own fault and when they were not engaged in a
militarily inconsistent activity.
Disposing a case
where a soldier was injured in a road accident, the Tribunal had concluded that
it was its duty to give a beneficial interpretation to such social welfare
schemes and policy had to be interpreted liberally since roads were now flooded
with vehicles while the rules were originally framed in 1950 and that otherwise
it shall lead to grave injustice to soldiers who defend the frontiers.
The Tribunal had
also observed that while civilians were retained in service on incurring
disabilities, defence personnel could be discharged. It observed that if
military personnel could not be retained they must be adequately compensated
for being thrown out on account of disabilities so that they could meet their
own and their families’ basic needs.
The issue of
denial of benefits to disabled soldiers and tendency of the defence ministry of
filing multiple appeals against disability pension to disabled soldiers in the
SC, was also raised in the Parliament in August 2013 by several MPs.
Experts dealing
with the subject state that it was only in India that defence personnel were
not paid any kind of monthly pension on being discharged on non service-related
disabilities whereas the services of disabled civilians were protected and they
were entitled to pay and allowances till superannuation and pension thereafter.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140430/nation.htm#8
Former Air Chief
NAK Browne is Norway envoy
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News
Service
New Delhi, April
29
The Centre today
named Air Chief Marshal (Retired) NAK Browne as India’s next Ambassador to
Norway. Browne would take up his new assignment shortly, the External Affairs
Ministry said in an announcement which is also bound to upset mandarins at the
Foreign Office.
He succeeds RK
Tyagi. ACM Browne, also known as ‘Charlie’ Browne, was chief of the IAF from
July 31, 2011 to December 31, 2013.
The government had
two years back appointed former Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma as the High
Commissioner to Canada, courting a controversy. The then External Affairs
Minister SM Krishna had proposed the name of senior diplomat Basant Gupta for
the post but the PMO ignored his recommendation and appointed Verma. Before
this, another former Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta was appointed as the
High Commissioner to New Zealand.
http://indiandefence.com/threads/india-urgent-defense-reforms-needed.45997/
India: Urgent
Defense Reforms Needed
On April 2, India’s outgoing Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, told a conference that: “As a responsible nuclear weapon state
that remains committed to non-proliferation, India supports the idea of a
nuclear-weapon-free world because we believe that it enhances not just India’s
security, but also global security.”
Less than a fortnight later, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), largely expected to lead the next government, sprung a
surprise by declaring in its election manifesto that it will “study in detail
India’s nuclear doctrine, and revise and update it to make it relevant to [the]
challenges of current times.”
That was a surprise, because India’s
15-year old nuclear doctrine that decrees “no-first use” of nuclear weapons was
put in place by the last BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. If
the BJP indeed comes to power and then delivers on its promise, it would mark a
major shift in India’s nuclear policy.
Tweaking or changing the course of India’s
nuclear doctrine will surely alter India’s foreign policy too. The challenge
for the new government will be to balance India’s own national interest with
the current – and fast-changing – geopolitical situation in Eurasia.
The outgoing United Progressive Alliance
government has had a mixed record on strategic issues. It vacillated between
unusual firmness on some issues (the Devayani Khobragade affair with the U.S.
for example) but was erratic in dealing with China and Pakistan and sent out
mixed signals in its interactions with other smaller neighbors like Sri Lanka,
Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh. In several instances, New Delhi failed
to deliver on promises made to its neighbors, often putting the local leaders
in those countries in awkward positions. For instance, New Delhi, despite its
best intentions, could not fulfill two major promises made to Dhaka on
concluding a land boundary agreement and sharing the waters of the Teesta
river. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced a major political
embarrassment at home because of New Delhi’s failure to keep its word.
With Colombo too, India swung between two
different positions during the vote against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights
Council, and paid the price by losing considerable ground to China in terms of
influence with the island nation. New Delhi’s failure to calibrate events in
the Maldives is also seen as a setback for its own clout in the region.
India’s next prime minister – and everyone
believes Narendra Modi will be the man, post-May 16 – will need to step up and
reboot foreign policy as a priority if India is to regain the influence it had
acquired at the turn of the century and even during the first term of the UPA,
but which was frittered away by its ineffectual leadership since 2010.
However, a greater challenge awaits the new
prime minister. The Indian military is in shambles not least because it is
stuck with a largely 19th century mindset, is mostly armed with 20th century
weapons, but has a 21st century ambition. The stark mismatch, topped by a
risk-averse Defence minister, has left India’s military forces at their lowest
ebb in decades.
Two years ago when a letter written by the
then Army Chief Gen VK Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh found its way
into the media, there was much outrage and anger over the state of Indian
Army’s preparedness. “The state of the major (fighting) arms i.e. mechanised
forces, artillery, air defence, infantry and special forces, as well as the
engineers and signals, is indeed alarming,” the General wrote to the prime
minister. The army’s entire tank fleet is “devoid of critical ammunition to
defeat enemy tanks,” while the air defence system is “97% obsolete,” he wrote.
The infantry is crippled with “deficiencies,” while the elite forces are
“woefully short” of “essential weapons.” Singh has since joined the resurgent
BJP and is hoping to win a seat in parliament when results are declared on May
16.
Since then, urgent steps have been taken to
improve the deficiencies in some areas, especially in improving the stock of
fresh ammunition. Still, many critical shortages remain unaddressed. For
instance, the Army’s light helicopters are more than 40 years old; it has not
bought new artillery guns since 1987; it is also short nearly 600,000 hand
grenades. The list is endless.
The Indian Navy, too, is short of
conventional submarines. Its fleet of diesel-powered submarines is down to a
single digit. Submarines in production in Indian shipyards are at least four
years behind schedule. The Indian Air Force is down to 33 squadrons of fighter
jets against the required strength of 39 squadrons. Its eight-year-old plan to
purchase 126 new combat jets is yet to come to fruition, although a contract
negotiating committee is currently talking to French manufacturer Dassault
Aviation and hopes to ink a mammoth 15 billion dollar deal as soon as the next
government gives it the green light. Even then, the first lot of 18 aircraft
will enter service only in 2017, and only then if the contract is signed before
the end of 2014.
Acquiring critical weapons platform is but
one of the facets of defense management. India has been found to be woefully
inadequate in reforming its higher defense management structure. A combination
of bureaucratic lethargy and cumbersome systems topped by a timid minister has
weakened the Indian military alarmingly. The biggest hurdle in the Indian
military’s quest for rapid modernization has been the country’s defense
minister AK Antony. As a politician concerned solely with preserving his
squeaky clean image, Antony has time and again put his personal obsessions
above national interest.
His record as India’s longest serving
Defence minister (he’s held the post since October 2006) is a clear testimony
to this. During his tenure, Antony has already barred or blacklisted half a
dozen major international defense firms at the first hint of wrong doing and
bribery and has cancelled contracts in the very last stage of the process
leaving the three armed forces to battle with shortages and obsolescence.
And so the three services continue to
suffer. The new government and its leader will have to urgently press the reset
button to put defense modernization on the fast track, equipping the Indian
military with the teeth it needs required teeth to match India’s ambitions to
become an important regional if not global player.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/retired-deputy-army-chief-n-s-malik-slams-upa-government-114042901233_1.html
Retired deputy
army chief N S Malik slams UPA government
Retired deputy
chief of the Indian Army Lieutenant General N S Malik claimed here today that
the security and integrity of the nation is not safe under the UPA government.
Malik, who is the
BJP's national security cell convener claimed that India's defence preparedness
is not upto the mark under the Congress-led UPA government.
Malik who is here
to seek votes of ex-servicemen for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha BJP candidate K Haribabu
said that there is a need to modernise defence services including the air force
and the navy.
Recommendations of
the C Subrahmaniam Committee appointed by the NDA government after the Kargil
war was not implemented by the UPA government, he said.
He said that
during his recent election meetings Narendra Modi had promised to solve
ex-servicemen's problems once the BJP comes to power at the Centre.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/solemnity-marks-cremation-of-major/article5957330.ece
Solemnity marks
cremation of Major
Chennai on Monday bid an emotional farewell to
Major Mukund Varadharajan. The 32-year-old officer, who laid down his life “in
the most gallant manner in the finest traditions of the Indian Armed Forces”
fighting extremists in Kashmir on Friday last, was cremated at the Besant Nagar
crematorium.
The atmosphere at
the crematorium, where the final rites were performed, was solemn with his
parents, wife and their young daughter, accepting the condolences of officers,
Ministers and people from various quarters. The coffin was draped with the
Tricolour with his beret and battle gear uniform placed atop. The cremation was
done with the full military honours, a spokesperson from the Ministry of
Defence said.
Fourteen soldiers
fired 42 rounds in the air as a mark of respect to the officer as bugles were
sounded in line with the Army tradition.
Young people from
across the city, including school and college students, assembled at the
crematorium early in the day to pay their respects. Kerala Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy called on the officer’s parents and wife at their home later in
the evening on Monday.
Expressing his
condolences, Governor K. Rosiah, in a letter to the Major’s father Raghavachari
Varadharajan, said the death of Mukund Varadharajan was a great loss to the
Army.
Shipping Minister
G.K. Vasan conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family and termed the loss
irreparable.
http://indiandefence.com/threads/army-undertakes-major-exercise-along-western-front-to-hone-combat-skills.45992/
Army undertakes
major exercise along western front to hone combat skills
SOURCE: TNN
India may be
raising a new mountain strike corps to counter China’s build-up of military
infrastructure and capabilities all along the Line of Actual Control but it
continues to hone its combat skills on the western front with Pakistan as well.
A major exercise, codenamed ‘Sarvada Vijay’ (Always Victorious), is currently
underway in the deserts of Rajasthan with the overall aim being to practice
conventional cross-border thrusts into enemy territory.
With a large
number of tanks, infantry combat vehicles and howitzers deployed, the exercise
involves the Mathura-based I Strike Corps with some support elements. “Army
chief General Bikram Singh will be visiting the Suratgarh area to review the
exercise later this week,” said a source.
After Operation
Parakram in 2002, which exposed operational gaps and the slow troop
mobilisation along the border, India reorganised the Army formations along the
western front to ensure the capability to deliver a more effective lethal punch
if required.
This involved the
creation of the South-Western Command (SWAC) in Jaipur in 2005 as the
1.18-million strong Army’s sixth operational command. While I Strike Corps
falls under SWAC, the other two such “attack” formations are II Corps (Ambala)
under the Western Army Command at Chandimandir and XXI Corps (Bhopal) under the
Southern Army Command in Pune.
But with the focus
for long being on a land battle with Pakistan, it is only over the last few
years that India has belatedly turned its attention to China. So, while the
three existing strike corps are largely geared towards Pakistan, the Army in
2009-2010 raised two new infantry divisions (1,260 officers and 35,000
soldiers) at Likabali and Missamari (Assam) for the “defence” of Arunachal
Pradesh.
Now, India has
begun raising the new mountain strike corps – the XVII Corps with its
headquarters at Panagarh in West Bengal — to add some much-needed “deterrence”
to the “dissuasive posture” against China. It will give the Army, virtually for
the first time, some “rapid reaction force” capability to launch a
counter-offensive into Tibet Autonomous Region in the event of a Chinese
attack.
The XVII Corps is
to be fully raised over the next seven years with around 90,000 soldiers at a
cost of around Rs 64,700 crore. Apart from “integral units”, the new corps will
have two high-altitude infantry divisions (initially being raised at Panagarh
and Pathankot), two independent infantry brigades, two armoured brigades and
two Para-Special Forces battalions, spread across Ladakh, Uttarakhand and
Sikkim.
This is deemed
critical to counter China’s “aggressive” strengthening of its military
capabilities along the LAC, including at least five fully-operational airbases,
an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads in Tibet. This allows
China to move over 30 divisions (each with over 15,000 soldiers) to the LAC,
outnumbering Indian forces by at least 3:1 there as of now, as earlier reported
by TOI.
No comments:
Post a Comment