General-officer-Commanding of Fire and Fury Corps Lieutenant General Hitesh Bhalla visited forward areas in Ladakh on Tuesday and reviewed operational preparedness of troops, officials said. During the visit, Lieutenant General Hitesh Bhalla was briefed on operational readiness and employment of new…
General-officer-Commanding of Fire and Fury Corps Lieutenant General Hitesh Bhalla visited forward areas in Ladakh on Tuesday and reviewed operational preparedness of troops, officials said.
During the visit, Lieutenant General Hitesh Bhalla was briefed on operational readiness and employment of new generation equipment.
“Lt Gen Hitesh Bhalla GOC, Fire and Fury Corps visited the Parashu Brigade to review operational preparedness”, the Army’s Fire and Fury Corps said on X.
The officer commended all ranks on their professionalism and steadfastness in executing their duty under challenging conditions.
I cannot tell for sure when Sam uncle became a part of my family, because he had been there for as long as I can remember, an epitome of integrity, sincerity, discipline and patriotism — values that all parents would…
I cannot tell for sure when Sam uncle became a part of my family, because he had been there for as long as I can remember, an epitome of integrity, sincerity, discipline and patriotism — values that all parents would like their children to imbibe. He had the most unobtrusive way of entering a storytelling session with us children’s curious query: ‘And Sam uncle?’
One evening, my younger brother came home in tears with a bruised knee. As my mother comforted him, father’s commanding voice called out from the next room, ‘Send him here.’ The child limped off. ‘What happened?’ dad asked. He added, ‘You fell, got hurt and came home crying, didn’t you?’
After a pause, patting his back, father exclaimed, ‘Arre, beta. Soldiers face bullets! And do you think they come home crying?’ The little one looked mystified and asked, ‘And Sam uncle? Did he face bullets too?’ Dad replied, ‘Yes, he was badly wounded on the Arakan front. But did he flinch? No way!’
‘And you?’
‘Yes, I was also at the Arakan front,’ he said. ‘Now run out to play. Games will make you healthy, strong and tall.’
Rea
‘Like Sam uncle,’ my brother said and ran out. This was our first lesson about the importance of outdoor activities. Sam uncle’s magic had worked wonders. From then on, our Arakan adventure stories started; Sam uncle became an invincible hero in our eyes, a symbol of courage, leadership and man management — the loving appellation ‘Sam Bahadur’ speaking volumes about the affection of his soldiers.
Father was a master storyteller, with a treasure trove of war experiences, adventures and tales of Indian war heroes. His stories were vivid and engaging; he coloured our imagination and conveyed valuable lessons without being preachy. His stories and Sam uncle’s influence have had a profound impact on our lives, as the two soldiers were our exemplary teachers, each in his own way.
Decades rolled by. The ‘Sam uncle’ of our imagination assumed a personality in 2023, with the movie Sam Bahadur that we watched with moist eyes, filled with pride and nostalgia. We felt proud of the Army; remembering the good old days and cherishing the memories of those storytelling sessions, we silently thanked Sam uncle and father for those meaningful childhood days.
And then came the moment of vindication when my niece sent a video of her daughter dressed as Sam Bahadur — with the cap and moustache and the baton, giving a solo performance in the school programme. Sam uncle’s legacy continues to inspire the third generation — a testament to the power of storytelling and the footprints great men leave on the sands of time.
A 35-ft statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the great Maratha warrior known for his guerrilla warfare skills — which he successfully used against the Mughals — was knocked down by strong winds blowing across the coastal town of Malwan in the Konkan region of Maharashtra.
The pressure to complete works expeditiously, which is happening often when elections are round the corner, should
be avoided.
The statue had been erected in a hurry prior to the Lok Sabha elections this year to permit Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate it. Modi, always willing to perform such pre-election chores, obliged. Just six months later, he was forced to apologise for the mishap, though he himself could hardly be blamed for nature’s vagaries. His sycophants were the real culprits.
Around Rs 83 crore were spent on the statue’s construction, which was entrusted to the Navy in deference to the memory of Maratha admiral Kanhoji Angre, who commanded the Maratha navy in those glorious days. The original plan, it now appears, was to build a six-ft statue and the design for it was scrutinised and approved by the Directorate of Art as per the prescribed procedure. One wonders who raised its height and why. Those who would have claimed credit for the statue will now seek anonymity for valid security concerns.
Stories of incompetence and blatant corruption are doing the rounds, all leading to the doorstep of Mahayuti leaders Eknath Shinde, the Maharashtra Chief Minister who leads a faction of the Shiv Sena, and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, one of the two deputy chief ministers. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, who abandoned his uncle Sharad Pawar for personal aggrandisement, is the other Deputy CM, but he has distanced himself from his partners because he had sensed the Maratha anger against the toppling of the statue.
The BJP realises that Ajit is proving to be a liability in the three-party alliance. Ajit’s uncle still commands the loyalty of the Maratha community, as was proved in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Fadnavis, the BJP’s loyal pointsman in the state, had erroneously calculated that the ambitious Ajit would be able to bring in the bulk of the NCP’s vote bank, but that was not to be. Sharad continues to be the Maratha strongman, despite his advancing age and ill health.
Ajit’s tirade against his friends in the Mahayuti is not going to help him advance his political career. At present, it has only succeeded in weakening the ruling alliance’s chances of retaining power. The molestation of two four-year-old girls in a school at Badlapur in Thane district had already done harm to the fortunes of the Mahayuti. And now, nature has joined forces with the Opposition MVA (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi), led by the Congress and consisting of a resurgent Shiv Sena-UBT (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the presently dominant Sharad-led faction of the NCP.
As of today, the dice is loaded against the parties in power. The BJP had made inroads in urban areas of the state. It will hold on to its voters, but the two parties on whose strength it relied will not be able to contribute to the extent Fadnavis expected them to do. In fact, there is the distinct possibility of the NCP’s Ajit faction gradually fading into oblivion. When the foot soldiers find that their leader will not be able to provide the expected goodies, they will gravitate to those in a position to oblige.
Reverting to the matter of the statue, it is quite obvious to even the poorly informed that such construction needs expertise of a superior calibre. It also needs supervision of a higher order with officials for the purpose being chosen from among those with a reputation for integrity. Fortunately, there still remain many in the IAS with that qualification.
The pressure to complete works expeditiously, which is happening often when elections are round the corner, should be avoided. The PM inaugurated the new Parliament building in a bit of a hurry and very soon it developed leakages and defects. Modi did not apologise for that fiasco like he did for the fall of Shivaji’s statue! According to his statement, the Maratha warrior was a ‘god’. Agreed that a building cannot be deified, but a Parliament building is a sacred place, because like the poet Byron wrote about the Castle of Chillon in Switzerland, “May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God.”
A massive project is underway in my city of Mumbai. It is the Coastal Road project that has reclaimed acres and acres of land from the sea to decongest the heavy traffic caused by the proliferation of cars. The work goes on relentlessly day and night since targets are set (as they should be) and important leaders are eager to inaugurate even minor sections of the project.
The fear that haste may lead to waste does not seem to worry the authorities like it worries thinking citizens. I remember the car journey I took once from Kowloon to the mainland of Hong Kong through an undersea tunnel. It was a feat of engineering. A similar tunnel was a part of Mumbai’s Coastal Road. Very soon, it developed leaks. When the media carried the news, many senior citizens decided against travelling by car through that tunnel. I am told that the leaks have been patched. That is a consolation, but why are we so tolerant of shoddy work which is inevitable if it has to be completed in a hurry to accommodate leaders who want their names embossed on stone?
Bihar has not yet received its annual quota of rainfall, but as soon as the first showers fell, as many as a dozen newly constructed bridges collapsed! In Rajkot (Gujarat), a bridge collapse resulted in the death of car passengers.
Are our engineers and contractors incompetent or, as is more likely, have they dipped their hands into the till? Since no one is held responsible and punished, Modi’s promise of remaining squeaky clean himself and ensuring that his administrators also remain above board is like his promise to show no mercy to those convicted of molesting women — only an empty promise meant for luring voters to keep double-engine governments in office.
RECENT attacks on multiple targets in Pakistan’s Balochistan province mark an escalation in hostilities. The attacks were a consequence of festering problems and the damage to Balochistan’s sociocultural and economic fabric. A major reason for the attacks was the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) desire to run an ambitious communications corridor from Xinjiang to Gwadar through Balochistan, a move not supported by residents of the province.
A close ally of China for decades, Pakistan has sought to use the Chinese largesse to address many of its problems. While their India-centred agenda has several convergences, Pakistan hoped that China would align with it against India. A review of the period since 1947 reveals that while China’s diplomatic and military support to Pakistan may have been overtly nuanced on occasions, its covert facilitation and huge military supplies are central to Pakistan’s operational capability and vital for Pakistan’s missile, nuclear and submarine development.
Unfortunately, strategic relations between unequals demand concessions from the less strong partner. From the act of ceding the Shaksgam valley of Kashmir to China in 1963, based on a specious boundary settlement, to the hosting of the CPEC and virtually surrendering control of northern Gilgit, the list of Pakistan’s strategic giveaways to China is long.
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Enabling the Chinese to reach the high waters of the Arabian Sea through the Khunjerab Pass on the Karakoram mountains up to the port of Gwadar has been one of the major giveaways. This mega plan promises to transform Pakistan with a goal of 2.3 million jobs, 2-2.5 per cent additional growth and an enormous upgrade of road, rail, industrial and electrical facilities. For China, its 12,000-km oil transportation journey from the Gulf gets reduced to 2,395 km, with a saving of about $2 billion a year (according to present estimates). It also negates China’s Malacca dilemma and furthers its ambition to have a base in the Arabian Sea. The heart of the CPEC projects lies in Balochistan, a province that has never been integrated and remains restive. For the Balochis, their identity, autonomy, human rights abuse by the Pakistani state and the extraction of economic gains without returns remain major troubling issues.
Historically, Pakistan has chosen alliances mostly based on security and development-related priorities. The country’s engagement with the US has given it a slew of advantages. Pakistan’s centrality to the conflicts in Afghanistan, coupled with its own convoluted priorities, however, left it more divided, scarred and economically deprived. Its flawed vision of using covert entities to get leverage in Afghanistan and seek strategic depth has unravelled. Consequently, insecurity prevails in the region, including Afghanistan. In its pursuit of powerful allies like the US and China, Pakistan has neglected to integrate the western provinces and their people.
THE Chinese military is shifting its focus to winning wars against stronger opponents amid mounting challenges. According to a South China Morning Post report, President Xi Jinping, who is also the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s highest defence body, has directed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to enhance its strategic capabilities to defend the country’s sovereignty and developmental interests.
Xi unveiled the new directive while commemorating Deng Xiaoping’s 120th birth anniversary on August 22. He highlighted Deng’s vision for the PLA — which was instrumental in developing it into a strong, modernised and well-organised force — emphasising the importance of ‘fewer but better troops’. General Miao Hua, a member of the CMC, stated while commenting on the strategic shift, “In the new journey, we should focus on strengthening capabilities to defeat strong enemies and opponents.”
A recent article in the PLA Daily, while referring to Deng’s 1980 strategic judgement that “a world war can be postponed or avoided”, noted that China now faces great changes unseen in a century. It asserted the need for the armed forces to remain vigilant and maintain strategic clarity on the possible risk of war, make full preparations for military struggle, effectively deter war and resolutely win it.
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The Chinese leadership has refined its warfighting doctrines of winning local wars since the 1990s through white papers and strategic guidelines. The first ‘White Paper on National Defence’ was published in 1998. Following the release of ‘White Paper on National Defence (2006)’, the PLA adopted the ‘local wars under informationised conditions’ doctrine to match technologically superior adversaries. Through the ‘informationised war’ doctrine, China sought to impose high costs on conventionally superior opponents by targeting command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) networks.
The recent directive to the military to prepare for wars against strong enemies marks another strategic shift, primarily as a response to the challenges China is facing, both in the maritime domain and on the land borders. Incidentally, Xi, on assuming power in 2012, had initiated a slew of deep-rooted military reforms as he had envisioned the PLA to play a key role in realising the ‘China Dream’ of a prosperous and powerful China by the middle of the century. Sovereignty was identified as one of the key national objectives. Besides fostering nationalism, it was to ensure the security of periphery and the integration of Taiwan and all claimed territories with the motherland.
The IAF on Sunday made two changes at the senior level. Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit assumed charge as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Central Air Command, headquartered at Prayagraj, while Air Marshal Tejinder Singh took over as the Deputy Chief of the IAF, stationed at the headquarters in New Delhi.
Air Marshal Dixit was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF in December 1986. He is an experimental test pilot and a qualified flying instructor with over 3,300 hours of flying experience on a variety of aircraft. He was part of the IAF effort during the Kargil conflict with Pakistan (May-July 1999).
Air Marshal Tejinder Singh was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF in June 1987. He is a category ‘A’ qualified flying instructor with over 4,500 hours of flying experience.
When Musharraf crossed LoC | Shocking Kargil War facts | Vikram Jit Singh
HC ruling assumes significance in the light of many court martial proceedings being set aside by higher judicial forums, often on grounds of procedural infirmities
Tribune News service
Chandigarh, September 1
In a ruling that could also have implications for the defence services, the Delhi High Court has directed that officers detailed for conducting court martial proceedings in the Border Security Force (BSF) be provided mandatory regular training on the subject in accordance with law.
Quashing the conviction and subsequent dismissal from service of a BSF constable by a summary security force court (SSFC) for alleged connivance in cross-border smuggling, a Division Bench of the High Court said that the officers must understand that these trials are not just mere formalities but are fundamental aspects of ensuring justice and maintaining discipline in the force by following the prescribed procedure.
The High Court’s ruling assumes significance in the light of many court martial proceedings in the armed forces as well as central armed police forces being set aside by higher judicial forums, often on grounds of procedural infirmities. There have been several instances in the past where the Supreme Court as well as the High Courts and the Armed Forces Tribunal have critically commented on the manner in which trials by the forces have been conducted.
Military courts are not a permanent fixture but assembled only for conducting a particular trial. Members of the court who are nominated for the purpose are not legally qualified or experienced, and are drawn from within the formation conducting the trial, though there is a law officer, the judge advocate, who assists and guides the court on legal aspects and procedures. The rationale behind assembling such courts in the forces is that a person accused of any offence should be adjudged by his peers. Courts martial, of which there are several kinds, are an important instrument of enforcing discipline.
“The provisions providing for other kinds of Security Force Courts which lay down more elaborate procedures for trial are very rarely being resorted to. This raises a serious concern as any deviation from the rules and the laid down procedure during the trial not only compromises the rights of the accused but also results in grave injustice especially in cases where the trials, pertaining to misconduct committed by the force personnel, ends with an award of a major penalty of dismissal from service. Such a harsh penalty can have a lifelong implication not only for the officer involved but for this entire family,” the Bench of Justice Shalinder Kaur and Rekha Palli said in their order of August 28.
“It, thus, becomes incumbent upon the officers conducting the SSFC proceedings to be properly trained and sensitized of the manner in which the SSFC proceedings ought to be conducted, i.e. by giving due regard to the rules and procedures outlined in the BSF Act and Rules,” the Bench added. “Failure thereof, will only result in miscarriage of justice, for both the individuals as well as the Force,” the Bench asserted.
The Bench also observed that this court has been coming across a number of cases where the SSFC proceedings are being conducted in a lackadaisical and perfunctory manner by disregarding the rules and procedures. It also noticed that despite there being no urgency, SSFC proceedings are being conducted in almost every case as a matter of routine.
Gandhi seems to have not noticed the colour basanti, the one recently recommended by the SGPC for the Nishan Sahib.
THE SGPC advisory to change the colour of the Nishan Sahib at gurdwaras from bhagwa (saffron) to basanti or surmai is an important step towards distinguishing Sikh identity. Religion, after all, defines a people; it provides them with an identity. It is not just a matter of personal or private belief. And it certainly is not about deep philosophies. Its public manifestations and shared signs and symbols help people form an identity for themselves. It identifies people as members of a group. At the same time, it also identifies those who do not belong to the group.
It was in this context that in Young India (April 14, 1921), Mahatma Gandhi proposed a national flag that had two colours: green and red. Green, explained Gandhi, was the colour of Muslims, and red was of Hindus. The green-and-red national flag represented an India that was made up of Muslims and Hindus — both sharing a flag.
Gandhi’s design was akin to the flag of the UK. That flag sported three types of crosses. Each represented a Christian denomination, which, in turn, represented the lands that had come together to form the UK.
But Sikh leaders disabused Gandhi of his ‘blindness’ towards other religions in India. “Please incorporate the colour black to represent Sikhs since they are neither Hindu nor Muslim,” they urged.
A later version of the flag for India that Gandhi made public included three stripes: red, white and green. White, in the middle, represented all other religious communities of India. Addressing Sikhs, Gandhi’s article effectively said that they would simply have to adjust and accommodate with everyone else. You are ‘needlessly agitated’, Gandhi wrote. “To ask for special prominence is tantamount to a refusal to merge in the two numerically great communities,” he stressed. Gandhi also conceded that the ‘quarrel between Hindus and Mussalmans’ was intractable, (but) that Sikhs had never had any difference with Hindus and that the Sikhs’ “quarrel with the Mussalmans was of the same type as the Hindus.”
Communal conflicts grew in the 1920s to such an extent that when Gandhi wrote a scathing report on the Kohat riots, Maulana Mohammed Ali — one of his closest friends — accused him of being communal. Consequently, Gandhi decided to abandon religion as the basis of the nation.
Such separation based on religion was used by the British to divide Indians, the Congress leadership would argue repeatedly. In 1928, the British Indian Army came out with the Handbook for the Indian Army: Sikhs, published for the instruction of officers who commanded the Sikh regiment. This handbook explained that Sikhs had fought the “political tyranny of the Mussalmans and the social tyranny of the Hindus.” It also warned about colours: no bhagwa colour for Sikhs since that was the colour of Hindus. Bhagwa, the handbook explained, was the colour of renunciation. Sikhs did not renounce the world. Rather, they strived to protect dharma by taking up arms.
The handbook noted that Sikhism had been on the wane in the 19th century. But then, it again started growing. The population of Sikhs went up from 17,06,165 in 1881 to 31,10,000 in 1921.
It also warned that Sikhs had been prohibited by their religion from eating halal meat, from bowing to a Brahmin and from drinking the foot-wash (charanamrut) of anyone, god or king. Instead, they drank only amrit (literally ‘divine nectar’).
When Gandhi next wrote on the national flag for India, he suggested a tricolour with bhagwa, white and green stripes. These stood, respectively, for sacrifice, purity and sustenance, he said. The red for Hindus had been changed by Gandhi to bhagwa without any explanation, perhaps because by then, red had come to be associated with communists. A bomb explosion in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929, was reported to be the doing of communists. In light of the incident, the colour red was quietly dropped from the national flag.
Gandhi seems to have not noticed the colour basanti, the one recently recommended by the SGPC. It is a colour of joy, growth and bravery.
It was sensitivity to this context that made lyricist Prem Dhawan use the colour ‘basanti’ in his famous song “Mera rang de basanti chola…” Dhawan explains in a line, “Jis chole ko pehan Shivaji khele apni jaan pe; Jise pehan Jhansi ki Rani mit gayi apni aan pe.” No one in India had to be told what basanti stood for here. Actor-filmmaker Manoj Kumar recalled that Dhawan had penned those lines after the crew of the film Shaheed (1965) went on a long road trip to the ancestral village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh to meet his mother and get a feel of the subject. Along the way, they saw yellow mustard fields. By the time the journey was over, Dhawan had penned one of the most iconic lyrics in India’s history. It is this colour, basanti, that has been put forward as one of the colours for the Nishan Sahib.
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