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Friday 22 January 2016

पुरातत्ववेत्ता डॉ. के के मुहम्मद का खुलासा, वामपंथियों ने हल नहीं होने दिया अयोध्या विवाद


          वामपंथियों की भारत और खासतौर से हिन्दू विरोधी भूमिका अब कोई छिपी बात नहीं है. विदेशी विचारधारा से संचालित ये मुट्ठी भर लोग स्वतन्त्रता के पश्चात भारतीय व्यवस्था के हर महत्वपूर्ण अंग में किसके द्वारा और किस प्रकार रोपित किए गए, ये भी लगभग सर्व विदित है.
लेकिन ऐसा किया क्यों गया, ये भेद ज़रूर अब धीरे-धीरे उजागर होने लगा है. विश्व की कुछ शक्तियां नहीं चाहती कि भारत कभी विकास कर सके सो उसे उलझाए रखने के लिए कुछ न कुछ विवाद सुलगाए रखना ही इन शक्तियों का ध्येय है.
इसकी मिसाल जानेमाने पुरातत्ववेत्ता डॉ. केके मुहम्मद की आत्मकथा में मिलती है जिसमें उन्होंने वामपंथी इतिहासकारों को अयोध्या मामले का हल नहीं निकलने के लिए जिम्मेदार ठहराया है. उनके अनुसार वामपंथियों ने इस मसले का समाधान नहीं होने दिया.
भारतीय पुरातत्व सर्वेक्षण (एएसआइ) उत्तर क्षेत्र के पूर्व निदेशक डॉ. मुहम्मद ने मलयालम में लिखी आत्मकथा जानएन्ना भारतीयन (मैं एक भारतीय) में यह दावा किया है.
डॉ मुहम्मद के मुताबिक़, वामपंथी इतिहासकारों ने इस मुद्दे को लेकर बाबरी मस्जिद एक्शन कमेटी के नेताओं के साथ मिलकर देश के मुस्लिमों को गुमराह किया. उनके अनुसार, इन लोगों ने इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट तक को भी गुमराह करने की कोशिश की थी.
आत्मकथा में डॉ. मुहम्मद ने दावा किया है कि 1976-77 के दौरान एएसआइ के तत्कालीन महानिदेशक प्रो. बीबी लाल के नेतृत्व में पुरातत्ववेत्ताओं के दल द्वारा अयोध्या में की गई खुदाई के दौरान विवादित स्थल से हिंदू मंदिर के अवशेष मिले थे.
डॉ. मुहम्मद भी उस दल में शामिल थे. आत्मकथा में वामपंथी विचारकों और अन्य के बीच लंबे समय से चले आ रहे मतभेदों को भी उजागर किया गया है.
डॉ. मुहम्मद ने बताया कि इरफान हबीब (भारतीय इतिहास अनुसंधान परिषद के तत्कालीन चेयरमैन) के नेतृत्व में कार्रवाई समिति की कई बैठकें हुईं थीं. उन्होंने कहा, अयोध्या मामला बहुत पहले हल हो जाता, यदि मुस्लिम बुद्धिजीवी, वामपंथी इतिहासकारों के ब्रेन-वाश का शिकार न हुए होते.
डॉ. मुहम्मद के मुताबिक़, रोमिला थापर, बिपिन चंद्रा और एस गोपाल सहित इतिहासकारों के एक वर्ग ने तर्क दिया था कि 19वीं शताब्दी से पहले मंदिर की तोड़फोड़ और अयोध्या में बौद्ध जैन केंद्र होने का कोई जिक्र नहीं है. इसका इतिहासकार इरफान हबीब, आरएस शर्मा, डीएन झा, सूरज बेन और अख्तर अली ने भी समर्थन किया था.
डॉ. मुहम्मद कहते हैं, ये वे लोग थे, जिन्होंने चरमपंथी मुस्लिम समूहों के साथ मिलकर अयोध्या मामले का एक सौहार्दपूर्ण समाधान निकालने के प्रयासों को पटरी से उतार दिया. इनमें से कइयों ने सरकारी बैठकों में हिस्सा लिया और बाबरी मस्जिद एक्शन कमेटी का खुला समर्थन किया.
पुस्तक के एक अध्याय में डॉ. मुहम्मद ने लिखा है, जो कुछ भी मैंने जाना और कहा है, वह और कुछ नहीं बल्कि ऐतिहासिक सच है.
उनके अनुसार, हमे विवादित स्थल पर एक नहीं, बल्कि 14 स्तंभ मिले थे. सभी स्तंभों पर गुंबद खुदे थे. ये 11वीं व 12वीं शताब्दी के मंदिरों में पाए जाने वाले गुंबदों के समान थे. गुंबद ऐसे नौ प्रतीकों में एक हैं, जो मंदिर में होते हैं.
डॉ. मुहम्मद ने बताया कि यह भी काफी हदतक स्पष्ट हो गया था कि मस्जिद एक मंदिर के मलबे पर खड़ी है. उन दिनों मैंने इस बारे में अंग्रेजी के कई समाचार पत्रों को लिखा था. मेरे विचार को केवल एक समाचार पत्र ने प्रकाशित किया और वह भी लेटर टू एडिटर कॉलम में.
डॉ. मुहम्मद के अनुसार, वामपंथी इतिहासकारों ने इस मुद्दे पर इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट को भी गुमराह करने की कोशिश की. अदालत द्वारा निर्णय दिए जाने के बाद भी इरफान और उनकी टीम सच मानने को तैयार नहीं है.
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Friday 15 January 2016

Too Many Intelligence Agencies, But No Comprehensive Security Plan for India

M R Sivaraman
Securitymen on alert near an Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants in Pathankot. Credit: PTI
To fulfill its promise in made in the BJP election manifesto, Atal Bihari Vajpayee the then Prime Minister set up the National Security Council in November 1998 with his Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra as the first National Security Advisor. This was done by an executive order and thus has no legislative backing, unlike the National Security Council of the US on which presumably it has been modelled. So ab initio it suffers from a major deficiency. The NSA possibly cannot officially pass any orders or instructions, or at least that is the presumption, excepting in the name of the PM. This is borne out by the fact that he is shown at the top of the list of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the rank of minister of state. The Home Secretary can directions and also coordinate with all the relevant ministries and the states. The Foreign Secretary interacts with all countries on a day-to-day basis. The NSA of India dons — on himself — the roles of both the secretaries.
 If the NSA had only a simple advisory role then the matter would be different. But, in the light of different perceptions on how the Pathankot attack was dealt with and the role of the NSA in that, it is necessary now for the Government to clearly specify his role and functions lest the defence forces feel offended every time the NSA takes an active role in such incidents.
Ajit Doval may be an exceptionally qualified person, having been in the thick of action during his active career but not so any of his predecessors or maybe even his successors. The role of the NSA of India with regard to the threats to its economy is not clear.
Capital flight
The country is losing billions of dollars through capital flight and thousands of crores of tax revenue due to underhand dealings in every sector of economic activity, the facts of which are reportedly contained in a detailed report submitted by the National institute of Public Finance and Policy on the orders of Mr. Pranab Mukherjee when he was the Finance minister in the UPA. The report is said to contain startling figures of massive black money generation. No one knows the fate of the report even though The Hindu on August 4, 2014 reported, on the basis of a copy it had, that the black economy now accounted for 75% of the GDP.
Even accounting for a high margin of error in the estimation, these findings have serious implications for the monetary and fiscal policies of the government. Earlier, on the insistence of this writer, the then NDA government revised the GDP of the country by about 18% in 1998. But if the unaccounted income is even close to 50% of the current GDP then it makes nonsense of all the gamut of economic policies of the government, which may be the reason that the government does not want to make the report public. Within this cauldron could lie the seeds of economic instability of the country.
The then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had asked this writer to coordinate with all the intelligence agencies to ensure that at least financial crimes were effectively pursued. But no co-operation was forthcoming. The number of agencies under the Revenue Secretary itself is bewildering and there is hardly any co-operation or co-ordination amongst them unless a strong Revenue Secretary asserts himself. Courts would release on bail international criminals on flimsy grounds who then fleed the country never to be caught again. The system has been getting debilitated by the day as is seen in the number of chief commissioners of both and other lower rank officers of both the boards being arrested for corruption in recent times.
The information that is gathered by these agencies is immense as they can tap phones and have access to intelligence agencies across the world. On rare occasions sensitive information including those involving terrorists is taken to the Revenue Secretary by junior officers who are afraid of lack of support from seniors and if the Revenue Secretary courageously acts on it many serious crimes could be prevented.
To these can be added all the other intelligence agencies with the Ministry of Home Affairs, armed forces and the intelligence directorates under every state government. Despite these many agencies, terrorists attack the country periodically. Financial terrorists too continue their activities all the time.
In co-ordination meetings, no agency agrees to disclose information, because they do not want to compromise their sources. This often a lame excuse. There is no proper accountability of officers for the use of secret service funds by all the intelligence agencies. The income tax authorities, ED, customs and central excise, etc. seize hundreds of crores of rupees in cash and in the form of other valuables. No audit is conducted as to where these seized crores are and what is their security.
Unholy and criminal nexus
A note by this writer was part of the Vohra Committee’s report on the nexus between criminals, bureaucrats, politicians and even the judiciary.The then PM released this report in Parliament and a committee was constituted to monitor all the cases of such a nexus. The committee had an unceremonious demise.
Is the NSA of India conversant with all these institutional set up under different authorities which are engaged in national security? Foreign Secretaries who become NSAs may not even have inkling about these resources while a police officer may be familiar with a few of them.
The national security of India has never been considered holistically but has been left to the scores of police forces and intelligence agencies without much co-ordination and barely any co-operation amongst them. This is in spite of the fact that the country has faced five major wars since independence. The onslaught to which this country is subject to from nefarious forces such as drug smugglers, money launderers and arms smugglers is acting as a negative force preventing the country from exploiting its full economic potential.
Together with the external threats to its security, they are more than adequate reasons to have a proper National Security Act. This should not be confused with the existing National Security Act 1980, which is in fact a preventive detention law. One of the two could be renamed. The Act should provide for two levels of National Security Council, one in which the state chief ministers are also members, which once in a year reviews internal security issues and takes policy decisions and another with only the relevant central ministers, the three services chiefs and the secretaries of the relevant ministries like Defence, Home, Revenue and Foreign Affairs. The NSA could be the Secretary of this NSC with no autonomous powers; the current NSA functions as a super Foreign, Home and Defence secretaries rolled into one negating the functional responsibilities given to the Secretaries under the Transaction of Business Rules. Currently the NSA usurps the powers of the Secretaries who alone answer in the Parliamentary committees being responsible for actions in their ministries.
In the meanwhile it is learnt that the PM is reportedly contemplating the setting up of a Ministry of Internal Security. Do we really have to replicate everything the US does even though our Constitution, division of powers and the hierarchical structure of the governments are all different?
M.R.Sivaraman is a retired IAS officer and is a former Revenue Secretary.
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Thursday 14 January 2016

Not Gandhi but Japan Kicked out Britain from India

JapanWW2
 
Not Gandhi but Japan Kicked out Britain from India
On 15 November 1941, less than a month before Pearl Harbour, the Japanese leadership approved a “Plan for Acceleration of the End of the War with America and Britain.” Among other things, the plan called for the “separation of Australia and India from Britain” and “stimulation of the Indian independence movement”.
Prime Minister Hideki Tojomentioned India in a string of speeches in the Diet, the Japanese parliament, calling Indians to take advantage of World War II to rise against British power and establish an India for Indians.
Shortly after the capitulation of British forces in the Battle of Singapore in February 1942, Tojo said: “Without the liberation of India there can be no real mutual prosperity in Greater East Asia.” On 4 April 1942 he said: “It has been decided to strike a decisive blow against British power and military establishment in India.”
Japan’s problem was that Mohandas Gandhi’s Indian National Congress was not favourably disposed towards it.Indian leaders feared Tokyo would make India a vassal state. They were mistaken. “Japan at no time planned a major invasion of India or actual incorporation of India into the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, contrary to the suspicions of many Indians in the independence movement,” writes Joyce C. Lebra, American historian of Japan and India, in The Indian National Army and Japan (June 2008).

Congress Miscalculation

The Congress leaders had made a strategic miscalculation, for it prevented Tokyo from planning a major invasion – despite stated declarations by Tojo – of India. If over 300 million Indians were under the spell of a hostile Congress, then Tokyo reckoned it would have a major problem on its hands.
Hidkei Tojo
Hidkei Tojo
It was in this backdrop that the Japanese applied a unique policy towards India. The Indian National Army (INA), comprising Indian POWs captured by the Japanese military, was the spearhead of Tokyo’s thrust into the subcontinent. In February 1942 Japan had acquired 50,000 Indian POWs after routing the British forces in Singapore, and these soldiers were asked to join the INA.
Japan was primarily interested in using the INA for propaganda purposes. Army HQ in Tokyo fussed a great deal about how far Japan should go in support of Indian independence. Japanese military officers assigned to train and equip the INA, such as Major Iwaichi Fujiwara, wanted Japan to offer total support in preparation for a quick and blistering attack on British India, but Tokyo had reservations.
For the Japanese brass, India remained on their periphery as Russia and the United States remained their biggest concerns.
The best time to attack British India was shortly after the initial Japanese victories in Asia. “At several points it was conceivable a Japanese invasion of India might have succeeded had it been planned,” writes Lebra. “The optimum time was in the spring and summer of 1942, following Japanese successes in Malaya and Burma, when Japanese air, sea and land power could not have been checked by the British. But Japan passed up the opportunity.”

Bose arrives

During the months when Japanese forces were toppling European bastions in Asia, Subhas Chandra Bose, who had quit the Congress because of Gandhi’s reluctance to push for freedom,was camped in Berlin. He was trying to get the German Army to allow the Indian Legion that he had established in Germany with Indian POWs to fight the British alongside Rommel’s Afrika Korps.Bose’s plan was brilliant: when the soldiers of the British Indian Army would see their former comrades in the German lines, it would create confusion and possibly mass desertions.
However, Bose’s maxim “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” did not apply to Rommel and Hitler. The Indian Legion did not find much support with the Nazis. “The vulgar racism and Eurocentricism there, particularly Hitler’s brand, prevent the Axis powers from fully believing in the Indian independence movement,” writes Anton Pelinka in Democracy Indian StyleSubhas Chandra Bose and the Creation of India’s Political Culture (2003). “Hitler holds fast to the myth of the superiority of the white man and shies away from allying himself with the non-whites against the white Albion.”
At the same time, the German Foreign Ministry was reluctant to release a potentially valuable bargaining instrument in dealing with the British. When Bose finally arrived in Tokyo by the end of May 1943 the impact was electric. Of the more than 50,000 Indian POWs, only half had volunteered to fight under the INA, but once Bose’s showed up nearly all of them were ready to fight the British.
Bose’s charisma also appealed to the Japanese. Army Chief of General Staff Sugiyama Gen and Tojo developed a special sympathy for him.

Varying War Aims

However, the INA-Japan relationship was never a smooth affair. Tokyo was completely unequivocal about the fact that the INA was a black project – a secret war involving the weapons of espionage, infiltration, psychological warfare and guerrilla attacks.
Bose, on the other hand, insisted the INA be used as a single army that would lead the offensive into India. “For Bose the first drop of blood shed on Indian soil had to be Indian,” writes Lebra.
A compromise was reached, with the INA remaining under Japanese command throughout the offensive but fighting in Indian units directly under Indian officers. But like all compromises, it didn’t work very well. “For Bose there was the single goal of liberation of India throughout the combined action of the INA and Japanese forces, while for Japan, Imphal was a limited holding operation subordinate to the high-priority campaigns in the Pacific,” writes Lebra.
“Bose requested increasing support in military supplies, while Japanese capacity to support her campaigns steadily diminished. The two positions could never basically be reconciled, and the differences caused constant daily friction during this military phase of the cooperation.”

War in India

In January 1944 – by which time the momentum of victory had considerably diminished – Japan finally mounted a military offensive on British India. Still, the instructions from Army HQ in Tokyo signalled the limited objective of “securing strategic areas near Imphal and in Northeast India for the defence of Burma”.
In June 1944 when the Japanese forces crashed into the British Indian Army at Imphal and Kohima, only 15,000 INA soldiers took part in the fighting. The rest were assigned tasks of intelligence gathering and guerrilla attacks.
Subhas Bose
Subhas Bose
Recalling his warfront experiences as a havildar of an engineering company of the INA, V. Vaidhyalingam, secretary and treasurer, Tamil Nadu Indian National Army League, told The Hindu (2 August 2004): “The battle of Imphal turned out to be a long-fought one – for which the INA’s timing was too late in summer. Soon monsoon, not the British army, became our biggest adversary.”
Had Bose been able to attack British India and in full strength two years earlier, the outcome may well have been different. Perhaps no Gandhi or Nehru. No Partition. It will forever remain one of history’s biggest ‘what ifs’.
The weather and the tide of war were turning against the INA. Japan’s game was up after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Russia occupied Japan’s northern territories. With its primary backer gone, the INA was effectively disarmed.

INA’s Lasting Impact

What the Japanese managed to do with the INA was exactly what they had planned all along. The INA was truly a secret weapon that fired up Indian revolutionary activity and drove a stake of fear in British hearts. It was the Indian soldiers that had for over two centuries ensured the security of the British in India. It was the loyalty of the military that was the ultimate sanction for British rule in India. With that assurance gone, the British knew their time was up.
As Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer had written in a letter to the Indian revolutionary Tarak Nath Das in December 1908:
“When the Indians complain the English have enslaved them it is as if drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers who have settled among them have enslaved them….What does it mean that thirty thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and ordinary people, have enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, clever, capable, freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that not the English, but the Indians, have enslaved themselves?”
Like Tolstoy’s drunkards, the INA soldiers initially balked when confronted with the prospect of fighting Britain for independence, in cooperation with the Japanese. It was a volunteer army comprising professional soldiers and many belonged to families that had long served the British.
This loyalty held true despite the British policies which discriminated against Indian officers and soldiers. For instance, Indian Navy officers of all ranks were barred from using the common swimming pools which were for exclusive use of the ‘gora’.
For the British, in ideal conditions, the colonial government would have hanged most of the tens of thousands of INA returnees. After the Indian defeat in the First War of Independence of 1857, the British slaughtered 100,000 Indian soldiers in savage reprisals. But then followed an “untold holocaust” which caused the deaths of almost 10 million people over 10 years beginning in 1857, writes Amaresh Misra, a Mumbai-based historian in War of Civilisations: India AD 1857.
Bombay Naval Mutiny
Bombay Naval Mutiny
But post-World War II, India was an incendiary place. Serving Indian military officers and men keenly watched the INA trials in Delhi. So did more than two million soldiers who had returned from Europe after World War II, having experienced firsthand poor British soldiering. Most of these battle hardened Indian soldiers were ripe for revolutionary activities. The British quietly released all INA soldiers.
“Despite the military defeat of Japan, and with it the INA, popular support for the INA finally precipitated British withdrawal from India,” writes Kalyan Kumar Ghosh in History of the Indian National Army (1966).
Japan’s role in India’s independence was catalytic and seminal. “In all, Japan trained 353,000 soldiers in Southeast Asia,” writes Hilary Conroy inJapan Examined.
It was these soldiers who prevented Europe from recolonising Asia.
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Wednesday 13 January 2016

Pakistan army officers involved in attack on Indian consulate: Afghan police

Pakistan army officers involved in attack on Indian consulate: Afghan police

Kabul: Pakistani military officers were involved in the attack on the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e- Sharif in which assailants attempted to storm the mission building, a senior Afghan police official said on Tuesday. "We saw with our own eyes and I can say 99 per cent that those attackers were from Pakistani military and used special tactics while conducting their operation," Sayed Kamal Sadat, police chief of the Balkh province, said of the attack that took place last week.
Sadat said the attackers -- officers from across the border -- were well-trained military men who fought Afghan security forces in the 25-hour siege. "The attackers were military personnel. They were educated and well prepared and had intelligence. They fought us and only by Allah's grace were we able to control them and eliminate them," Sadat was quoted as saying by Tolo News.
The police official said efforts were underway to track down, identify and detain those who assisted the attackers to gain access to the building that was opposite the Indian Consulate. "We are jointly working with the NDS director and have spoken about this -- especially as they came here not able to speak in Dari or Pashtu but speaking in Urdu. It means obviously there is someone who guided those attackers and helped the attackers," Sadat said.
An intense gun-battle between security forces and the attackers took place outside the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif after assailants attempted to storm the mission building on January 3. The standoff ended on the night of January 4 after the attackers who entered the building opposite the Indian Consulate were killed. One police solider also lost his life and nine others including three civilians were wounded in the incident.
As the Consulate came under attack, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) guards deployed on the sentry post foiled their attempt by raining heavy fire on them. A strong contingent of over four-dozen ITBP commandos has been securing this facility from 2008 apart from three other missions in the country and the main Embassy in the capital, Kabul. The security of these sensitive facilities was recently heightened after the ITBP deployed over 35 commandos at Indian missions in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Kandhar and Mazar-e-Sharif.
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Monday 11 January 2016

Rising Chinese nationalist sentiments may hinder China, India in solving border dispute

Rising Chinese nationalist sentiments may hinder China, India in solving border dispute

Looking at China competing with US and Chinese Communist Party investing in philosophy of nationalism to stay in power, a resolution of boundary problem is difficult, say experts
A file photo of Chinese president Xi Jinping. Photo: Bloomberg




A file photo of Chinese president Xi Jinping. Photo: Bloomberg

New Delhi: Rising Chinese nationalist sentiments could hinder China and India from finding a solution to their decades old border dispute, experts on relations between the two Asian giants said at a seminar over the weekend.
According to Ranjit S Kalha, a former Secretary in the Indian foreign ministry and who led India’s negotiating team in the Boundary Sub-Group from 1985 to 1988, the two countries, despite numerous rounds of discussions over decades, are yet to come to a basic understanding of “where the boundary should lie. ..until and unless we have that understanding, you cannot translate it onto a map.”
The two countries fought a brief but bitter war in 1962 and have been attempting to demarcate their borders since then – with no success.
China claims 90,000 sq. km of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and occupies around 38,000 sq. km in Jammu and Kashmir, which India claims as its territory. Also, under a China-Pakistan boundary agreement signed in March 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq. km of Indian territory in PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) to China, the Indian foreign ministry says.
While the India-China boundary has been largely calm, thanks to pacts signed in 1993, 1996 and 2005, both sides frequently accuse the other of incursions. One such incursion in April took a serious turn when Chinese soldiers intruded some 20 kilometres inside Indian territory leading to a three-week-long stand-off between the neighbours and threatening to derail a visit in May by China’s newly installed leader Li Keqiang. But the situation was resolved and Li’s visit went ahead. During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China in October, the two countries also signed a border defence mechanism agreement to ensure that potentially volatile situations are defused quickly. However, there was another intrusion in September 2014 that took place during a visit to India by Chinese president Xi Jinping. The intrusions did not disrupt the visit but led to prime minister Narendra Modi to underline the need to speed up the boundary talks.
According to Kalha, with the Chinese aspiring to great power status, looking at competing with the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) investing in the philosophy of nationalism to stay on in power, a resolution of the boundary problem is difficult.
“When you go in for nationalism, you not only want to project yourself as a strong military power, you want to project yourself as someone that is not only progressing fast but is doing rather well where the world is concerned. Therefore, what justification do you give to your own people that we are willing to give up 90,000 kilometres of claimed territory in Arunachal Pradesh?” he said at an event organised by the Ananta Aspen Centre think tank in New Delhi.
Given that India needs parliamentary approval to give away any inch of its land and given the composition of the two houses of parliament – with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies having a majority in the Lok Sabha but the opposition having the numbers in the Rajya Sabha – there could also be uncertainty amongst the Chinese over how the Indian parliament could pass any resolution on any kind of settlement, Kalha pointed out.
“If an offer does come from China... some give and take is involved, would anybody sitting in China feel confident that any Indian government can push it through(parliament)? That is a very crucial factor,” he said.
On India’s part, given that Arunachal Pradesh is with India, “If we are going to get a settlement, it must be significantly better than what we have today,” he said.
Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese Studies at the New Delhi based Jawaharlal Nehru University agreed with Kalha’s view that Chinese nationalism, and rising nationalist sentiments in India too, could stand in the way of the two countries reaching an agreement on their border dispute.
He also noted that China had in the past sealed deals over its border disputes with other countries when they were in a disadvantageous position. A case in point was Russia, he said pointing out that China had signed its border agreement with a considerably weakened Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
“So one of the generalisations that we have is when the adversary is weaker we have a border resolution,” Kondapalli said. “In this case, India is rising with GDP figures rising and investment in the military area and so there is a lesser possibility of (the border) conflict resolution,” he said.
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Monday 4 January 2016

Pathankot attacks: Inputs about specially trained fighters sent from Kashmir three days before attack

Pathankot attacks

 Pathankot attacks: Inputs about specially trained fighters sent from Kashmir three days before attack

The information was further shared by Jammu and Kashmir police with their counterparts in Punjab on Dec 30.
The attack on Indian Air Force's airbase in Pathankot has highlighted the capabilities of militant groups to strike anywhere in areas close to Indo-Pak border, but, the terror strike has also once again laid bare mechanisms employed by security establishment to avert such incidents.
Documents accessed by dna show that on December 30, security agencies based in Jammu and Kashmir, had sent out information about a group of 15-18 'specially trained fighters' that had crossed over from Pakistan to carry out attacks on vital installations.
"According to an in  Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa organised a group of approximate 15-18 specially, trained fighters to carry out attack in India during New Year's celebration. The group has reportedly left from
Pakistan and could already be in India. Their intention may be to carry out 26/11 Mumbai style terror attack. Possible target include vital installations and important locations. In view of the above, it is requested that all necessary preventive and security measures may be taken to avoid any untoward incident. Matter most urgent," explains the document.
According to sources the input was received by DG Jammu and Kashmir police who dispatched the same to the entire police department. The information was further shared by Jammu and Kashmir police with their counterparts in Punjab.
The note was sent two days prior to the kidnapping of former Gurdaspur superintendent of police, and three days prior to the attack on Indian Air Force base. Salwinder Singh, who was transferred two days ago as Assistant Commandant, 75th Battalion, PAP complex, Jalandhar, told investigators that he, Gurdaspur-based jeweller Rajesh Verma and his cook Mohan Lal were on their way to a religious place in his car when they were kidnapped in Kolian village near Pathankot. Singh had claimed that five militants, in army fatigues and armed with rifles and grenades, had abducted him in the wee hours of Friday and set him free an hour later, 35 km away.
"While it was believed that the trained fighters might be belonging to LeT, it is now being speculated that the attackers might actually be Jaiesh-e-Mohammad militants," said a senior intelligence officer. The officer added, "We are yet to decipher the possible purpose of the attack but at prima facie it appears that the attackers want to send a message that they can strike anywhere".
While intelligence agencies tolddna that the attack on airbase might be a show of strength, Jammu and Kashmir Police department said that the reason behind JeM's resurgence is a desperate attempt to remain relevant in Kashmir especially after Kashmir-centric groups like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar have been leading the insurgency in the valley.
JeM had last year claimed responsibility for an attack on Gorkha Rifles Camp in Tangdhar area, which resulted in the killing of a military contractor and three militants.In December 2014, six militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad had attacked an Army base in Uri (North Kashmir).
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Saturday 2 January 2016

नेपाल का संविधान : हेनान से लुम्बनी

सारी, वैमनस्य,भेदभाव और खास दबंगता से भरा नेपाल का संविधान लाख विरोधों के बाद भी चीन के हेनान से बुद्ध के लुम्बनी के बीच एक deal के रूप में बन ही गया।सभी प्रकार के सांस्कृतिक, परंपरा और बेटी-रोटी के संबंधों को ठुकरा कर आज का नया नेपाली संविधान "लुम्बनी से सारनाथ" और "जनकपुर से अयोध्या" की जन भावनाओं पर प्रत्यक्षतः एक भीषण कुठाराघात करते हुए उभर कर सामने आया। आज का तराई-मधेश का संघर्ष इसी कुठाराघात की असह्य वेदना का प्रतिफल है।

चीन का झिजियांग और फुजियान प्रान्त आज पश्चिमी सभ्यता के प्रभाव से आच्छादित है।,जिसमें धार्मिक असहिष्णुता की चीन की कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी के सरकारी दबाव की नीतियों के बावजूद भी 30 वर्ष के आयु के 25% युवा ईसाईयत से प्रभावित हैं,आबादी का 40% बौद्ध मत का अनुयावी है।

चीन आज अपने को दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया में एक Soft Power बनने के लिए अपने पूर्व चीन हेनान को 128 मीटर ऊँची बुद्ध की मूर्ति के साथ अंतरराष्ट्रीय बौद्ध विश्वविद्यालय और 500 से अधिक गुम्फा का शहर बना चूका है।

2006, 2009, व 2012 में पूर्व चीन के ज़िन्गसू प्रान्त के लिंग्सान में अंतरराष्ट्रीय बौद्ध सम्मलेन सफलता पूर्वक आयोजित कर चुका है। अब तो 2012 के इस सम्मलेन में प्रस्ताव पारित कर स्थायीरूप से लिंग्सान में  प्रत्येक दो वर्ष पर अंतरराष्ट्रीय बौद्ध सम्मलेन करने का निर्णय भी लिया।

चीन अपने इस Soft Power के औरा को अपने विस्तारवादी नीति के तहत "एशिया पैसिफिक एंड कोऑपरेसन फाउंडेशन" (एपेक) के माध्यम से 6 अरब डॉलर का सहयोग कर, नेपाल के लुम्बनी के क्षेत्र में चीनी कल्चरल सेण्टर और मंडारिन भाषा का शिक्षा केंद्र चला रहा है।

आज इसी चीनी Soft Power का स्वरुप नेपाली संविधान में स्पष्ट झलक रहा है। जो तराई मधेश के नवलपरासी से पश्चिम के जिलों को, थारु विकास को उपेक्षित व तिरोहित कर, एक प्रान्त के रूप में चिन्हित न करते हुए इस पुरे क्षेत्र को एनी कई पहाड़ी प्रांतों के साथ टुकड़े टुकड़े कर जोड़ दिया। आज का नेपाली संविधान चीन के इस soft power के पीछे छुपा हुआ विस्तारवादी नीति के छाया में हेनान से लुम्बनी तक के चीनी विस्तारवादी मार्ग को ही सुगम व प्रशस्त करने का सुस्पष्ट एक नियोजित परिणाम है।

अब मात्र एक प्रतीक्षा तराई मधेश का यह अपने अधिकारों , हक़ और हकूक की लड़ाई सीता की एक और अग्नि परीक्षा की चित्कार अंतरराष्ट्रीय वैश्विक जगत सुन पाता है कि नहीं ?, विश्व को शांति सदभाव का बुद्ध का सन्देश लुम्बनी से चल गया में बौद्धिसत्व को प्राप्त करेगा? ताकि सारनाथ से विकरित किरणें विश्व को फिर से शांति का सन्देश दे पायेगी?
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