Pakistan's 'NaPak' acts

Obligated by its profane objectives, our cumbersome neighbor Pakistan is going all out to pump in a spate of its domesticated terrorists into Kashmir, The chief commander of Indian Army confirmed. Pakistan exported terrorists –aided by Pakistan army and Intelligence agency ISI-have been attempting to intrude into the Indian side and targeting civil locations.

Undoubtedly, Indian soldiers are fighting tooth and nail to foil their bid to sneak into Indian border, but still sometimes intruders, making hay while the sun shines, succeed in their endeavor. The ambush on army camps at Uri, Pathankot and Sunjwan, getting the terrorists freed by attacking a hospital in Srinagar and ambuscades on police stations & many residential areas are some of the cowardly attacks carried out by Pakistan exported fear-mongers.

According to Intelligence, a string of Pakistan terrorists is plotting to intrude through the Indian border. The recent rise in unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan, substantiate the fact that the Pakistan’s plans make terrorists pass through the border are in full swing.

The right move!

There is an old saying that goes like “better late than never”, and this perfectly fits the NDA govt’s most recent step towards the institution of special courts to speed up the hearing process of criminal cases against the tainted MLAs and MPs-- though it should’ve been taken much earlier. Significantly, the credit for the recent development does not go to the cognizance of government, but to the Supreme Court’s last year rap on the Modi government. Two of such special courts have been formed in Delhi, which are to start the process from 1 March.

A total of twelve such courts is to be instituted to facilitate the fast-track hearing process of the years-long cases against the tainted lagislators. Aiming to dispose each case within a year, these courts will operate as fast-track courts.

Despite the fact that the govt’s move to set up special courts followed the Supreme Court order; it is significant that the MPs and MLAs who’ve been found indulged in various criminal acts will no longer enjoy the immunity due to tedious judicial proceedings.

A pact that no longer act

Even after a ceasefire pact in 2003 between India and Pakistan, Indian troops, almost every day, has been struggling with the bullets and grenades coming from across the border, unmasking Pakistan’s feigning stand behind its claim of being a peaceful nation. The recent violations do not imply that the pact was an unproductive move, given the fact that the era after the pact witnessed the less exchange of fire than the era before the pact. But, the unprovoked violation of ceasefire from Pakistan in the past few years and heavy shelling on the border villages, that left hundreds of innocent people died unwarrantable, has put all the ceasefire pacts and hopes to rekindle the relationships between the two nations on the shelf.

The relations of the two nations, since partition, has witnessed a spate of drastic turns,  discontents and plots, often, took the shape of wars and resulted into heavy physical and economic loss bore by both the nations, consequently. With this unfortunate history, the sour relationship can’t be described as a surprise. What more piercing is that how could a nation, to pump in the terrorists in another, resort to firing and shelling?

It’s been exposed umpteen times that how Pakistani troops have been, irrelevantly, opening fire at Indian posts and villages, adjacent to the border. But, practically the firing is not irrelevant as it has the relevance to helping out the terrorists and intruders infiltrating into Indian borders.

Dalveer Bhandari

China

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भारत और चीन की जारी तल्खी में किसका फायदा

भारत, भूटान और चीन को जोड़ने वाले त्रिकोणीय स्थल डोकलाम में भारतीय सैनिकों और चीन की पीपुल्स लिबरेशन आर्मी (पीएलए) के बीच बीते एक महीने से गतिरोध जारी है। भारत और चीन के बीच बरकार इस तल्खी ने यदि कोई भीषण रूप धारण नहीं किया है तो इसका श्रेय भारत के संयम व धैर्य को जाता है। चीन के विपरीत, भारत की ओर से असंगत बयानबाजी पर नियंत्रण रखा जाना प्रशंसनीय है। इन परिस्थतियों की गंभीरता को समझने और संयम बनाए रखने के लिए, सभी विपक्षी दलों को राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार और विदेश सचिव द्वारा घटना की पूर्ण जानकारी देना भी सहायक रहा है।

इसके विपरीत, चीनी पक्ष बेतुकी बयानबाजी और राष्ट्रवादी भवना दोनों को उच्च स्तर पर बनाए रखते हुए, अपना आपा खोए हुए है। चीन की ओर से भारत को प्रत्यक्ष और अप्रत्यक्ष चेतावनी दी गई हैं।

चीनी मीडिया द्वारा भारत को 1962 के युद्ध का स्मरण कराना और कथित तौर पर घटना स्थल के पास सैन्य  अभ्यासों की सीसीटीवी वीडियो का प्रसारण, स्पष्ट रूप से भारत को भयभीत करने के चीनी पैतरे हैं। भारत के धैर्य को बेशक इसकी अतिसंवेदनशीलता का संकेत माना जा सकता है, लेकिन तर्कसंगत रूप से, चीन को भी इस तल्खी को बढ़ाकर कुछ खास हासिल नहीं होगा। भारत और चीन दोनों को ही द्विपक्षीय वार्ता के माध्यम से इस संकट को हल करने की दिशा में कदम बढ़ाने चाहिए।

Emergency: the black history

The proposal to usher in a specific chapter on emergency in the curriculum at the school level by Minister of State for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Nakhvi is extremely welcome and must be propelled by those having staunch faith in our constitutional and democratic system. While honouring democratic fighters at the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the ill-famed emergency in the country, Nakhvi articulated that the 19 months long clamouring narration of emergency that, pitilessly, almost eclipsed the democracy should be prefaced to our successors as 75 percent of our generation still unacquainted about the grounds and formidable circumstances before and during the emergency. The students must be cognizant about disreputed history of independent India as there are about revolutionary movements and freedom fighters before the independence.

After the Illegitimisation of the stellar victory of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from Gandhian's bastion Raebareli in 1971 by Allahbad high court in 1975 observing the forgery in the election, India snowballed into the massive tyranny. Indira Gandhi junked the entire constitution and democratic system in order to straddle the power and battered the country whimsically with internal emergency. And, it enabled her to, Imperiously, infuse the cells with her critics and political opponents, bringing cruel laws and, indeed, inexorably, pursue the whole country through a tyranny. When people would get the winds of disservice that excruciatingly inflicted by emergency to our ultimate constitution and the pristine pillars of the democracy, they'll, then, recognise the ingraining importance of Nakhvi's proposal. The tyrannical emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi almost trampled upon the parliament, judiciary, executive and even media. In a move to recount the current contemporaries the actual significance of intolerance, they must be cognizant about the brutal distortion of Indian constitution and  how the Institutions were grievously imperilled.

Scaling down the constitutionally-supreme parliament into a pint-sized rubber-stamp, that passed the amendments, which left even alternative judiciary hamstrung, and deterring judiciary to take up pleas against the Prime Minister that reflected by 39th constitutional amendment. Dramatically, it was not the end of vicious authoritarianism, but the beginning. Now, Indira Gandhi introduced the 41st constitutional amendment, aiming to project the Prime Minister the super citizen of the country, and that will elevate the PM above the law. The law stated, the Prime Minister would not be subjected to any criminal proceedings for any of his/her work before or after assuming the office. Then, the country saw the 42nd amendment of Indian constitution, that included most of the implacable provisions based on Indira Gandhi's whimsical fancies. The most-usual perception is, the then President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed played as rubber stamp, indeed, he, without any objection, signed the notification apropos to imposing emergency. It defies comprehension that President Ali Ahmed didn't consider to even asking Indira Gandhi once that,  what led her to take up such a crucial motion without the mutual consent of her cabinet. Significantly, if he did so, Mrs Gandhi would have taken the parliamentary route for the motion.


The way, Indian Parliament and President, itself, were turned into a puppet of Indira Gandhi's hand and, simultaneously, judiciary and the media were genuflected, the school students must be taught about. The whole exercise led most of the judges to kowtow to the pressure inflicted to the judiciary. The distinguished Shivkant Shukla vs SDM, Jabalpur case would be a worthwhile example, wherein five judge bench of Supreme Court accepted the argument that, any Indian citizen would be devoid of the right to challenge against his/her house arrest or to file a Habeas Corpus plea, by Indira Gandhi government, concurrently, it was argued also by then Attorney General that any citizen would be deprived of any legal relief from the court until the end of emergency, even if a citizen is shot dead by a policeman.


Justice H.R. Khanna, the only judge out five judge bench, strenuously, expressed his dissent, though Justice Khanna was in the reckoning to be the Chief Justice but, Imperiously, detached from the reckoning by Indira Gandhi. Unlikely, rest all judges wrote down the verdict to do away the citizens of their fundamental rights, and elevated as Chief Justice, thereafter. The awareness of the preternatural judges like Justice Khanna, that stood stoutly for citizen's fundamental rights, though, sacrificing their career, must be spread among the youngsters, today, simultaneously, about those journalists, writers and artists who bulldozed the democracy back into the existence, even after being subjected to the cruel tyranny while putting up a fight against it, and that will, significantly, inspire the students to struggle, now, for their own independence.

A good move for farmers

Amid the fear of being branded as anti-farmer, the NDA govt has seamlessly embarked to reap its vote-share among the country’s farmers who played significant role in its overwhelming victory in 2014 general election, by subsequently rolling out schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Fasal Bima Yojna, among others. The NDA's softball came close on the heels of the government cutting down the prices of major fertilisers including DAP and NPK in the impending Monsoon season, and most significantly, that too, with immediate effect.


Certainly, the decisive step, taken under "Jameen Bachao- Kisan Bachao" campaign, points to an instantaneous profit to the farmers splendidly worth 4500 crore but wavering the fact if the agriculture could appear lucrative, given to the sharp decrease in prices of fertilisers. Furthermore, The govt is also mulling over loan waiver to sugarcane farmers. The schemes and plans, though, would, potentially, benefit the farmers, but despite the menacing facet, that the agricultural wage has severely deprived farmers of a better livelihood, the government must also ferret out if its plans are working out to salvage them through that stinking untidy modus vivendi.


Low-interest crop loans carry their own significance, but the agriculture could not be lucrative to farmers until they are necessitated to bear burdensome baggage of loans even to sow seeds. With a prodigious section of farmers today, absurdly, bound to bulldoze its livelihood in farms, and forlornly,  gazing for other options, the policymakers must chew over profoundly to recognize and weed out the ingraining causes with view to make them self-dependent.


The prevailing political interests and vote-bank politics,  perhaps, have prevented government, hitherto, to bring out farmers of that minacious vessel of dependence, given the fact that even the farmers from the advanced harvesting states are, though reluctantly (because of dearth enough money) habituated to the free electricity and water. Accompanying the waivers and formulation of plans, government must also ensure the self-dependence of farmers by modernizing the harvesting and ridding the farmers of those traditional tools for agriculture with a view to expand agricultural growth and leveraging the farmers to their self-dependence. 

The great wall of "Resistance"

Time to act for India to uproot Chinese hurdlesome wall from India's growth Itinerary


India returned from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) annual plenary session embarked in Seoul, with nothing in its hand and it's bid to join NSG group unsurprisingly Scuttled by the China's brazen hindrances. With the antecedent balky activities, China has appeared to be a hurdlesome baggage of India's elevating growth that this country unwarrantedly bearing. The questions, though, were put up subsequently by other countries like Austria, Brazil, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and Turkey, astonishingly, over the process being followed to induct India to NSG group, as an MEA spokesperson excused, "it is self- evident that process issues would not arise if these countries were actually opposed to our participation." By apparently disallowing India's bid to be even hashed out in the first halve, China demonstrated a subaltern strategy of obstructing India's move.

China's hard-line agenda, Nonetheless, reflected in to the President Xi Jinping christening China and Pakistan "Iron Brothers." In order to circumvent Chinese logjam, President Pranab Mukherjee's eschew to Xi Jinping for his personal intercession on the NSG issue, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's visit to Beijing and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal appeal to Chinese President at Tashkent either failed to dull the sharp edges of the great wall of resistance raised by China.


 By simply tantalizing India's hope, Beijing is just playing delatory maneuver while being persuaded. In such case, India must grope for other options to find a way out by unraveling Chinese unkempt net. Its the time to act for India to uproot chinese hurdlesome wall from India's growth Itinerary. It must relook on its Chinese strategy and reformulate the roadmap in which it should deal with Beijing.

To start with, By just mulling over the forums like WTO and climate change where both are simultaneously embarking as unison, secondly, it may take a terse stance on South China Sea dispute, third, by beefing up its relationship with Taiwan as it itself a Chinese business hub, fourth and most substantially, by reconsidering its business ties with China as being the biggest trade partner of India with bilateral trade worth $70 billion, It may necessitate China to rethink before taking a hurdlesome stance in India' growth. Because as the trade scale tending towards China Exorbitantly, India has nothing to lose in its hand.

Is Degree Fiasco worth the hype?

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are leading a relentless attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversy surrounding his academic degrees. The allegations have shifted from Modi making false statement on oath about his qualifications in the electoral affidavit to now forging of documents with the emergence of ‘fake’ degrees in a section of the media.

Modi’s election affidavit in 2014 claimed he received a BA degree from Delhi University in 1978 and an MA degree from Gujarat University in 1983. Even after a sheer public revelation of his degree by the senior party leaders themselves, Aam Admi Party's doubts about Modi's degree are refusing to die out. And now the latest play of the drama king Kejriwal on the Modi degrees has turned this ongoing comedy into a real travesty.

Just to make him believe i guess one should take Kejriwal aside to school him in the common law around names. It is quite legal and legitimate to use any names or aliases whatsoever unless one does so for an illegal purpose. If Modi’s name is spelt as Mody or Modi, written as Narendra Kumar Damodardas Modi or Narendra Damodardas Modi is of no consequence and some quite plausible explanations have been offered by Arun Jaitley and others.

And beyond that in the election of 2014 that resulted in him becoming the Prime Minister, Modi didn’t campaign on the basis of his degrees. While he and his supporters sloganeered about economic development a zillion times I don’t remember even one of them crowing about his academic prowess. If the degrees are genuine, and so far they appear to be, forget the names or the spellings Modi has used.

Now lets take a look at what Modi the political juggler or the conjuror, madari in the Indian parlance, has done recently. Campaigning in Kerala he publicly alluded to Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin more than once. The thinly veiled references to her being born an Italian are the worst form of dog whistle politics to mine the imagined xenophobic impulses of Indians. That is far more sinister than the names he may have used in the past or on his degrees. It ill behoves the Prime Minister of India.

For the current predicament of the country and its people including the latest Augusta Westland revelations, the Congress has a lot of questions to answer but the Indian citizen Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin isn’t one of them: an Indian citizen, in this case Sonia Gandhi, is an Indian like all others no matter where she was born. Why doesn’t Modi talk about his record on economic development or his plans for it rather than wallowing in the gutter of racism and xenophobia?

An irony of immense proportions is unfolding in India. There are water shortages. Under the weight of crippling debts and drought the brutally impoverished Indians are killing themselves. There is unrest in the country’s universities. There aren’t enough jobs being created for the millions of youth joining the job market every year. Corruption, poverty, violence and injustice are on a rampage in the country.

In the midst of all this misery all right thinking Indians need to be discussing, debating and engaged in the most urgent national challenge of building a prosperous, harmonious, just, egalitarian and compassionate — corruption free– India. For its past sins of allowing corruption, communalism and sycophancy to flourish the Congress is on life support and irrelevant, at least for the time being. The drama King Kejriwal is obsessing about Modi’s degrees and Modi the great orator about Sonia’s Italian origin. God help the country!

A deal that 'staked' National Security

The political tsunami of AgustaWestland is hitting all levels of Indian politicians and the bureaucrats. A $450-million dollar deal involving the purchase of Italian helicopters for Indian government use, which made news in 2013 after Italian authorities arrested the CEO of the helicopter company over charges of bribery and money laundering, has assumed centre stage again after a recent Italian court judgement identified the role of former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi forh being bribed to ensure that the deal went through.

Now inevitably, the ruling BJP is gearing up to target Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in order to raise discussions over the Italian court order which has noted that the UPA government at the time was reluctant to “share critical documents with investigators”.

Actually the matter dates back to 2010, when the UPA government and the Indian Air Force agreed to purchase twelve helicopters from Italian company AgustaWestland. These helicopters were to be used primarily to transport the president, the prime minister and any other VVIP.

Likewise the most public scams in India, the controversy around the deal revolves around with whether Indian government and air force officials received bribes in order to give the contract to AgustaWestland. In 2013, Italian authorities arrested AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and Finmeccanica (the parent company of AugutaWestland) Chairman Guiseppe Orsi over charges that they engaged middlemen to bribe Indian politicians and Indian Air Force officials in order to secure the deal.

Thereafter, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) started their own investigations and the helicopter contract was put on hold. A majority of the money paid out to AgustaWestland has been recovered, mostly in the UPA years.

During initial investigations and immediately after the controversy broke, most attention was centred on Tyagi whose cousins allegedly received kick-backs through various north Indian shell companies. Tyagi also was in the limelight after the Italian authorities alleged that he used his position as air force chief to favour AgustaWestland by tweaking the minimum technical specifications required for the purchased helicopters.

Moreover, moment an enquiry is launched against party bosses, congress party goes to town claiming vendetta politics. They adopted the same tactics when court summoned Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi along with others on National Herald case. When ED raided house of chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Birbhadra Singh, on charge of cookingis tax return, congress cried vengeance and stalled parliament function. I guess things niever change. Irrespective of the side they occupy in parliament, ruling or opposition, some parties try to shield the corrupt  sidelining national interest.

Indeed, the scam which is being called India’s biggest defence scam after Bofors has put the congress Supremo Sonia Gandhi in a spot of bother and deep trouble with her name appearing in the conversation between three middlemen — Carlos Gerosa, Christian Michel, and Guildo Haschke. The three are believed to have mentioned the name of a ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ in their conversation.  The Milan Court of Appeals, in its judgment, noted the conversations between the above mentioned, who mention ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ as being the ‘driving force behind the VIP’ and her close aides Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee. However  Pranab Mukherjee  is referred to as being the ‘British High Commissioner’. In a letter dated 15 March 2008, Christian Michel wrote to Peter Hulet, the then head of India region sales and liaison for AugustaWestland, saying “Dear Peter, since Mrs. Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8 . Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aids of the High Commissioner, senior adviser Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then there’s Ahmed Patel Secretary”.

While being the matter of national security, the issue is making a lot of noise in the Rajya sabha lately. Irrespective of the case and the popularity of the names involved in the case, justice has to prevail and the guilty are to be punished. But the alleged involvement  of Mrs. Gandhi in  the case is making the case a political battle, where the ruling NDA and the opposition UPA are fighting to embarrass each other. This case, however, is going to shadow the path of Smt. Sonia Gandhi the way Bofors shadowed the political path of Late. Rajiv Gandhi. The party which is apparently fighting for its political existence is on a back foot with this case tightening its hold on the party president. But keeping the political flavor of the case aside, we strongly hope and urge that the guilty are tried and brought to justice. Let the flame of truth flash bright and burn all traces of corruption and false play.