http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140707/main6.htm
BRICS Summit: PM
to meet Chinese, Russian Presidents
Ashok Tuteja and R
Sedhuraman
Tribune News
Service
New Delhi, July 6
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will leave for Brazil next week to attend the sixth BRICS Summit
to be held on July 15-16. He will have bilateral meetings with President Xi
Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia on the sidelines of the
summit. The meetings would be aimed at further strengthening trade and other
ties with the two nations.
This will be
Modi’s first meeting with Xi, who is expected to visit India later this year.
Briefing reporters on the BRICS Summit and the PM’s meetings with BRICS and
Latin American leaders, Sujata Mehta (Secretary, Economic Affairs) and Dinkar
Khullar (Secretary-West in the External Affairs Ministry), said the schedule
for the bilateral meetings was still being worked out. “You can be rest assured
that there will be bilateral meetings,” they said.
The summit would
focus on UN Security Council reforms and the proposed BRICS Development Bank
and a common fund to meet situations arising from possible liquidity crunch in
any member nations of BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“We will be hoping for an
endorsement of the need for UNSC reforms and that is an important issue we will
pursue in these discussions,” the officials said in response to a question on
India’s expectations from the meet.
Asked about the likely
headquarters and activities of the proposed bank, they said all aspects were
still under discussion. It would be a bank giving concessional credit to BRICS
members and other developing nations identified by them.
Modi and other BRICS leaders
would have a meeting with their counterparts from other nations of Latin
America on July 16. The officials said a larger number of leaders had expressed
their interest in meeting Modi. The bilateral meetings would be held depending
on the convenience of time.
On his arrival in Brasilia,
Modi would go to the Presidential Palace where he would have a reception and
talks. “The Prime Minister is more concerned about the substance” than other
things, they said in response to a query as to whether he would prefer a
ceremonial reception or breakfast, the options given by the host country.
On July 15, there would be
closed-door discussions between BRICS leaders, besides an open session.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140707/nation.htm#3
Ex-servicemen
write to PM over litigation in SC
Tribune News
Service
Chandigarh, July 6
Ex-servicemen have
expressed concern over growing litigation and appeals in the Supreme Court
against disabled and war disabled soldiers by officials of Ministry of Defence
and urged Prime Minister to step in to end harassment.
In a letter to the
Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Law Minister and the three Service Chiefs,
the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) pointed out that the maximum number of
appeals pending in the SC is against disabled and war disabled soldiers against
their disability pension benefits amounting to, at times, as little as Rs 1,000
per month.
It is not only
financially impossible for soldiers to fight the might of the government at the
Supreme Court level but also a morale wrecker to see the establishment fight
tooth and nail against its own soldiers, the letter adds.
The IESM said the
PM had made it known that he was not in favour of such litigation and this was
emphatically highlighted even during his rally for ex-servicemen in Rewari,
Haryana.
The ruling party
had also made this a part of the manifesto wherein it was emphasised that such
appeals would be minimised. However, much against the wishes of the PM and the
manifesto, government lawyers were continuing to fight pending cases against
disabled soldiers and were also filing fresh cases on the instructions of the
Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare of the Ministry of Defence.
Claiming that
thousands of more such cases were in line to be filed in the SC against relief
granted to disabled soldiers by the High Courts and Armed Forces Tribunals, the
IESM said many of such cases/appeals were against the concept of
“broad-banding” of disability percentage of disabled soldiers, which are
already covered under earlier judgments.
Stating that
ex-servicemen had high hopes from the current government to look after the
welfare and morale of our soldiers and veterans, the IESM said it would not
only be ethically and morally, but also legally correct to initiate withdrawal
of all such unprincipled litigation so as to boost the spirit of the soldiers
and their families, rather than weaken it.
The plea
It has pointed out that maximum appeals
pending in the SC are against disability pension benefits to soldiers
It not only affects soldiers' morale but is
not financially feasible for them to take on the government in the SC, it says.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140707/nation.htm#10
Kasab class: Where
LeT recruits learn what not to do
Srinagar/New
Delhi, July 6
A special “Kasab
class” is part of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)’s training
module for its new recruits during which they are told about the mistakes
committed by Ajmal Kasab during the deadly Mumbai terror attack.
This emerged
during interrogation of LeT terrorist Mohd Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzala, a
resident of Multan in Pakistan, who was arrested by the police in the third
week of last month in South Kashmir, official sources said.
Giving details of
his background, Jutt told interrogators that his father was a retired Army
driver and he, along with his brothers, was part of madrassas which were owned
by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for LeT, sources said.
Jutt is the first
Lashkar terrorist who has said during interrogation that he had met Kasab, the
Pakistan terrorist hanged in November last year after being sentenced to death
for his role in the 2008 Mumbai carnage.
Accused of killing
many policemen in South Kashmir, Jutt reportedly said he was part of Borevalla
Sahiwala camp of the LeT in Multan district of Punjab where he had met Kasab.
Among the mistakes
which were pointed out by the LeT in its presentation was the inability of
Kasab and his team to destroy the boat that carried them to the Mumbai coast,
speaking on satellite phones with real identities, inability to take any
hostages and getting arrested, sources said. — PTI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140707/edit.htm#7
The military seems
lost in transition
In view of the
military establishment’s history of unconstitutional interventions and linkages
with religion-based militant groups, the key to the possible dual transition is
a Pakistan, which is neither monopolised nor controlled by the Pakistani
military establishment
Faisal Sidiqui
Can constitutional
legitimacy flow from the barrel of a gun … If reliance on coercive force in
gaining power is legitimised or condoned, there can be no rational basis for
decrying the assault on the writ of the state by any band of marauders,
robbers, adventurers and zealots of varying extremes in the political
spectrum.”
— Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja
JOHN Mortimer’s
fictional character, Rumpole (of the Bailey), always introduces his wife not by
her name but as “she who must be obeyed”. If Rumpole was a citizen of Pakistan,
he would certainly adapt the same description to portray the Pakistani military
establishment, ie “they who must be obeyed” or maybe, “they who must be
feared”.
These notions of
“obedience” and “fear” attached to the military establishment may be critical
to the functioning of any modern army but in view of the political role of the
Pakistani military establishment, they are obstacles to the possible dual
transition taking place in Pakistan.
The military is
adapting to changes, but only in order to remain the same.
The first
transition concerns a modern army operating under, and in accordance with, a
modern constitutional state; the second pertains to a post-Zia Pakistan with
the state neither using nor protecting nor promoting nor tolerating
religion-based militant groups. The first will ensure that Pakistan is a
normal, modern constitutional state and the second that it is becoming a part
of the world community.
In view of the
military establishment’s history of unconstitutional interventions and linkages
with religion-based militant groups, the key to these transitions is a
Pakistan, which is neither monopolised nor controlled by the Pakistani military
establishment. We can examine five key aspects of this transition.
Foundational
realities: Why do serving and retired generals rush to the hospital, when
summoned by the courts? In the existential world of the military establishment,
the primary source of power and legitimisation is the military institution
itself, ie military discipline and rules. All other sources, including the
Constitution and law, are secondary. This is their belief, their institutional
DNA. It is precisely for this reason that every military coup, or intervention,
is based on the false choice between saving the state (as defined by them) and
saving the Constitution.
Therefore, the
Constitution, independent courts and civilian oversight undermine this
existential military world leading to taboo questions being raised regarding
the personal and institutional accountability of military personnel and their
institutions. It is not surprising that there is a connection between military
personnel being admitted to hospital and the institution being subjected to the
Constitution and the law.
Military coups:
Military coups are bad not only because they are unconstitutional. They are bad
because they have not worked in Pakistan as they have failed to provide
political stability, a government representative of multiple communities and
groups. They are completely unaccountable and have a force-based governing
model. In short, they are a failed model of authoritarian governance in
Pakistan.
Moreover, like
empires, military authoritarian models are no longer in fashion in this
post-modern world. Anyone tempted by the recent events in Egypt and Thailand,
should remember the institutional and public mobilisation in Pakistan during
the 2007-2009 period and the enduring consensus among the main political
parties against military rule. Like the Soviet coup of 1991, any future
Pakistani coup will face resistance from the judiciary, political parties and
civil society.
Politics by other
means: Using Article 58 (2) (b) to dismiss political governments during the
1990s, not having martial law administrators but merely a “chief executive”
model of military governance in 1999 and a mere 42-day military rule in
November-December 2007 show that the military establishment is acting on
Tomasi’s advice that “everything needs to change, so everything can stay the
same”.
Moreover, recent
events involving their alleged use of an intra-media commercial conflict to
impose media restrictions or the alleged campaign against the Supreme Court by
targeting a sitting Supreme Court judge known for his integrity and his past
record against military excesses eg the initiation of the Musharraf trial,
missing persons’ cases, audit of intelligence agencies, show that the military
is adapting to changes but in order to remain the same.
The new
legitimisation: The paradox is that the military establishment’s role in the
fight against Islamist militants is critical but dealing with this existential
threat would also involve the massive transfer of power in areas of internal
and external security policy to the military establishment.
The “war against
terror”, the “fight against the Baloch insurgency” and their role in fighting
against various organised violent crimes in Karachi and in other parts of the
country, seem to provide a basis for the legitimisation of their dominant
political role. Moreover, the present phase of the “war against terror” in Fata
may provide a long-term basis of a new legitimisation for them, which will involve
tremendous power with little accountability.
Institutional
vacuum: The Ministry of Defence is purportedly a department of the government,
theoretically controlled by the defence minister and located outside Islamabad
— being the main bridge between the civilian institutions and the military. But
no one, (including the civilian government and institutions such as the
judiciary, GHQ and intelligence agencies), takes the ministry seriously.
Therefore, the
critical problem seems to be that there is no permanent institutional structure
between the civilian government on the one hand, and GHQ and the intelligence
agencies on the other, which allows for an institutional dialogue. The latter
would include the articulation of both grievances and perceived institutional
interests. Such an institutional vacuum does not allow for a timely, and
constant, institutional dialogue, which leads to unnecessary conflicts.
The military
establishment seems to be lost in transition. The failure to achieve this
transition may lead not to the break-up of Pakistan but to a country which is
medieval in its outlook, engrossed in perpetual domestic violent conflicts and
a constant migraine for the world. Not a nice place to live even for our brave
soldiers.
The writer was
formerly consultant to the office of the attorney general of Pakistan.
By arrangement
with the Dawn
http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Self-reliance-Needed-in-Defence-Sector/2014/07/05/article2315208.ece
'Self-reliance
Needed in Defence Sector'
SRI NAGAR: Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said self-reliance in defence offset
manufacturing was essential and asserted that strong armed forces were
necessary “to create an atmosphere of peace, amity and brotherhood in the
country”.
“Self-reliance in defence
offset manufacturing is essential for the security (aatma-raksha) of the
nation,” Modi said, addressing over 1,000 men and officers of the Army during
the “Sainik Samelan” at Badamibagh cantonment, headquarters of the Army’s 15
corps here.
To ensure defence production,
he said, a major portion of the defence budget had to be spent on the import of
weapon systems and equipment. “This is more than the money spent on the welfare
of jawans. When the country starts producing these systems, not only the
soldier, but every citizen will get motivated. The money saved could be spent
on the welfare of the soldiers.”
“The country needs strong
Armed Forces. All that will not happen unless the borders are secure. To
achieve this we need to modernize the security forces and I am for it,” he
said.
Lauding the sacrifices and
selflessness of defence personnel, Modi said, “You have all left your families
and are serving in difficult conditions. I assure you that millions of Indians
are with you. This support will serve as security for you,” he said.
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