Chinese soldiering traditions date back to the Shang dynasty (1600 BC), with seminal strategists like Wu Qi and Sun Tzu propounding classic military treaties and instincts for the modern day ‘Terracotta’ warriors of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Across the Tibetan Plateau and the natural barriers of the Himalayan ranges, lies an even more ancient civilisation with its own profundities on war and martial traditions that the British Raj amalgamated and chiselled into a fine institution, Indian Defence Forces, the most combat-exposed outfit in the world today. Genealogically, as the two nations emerged from the bondages of foreign invasions – a certain heterogeneity of masses, absolutist power and ideology, along with expansionist tendencies ensured that the independent People’s Republic of China became a much larger entity as compared to the vivisected nations of British India, including India.

The two geographically-contiguous but historically-distanced civilisations morphed into modern states with competing ambitions and opposite systems – a totalitarian construct of efficiency got pitted against the surety of democracy. Unsettled borders and geostrategic impulses led to a war in 1962, and frequent border ‘skirmishes’ and standoffs, like the one in Doklam. In 1962, India was to pay a price for the institutionalised ‘secondment’ of its Armed forces and its security imperatives, especially when the PLA sensibilities were the centrifugal forces of Chinese governance. Professional forewarnings by India’s serving DGMO and the-then, recently retired Chief, General KS Timmayya, “I cannot, even as a soldier, envisage India taking on China in an open conflict on its own,” were rubbished and replaced by a puerile ‘forward posture’. The expected consequences followed in 1962, but the invaluable lessons learnt for posterity and the security dimensions have since never been the same. Quick confirmation of the change was indirectly showcased in the 1965 war, but very directly confirmed in the ‘limited’ war against the Chinese in 1967 (Nathu La and Cho La).

Read more at: http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/prudent-conflicts-254644

New Delhi, August 22The Navy today issued global request for information (RFI) for procurement of 111 utility and 123 multi-role helicopters under the recently launched strategic partnership model for defence procurement.Official sources said the RFI had been issued to identify original equipment maker for both the utility helicopters as well as multi-role choppers, which are being procured as part of the Navy’s modernisation plan.The procurement of both categories of choppers would cost the government in excess of $15 billion, according to experts who said the two contracts could be one of the largest globally in recent times.They said the Defence Ministry was likely to soon issue RFI to select the Indian defence manufacturer, which will join hands with the foreign entity or entities for production of the choppers as mandated under the strategic partnership model.The last date to respond to the RFI issued today by the Navy is October 6. — PTI

Nawaz Sharif’s opponents celebrate after the Supreme Court verdict in Karachi on Friday. REUTERS

Islamabad, July 28

Pakistan’s Supreme Court today disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the embattled leader to resign. It is the third time that the 67-year-old veteran politician’s term as premier has been cut short. Edit: Nawaz Sharif nailedThe verdict plunged Pakistan into a political crisis at a time when it is facing a brittle economy and a surge in militancy. As the unanimous verdict by the five-judge Bench was read out, a large number of Opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers celebrated outside, chanting “Go Nawaz, go”.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The court disqualified Sharif under Articles 62 and 63 of Pakistan’s Constitution that state that an MP should be truthful and righteous. “He is disqualified as a member of parliament so he has ceased to be holding the office of Prime Minister,” the Bench said. It ordered the Election Commission to issue a notification for Sharif’s disqualification. Subsequently, Sharif’s election from NA-120 constituency (in Lahore) was denotified. The federal Cabinet also stands dissolved.Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, was most likely to succeed him. No name has been announced for interim PM, who will fill the 45-day vacuum until Shehbaz, 65, is elected to the National Assembly. The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif for failing to declare “receivable” salary from a UAE-based company of his son in the 2013 nomination paper. It termed the salary, which was not paid to Sharif, as an “asset”. Following the verdict, a spokesperson of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said Sharif had stepped down, “despite reservations regarding different phases of the Panama case proceedings”.The SC ordered the National Accountability Bureau to initiate a corruption case against Sharif, his sons Hussain and Hassan and daughter Maryam within six weeks and that the trial be completed within six months of the filing of the case. The court also ordered a criminal investigation into the assets of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Sharif’s trusted aide, and Capt Muhammad Safdar, Sharif’s son-in-law and a member of the National Assembly.Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and a petitioner in the Panama case, hailed the verdict. The cricketer-turned-politician said: “It’s a moment of joy for Pakistan because for the first time the Supreme Court has disqualified the most powerful man in Pakistan, who has been ruling for 30 years.” Former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf, now living in Dubai, congratulated the nation. Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari urged everyone to respect the verdict.No Pakistani PM has ever completed his term. It is the second time in its 70-year history that the SC has disqualified a sitting PM. — PTI 

http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/20923034

New Delhi, August 21

Lt. Col. Shrikant Prasad Purohit, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Monday in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, will have to report o his unit after walking out of jail and the Army will review his suspension from service after examining the court order, army sources said on Monday.They said Purohit will be placed under same restrictions as an officer in “open arrest” and his movement will be confined to his residential accommodation and camp of his unit.An officer is placed under open arrest when court martial proceedings are initiated against him. The Army had initiated a Court of Inquiry against Purohit in April 2009.Purohit spent almost nine years in jail for his alleged role in the Malegaon blast case. The apex court observed that there were contradictions in the charge sheets filed by different investigating agencies.The army sources said the Army headquarters will study the Supreme Court’s order granting him bail and accordingly a call will be taken on whether to revoke his suspension from service.They said Purohit will have to wear uniform while being in his unit but he may be permitted to wear plain clothes as well.Purohit, who was posted with a unit under Southern Command and was an officer from intelligence corp, was suspended from service soon after he was arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast case in in late 2008.”He will have to report back to his unit after getting out of jail. He can be attached to any other unit after that,” said a source.According to defence regulation service rules, while under suspension, an officer will be placed under the same restrictions as an officer in open arrest.Six people were killed in the blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.The apex court set aside the April 25 verdict of the Bombay High Court denying bail to Purohit, but imposed certain restrictions while granting him relief after he spent eight years and eight months in jail. PTI

writer

General Qamar Bajwa’s fair honouring of the mercy petition wouldn’t be an act of fear, but a fearless step to invoke, imbibe and institutionalise internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence, that could make Pakistan look more dignified in the eyes of the world

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QUALITY OF MERCY: Friends of Kulbhushan Jadhav hold a photograph with Jadhav in the Mumbai neighbourhood where he grew up. Will the Pak army chief of army staff Gen Qamar Bajwa showcase the nobility of a just soldier and not be a politician?

Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (retd)ODDLY for a democratic country, the Chief of Pakistani Army, General Qamar Bajwa is the last word in reviewing the Kulbhushan Jadhav mercy petition, even though the COAS is officially at level/article 6 in the official Pakistani “Warrant of Precedence”. Ostensibly re-reviewing “evidence”, that was earlier rejected by Bajwa’s own borough, the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act. The chances of General Bajwa overruling previous tribunals and standing up against the “manufactured emotions”are dim, and therefore the fears of a premediated formality, without sincerity. Constraining General Bajwa’s individual discretion is the unsubtle reality of the institutional turf-wars between the troika elements that rules Pakistan — the Military, the Politicos and the now temporarily reigned-in, clergy. The self-combusting tinderbox of the inegalitarian Pakistani society is struggling with its “self-image”, an image that got historically shaped and regularly provoked by the competing elements of the troika, for legitimising their own relevance.  The troika furiously competes with each other on religious piety, India-centricity (especially Kashmir) and on feeding existential fears. So, even the Pakistani Army subsumes the larger religio-politico sentiment in its motto, “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah” (Faith, piety and struggle in the way of God), in a sharp contrast to the very functional, “Service before Self” as the defining-DNA for the Indian Army. The contours of the Pakistani armed forces meander expansively into the realm of diplomacy, commerce, civilian policies and the overall, national governance. Unsurprisingly, 35 out of the 70 years of Pakistani independence has seen the Generals ruling officially, and in the remainder 35 years, the files for mercy petitions are still not culminating at the Aiwan-e-Sadr (President House in Islamabad),  in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. This extended political mandate for the Pakistani Army disallows “letting-down” the nation, as the Kulbhushan Jadhav case feeds the pathological wantonness of a captured “Indian spy”! This algebra of governance and institutional one-upmanship, has saddled the Pakistani existence with a costly legacy of deep-rooted religiosity that is emerging in frankensteinian outpourings like the Tehrik-e-Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi etc. who are now consuming their own progenitors. The militant mutations of the Pakistani palace intrigues has led to collateral damages internally, in the realm of sectarianism (the Shia-Sunni divide), regionalism (Baloch movement) and even on religious schools (Barelvi-Wahabbi divide). Ultimately, the Pakistani army is left to undo the pet projects of the past, through bloody military operations like Zarb-e-Azb (which officially killed nearly 500 Pakistani military personnel and nearly 3,500 “militants”). This cause-effect of the past policies is silently acknowledged by the Pakistani military, while the politicos remain brazen, discredited and mired in the “Panamagates”, while the clergy remains temporarily “in-check,”though thriving in the narrow alleys amongst hungry believers. Amidst this cauldron of modern Pakistan, the critical introspection by the still-deified Pakistani military (especially after the horrific Army school attack in Peshawar), offers the only glimmer of hope as it is the sole institution, publically capable of redrawing the narrative of Pakistani policies and governance, without fear or compunctions of either losing the votes (as feared by the politicians) or the puritanical adherents (as feared by the clergy). The Pakistani military is slowly retracting from its past, albeit, still very selectively and partially. For General Bajwa, dismissing the Kulbhushan mercy petition would be the easiest perpetuation of the existing morass and “sameness”, whereas any possible “refuting”, “staying” or even “pending-the final-ICJ decision”, of the mercy petition could herald a radical change. General Bajwa’s fair honouring of the mercy petition wouldn’t be an act of fear, but a fearless step to invoke, imbibe and institutionalise the internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence. From the infamy as the “safe haven for terrorism” to finding Osama bin Laden on the periphery of a garrison town, the Pakistani military could shed its shady past, and actually walk the talk of its hallowed Jihad-fi-Sabilillah, amidst which, a verse aptly states, “Oh, ye who believe stand out firmly for God as witness To fair dealings, And let not the hatred of other people to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice”. Ironically, the Indian request is only for a free and fair trial and not a ‘pardon’ — it is therefore incumbent on the General to honour the sworn commitment to “justice” — a behavioural trait that is not expected from a politician or a mullah, but de rigueur from a professional soldier!General Bajwa has the choice to define himself in the mould of Generals’ Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharaf, or, be the befitting leader of an apolitically professional army like General Asif Janjua or even the more recent, General Raheel Sharif. The infantry officer from ’16 Baloch’ (“Ghazi ya Shaheed” Regiment, or “Victorious or Martyr”), owes his soldering instincts, codes and ethos to overcome the crisis of morality, political-duplicity and existential “purpose”, to showcase the nobility of a just soldier in himself, and not succumb to the bloodlust of a populist politician or the bigoted zealot, in trying to appease to the masses. Soldiers are meant to fight, and India and Pakistan have fought many times — we had 90,000 Pakistani prisoners-of-war in 1971, but we chose to treat all in strict accordance  with the Geneva Convention, rule 1925. The Pakistani General may chose semantic technicalities of a POW versus a “spy”, but the international concern on the Kulbhushan Jadhav as stated by the International Court of Justice, may be the lodestar for General Bajwa to reconsider dispassionately, along with considering the tragic outcome of Pakistan’s past policies and politics, very passionately.The writer is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar 

General Bipin Rawat

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 20

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat arrived in the Ladakh region today and took stock of the security scenario in the state with the top brass of the Northern Command.His three-day visit comes nearly a week after a scuffle between Indian and Chinese troops near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. The armies also resorted to stone-throwing.Sources said General Bipin Rawat chaired a high-level meeting today to discuss the Army’s strategy at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and reviewed the preparations for the President’s visit to Ladakh tomorrow.President Ram Nath Kovind is visiting Ladakh on his maiden domestic tour. He will present President’s Colours (a rare military honour) to five battalions of the Ladakh Scouts during his one-day visit to the region.During the function tomorrow, the Army Chief will be accompanied by Northern Command chief Lt Gen D Anbu. The function will be held at Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre in Leh.Ladakh Scouts had shown extraordinary bravery during the Kargil war in 1999 and was incorporated into the Army in 2001.Sources said the Army Chief is in Ladakh to encourage Indian soldiers deputed along the Line of Actual Control.

Chairs meeting

• Army Chief General Bipin Rawat took stock of the security scenario in the state with the top brass of the Northern Command on Sunday
• Sources said General Rawat chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the Army’s strategy at the Line of Actual Control

The Centre recently cleared a Rs 120.58 cr border road project for Leh

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

Amid ongoing border tension in the Ladakh region, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi today held a security review meeting and assessed the progress in the ongoing border infrastructure projects with senior MHA and ITBP officials.Sources said officials of the intelligence wings were also present and discussed reports on the recent developments and additional measures needed.ITBP personnel are deployed on the border in the Ladakh region along with the Army and they patrol along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China to ensure Indian positions are protected. Another issue that came up for discussion was the infrastructure requirements of the forces in the border areas, sources said.Recently the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cleared a proposal to construct a road from Marsimik La to Hot Spring as a “standalone project” in the region to ensure access to “vantage points” for security forces.Sources in the government said the project worth Rs 120.58 crore has been sanctioned by the MHA. The 32.9-km road will help connect security forces to remote areas to the east of Ladakh region, which has earlier witnessed aggression from the Chinese forces, officials said. The project, officials added, is part of the India-China Border Road-I, where India is building 73 other border roads.

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 19

The Army today paid tributes to Rifleman Bimal Sinjali who died in a fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Naugam sector of Kupwara district on Tuesday.Lt Gen JS Sandhu, General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps (15 Corps), and all ranks paid homage to the soldier at a ceremony held at the Badamibagh Cantonment here today.In a show of solidarity, officers of other security agencies also paid last respects to the martyr.Rifleman Bimal Sinjali sustained bullet injuries in a fire from across the LoC while he was deployed at a forward post in the Naugam Sector. He was provided immediate first aid and evacuated from the post but succumbed to the injuries, an Army spokesman here said.Rifleman Sinjali, 21, had joined the Army in 2015 and hailed from Sirukhark village in Baglung, Nepal. He is survived by his wife Yashoda Sinjali and a one-year-old son.His mortal remains were flown for last rites to Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, where he would be laid to rest with full military honours.In this hour of grief, the Army stands in solidarity with the bereaved family and remains committed to their dignity and well-being, the spokesman said.Sepoy Jaspreet Singh gets tearful adieuJammu: The Army on Wednesday paid tributes to Sepoy Jaspreet Singh, who was killed on the LoC on Tuesday while responding valiantly to unprovoked firing by Pakistan. A wreath-laying ceremony was organised at Rajouri where wreaths on the behalf of the GOC-in-C, Northern Command; GOC, 16 Corps, and all ranks were laid. TNS