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SPECIAL
REPORT From B L Kak
Regimental spirit motivates
NEW DELHI, Sept 20: The Indian Army is the most experienced in battle today and more than .....more Curfew further AHMEDABAD, Sep 20: Curfew was further relaxed in the violence-hit Dariapur locality of the walled city for ten hours from 8 a.m. today....more Azhagiri’s supporters MADURAI, Sept 20: A State transport bus was set on fire and three buses were damaged allegedly by supporters of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister .......more Demand for separate NEW DELHI, Sept 20: Buoyed by the statehood granted to Chhattisgarh......more |
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India-Russia to sign NEW DELHI, Sept 20: Russia and India will sign an agreement to step up cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy........more
Commonwealth NEW DELHI, Sept 20: Notwithstanding reservations of India and some other Commonwealth countries on the establishment of an International Criminal....more Women lack say in NEW DELHI, Sept 20: Eight million unwanted pregnancies, 20 million unsafe abortions, and five lakh maternal deaths.......more |
SPECIAL
REPORT From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Sept. 20: Prime Minister’s special emissary to the Naga peace talks, Mr K Padmanabhaiah, is said to have resented what is termed as "lack of adequate support" from the Union Home Ministry to his "mission". Mr Padmanabhaiah, who served as the Home Secretary to the Government of India till his retirement, does not find the existing bureaucratic set-up in Delhi’s North Block helpful and cooperative. Mr Padmanabhaiah does not doubt the bona fides of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah). But there is a group of officials in the Home Ministry which believes that the dreaded organisation, better known as NSCN (I-M), has been less than sincere in its observation of the cease-fire. These officials also believe that Chief Minister, Mr SC Jamir, should figure in the political negotiations as a third party. This is contrary to the NSCN (I-M) posture that the Nagaland Chief Minister has made his own separate peace within the Indian Constitution and is adequately represented by the official negotiating team. The NSCN (I-M) leadership is said to have criticised the manner in which Mr Jamir’s Congress party forcefully took up his cause. In fact, a Congress delegation, in a petition to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Home Minister, Mr LK Advani, insisted on Mr Jamir’s involvement in the Naga peace process. And the petition asserted that those who take Muivah and the NSCN (I-M) as the sole rightful interlocutors are unaware of the ground realities. The Nagaland Government has periodically denounced the NSCN (I-M) as "an untrustworthy interlocutor". Significantly, however, the Nagaland Chief Minister recently made his Cabinet adopt a resolution calling for an extension of the cease-fire. And the days leading up to the cease-fire extension were vitiated by mutual accusations between Government spokespersons and the NSCN (I-M). Responding to the NSCN (I-M)’s catalogue of alleged violations committed by the Indian security forces, the Government had compiled its own list, enumerating more than 530 political murders by the NSCN (I-M). More significant than this is the choice of operations employed by Mr K Padmanabhaiah: He has contested some of these official figures. His information, based on the strength of inputs provided by the intelligence agencies, is that violence has fallen to a third of its earlier level since the truce was declared on August 1, 1997. And he has estimated that till December 31, 1999 only 105 persons, including 19 security personnel, have fallen victim to political violence in the Naga areas. Interestingly, Mr Padmanabhaiah’s letter to the Home Ministry requesting an explanation for the inflated figures it has put out, remains unanswered. Meanwhile, in a secret move, the Bhutanese Government’s intelligence department has begun consultations with a team of Indian security specialists on re-structuring and strengthening Bhutanese police and other security agencies for dealing with the growing menace of militants and terrorists. The move has been initiated at a time when Bhutan’s security forces were put on maximum alert. This development assumes importance in the context of growing fears of the King of Bhutan, Mr Jigme Singye Wangchuk, becoming the target of militants who sneak into Bhutan after attacking targets in Assam and Nagaland. According to the Chief Operations Officer of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA), Mr Goongloen Gongma Lam Dorji, the threat to the security of Bhutan aggravated after underground Nepali activists joined hands with the Indian militants. Army intelligence specialists have calculated that nearly 3,000 ULFA and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) cadres are operating from Bhutan, where they have built up a large arsenal. While ULFA’s command headquarters is also located there, several underground Naga militants belonging to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland’s Isaac-Muivah group have moved to Bhutan and established training camps. The Khaplang group of the NSCN is also reported to have its hideout along the Indo-Bhutan border. Even as the Royal Bhutan Army has deployed troops along the Bhutan-Assam border and launched intensive training of fresh recruits in low-intensity conflict and jungle warfare, Bhutan today is under the threat of a growing anti-monarchy movement by people of Nepalese origin residing in most of the southern districts of Bhutan. The Nepalese people, Bhutan Government has let it be known, are supported by ULFA and Bodo militants. |
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Regimental spirit motivates men most: Army Chief NEW DELHI, Sept 20: The Indian Army is the most experienced in battle today and more than everything else, regimental spirit has motivated the men most, Army Chief V P Malik said here today. "The Indian Army is the most experinced in battle today. Its infantry is battle-hardened. It also has no parallel in counter-insurgency, disaster relief and other contingencies," Gen Malik said after releasing a cofee table book `Infantry -A glint of the bayonet’. He said while money, pay-scales and patriotism motivated men, it was the regimental spirit that counted most. While all arms of the Army were equally important, it was the infantry which bore the brunt at the most difficult places including Siachen and Kargil. With 23 regiments, the infantry comprised 33 per cent of the Army. "Their motivation, dedication and raw courage does not have any parallel," Gen Malik said adding their feat in Kargil was "unparalleled and can never be surpassed." He said more money was being allocated for the modernisation of the infantry as suggested by the Kargil review committee. "While the equipment are important, it is the man behind the gun who matters," the Army Chief said. Director General of Infantry Lt Gen Shankar Prasad said that even today students were taught about the battles of Plassey and Panipat. "It is time they know more about post-independence battles including Kargil," he said. (PTI) The book, carrying over 400 pictures, presents a glimpse of the Indian infantry’s evolution, its operations, peace-time soldiering, peace-keeping operations, maintenance of internal security and counter-insurgency operations. Besides this, the coffee-table pictorial brought out by Director General Infantry and Lancer Publications, contains a chapter exclusively on the future infantryman, negating the prevalent theory that electronic revolution would make the foot-soldier redundant in a modern battlefield. Sophisticated weapons, armour and other systems, which are now available in the international market, magnifies "thousand fold the abilities and skills" of an infantryman, the book says giving examples of various protective gears to ward off nuclear, chemical and biological threats, vest computers, small and easy-to-carry global positioning system and laser guidance finders. The book talks of high-tech equipment like miniaturised aerial vehicles which could be held in the palm and used to carry out recconnaissance missions in a two to 10 km range, enhancing the situational awareness at the unit level. Quoting Alvin Toffler describing the future soldier as "niche warrior", authors of the publication assert that the existence of low intensity conflict and war in specialised environments of glacial and high altitude "make the versatile infantryman indispensable". (PTI) |
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Curfew further relaxed at Dariapur AHMEDABAD, Sep 20: Curfew was further relaxed in the violence-hit Dariapur locality of the walled city for ten hours from 8 a.m. today following improvement in the situation, even as the toll rose to eight. Peace prevailed in the area and no untoward incident had been reported, police said. With one more Shiv Sena worker succumbing to injuries, the toll in violence and clashes between supporters of BJP and Shiv Sena during Sunday’s civic polls went up to eight. Sena worker Hardik (16), son of Shiv Sena candidate from Dariapur ward Vinod Patel, who was injured in police firing, died at hospital last night, they said. Six people had been killed and nine hurt in the police firing while one person was stabbed to death at Dariapur on the polling day. (PTI) |
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Azhagiri’s supporters protest against party decision MADURAI, Sept 20: A State transport bus was set on fire and three buses were damaged allegedly by supporters of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s son Azhagiri here late lastnight, police said. They were protesting against DMK leadership’s warning of action against those who stood by Azhagiri, who was charged with violating party discipline. The party leadership had yesterday asked its cadre not to have any truck with Azhagiri in party matters. The decision to ‘sideline’ the Chief Minister’s son had created tension in some parts of the district, police said. Police had asked the transport operators not to ply early morning services today as a precaution, they said. DMK sources said that show-cause notices had been served on three of its district secretaries for not attending the ‘Mupperum Vizha’ (party function), organised at Chennai recently. The supporters of Azhagiri said that they were unhappy about ‘giving more prominence to M K Stalin’, another son of Karunanidhi and Mayor of Chennai corporation, and nominating Stalin’s supporters to the youth wing instead of appointing democratically elected candidates’. They said the ‘contributions’ of Azhagiri to the party were in no way less than that of Stalin. While Azhagiri had strengthened the party in an area where the party was weak, ‘Stalin is taking shelter under his father’s popularity’, they said. (PTI) |
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Demand for separate Telengana gaining momentum NEW DELHI, Sept 20: Buoyed by the statehood granted to Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand, the demand for a separate Telengana State is gaining momentum with Congress MLAs from the region asking party president Sonia Gandhi to take up their demand for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh with the Centre and in Parliament. "The smaller State concept has been widely accepted in the country today. Now the time has come for Telengana to free itself from being part of Andhra Pradesh," said D Sreenivas, who led a delegation of the party MLAs to meet Gandhi and submitted a memorandum last night. Accusing the TDP Government of having "totally neglected" the region, he said Telengana remained backward due to neglect and exploitation by successive Governments. Asked if other parties of the region were supporting them, he said it figured in BJP’s manifesto. "If necessary, we will work together on this issue.... First we have to have to take it up with our party leadership," he said, adding Gandhi was "open-minded" on the matter. To a question if Congress MLAs from other areas of the State were with them, Sreenivas said "this concerns a region. But they are not objecting to it." The memorandum submitted by 41 Congress MLAs alleged that surplus revenues were diverted to Andhra region during the past four decades, jobs meant for Telengana people in Government departments and public undertakings were secured by Andhra People and that Telengana people were treated as "second class" citizens by the Andhra "ruling class". The AICC committee on the issue of small States headed by Pranab Mukherjee will meet on October 14. (PTI) |
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