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EDITORIAL It has been the wont of successive State and Central Governments to treat its civil servants like the pack of cards. Whenever public criticism against the ruling clan for its total failure on delivery gains momentum, it is the senior rung of the civil services that are targeted for reshuffle. There are instances when the same IAS or State cadre officer stands subjected to almost monthly transfers. This is in a way punishment for not being pliant to the ruling clan. Come election, it is again time for massive changes both in administrative and police hierarchy. The password is to pass the buck. True, civil servants enjoy powers that could be the envy of others down the rung. But ultimately, they have to go by the rules and not by the political diktats of the Government of the day. It thus follows that those who are honest and fast on delivery are the ones that face music more often than those who are pliant and obliging to their masters. That explains why election eve transfers rule the roots before the election code comes into force. It is proof enough that the rulers of the day want only those officers at the district and other pivotal slots who would be helpful to them during election. By helpful it implies to sleep over the irregularities and be privy to the ...more |
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A problem for Vajpayee Janata Party Economic autonomy Alarming signals from
Kashmir Shambolic education Foreign Origin : a burning
issue on the back burner Army in 21st century |
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EDITORIAL It has been the wont of successive State and Central Governments to treat its civil servants like the pack of cards. Whenever public criticism against the ruling clan for its total failure on delivery gains momentum, it is the senior rung of the civil services that are targeted for reshuffle. There are instances when the same IAS or State cadre officer stands subjected to almost monthly transfers. This is in a way punishment for not being pliant to the ruling clan. Come election, it is again time for massive changes both in administrative and police hierarchy. The password is to pass the buck. True, civil servants enjoy powers that could be the envy of others down the rung. But ultimately, they have to go by the rules and not by the political diktats of the Government of the day. It thus follows that those who are honest and fast on delivery are the ones that face music more often than those who are pliant and obliging to their masters. That explains why election eve transfers rule the roots before the election code comes into force. It is proof enough that the rulers of the day want only those officers at the district and other pivotal slots who would be helpful to them during election. By helpful it implies to sleep over the irregularities and be privy to the electoral malpractices. If that was not the intention, there would never be election eve transfers. Even in the normal course of Governance, civil servants are compelled to sign on the dotted lines. Unless this is done, the concerned unobliging officer is in for transfer to inconsequential slots. Sometime the punishment is in the form of sending him to far off places and keep him there until the affected is ready to make suitable amends and promises to ever remain subservient not to the people but to the political masters. Sometime there is also witch-hunting in the form of harassment or threats. To quote one singular instance, if only Bhatnagar had not obliged by signing on the dot even when there was adverse recommendation from the then Chief of Army Staff Gen Sunderji, Bofors would never have been purchased. Such is the impact of the recommendations of civil servants when they are asked to sleep over what the power apparatus desires and come out of slumber as soon the political call from the ruling clan comes. For them it is indeed a Catch-22 situation. If they oblige and remain pliant even over serious financial and other irregularities, their conscience is ever in revolt for they happen to be the cream of the nation. If they remain unobliging and carry out their duties as true servants of the people according to laid down rules, they are sure to be the first victims of any reshuffle. Come change of Government or even change of Chief Minister, there is another shocking reshuffle at the senior rung. For instance Chief Minister Ram Parkash Gupta even before assuming charge of UP has indicated administrative ‘revamp’. UP and Bihar are no doubt notorious for treating civil servants of both Central and State cards like a pack of cards. Other States are not immune from it and they constantly engage in this exercise, all in the name of revamping administration. J&K State too has faced many major reshuffles during the past three years of popular rule. Another one is on cards and Chief Minister likes to call it as a continuous process. But none in the ruling hierarchy is in a position to confirm if such reshuffles have indeed resulted in improving delivery of the Government. Far from it. In fact, despite all the reshuffles, the administration has only slided down from bad to worse. As far as hapless citizens are concerned they now refuse to react to any reshuffle. They tend to go by the humorous adage, "Natha Singh or Prem Singh, it is one and the same thing." As far as senior officers of both State and Central cadres are concerned, they are inclined to go for the ‘lesser evil’. Hats off to Kalyan Singh ! He has gone in for reshuffle of as many as 60 senior officers on the eve of his relinquishing CM's slot. |
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A problem
for Vajpayee Janata Party Is there a message in the results of four seats in Bihar which did not exist in the results of over five hundred seats across the country in the general elections? BJP leaders will not waste much time over ''introspection'' into why they lost three Lok Sabha seats that they held, within weeks of an impressive performance that saw them sweep to victory in Bihar. They should. Is there, already, some subtle difference in the environment that returned Atal Behari Vajpayee to power that the BJP does not want to recognise because it is uncomfortable-- and, at this moment, comparative unnecessary--to do so? Is there, since the state from which the first post-mandate results came was Bihar, something for Laloo Prasad Yadav to be happy about? We can answer the last question first. No. Laloo Yadav will have to do much more to restore the once-permanent smile on his face. However, I would recommend very strongly to readers that we should not underestimate his ability to smile once again. This is the deepest trough into which he has fallen, but Laloo Yadav was born with a lift in his mouth. His nickname, in his intimate circles, is Otis the Elevator. It is now two months since the results of the general elections were declared; there is a difference in the environment, and it is not so subtle. One of the key reasons for the BJP revival from the depression of the winter of 1998-99 was the imposed silence of the fundamentalists who have used the shelter provided by a BJP government to pursue a hysterical agenda against the minorities of our country. Silence does not come easily to the likes of Acharya Giriraj Kishore; they are far more enthusiastic when they can call the Pope a lunatic, Muslims mass murderers et al. It must have taken some serious persuasion on the part of Nagpur to keep them quiet for nearly a year. Clearly the most persuasive argument was that if they continued their screaming campaign, the BJP would lose the election. You do not have to explain this a second time to fundamentalists, who are adept at the manipulation of power no matter what their religion or social environment. Muslim fundamentalists have proved this in both Pakistan and India, whenever they have found a government willing to crawl before them. The other similarity between fundamentalists, irrespective of hue, is marked lack of originality. This may even be their strength. Once they take up a line of attack, they do not allow any variable, including common sense, to interfere with their cause. The moment the election results confirmed that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee would be back as Prime Minister, the attack on Christians, with specific concentration on Christian missionaries, resumed. The visit of Pope Paul provided just the incentive that they needed. The anti-Pope campaign is both misconceived and flawed. This misconception stems from ignorance about the church rather than ignorance of Christianity. The Pope does not represent all Christians; and a great number of the Christian missions that worry Hindu fundamentalists have nothing to do with the Pope, who is the pontiff of only the Roman Catholic Church. The Southern Baptists, for instance, who are the Christian extremists in this equation, are an American church who would have been pursued with fire and death for heresy by the Roman Catholics in an earlier time. However, our local fundamentalists see Christianity as some sort of vast International conspiracy personally supervised by the Pope and his board of Italian directors. (Actually, the Vatican is not in Italy, it is independent the Pope is not Italian, he is Polish; and there are probably more black and brown cardinals now than Italian redhats.) The anti-conversion campaign may not be equally misconceived, but it is flawed. The Constitution of India displays exceptional clarity on the place of religion in modern India, as you might expect. Our founding fathers had just experienced the trauma that misuse of religion could inflict on a multicultural and multifaith nation like ours when they wrote the Constitution, and they understood what they meant by a secular India. Article 25 is defined as the ''Right to Freedom of Religion'': it is the fourth of an Indian's fundamental rights. (The other fundamental rights are to equality, freedom, culture, education, constitutional remedy and against exploitation.) The opening paragraph of this fundamental right is simple and perfectly understandable to the meanest intelligence: ''Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part. all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion''. All religious denominations are equal before the law; and everyone has the right to propagate religion.'' All religious denominations are equal before the law; and everyone has the right to profess (call himself a Christian), practise (go to church) and propagate (tell whoever will listen that Jesus is the true Lord and Heaven will be the province of those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God). It is not necessary for me or you to share this faith. As a Muslim I am specifically enjoined to reject the concept that jesus is the Son of God, for God is indivisible and can have no Son Muslims reject the Christian thesis of Trinity, and Jesus as a Son of God, even though they accept that Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary. The Prophet Muhammad was once asked how he could rationalise the two views. If Muslims believed that Jesus had been born of a virgin, and therefore was not a son of man. ipso facto he could only be a Son of God. The Prophet answered that if the means of birth were to be the only criterion for the assumption of divinity, then who had a greater right to call himself a Son of God more than Adam, who was born of neither man or woman. And yet neither Muslim nor Christian nor Jew, all of who recognised Adam as the first man, called him a Son of God. It is not relevant that Indian Muslims and Indian Christians should agree on Jesus; it is only relevant to our Constitution that both religions have the complete freedom to propagate their conflicting beliefs. That is what makes the Indian Constitution such a Brilliant exposition of the rights of man in a civilised, democratic age of human history. If a Muslim suddenly begins to prefer the Christian position on Jesus and wants to become a Christian, he is perfectly entitled to do so under the Constitution of India. If a Hindu wants to do the same, no one can legally prevent him. Religion under our Constitution is not restricted only to those who have faith in a God; if someone wants to convert to atheism, he is perfectly within rights to do so too. There is no moral justification, however, for forcible conversion, but the controversy that has been raised by fundamentalists is not about forcible conversions, it is about conversions per se. In Orissa it was not Dr Graham Staines who was using force, it was Dara Singh. It would require a serious amendment to our Constitution to prevent people from changing their faith by free will. The definition of Article 25 says it all: ''Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.'' It is the individual conscience that is the key to freedom of religion. Yes, that conscience is nudged by experience; conscience always is. If the tribal feels that he has been socially humiliated and economically exploited, at some point he will seek comfort in another dispensation. The answer lies not in bitter confrontation with Christianity, but in reform. Mahatma Gandhi created a freedom movement by social reform as much as by political agitation: the second might never have happened without the first. His greatest achievement may not have been driving the British out of India, but driving that culture of contempt and hatred against the Dalits, or the Harijans, as he called them, which was India's darkest shame. That battle for true equality between every Indian is not over. Unfortunately, Acharya Giriraj Kishore does not have time for such reality; missionaries move into the space that the Acharya Giriraj Kishores refuse to occupy. The BJP may find it convenient to allow such voices to rise in the complacence that inevitably succeeds an electoral victory. Perhaps there will be disbelief and even scorn if I suggest that the BJP lost three of its own seats in Bihar because it is no longer interested in silencing the fundamentalists who claim its protection. Indians reject fundamentalism, wherever and whenever they see it; and a shrick can pierce into the electoral consciousness of Bihar as quickly as anywhere else. Whenever the BJP drifts behind and allows fundamentalists to occupy centrestage, it loses the support of the majority of the people. This is something that the party must confront. India needs a party of the centre not political formations that represent the extremes of any ideology or philosophy. The Communists only succeeded in India when they renounced violence, however revolutionary that violence might have been. Mr Vajpayee can only succeed if the BJP renounces religious violence. India will not vote for hatred. He knows that, even if his party does not. The Vajpayee Janata Party
will have to take this up with the Bharatiya Janata
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Alarming signals from
Kashmir The death of the Defence PRO Major Puroshottam in a militant attack on his office in Srinagar has evoked wide indignation in the Press partly because during the course of his public relation conduct the Major had endeared himself to the mediapersons. Nevertheless, this does not undermine the bravado of Major Puroshottam's supreme sacrifice. But then, is this the way the Government of India is prepared to lose its young promising Army Officers day after day in what seems to be a resurged proxy war blatantly aided by the rulers in Islamabad and gracelessly facilitated by the vested interests both in New Delhi as well as in Srinagar ? Quite contrary to popular expectations, militancy in Kashmir has during the last few years shown a rise instead of decline. From the ambush attacks on the Army convoy, the militant operations have now progressed to direct attacks on heavily guarded Army cantonements. The morale of the Pak sponsored militant outfits is on the ascent. This is evident from the recent claim by the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba that the "mujahideen" are now in a position to open another Kargil anywhere. According to a report, this group has raised the slogan of "one bullet for one Indian" and asked the people of Pakistan to donate Rs 10 each for buying bullets. The change of guards in Islamabad and Gen Parvez Musharraf's inclination to side with the hard-core forces mark ominous signals for the months to come. On the political front, unfortunately, three years of democratic rule in the State of Jammu and Kashmir has helped little to win back the masses which felt alienated during protracted years of Governor's rule. The common refrain is that if during the Governor's rule the Advisors conducted themselves with no public accountability, during the popular rule the elected representatives have flouted all norms of accountability. No less than the Chief Minister of the State Dr Farooq Abdullah has expressed his helplessness to check mounting corruption among his Ministers and bureaucrats. Does this not run the risk of carrying the State back to the brink of 1989 when Pak sponsored militancy had broken out in the Valley with venomous vengeance and one of the triggering factors cited was unbridled corruption and unquestioned nepotism in the State administration ? The developments of the last few months call for resolute conviction and firm determination to meet the challange ahead. Absolute professionalism is required in carrying out the anti-militancy operations with clear directions to the security forces unintimidated by confusing political rhetoric. Moles in the administrative set-up as well as in the police force need to be dealt with firmly so as to hold out a deterrant lesson for others. No premium or leniency is to be offered to the sympathisers or supporters of the anti-India forces. And, last but not the least, the ruling polity of the State ought to present the image of a government which believes in offering fair deal and justice in every sphere whether it is in matter of making official appointments or making selections for professional colleges. Remember --- if the alarming signals emanating from Kashmir day after day are not heeded in right earnest, the people of India may refuse to pardon the powers - that - be yet again for the second time. And, the common man may haplessly resign to the evil designs brewing against him. The warning for Umapathy is sounded in Allama Iqbal's poetic expression "---Teri Barbaadiyon Ke Mashware Hain Aasmaanon Mein !" |
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Shambolic education The Chief Minister of J&K reportedly admitted of late in the Legislative Assembly that the State's education system was in "total shambles". He hastened to add that a large number of teachers were running their "private business" which as quite a number of them were practising politics. "For him it is "the biggest tragedy". Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his first address to the nation, after taking over charge as the head of the NDA said "In our fight against terrorism, we will be guided by the principle of Zero-tolerance". Detailing the priorities of his Govt he sought participation in re-deployment of resources and strengthening of institutional back up in area such as primary health services and primary education. Again Governor Suraj Bhan's decision to conduct a thorough review of all the State Universities of UP has made Vice-Chancellors edge. As reported by a national daily he has already sent a three-page long questionaire to the VC's who are burning midnight oil to collect data and complete exhaustive reports. He proposes to spend at least two days in every university to ascertain the reasons for poor standards of higher education in his State and meet the representatives of students Union, staff association and employees Union to have first hand information. Last but not the least during the course of my study I was agitated mentally to read Amulya Ganguli's views - "A curious change has come over the political scene with people seemingly losing their faith in traditional politics based on caste and community and becoming impatient for roads, schools etc." In such a surcharged social scenario if our CM is worried about education in general it is not something unusual. I know that there are trickly problems in varied sectors of education but the tragedy of the whole thing is that we have failed to make the best possible use of readily available inputs in the hope that we shall put our best foot forward when all shall be well on all fronts. The time has come to stop making excuses for ourselves. Attitudes and mindsets cannot be wished away-these can be changed only consciously. A beginning could be made at the dawn of a new millennium. It is sad commentary on the educational scene of India that after 52 years of Independence half of our populace is illiterate and efforts to change the face of society are in a very few cases being seriously pursued. Education and information are the two most vital mind-conditioners but first the minds have to be prepared for onslaughts. In our country where majority of teachers are teachers by compulsion since they could not find any other lucrative assignment the scope of a complete overhaul is elusive. More money is being spent on strengthening the workforce in terms of salaries and less for requisite basic facilities. Even the staff rooms and toilets of institutions are stinking with dust and foul gases emanating from nearby unhygienic laboratories as also there is no proper provision for potable water in many a case. Anyhow we are pulling on or rather wobbling and paying forced obeisance at the alter of Goddess of knowledge who is grudgingly accommodating us because no alternative is in sight. In our state the establishment of a "Knowledge Park" on the lines of one set up at Hyderabad by C M Chandrabbu Naidu appears to be a figment of imagination even in the 21st century. |
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Foreign Origin : a burning
issue on the back burner In a recent interview to a TV channel Prime Minister Vajpayee said that the issue of debarring a person of foreign origin from holding a high office of the country was very much alive. It seems that for the time being, perhaps for tactical reasons, the BJP led government has put this otherwise crucial issue on the back burner. Even the leaders of Sharad Pawar's National Congress Party have reiterated that notwithstanding their alliance with the Congress Party for forming the government in Maharashtra, their stand on the foreign born Indian citizen holding a high office was unchanged. Obviously the NCP cannot backtrack from its stand as this was the main issue on which its leaders parted company with Sonia Congress before the recent Lok Sabha polls. Congress party's success in Punjab and Karnataka cannot be interpreted to mean that the people have approved the idea of allowing a foreign born, naturalised Indian to become the Prime Minister of India. It was due to the anti incumbency wave that the Sonia Congress got a spectacular success in these states. To clear the fog engulfing the mind of some people on this issue, they must answer the question whether they would like any naturalised person to be appointed as Chief of the Indian Armed Forces. If the answer is no then, applying the same analogy, it should be conceded that it is in the interest of the country to amend the constitution so as to debar persons of foreign origin from holding any high office of this country. It is pertinent to note that while the demand for dropping the name of Rajiv Gandhi from the list of the accused in the Bofors case, was made with a bang in the Lok Sabha by Congress, it was withdrawn with a whimper when the party found itself totally isolated on the issue in the house. The Congress party will soon discover that on the issue of foreign origin the ruling party will be able to muster the requisite support to amend article 102 of the Constitution so as to debar persons of foreign origin from holding any high office of this country. After all the party has only 112 MPs in the Lok Sabha and in due course it is sure to be isolated on the issue of foreign origin even in the Rajya Sabha; on conscientious basis if not otherwise. Constitutions of most of the countries of the world including United States of America, France and the Britain, contain a clause which bars persons of foreign origin from becoming President, Prime Minister or the chief of the armed forces; even though such a person may have acquired the citizenship of that country. When majority of the nations have laws barring naturalised citizens from holding the high office what is the justification for us not to amend our own Constitution so that no person of foreign origin, who may acquire the Indian citizenship, could hold any one of the country's high offices ? Such an amendment would exclude, for all times, the possibility of any conspiracy by a foreign power to implant or manipulate a person of foreign origin in high authority to destroy the country's integrity. In the matters of Nation's sovereignty and integrity no chances can be taken. The misfortune of this nation has been that in the olden times, its leaders blindly trusted outsiders. India's thousand years history reveals that the country adopted thoughtless policies towards the foreigners and instead of being suspicious of their real motives reposed complete trust and confidence in them. The result was that the foreigners were not only able to enslave this land for centuries they plundered the wealth of this country and put its intelligentsia to sword, took away its young woman and auctioned them in far way lands. The country will have to pay a high price of its leaders forget the lessons of the history and fail to make the Constitutional amendment in such a way that no person of foreign orign gets the opportunity to rule this nation again. The names of foreigners like Father James Long, Sister Nevidita, C F Andrews, Annie Besant and mother Teresa are generally cited by the protagonists, particularly from the Congress party, in support of their stand to allow a person of foreign origin to hold high office in our country. They forget that we are talking not of such selfless persons who came to India and adopted it as their own motherland for the sake of serving the people of this country and not to rule over them. The difficulty with the Congress party is that shorn of its ideology and mired in vote bank politics and opportunistic political strategy it cannot survive without someone from the Nehru family to keep it from falling apart. Its leaders are fully aware of this fact. They know that the only way to keep themselves united is to maintain Sonia Gandhi as the rallying point for the Congressmen. The dynastic ‘aura’ of Nehru-Gandhi family carried around by Sonia Gandhi is the only factor that has kept the party going. But for Sonia's dynastic bearings the party would, in no time, collapse like a house of cards, due to the terrible infighting at all levels for gaining ascendancy in its hierarchy. Despite the fact that Sonia has proved to be a poor leader, with so many minus points to her account, the party has been unable to throw up an alternative to her leadership. This is not only due to her having become indispensable on account of the facts stated above, but also because the power hungry leaders are not willing to tolerate any one else to lead the party. So much so that they have allowed her not only to continue as the party president but have also made her the leader of the opposition in the Parliament. This being so the opposition by the Congress party to the constitutional amendment to article 102, debarring persons of foreign origin from holding high office in this country, stems merely from the apprehension that if the amendment is carried through all chances of Sonia Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister of India one day would be gone. In such an eventuality what will be left for the party to strive for ? The rally is for the party to secure power and party would remain united only if Sonia remains at the helm. If she is debarred from becoming the Prime Minister by a constitutional amendment then there would be left no raison d'etre for the party stalwarts to stick to it; the party would then disintegrate in all probabilities. For the good health of democracy no one would wish the Congress party's exit from the Indian political scene. It is in the best interests of the country that there should always be a strong opposition but under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi the party is bound to loose further ground in the future. It is for the wiser Congressmen to save the party or let it wither under her leadership. Army in 21st century For the first time in decades, no convincing reason can be given for a global armed conflict among the major nations of the world. Yet, the post-Cold War decades has been full of conflicts in almost all parts of the world. In keeping with the sweeping transformation of the last few years in the global and regional security environment, many changes have already started coming into our Armed Forces. These changes are bound to continue as we look towards the next century. In the coming century, coordinated policies and strategies to safeguard and further our interests will remain critical. The geo-strategic environment is passing through a state of flux. While the cold war in Europe has abated, Asia has emerged as the continent of 21st century. It is, therefore, likely to bring, alongwith economic development, balancing of power, political instability and an arms race by which India would be affected to a great extent. The geo-strategic security scenario that will engage our attention in the next millennium can be characterised as: a) In the new would order, the US, China, Russia, EU, Japan and India are the likely power blocks of a multipolar world. There may be more to come; b) Economic interests remains predominant over all other interests; c) Geographic border have become permeated due to globalisation and; d) Technology remains the engine of change, and has become a currency of power. Such a security scenario indicates the direction in which events are likely to fall in place. Essentially, like likelihood of nuclear and high intensity conventional and all-out wars remain reduced. The early part of 21st century will continue to witness geopolitical uncertainties and un-predictability. Conventional war threats will significantly give way to lower intensity, irregular and non-standard conflicts. However, if and when a conventional war occurs, the likely result will be more severe than ever in the past. Proliferation in the nuclear dimension may cause stability among rational states but would cause problems if the bombs reach the irrational. Restraints by public on defence spending and large military establishments would remain a major factor. Sino-Indian border remain undemarcated. China also continues to provide military assistance to some of our neighbours. So the potential for fuelling of tensions or a conflict with India remain in existence. On the plus side, confidence building measures have proved beneficial. Also, development of our missile and nuclear warheads will reduce the capability gap between China and India. Our problems with Pakistan are well known. By now Pakistan should also know that state-sponsored militancy is a double-edged weapon. Having crossed the nuclear threshold does not mean that a conventional war is out. Nuclear deterrence only restricts an all-out war employing weapons of mass destruction. Taliban's emergence in Afghanistan is a serious long-term security threat to the region. If this succeeds, the spread religions of our fundamentalism accompanied by violence may soon spread across South, West and Central Asia, Pakistani and Chinese neighbourhood with Afghanistan is already facing this threat. India has improved relations with all neighbours. There are minor differences but these can be handled through diplomacy. Today, over 2.5 lakh troops are employed on internal security. This is in addition to over 1,30,000 police personnel under the Ministry of Home Affairs which has this as its primary responsibility. While the nation is at peace, the Army is fighting a war. In such operations, military pressure alone cannot resolve matters unless there is a strong thrust on socio-political and socio-economic issues. Excessive and continuous involvement of the Army in internal security is neither good for the Army nor for the nation. It erodes Army's combat deterrence and dissuasive posture. Army's budget gets depleted which affects its modernisation. Besides, over-dependence on the Army makes the civil administration and the police complacent. The para-military forces and armed police need to be organised and trained to acquire Army-like ethos. Technology is the engine of change in today's world. The industrial character of armed capabilities is now shifting to a new form based on knowledge and information. Cyber war is to the 21st century what blitzkrieg was to the 20th. Information technology is an integral part of our long-term plan to exploit the advantages offered by information warfare. The traditional elements of national power, like political ideology, diplomacy and military systems can be exponentially applied, if the full potential of information technology is harnessed. Long range precision and lethal capability, combined with a wide range of delivery systems, are emerging as key factors in future warfare. Multi-spectral sensing, increased strategic and tactical mobility and modern weapon systems are important for success. Delays in introduction of such technologies would make us obsolescent, and incapable of effective operations. The sustained modernisation of conventional and nuclear forces is an extremely costly and debilitating process for a country which is still dependent on imports for some of its main weaponry. We are now looking at ways to develop a leaner, meaner military. There is also a requirement to balance our modernisation needs _ indigenisation and imports _ to project a technologies modernisation force. Our modernisation programme will encompass five ingredients: a) All-weather, day-and-night surveillance at strategic levels; b) Versatility and multi-task capability of the forces; c) Night fighting capability; d) Accurate data acquisition engagement with superior fire support; and e) Secure and reliable communications. We have to prepare an affordable long-term perspective technologies plan that seeks to build space-based surveillance assets, theatre surveillance with unmanned air vehicles, stand off platforms, stealth capacities, precision guidance systems, anti-missile defences and information superiority. This has been initiated within the Army and we are well into the process. Synergy is the key to success in modern-day warfare, be it integration or better coordination between the Services, HQs with the MoD or synergysation of national defence. To meet the challenges of 21st century, we must have quality soldiers, with right doctrines and organisations, who can handle technologically advanced equipment and weapon systems. Our officers and men are all volunteers. The old, well-known concept of a soldier has changed. A modern soldier is to be seen as optimally weaponised and trained human resource entity. They join the Army attracted mostly by a professional career. There are still many who join it for sentimental reasons, like family tradition. There are also a few who join it for glamour but their number is sharply dwindling. Human resource development is a continuous process. For the 21st century soldiers and leaders, our emphasis would be on professional knowledge, high moral values, and leadership qualities. Combat leaders of tomorrow would need high motivation, and should be able to take quick decisions after an equally rapid appraisal of necessary data and statistics. The Army has to cope with new security challenges, more so within a shrinking defence budget. Serious introspection is being done in this regard. But we shall continue to remain a committed organisation, a strong instrument of national power and, above all, respond with pride to the call of national duty. INAV |
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