tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70423840258548874072024-03-13T07:30:46.517-07:00Purple BeretMoney and Military, Defence and Diplomacy is what this blog talks about. Since both are embedded in international political economy, this blog displays my concerns on politics and economy tooAtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-65339253312415035792021-04-28T22:26:00.004-07:002021-04-28T22:34:52.042-07:00 Pentagon may leave but its hired Military Contractors will continue to thrive in Afghanistan<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;">President Joe Biden has decided to withdraw from </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;">Afghanistan and “</span><a href="https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/international/2021/04/15/fgn63-us-biden-speech-2ndld-afghan.html" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">end America's longest war</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;">.” </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626; text-align: justify;">The drawdown of 2,500 American boots on the ground will start on May 1 and is scheduled to be completed by September 11. </span></span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;">His administration is set to reallocate the resources employed in Afghanistan to Indo-Pacific. That there is little justification for the continuation of</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; text-align: justify;">American soldiers in Afghanistan is acknowledged across the political spectrum. </span>Many analysts see the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 as a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">vexing and largely failed chapter</span></a> in American foreign policy”.</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span>But when did the US military invade to rebuild Afghanistan? It penetrated Kabul only to reassert the American primacy as a part of its strategy to reshape the middle east. So where is the question of failure? Pentagon lost just over 2000 soldiers in its twenty-year occupation of Kabul. Since 2002 America has </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">spent $88.32bn</span></a><span> on building the Afghan National Army and police force, mainly to help the occupying army stay safe and safeguard the imperial infrastructure. </span></span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It is a strange argument that the US is worried about the spate of violence that may erupt after its withdrawal. The point is that over the past two decades Washington has been the main perpetrator of violence in Afghanistan. The US forces have brazenly employed air raids dropping precision-guided munition and MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst Bomb) with impunity, making Afghanistan the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1085442"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">deadliest places in the world to be a civilian</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">”. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The invasion has been milked by the military-industrial complex (MIC) to push its neoliberal agenda of privatising military operations. Pentagon bought the idea because it helped the government reduce political costs of the wars and wage “forever wars”. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Both, Iraq as well as Afghan wars, are linked to the re-emergence of private military companies (PMCs). The US government is now the world's largest consumer of private military and security services. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The US Congress Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan concluded in 2011 that the two wars led to an </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“<a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/troop-levels-are-down-but-us-says-over-18-000-contractors-remain-in-afghanistan-1.659040"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">unhealthy over-reliance</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">” on contractors.” Contractors constitute <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/28/if-us-withdraws-afghanistan-will-its-military-contractors-stay-thats-not-clear/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">more than half of the military personnel </span></a>working for the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Using the twin wars, the MIC expanded from being a supplier of military hardware to provider of military logistic and even combat services in the hostile zones. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">This expansion is important to understand because besides the US military, Taliban and Afghan government the fourth actor that will determine the future of Kabul is the “invisible army” created by corporates. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The majority of the mainstream analysis is focused on the withdrawal of 2500 official US troops but there is hardly any discussion on the 18000 military contractors that continue to float in Afghanistan. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The removal of US troops will eventually lead to the reductions in requirements for contracted support, however, it would be foolhardy to presume that they will all pack their bags along with the US army.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Afghan war may have been bloody and costly for the US State, but it has been a booming business for private military companies (PMCs) that hire cheap mercenary workforce from poor countries, form a “<a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/disposable-army"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">disposable army</span></a>” of </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Third County Nationals,” to imperial ambitions of the American elite. According to a recent US government report “<a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/troop-levels-are-down-but-us-says-over-18-000-contractors-remain-in-afghanistan-1.659040"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">about 4,700 of the contractors</span></a> are Afghans hired locally, but nearly three-quarters come from outside the country, including about a third who are U.S. citizens… Many of the rest are from developing countries such as Uganda and Nepal.” </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">According to Deborah Avant, a scholar with rich body of work on privatisation of security, In the Afghan war <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/28/if-us-withdraws-afghanistan-will-its-military-contractors-stay-thats-not-clear/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">more than 3,814 US contractors </span></a>have died while only 2,300 US military personnel lost their lives. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Post the exit, the PMCs may not be directly contracted by Pentagon, they could continue operations inside Afghanistan through proxies or subsidiary companies based outside the United States. America may formally exit but informally its military influence will continue to linger in Kabul. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The US will not disentangle from a country that is geo-strategically placed to serve its interests against Iran, Russia and more important China. Landlocked Afghanistan provides access routes to Iran, Pakistan, and Russia. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">In the age of connectivity, America will not commit the strategic mistake of vacating the vantage spot that enables it to overlook the new coalition building between Iran, Russia and China. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">China and Russia see Afghanistan as a part of a larger set of regional connectivity rather than just a terror-infested country. They seek stability in Afghanistan to ensure the security and safety of the alternative trade routes that are coming up in the area. This need is particularly acute for China, which has invested $60 billion in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to gain an opening into the Arabian Sea. Abandoning Kabul would also mean reduced influence in Pakistan and leaving the entire region for exploitation by Russia and China. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">President Trump who initiated a talk with the Taliban to facilitate withdrawal of US troops was also responsible for the increase in the involvement of PMCs in Afghanistan. During his presidency, the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/news/contractors-afghanistan"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(21, 63, 148); color: #153f94;">increased by more than 65 percent </span></a>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">However, much like his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden maintains silence on the future role of military contractors (a euphemism for corporate military entities). And the role envisaged for them in the post-exit strategy designed to hold the Taliban accountable. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">However, learning from the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">East India Company’s example</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> and privatisation of US occupation of Afghanistan is being actively considered in the US elite circles. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The Indian Afghan Policy that is largely focussed on the use of Taliban by Pakistan after the so-called US withdrawal will have to take into account the changing imperial infrastructure in Afghanistan. Also of interest will be the attitude of Private military companies towards the Taliban and how they would use it to advance their profits as well as the US strategic objectives. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Twitter:@AtulBeret</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none;"></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; 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font-family: helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"></span></p>AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-68758131588417135842020-06-23T21:03:00.000-07:002020-06-23T21:03:49.362-07:00Modi's Multi-Alignment and Nehru's Non-Alignment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The more I hear the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the more I am convinced that India's foreign policy continues to be moored to Nehruvian approaches to negotiating with the global powers. Jaishankar characterises the Nehruvian foreign policy as the era of optimistic non-alignment, where the objective was to strengthen India's sovereignty, integrity and economy. The parallel goal was to place India as the vanguard of third world solidarity (MEA 2019b).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Laced with rhetorical flourishes, Jaishankar is sounding more and more like Jawaharlal Nehru. At the recently concluded Raisina Dialogue, he said, India owes it to be a just power, fair power, standard-bearer for the global voice of south (Bagchi 2020), clearly signalling that India has not abandoned the Nehruvian love to lead the South.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Asserting the independence of his foreign policy, Jaishankar almost mimicked Nehru's nationalist exhortations, when he told Der Spiegel, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I find the idea of being someone else pawn in some Great Game terribly condescending. I certainly don't plan to play the counterweight to other people. I'm in it because of my own ambitions." (MEA 2019a)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jaishankars assertions are a little surprising because he is considered to be no big fan of either non-alignment or strategic autonomy, the twin lynchpins of Nehru's foreign policy to deal with the superpowers. Why is Jaishankar covering up India's tight embrace of America in nationalist colours? We are already in a strategic relationship with the United States (US), then why deny that we are serving the American strategic needs? Prime Minister Narendra Modi confidently declared at theUS Congress in 2016 that the Indo-US relationship has overcome the hesitations of history (George 2019: 57) indicating that unlike Nehru, he was not bound by any historical compulsions to appear distant from America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps, Jaishankar understands better than Modi that till the West continues to dominate global affairs, the Nehruvian influence on India's foreign policy will always remain, no matter how hard the Bharatiya Janata Party may try to distance itself from Nehru. This is because Nehru's foreign policy was rooted in the liberal international order. His belief in one world and the United Nations (UN) ability to usher an era of peace was a by-product of his commitment to the post-war American order. Therefore, there was an element of deception in Nehru's quest of non- alignment, which Ram Manohar Lohia said was'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"not neutral but as one of alternate service to both camps, One minister of this government clings to the United States, another to Russia and the magician tries to hold the balance by his charm. They call this non-alignment." (Wofford 2001: 25)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Posture and Policy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did Nehru really live in an imaginary world, where he conceived maintaining equidistance from the two power blocs in a highly polarised post-war world? Overt alignment with the US was not considered conducive for a country of India's size and geostrategic location. India could not afford to look like Pakistan or the Philippines by joining the US bloc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At a time when the Indian nationalism was based on its opposition to the West, it was difficult for Nehru to align with America, the leader of the capitalist West and weaken the spirit of nationalism in the country. For the West, it was important that the first postcolonial nation that subscribed to the Western liberal democracy emerged as a model for the newly independent Afro-Asian countries. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Any alignment with the Soviet Union was not possible because the diehard anti-communist ruling elite would never have allowed Nehru to make India a Soviet satellite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Much of our problem in understanding Nehru emerges from the fact that we take him at face value. Most of our analysis is based on what Nehru said rather than what he practised. Nehru projected himself as an idealist and a socialist, and we simply believe him. His efforts at Bandung and Belgrade are often used to paint his foreign policy objectives. However, what happened prior to the Bandung Conference of 1955 and in the period between Bandung and Belgrade, the venue for the first non-aligned summit in 1961, is often ignored in our analysis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the late 1940s, Nehru's belief in non-alignment was wavering; he was not averse to open military alignment with theUS. Immediately, on taking over, Nehru was confronted with the developing military situation in Kashmir. Nehrus detractors often blame him for not seeking a military solution in Kashmir and for taking the issue to the UN. However, the facts dug out from American archives, by late M S Venkataramani, the renowned professor of American Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, reveal a very different story. Less than six months into independence, Nehru initiated action to buy arms for the Indian Army. So keen was Nehru to build India's military capability that he bypassed Asaf Ali, India's ambassador to theUS and directed Colonel BM Kaul (who subsequently became the Lieutenant General in the early 1960s), India's defence attache at Washington, to initiate the arms purchase process (Venkataramani 1999).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nehru did not have much faith in Ali, who was certainly not his choice to be India's first ambassador to America. Ali was probably rewarded by the British for his services to the Crown during World WarII.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nehru preferred Kaul to Ali because the latter was considered to be a laggard, and Kaul, according to K Subrahmanyam, was better networked with Louis Johnson and other influential Americans. On 27 January 1948, Kaul metColonel J Garling, in-charge of the foreign military representatives, and requested him to arrange the delivery of 1,000 jeeps and a dozen B-25 Mitchell bombers by May 1948 and another 31 bombers subsequently (Subrahmanyam 2005). Kaul failed to impress the Americans. Their indifference led the Indian government to send placatory signals to the Truman administration and assure them that Nehrusadherence to neutralism was not dogmatic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In April 1948, Girija Shankar Bajpai, India's secretary-general in the Ministry of External Affairs, conveyed to Washington that under no circumstances would India align itself with the Soviet Union in a war between the two superpowers. Bajpai also proposed sending an Indian military mission to the US to explore the possibility of obtaining military equipment. In September 1948, Nehru reassured the Americans that there was no chance of India lining up behind the Soviet Union. Despite clarifications, America refused to lift the arms embargo on India and Pakistan (imposed in the wake of the outbreak of the Kashmir conflict). India renewed its efforts to procure arms by sending H M Patel, defence secretary, to the US. However, Patel too returned empty-handed. Despite American refusal to sell arms to India, Nehru never attempted to reach out to Joseph Stalin for either arms or wheat. In March 1949, after the Kashmir issue subsided, the US lifted the arms embargo and India received one division of Sherman tanks (of World War II vintage) from the US (Venkataramani 1999).</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">America was as cussed in delivering arms as it was in exporting wheat to India. And, this was when the Indian mines met 25% of the American manganese requirement, and also fed beryl and monazite, two crucial minerals, for their nuclear programme. The Soviet entry into the Indian foreign policy matrix happened mainly after Stalin's death. This was no act of disloyalty by Nehru against AngloAmerican interests. The post-Stalin phase in international politics was marked by a thaw in EastWest relations. In 1955, when Nehru visited Moscow, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was building bridges with the West, visiting Western capitals, discussing peace and disarmament. The US-Soviet detente gave Nehru the leeway to project his policy of non-alignment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, this window of opportunity closed in 1957, when India was hit by the foreign exchange crisis and was forced to go to the World Bank for a bailout package to save its Second Five-Year Plan. Another reason that drew India closer to theUS was the growing political turmoil in Tibet. TheUS launched covert operations inside Chinese territory using Kalimpong as the launch pad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1959, Indias decision to give asylum to the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan supporters from Lhasa appeased America but jeopardised its relations with China. Nehru's luck favoured him. His overt alignment with theUS against China was not opposed by the Soviets, as Khrushchev was busy visiting Washington in 1959. The changes in the Cold War dynamics allowed Nehru's foreign policy to retain its non-alignment facade. The US acknowledged India's contribution by approving the grant of the Development Loan Fund (DLF).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the end of December 1960, India got $30 million for Hindustan Chemicals and Fertilisers to cover the foreign exchange cost of building a fertiliser plant at Trombay. This was followed by a $50 million loan at an interest rate of 5.75% to enable the purchase of capital equipment from the US to meet the development goals envisaged in the Third Five-Year Plan. This marked the golden period in Indo-US ties. In 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower visited India and was accorded a thunderous welcome. He spoke at a public rally at Ramlila Maidan and also addressed the parliamentarians. The visit emboldened the predominantly pro-American political class in India to work more vigorously to curtail Nehrus ability to manoeuvre vis--vis China and push him on a warpath.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nehru's forward policy, which was used as a pretext by China to declare war against India, was a clear indication that Nehru's foreign policy was indeed adventurous, radical, energetic and probably as pro-America as India's current foreign policy under Modi. One only hopes that the adventurous foreign policy does not lead towards another frivolous war that would keep the region divided and borders closed for another half a decade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>In Conclusion</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are far too many similarities between Nehru and Modi's foreign policy. Both are tethered to the liberal international order, erected and led by America. If Nehru promoted the Ford Foundation, the symbol of American soft power, in India, Modi is not far behind in advancing American corporate philanthropic organisations. Modi may be opposed to the presence of Ford Foundation in India, but he is very comfortable in receiving the Global Goalkeeper Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which caters as much toUS foreign policy goals as the Ford Foundation does. While the Ford Foundations founder symbolised the second industrial revolution and the advance of the American Century, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is driven by one of the leading figures of the fourth industrial revolution and is deeply engaged in promoting the American technological hegemony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the 1950s, America wanted to project India as a counterweight to China, and in 2020, America sees India playing a similar role. In the late 1950s, the Indian elite stood behind the US, forced the Indian government to apply maximum pressure on China, but remained completely oblivious to the consequences of its actions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When the US was ruled by New Dealers promoting liberal democracy, we had Nehru who was a diehard liberal and New Dealer. Now, when right-wing populists dominate American politics, we have an authoritarian right-wing leader in India. Therefore, irrespective of political changes in the US, India is likely to remain an American ally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, one still hopes that the Indian political, as well as foreign policy elite, will be more aware of the American grand strategy that is adept at instigating and using limited wars in the peripheries to further establish its hegemony.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Economic and Political Weekly</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>References</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bagchi, Indrani (2020): India Holds the Mirror to Its Critics, Times of India, 16 January.</span></div>
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Bhardwaj, Atul (2019): India-America Relations (194262), Rooted in Liberal International Order, Routledge: London. </div>
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George, Varghese K (2019): Open Embrace: India-US Ties in the Age of Modi and Trump, Penguin: Viking.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">MEA (2019a): EAMs Interview to Der Spiegel, 19 November,<span style="background-color: white; color: #0077cc; font-style: oblique;">https://mea.gov.in/interviews.htm?dtl/32052/EAMs_interview_to_Der_Spiegel</span>, viewed on 10 January 2020.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(2019b): External Affairs Ministers Speech at the 4th Ramnath Goenka Lecture, 14 November, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">viewed on 10 January 2020.</span></div>
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Subrahmanyam, K (2005): Arms and Politic, Strategic Analysis, Vol 21, No 1.</div>
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Wofford, Harris (2001): Lohia and America Meet1951 and 1964, New Delhi: BR Publishing. </div>
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Venkataramani, M S (1999): An Elusive Military Relationship, Part II, Frontline, 23 April. </div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-48474477799254938232020-03-24T22:55:00.000-07:002020-03-24T22:55:04.459-07:00CARE AND COMPETITION AT SEA- THE WHITE SHIP RACE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Historically navies and missionaries of charity have reached out to different shores to provide succor. The two are once again out at sea in their white-boats to spread health and harmony.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 2rem;">As long as there have been ships engaged in naval hostilities there have been boats designated to sea-lift casualties. During the battle of Somme, two merchant ships - Maheno and Marama - were converted into hospital ships to bring war wounded from the western front to New Zealand. At the end of World War I, the Royal Navy had some 77 hospital ships in its inventory. Russia lost its hospital Ship, Portugal, to German U Boat action during the First World War. In 1917, America built a custom-made medical ship named USS Relief (AH-1).</span></div>
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USNS Mercy and its sister-ship USNS Comfort are the two biggest floating hospitals in the world, each armed with 1000 beds capacity. Since the mid-1980s the two have contributed their medical-might both in war as well as in peace. The seagoing-white-twins - San Clemente-class supertankers in their earlier avatar - were launched in 1976 from San Diego. The 270 meters long, 69,500 ton, USNS Comfort along with USNS Mercy is the biggest hospital in the United States. Mercy provides humanitarian relief in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, Comfort mainly operates in the Caribbean and Latin America. </div>
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A hospital ship is a critical fleet-asset. Last year, US Navy Institute News reported that USNS Comfort (T-AH-20), ‘is counted in the service’s ‘battle force’ as part of a new plan that reclassifies existing ships by assets in high demand by combatant commanders.’</div>
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The US Navy is contemplating more maneuverable and deployable medical ships that can be easily berthed and are better designed to take-in and discharge patients in unfavorable environments. The US Navy and Marine Corps is contemplating the conversion of its six Newport (LST-179) class tank landing ships into 200 bed-hospital ships.</div>
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Besides, dedicated hospital ships the US aircraft carrier, George Washington is also equipped with the 51-bed hospital. Russian destroyers too have a provision to convert the officer’s wardrooms into operation theaters in case of an emergency. Britain converted HMS Hecla, an oceangoing survey vessel and also S.S. Uganda, a civilian cruise ship into a hospital ships during the Falklands war.</div>
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The other major player in the military-hospital ship segment in China, which officially launched its hospital ship project in 1976. In 1991, China’s South Sea Fleet was augmented with two hospital ships, Y832 Nan Kang and Y833 Bei Kang with 100-bed facilities each. In 2007 China purchased the Project 320 OB’ class hospital ship to kick-start its white ship fleet. The project was abandoned by the Russian shipyards in the late 1990s.</div>
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The Chinese Navy (PLAN) commissioned its first hospital ship, Peace Ark, in 2008. The 583 feet longship with a displacement of 10,000 tons was built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited.</div>
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Peace Ark is an integral part of Chinese naval diplomacy. Since 2010, Peace Ark has been on five ‘Harmonious Mission’ across Asia-Pacific and Africa. In 2013, the 300-bed hospital ship, including 20 intensive care unit beds and eight operating theaters, provided relief to the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.</div>
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In June 2014, Peace Ark along with other PLAN ships participated in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises held at Hawaii every two years. In 2015, the Hospital ship paid a goodwill visit to seven countries in the Asia Pacific – Australia, French Polynesia, USA, Mexico, Barbados, Grenada, and Peru. During its five day halt at Port of San Diego, California in November 2015, Peace Ark was tended to by its US counterpart USNS Mercy. </div>
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Mercy Ships, an international charity has contracted China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) for constructing the world’s biggest, 37,000 GRT ‘white-ship’, costing more than $100 million. According to experts the cost of 69,500 ton US Navy Hospital Ship Comfort is around $600 million. </div>
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Mercy Ships International with headquarters in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Valley,_Texas" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Garden Valley, Texas</a>, is the largest non-government operator of hospital ships. Towards the fag end of 1970s it converted four ocean liners and ferries into four floating hospitals.</div>
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It is for the first time that the charity has invested in building a hospital from scratch. The ship being built at Tianjin Xingang Shipyard is designed by Finnish firm Deltamarin with Stena RoRo managing the actual project construction. The ship has 277 cabins equipped with 641 beds, including 109 intensive care units. </div>
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The demand for hospital ships in the NGO sector is growing. India’s first hospital ship is under construction, at Pandu shipyard, to provide healthcare services to island communities living along the Brahmaputra River in Assam. It is a collaborative effort between the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES), which runs 15 boat clinics in 13 districts of Assam, and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Such hospital launches, primarily non-sea-going riverine crafts, are in use in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Chilie, Peru Cameroon, and Thailand.</div>
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One anticipates the land-based private hospital operators to launch their operations in the maritime domain. This assessment is based on the increasing trends in hospital tourism, where relatively in-expensive medical facilities from countries like India may reach out to rich patients rather than making them fly to India cities, where the pollution levels are high. The second factor that could drive private players towards hospital ships is the inability of the government especially in Asia and Africa to meet the challenge posed by unprecedented natural calamities in coastal towns. This could be a lucrative avenue for private navies that are not always involved in hostile anti-piracy operations.</div>
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Currently, navies and non-government charities are the main operators of cost intensive relief-care vessels. Both these segments are likely to grow, especially, because more navies like India, China, Japan, and Russia are indulging in ‘out of area operations.’ The rising aspirations of Tier-II navies are likely to impact the demand for hospital ships too because not only are these platforms proving to be an invaluable arm of naval diplomacy but also because China, the trendsetter in the Asia-Pacific region has embarked on an ambitious maritime diplomacy project. </div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-91924087900137695322017-04-26T06:14:00.001-07:002017-04-26T06:14:12.143-07:00Will Kim Back off or the Korean Standoff Lead to War?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LWJJZFjeTDk?list=LLBeyYTe9Xi7meDPpajpdp5A" width="480"></iframe>AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-78799354261016712062016-10-29T04:15:00.000-07:002016-10-29T04:15:01.910-07:00Stop it! Stop the Senseless Violence on Indo-Pak Border<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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They have their Allah and you have your Ram. They have their Ghazni, you have your Pratap. They do ceasefire violation on Diwali you pay them back on Eid. You behead, they behead. You cross the Loc, they do the same. One terrorist attack there and one here. You do surgical strikes; they give back in the same coin. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You have nukes, so do they. </span>You unleash your trolls on social media to sing the chorus of patriotism and militarism, they follow suit. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Your realist talk limited war; their realist blabber proxy war. You give a billion-dollar push to modernize your forces, they try to catch up. To replenish your ammo stocks both of you rush to the same sources abroad. When stalks are depleted both of you fly to Washington humming peace numbers.</span></div>
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Sit back and see. What exactly are you trying to acheive? your efforts have only yielded is mutilations in Machill, Mankote, Mendhar and many other location on the border. All that your vision has produced is death of twenty-year-old jawans on both sides of the border. </div>
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You guys and your counterparts over there are bloody nincompoops. Incapable of stopping needless violence. You lack imagination to find solutions. You are a gullible fools who is easily manipulated by international arms dealers. You are hidebound, bloodthirsty leeches who not only kill each other but are also ready to sow nuclear radiations on the subcontinental soil. And all this is being done to follow some vague lines on the map drawn by some third-rate British frontier officer. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps, you are smart. It is the people of the subcontinent that are brain dead. Even after years of experience of misery and mayhem, the they continue to buy your argument for more war</span></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-22193187113220035122016-07-10T20:53:00.001-07:002016-07-10T20:53:25.722-07:00AFTER BREXIT IS THE EXIT OF JEWISH LOBBY FROM AMERICA THE NEXT GERMAN TARGET<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“The frail skiff of present-day British policy is not inspiring any hope in British people, especially since the ‘symbolic voyage’ is taking place amidst the approaching economic crisis which is also tossing the American ship of state on its menacing waves.”</div>
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This was Mikh Afonin’s conclusion in Izvestiya, 31 August 1949. The article titled “In a Frail Skiff - to Washington” commented on the media hype associated with the crossing of the Atlantic in a 25-foot-boat by two Englishmen - Bevin and Cripps – for the Washington Conference of 7 September 1949. The Acheson-Bevin talks in Washington discussed issues ranging from the British revenge in Damascus to granting of recognition to Communist China. More importantly Acheson convinced Britain to guide European unity and prevent Germany from slipping into Soviet orbit. </div>
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In 1949 the British economy was in dire straits. Grosvenor Square, the headquarters of the so-called ‘Special Mission for Marshall Plan was occupied by American monopolies and stars and stripes waved atop most houses. From “this ‘Little Washington’ as the Yanks jibed maliciously, 1200 experienced American officials” and about 12000 troops controlled Britain and a considerable part of her empire. </div>
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The current issue is why did America permit its poodle to rock the post-war foundations with the Brexit referendum? It is hard to believe that Cameroon did not seek Uncle Sam’s nod before ordering the referendum. It is equally foolhardy to assume that a divided Britain and fragmented EU is not in American interest. </div>
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Keeping Germany within the American fold continues to be Washington’s objective. The only change is that Britain role in the strategy has changed. The Yanks no longer find the Brits enterprising enough to serve their interests in the EU. Taking a leaf out of the British rule book - divide and rule - America too is leaving behind a divided Britain. What could not be achieved by the Scottish “yes or no” has been achieved through the Brexit “leave or remain” vote. First, the Americans extracted “Great” from Britain by dismantling their empire in Asia and the Middle East. And now the Americans are gleefully seeing it shrink to “Little England”. This does not necessarily make Britain a pariah in the US scheme of things. The Royal Navy may well be deputed to Asia to manage the “US pivot”. After all, it is Asia from where the British amassed their wealth and perhaps this is where the Englishman will revive his fortunes. </div>
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Coming back to the German-American conundrum, one wonders as to who is driving the alliance? Is America making Germany its new poodle or are the Germans inching closer to replacing the Jewish Lobby as drivers of USA. According to Philip Oltermann, “German Americans make up the largest ethnic group in the US, if you divide Hispanics into Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans etc. In the <a href="http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk">2013 American Community Survey</a>, 46 million Americans claimed German ancestry: more than the number who traced their roots to Ireland (33 million) or England (25 million).”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/German-BrEXIT.docx#_ftn1">[1]</a> </div>
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The Germans are trying their best to endear themselves to the Americans. Germany has decided to completely give up on nuclear energy and is likely to close down all nuclear plants by 2022.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/German-BrEXIT.docx#_ftn2">[2]</a> </div>
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The German government has handed over its information systems and IT security entirely to an American private military company, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). CSC is like the IT department for the entire U.S. intelligence infrastructure. </div>
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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s desire to court Americans at all costs, also explains the current chill in German behaviour towards Russia. The German denials on the rape of the German -Russian girl in Berlin; attacks on President Putin’s cyber-security policy and their attitude on the Ukrainian issue all point in the direction that Germans want to be in American good books. </div>
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What one is witnessing is an intense power struggle within the transatlantic world. The Germans are making bold moves to woo America. Britain is the first to fall, the Jewish lobby in America is likely to be the next to go! </div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/German-BrEXIT.docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/30/germany-special-relationship-us-obama-carl-schurz-brexit </div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/German-BrEXIT.docx#_ftnref2">[2]</a> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13592208 </div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-79482625473524837812016-06-18T05:43:00.000-07:002016-06-18T05:43:11.465-07:00MAIR, MODI AND TRUMP CONNECTED THROUGH COUNTRY “FIRST” IDEOLOGY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last week, Jo Cox, a member of the Labour Party in the British Parliament, was shot and stabbed to death in West Yorkshire allegedly` by Thomas Mair, At the time of killing, Mair is reported to have shouted “Britain First”, a possible reference to the far right Britain First party, that has linkages with the white nationalist British National Party.</span></div>
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Mair has joined the list of maverick right-wingers who over the last few years have suffixed “First” to their country’s name and popularized it. The Indian Prime Minister Modi made “India First” his election theme during the general elections. Speaking at a video conference of the Indian-American community organised by the Overseas Friends of BJP in early 2013, Modi said, ‘India First’. Whatever you do, wherever you work, India should be the top priority for all its citizens,” to define his understanding of secularism. In the midst of a raging debate on intolerance in the country in November 2015, Modi reiterated, 'India first’ is the only religion and Constitution the only ‘holy book’ for his government.</div>
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If Modi branded his secularism with “India First” Donald Trump has chosen “America First” to showcase his foreign policy by stating that "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/27/trump-pivoting-to-the-general-election-hones-america-first-foreign-policy-vision/">My foreign policy</a> will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make. America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration." </div>
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Whether it is Mair, Modi or Trump the common mantra connecting the conservatives of the world seems to be country first. The basic premise is that nation-state is the bulwark of happiness and globalism or regionalism is not healthy the people. Trump comes out as a typical isolationist who rejects America’s so-called appeasement of the world using soft power. Modi also believes that the Indian state can be strengthened by weeding out foreign NGOs. The contradiction is that American NGOs are considered detrimental to national political harmony, the American military logistic base in India is believed to be completely innocuous. </div>
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America First was first used by Woodrow Wilson to reaffirm American neutrality in WWI. However, as the German U-boat attacks picked up momentum, Wilson changed tack and decided on American participation in war. This was not acceptable to William Randolph Hearst, the American businessman and media giant in the first half of twentieth century. Hearst put America First on the masthead of his Newspaper to remind Wilson of his promise not to get involved in European affairs, especially against Germany. </div>
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The America First Committee was formed in 1940, to oppose American entry into second World War, to save Britain. The anti-war committee was formed by some prominent American businessmen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Douglas_Stuart,_Jr.">R. Douglas Stuart, Jr.</a> the owner of Quaker Oats at Yale University. He was supported by Gerald Ford, and Sargent Shriver, the founder of US Peace Corps in early 1960. Many in the anti-war committee were supporters of India’s freedom in the 1940s. </div>
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The origins of ‘India First’ can also be traced to an American journalist, Gertrude Emerson. Gertrude was the correspondent of Asia magazine. In the 1930s she was deeply linked to the Americans like Pearl S Buck and others who voiced their concerns about colonial rule in India. Gertrude married Boshi Sen, an agricultural scientist, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. The Sen couple was closely linked to Josephine Macleod, the American lady who played a big role in establishing the entire Ramakrishna Mission in India and abroad since mid-1890. Gertrude Emerson floated an NGO called “India First Society” at Almora in 1980. </div>
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Britain First came up in 2011. All three firsts are engaged in hate campaigns against Muslims in their respective countries. They are all connected to big money and media. </div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-37996391473644087582016-05-13T08:10:00.000-07:002016-05-13T08:12:28.755-07:00In 1970s British Tried Selling Harriers to China<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last week, the Indian Navy bid adieu to the British-built Sea Harrier. The lone Subsonic-Sea Harrier flew among the newly inducted supersonic fighters, MiG 29k to mark the ceremony at Goa. The 1970s vintage machine was de-inducted from the Royal Navy in the year 2006 after serving for good twenty-six years. The Indian Navy had refurbished the aircraft, in 2009, to add another few years to its life. For almost three decades the Harriers were a pride of the Indian Navy flying from aircraft carriers. </span></div>
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Harrier was a short/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and strike aircraft designed and manufactured by British Aerospace. Its ability to hover like a helicopter was its unique feature. </div>
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Harriers operated successfully from the aircraft carriers, HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes in the Falkland War of 1982. A good war-performance enhanced their marketability in global arms market. India was impressed with the British innovation in the fighter domain. India ordered 30 aircraft and along with HMS Hermes, which was later rechristened as INS Viraat. The first three Sea Harriers landed at Goa on December 16, 1983, the deck landing abilities were tested on India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on December 20, 1983. </div>
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Interestingly, when the British Aerospace was busy negotiating with India the price of the naval version of the aircraft, it was simultaneously engaged in selling the Airforce-version of the Harriers to the Chinese. In fact, the Chinese started talking about sale-purchase of 200 Harriers, as early as 1972. In 1964, the Chinese bought Six Viscount aircraft for civilian use and thirty-six Trident jets firm Great Britain. </div>
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The “Gang of Four” menace in China put the Harrier negotiations on hold. In 1977 Li Chiang, then Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade visited Britain. The British organised a special Harrier flying demonstration for Li. In November 1978, the Harrier-demonstration was repeated for the Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Chen during his London visit.</div>
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The British were more than willing to sell to the Chinese despite the United States Battle Act of 1951 that prohibited such sales to the Soviet Bloc countries. Earlier Britain had overlooked the American concerns and sold Rolls Royce Spey engine to China in 1975. The sale of engine was for military purpose. Not only were the Americans advising Britain to refrain from selling jump-jets to the Chinese the Soviets too were opposed to the West arming the Chinese. Brezhnev wrote to British Prime Minister asking him to back off from negotiation harrier deal with the Chinese. Brezhnev’s letter was leaked to the press to show that the Soviets were trying to influence British decision. </div>
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Perhaps, due many of these factors the Chinese slowed down the speed of negotiations. In the midst of uncertainty, Wang’s elevation into the Politburo of CCP gave British fresh hopes of selling Harrier to China. The British sales-pitch to the Chinese was that Harrier could be effective in close-support operations and was a fit aircraft in defensive role. In 1979, the Anglo-Sino deal was almost through, the agreement was drawn, but the process got stalled by the Chinese invasion of Vietnam. And the deal died its natural death. </div>
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Interestingly, to keep the Americans in good humour, the London told Washington that it did not foresee the Chinese using the Harriers against Taiwan. Now the US Marine Corps is trying to sell the refurbished AV-8 Harriers to Taiwan. The justification is that in the event of a Chinese missile-attack the Taiwanese airfields will be the first to be destroyed and in such an eventuality the Harriers - capable of vertical take-off and landing- hidden in the mountains will come in handy to launch counter attacks. In 1980s China rejected the Harriers, now it is Taiwan that seems to be in no mood to oblige USA. </div>
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References</div>
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1. David Crane, “The Harrier Jump-Jet and Sino-British Relations,” Asian Affairs</div>
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Vol. 8, No. 4 (Mar. - Apr., 1981), pp. 227-250 </div>
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2. Edward Harvey, “The Modernisation of China and the Harrier ‘Jump-Jet’: Sino-British relations during China’s ‘opening-up’ to the World.” Available at <a href="https://independentresearcher.academia.edu/EdwardHarvey">https://independentresearcher.academia.edu/EdwardHarvey</a></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-23245279028999981162016-03-19T09:29:00.000-07:002016-03-19T09:29:25.888-07:00Clouds Over Chetwode’s Credo : Indian Army’s Apolitical and Secular Character under Threat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Field Marshal Sir Philip
Chetwode’s inaugural speech delivered on 10 December 1932 at the Indian
Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun set the tone and tenor of military
professionalism in India. The Field Marshal’s speech contained two pieces of
advice for the Gentlemen Cadets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The first piece of
advice urged the young cadets to remember that “An Army can have no politics.
It is the paid servant of the people and is at the disposal of the Government
of the day, whatever may be the political complexion of that Government.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">His second advice
outlined the three guiding principles that place the honour of the country
above every other concern of a military officer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">In early 1930s,
Chetwode’s insistence on keeping the army politics-free was to dissuade nationalist
youth from joining the newly Indianized army and challenging the validity of
the empire. The Indian state that was neither based on ideology or theology
opted for its army to remain moored to an apolitical and secular ethos and thus
Chetwode continued to be relevant post-independence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Today, the Chetwode’s
code of military professionalism is flagrantly violated. The Indian military is
no longer blasé about politics. Politics is no longer a taboo in army messes
and naval wardrooms because it is openly discussed by serving officers on
social media. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The social-media posts
by many serving officers largely echo the aggressive-nationalist sentiments
expressed by the right-wing politicians. Only on rare occasions one gets to
hear a contrarian view from a serving officer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Forget left-wing views,
the officers who believe in Field Marshal Chetwode’s credo are also reticent.
They feel constrained to bring a modicum of balance in the discourse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Some social media
comments make one wonder if the Supreme Commander of the armed forces is the
Prime Minister and not the President. The fact is that boundaries that
distinguish military personnel from civilians in context of their political
participation are getting eroded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Looking at social media
trends and the brazen manner in which rabid right-wing propaganda is posted and
forwarded by serving military officers, it is not far-fetched to imagine that
the top military leadership in the country is fully aware of it. From time to
time the military establishment has been issuing directions for armed forces
personnel to refrain from commenting on social media. However, the fact that
instructions are going unheeded clearly shows that there is lack of will on
part of the service headquarters to impose discipline. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Take for example the
Navy Foundation, a body of former naval officers. The Delhi chapter of the
foundation is regularly involved in spreading communal agenda. <i>The
Hindu</i> reported about the 20 October 2015 newsletter of the Navy
Foundation that featured an article with negative references to the minority
community.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/CHETWOOD.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">A few retired senior naval
officers also informed the naval headquarters about this. In December last year
the Naval Chief reiterated that “Every ship of the Indian Navy is a microcosm
of India, where we have personnel from every single state, including every
religion as well.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Indian Navy neither indulges in invoking
any religious text before casting off or launching its missiles, nor does it
employ and religious gurus to help its sailors in need. In fact, the Indian
Navy, prohibits the display of images of Gods or religious symbols in sailors’
mess decks or any other part of the ship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">One cannot deny the
retired community their right to politics, but can the Naval Foundation that is
directly linked to the Naval Headquarters web-portal be allowed to post
communal and political propaganda material. Such partisan trends are indicative
of the deep malaise that has gradually crept into the armed forces over the
past few years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">There is a distinction
between serving a constitutionally elected government (the BJP) and serving the
ideology (the RSS) that the government believes in. The Right-Wing nationalist
discourse that conflates religion with the state has set in motion a chain of
confusion. where honoring the cow is seen as equivalent to serving the country.
Armed forces are an important ingredient in the right-wing recipe of aggressive
nationalism. In order to appease its ideological master, the ruling dispensation
at the center wants the armed forces barricaded within the sacred walls of
Hindutva. Just as the Turkish army is considered to be the “home of the
Prophet,” the RSS perhaps prefers to confine the Indian army to a home of some
Hindu God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The use of armed forces
by the right-wing for political purposes is a menace. The martyrs in J &K
were brazenly politicized in the recent controversy in which nationalism of
India’s premier university was questioned by some media houses using doctored
videos. Last week, a Hindi news channel, IBN 7 interviewed Havildar Sudhir
Kumar Yadav in uniform, where he spoke against the against JNU student leader
Kanhaiya Kumar, taking absolutely similar position as propagated by the RSS.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/CHETWOOD.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Such blatant use of a
serving army man in political fight is unprecedented. The forces behind this
sinister propaganda are unaware of the dangerous consequences of mixing armed
forces and politics. In all probability the video could be doctored, because after
a few hours of its broadcast it was removed from the website of the channel,
however, IBN7 did carry a story on their website that mentioned about the
interview. However, if the interviewee is service personnel then it has to be
seen what action army headquarter takes against him for such </span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">indiscipline</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">Ajai Shukla, India’s
foremost defence journalist in his article titled “Armyism” published in <i>Business
Standard,</i> gives us more examples where the government has involved the
armed forces in religious functions like Yoga Day.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/CHETWOOD.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The government is
scaling up the military to a pedestal where questioning or criticizing the
military becomes sacrilegious and paradoxically it is engaged in ridiculing its
just demands for OROP and other allowances in the seventh pay commission.
Adding insult to injury, the government approved deployment of army personnel
and equipment for building pontoon bridges for a private function of Sri Sri
Ravishankar, a religious guru. As if this was not enough, the government acted
in a ham-handed manner and arrested a 75-year old veteran, an office bearer of
the ex-servicemen organization struggling for just and legitimate pension
rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;">The rightward
politicization of the military is disturbing the civil-military equilibrium and
militates against the tenets of a democratic state. The dangers inherent in
these trends need to be debated by social scientists as well as military
studies experts. These developments have the power to boost the army’s
propensity to acquire political power or as Field Marshal Chetwode warned in
his 1932 speech, “Once there is any suspicion that an Army, or any part of it is
biased politically, from that moment the Army has lost the hill confidence of
the nation who pays for it. It is no longer impartial, and that way lies chaos
and civil war.” </span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Meera/Desktop/CHETWOOD.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/controversial-remarks-in-navy-foundation-newsletter/article7798041.ece<span lang="EN-IN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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http://khabar.ibnlive.com/news/desh/kanhaiya-kumar-army-sudhir-kumar-yadav-jnu-kashmir-rape-460405.html<span lang="EN-IN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/ajai-shukla-armyism-116031401233_1.html<span lang="EN-IN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-42356908236929321832016-03-05T10:20:00.000-08:002016-03-05T10:20:20.507-08:00THE RIGHT WING IS INHERENTLY ANTI-NATIONAL BECAUSE OF ITS CLASS CHARACTER <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The understanding of internationalism is must in every debate on Nationalism. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Left has never hidden the element of internationalism in its definition of nationalism. It has openly been a part of international communist movement and international civil rights movement. And the Right-Wing has often used this honest admission as stick to beat the left with. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">However, the Right Wing has been absolutely dishonest about its deep rooted international moorings. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
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The left's problem is that it has shied away from exposing the international linkages of the Right-Wing groups. The left must expose the comprador character of the Right-Wing elite. It must show how the right wing elite is a part of the global capitalist class and how it is engaged in pauperizing its nation to appease its Western master. </div>
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The BJP govt is against NGOs that come from abroad and work in India but they have ignored the fact that their NRI friends of RSS in America are not Indian citizens. They have their careers to protect and their loyalty is with the nation that they are citizens of.</div>
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And knowing the reach of CIA one is sure that many of the American Friends of RSS must we working for Uncle Sam to perform acts ranging from communal riots to influencing elections in India with their money. This is not new in 1968 questions were raised in parliament about use of PL80 funds by CIA operatives to interfere in Indian elections. </div>
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The Right-Wing because of its its very class-allegiances is inherently anti-national and this must reach to the people.</div>
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The Left's also needs to be cautious in its assessment of forces that shape the international discourse. Many a times these forces, largely residing in the West, are the hand-maiden of imperialist forces. Therefore, these forces representing "international good" need to be thoroughly scrutinized.</div>
</span></div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-4827950255555634972016-03-04T20:50:00.000-08:002016-03-05T05:44:29.598-08:00THE STORY OF OPPRESSION IN A DALIT NAME <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T9eQoDRCOT4/Vtpsxx7opbI/AAAAAAAAB6M/pDZIvWSHbRE/s1600/20160302_152830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T9eQoDRCOT4/Vtpsxx7opbI/AAAAAAAAB6M/pDZIvWSHbRE/s640/20160302_152830.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 13.5pt;">Some 20 years ago, I came
face-to-face with this Dalit reality while serving on board an Indian naval
destroyer. As officer of the day (OOD) I embarked on my 'rounds' of the ship at
9 PM sharp. The quartermaster at the gangway piped and announced the
commencement of rounds on the ship's PA system. This was to alert all the 'off-working hour' duty personnel to be on their post to report cleanship and
safety of their part of the ship.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Besides, inspecting the mess decks
and galleys the OOD also inspects the bathrooms and toilets during the rounds.
The job of cleaning the toilets is done by a special branch in the Navy known as
"Topass''. To accord a modicum of
dignity to sailors of the Topass branch, the navy calls them “sanitary hygienists”.
The education eligibility or entry into this branch is VI standard. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
During my rounds a young duty-Topass was standing outside the sailor's toilets
to report. He saluted me, I reciprocated. But my eyes shifted to his faded name
tally, which hardly revealed his name. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I asked him his name. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He replied, NAHAK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I said, NAYAK form Orissa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He said, no sir, my name is NAHAK and
I am from Orissa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I reconfirmed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The moment he repeated Nahak, I
remembered these lines from a poem by Faiz, "Sheeshe ka Messiah",
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Tum Nahak Tudke chun chun kar
daaman mein Chipaee bethe hou..."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I told myself but NAHAK means
USELESS. How could a person be named USELESS?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I finished the rounds, went back to
the wardroom, lit a cigarette and thought to myself... in that one particular name there is
so much history. It shouts out the story of centuries of Dalit oppression and exploitation
in India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nahak’s name is his pain and his
reality. It is much more than the pain Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) felt in <i>Dewaar</i> when he understands the meaning
of the words, “Mera Baap chor hai”, inscribed on his arm by the oppressing classes
to remind him of his status and position in the society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-69426791074983437002016-02-28T06:09:00.003-08:002016-02-28T06:09:28.161-08:00My Speech in Solidarity with JNU<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPGXCgi9kHI</div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-43130206353773631842016-02-20T05:05:00.000-08:002016-02-20T05:05:18.305-08:00DEATH OF HANUMANTHAPPA IS TRAGEDY AND THE OTHER NINE ARE MERE STATISTICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Arnab Goswami is not a journalist. He
is a part of a dangerous propaganda machinery that creates binaries,
"double binds" to induce schizophrenia in society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><br />
On the JNU issue he created the Hanumanthappa-Afzal Guru binary, where the
channel asked “If Afzal guru is a martyr then who is Hanumanthappa”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">On 3 February 10 Indian Army Soldiers
at a post (20,000 feet high) on the Siachen glacier were reported missing after
an avalanche buried their post. The army launched rescue operations but for
some reason the Northern Army Command declared all ten to be dead after 24 hrs
of search. And on the same day, 4 February 2016, Prime Minister Modi offered
his condolences through a tweet. All this while the army’s operation to dig out
the bodies of the dead soldiers was on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Five days later on 9 February 2016, the
media reported that one soldier, Lance Naik Hanumanthappa was found to be miraculously
alive after being buried under 25 feet of snow for six days. The news of his rescue
and survival went viral. Some sections of the media credited his regular
practice of Yoga as the reasons for his survival. The nation was urged to pray
for Hanumanthappa’s health. He was brought to Army’s Research and Referral
hospital at Delhi. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">On 9 February 2016 (same date on which anti-India slogans are raised in
JNU), the Prime Minister visited Hanumanthappa in the Army hospital in Delhi. There
are videos that show the PM standing next to the dying patient in the intensive
care unit. Inside the ICU, PM was without a mask and is chatting with doctors and
the Army chief.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Hanumanthappa suddenly becomes the
symbol of extreme sacrifice and grit. Arnab Goswami and others anchors yell at
JNU students calling them anti-national for raising pro-Pakistan slogans, especially
when Hanumanthappa was fighting for his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">On 11 February Hanumanthappa is
declared dead. Incidentally, on the same day there is another protest rally in
JNU where JNSU President Kanahiya Kumar raises slogans for freedom from capitalism,
poverty, casteism and exploitation. This video is then doctored; the slogan of ‘azadi-azadi’
from his earlier speech is juxtaposed against the backdrop of anti-national
slogans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Hanumanthappa’s funeral is televised
live. Nobody bothers about the names of the other 09 soldiers killed by the avalanche.
No TV channel tracks their grieving families. These 09 unknown soldiers simply
fade away (as have others since independence) because the propaganda machinery had
no use of them. Death of Hanumanthappa is converted into a tragedy while the other
nine are mere statistics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The selective use and appropriation
of Lance Naik Hanumanthappa and complete obliteration of the other 09 Soldiers from
public memory only goes to show how one body-bag was used for political propaganda
aimed at polarizing society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-30578426372412197502016-02-12T19:11:00.001-08:002016-02-13T01:01:03.385-08:00"REASON IS TREASON" IN RSS RAJ<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222;">In</span><span style="color: #222222;">dia has a
RSS problem. Its stand against the cult of violence is ambiguous. This
Janus-faced, cultural-politico outfit is the wounded-remnant of the British
divide-and-rule policy that juxtaposed nationalism with religion. Its
primary interest is to preserve the wealth of the few upper
caste Indians. In order to sustain the inequalities in society and
preserve class and caste privileges of the rich it uses the religious
card. It is for this reason that RSS hates Dalits who challenge caste hierarchies. Its
agenda is to convince Hindus to believe - cow is bigger than country -
India is Hindutva and Hindutva is India. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222;">Emboldened
by BJP’s massive victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, RSS launched a ‘cultural war’
in the country. The Sangh parivaar ideologues have used the term ‘war’ to
describe the current atmosphere of intolerance in the country for two reasons.
One, war conjures up feelings of patriotism and makes it simpler to insist,
“once at war, reason is treason.” Secondly, makes it simpler to dub
doubters and dissenters as enemies and thus violence against them is justified.
The idea is to instil fear in the minds of ordinary citizens, make
them feel obliged to Hindu Gods for their existence in India. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #222222;">A
systematic propaganda machinery operates 24X7 to vilify the ‘lifestyles’ of
Sangh’s main enemies - minorities and Liberals. Labelled unpatriotic, public opinion
is turned against them with tales of their irreverence to the cow or for their identity
that embraces humanism and dignity for each life<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">. T</span>he
vicious vilification campaign against the voice of reason does not even spare
prestigious national educational institutions.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-68550690717044850072016-02-06T21:04:00.003-08:002016-02-06T21:04:51.186-08:00Indian Navy’s New Strategy Fails to Track the Oceanic Decline<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In less than a decade, the Indian Navy has revised its strategic outlook. The latest vision statement, Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy was released on October 26, 2015. Besides internal communication there are two reasons that the capital-intensive navy has to periodically justify its role and mission. First, to address the controllers of the national purse strings and secondly to cater to the changing international security environment. The budgetary authorities find the history of European navies that brought colonialism to Asian shores an inadequate justification for a strong Navy. Therefore, the latest document attempts to educate the defense bureaucracy that the Indian Navy needs multi-billion dollar investments in modern naval platforms because it is all set to assume its pan-oceanic role and is no longer confined to performing coastal and constabulary functions. <br /><br />The second palpable reason for publication of the strategy is geo-political changes since the publication of Freedom to Use the Seas: India’s Maritime Strategy in 2007. The growing Chinese challenge to American hegemony in Asia; the repositioning of US naval assets to Asia-Pacific; Japan’s metamorphosis from a pacifist to a ‘normal’ aggressive power and India’s ambition to pop out of the strategic closet, to make security of oceanic trade lanes the dominant discourse.<br /><br />The strength of the strategic document is the clarity with which it articulates the Indian Navy’s need to grow in tune with the government’s ‘Act East’ policy and the desire to play a larger role in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond. It balances Navy’s obligations in coastal waters with its customary zeal to perform ‘out of area’ while remaining rooted to ‘principles of self-defense and the tenets of Panchsheel’. <br /><br />Navies and trade are Siamese twins. The US Office of Naval Intelligence reiterated this reality in its 1922 document - The US Navy as an Industrial Asset that articulated the Navy’s role in protecting and furthering overseas investments for US business leaders. The ‘way points’ – the guiding principles in the latest strategic outline refer to navy-business association in terms of ‘Navy for National Development’. However, it explicitly states that its primary role is to play a decisive role in ‘preventing war and conflict’ and ‘bringing it to conclusion’. The document does not shy away from acknowledging the centrality of ‘sea control’ during conflict as a prerequisite for most naval operations’. The earlier documents refrained from talking about this aspect primarily because establishing ‘hostile zones’ and being a net security provider is a difficult proposition.<br /><br />The document makes nuanced distinction between coastal security and coastal defense. Coast Guard is one of the main stakeholder in coastal security however, defending the coast against external aggression and invasion falls within the naval purview. This is important because a stream of post-Cold war invasions by the US Navy in the Middle East have shown that small and medium navies are incapable of offering resistance against assault by big navies. The total paralysis of Iraqi and Libyan navies in the wake of the US invasion informs that coastal defense strategy should be the lynchpin of any naval strategy rooted in defending the nation. Traditional ways are grossly inadequate. Medium navies must focus on devising innovative technologies to tackle invasions.<br /><br />The recent Indian Maritime Security Strategy doesn’t skirt the issue of new technologies and grants it adequate space. However, there is much more ground that needs to be covered. Take for example, LOCUST- Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarming Technology program, the latest technology that the US navy is on the verge of perfecting. LOCUST systems are designed to launch a number of networked autonomous, surface, subsurface and aerial drone’s in offensive mode. A simpler analogy is to visualize the coordinated attack by ‘Tidi Dal’ on cotton crops in India. The US started research on these technologies about fifteen years ago and is now experimenting with 3-D printers to build these swarm drones on board ships. By now these concepts should be a part Indian Navy’s strategic lexicon. <br /><br />The strategy-blue print sends important signals to two important maritime stakeholders. Emphasis on future naval warfare informs design and technical institutes in the country to imagine the possibilities of using civilian technologies like 3-D printers for naval use. It also forewarns naval architects to be prepared to face the challenges of integrating newer technologies with old platforms that are likely to be in operation till at least 2035. <br /><br />Like most strategic discourses, Indian Maritime Security Strategy adheres to the concept of ‘fixity’ that hinges on rigidity and repetition. One disagrees with the basic premise of the document that ‘the 21st century will be the century of the seas for India and that the seas will remain a key enabler in her global resurgence’. Both technology and shifting power balance in the global political economy is challenging the Western ‘Command of the Commons’. Cyber technologies, and changes in oil economy are denting the importance of Sea Lanes of Communication. However, the biggest threat that sea power faces today is from the Chinese ‘Belt and Road’ initiative that envisages providing alternative routes for international trade. The Eurasian rail and road links, extending from China to Europe through central Asia and Russia are designed to attract a huge amount of international trade away from the Oceans. In a few years’ time it may become factually incorrect to say that 90 per cent of the global trade flows through the Oceans. Once Oceans are not the first choice for international trade, the relevance of the Western navies will be challenged. This could be the biggest blow to Western hegemony that has sustained itself for past centuries by commanding the service sector – the insurance and re-insurance regimes- on the global commons. This aspect needs to be included in all our strategies because our alliances and force levels will be largely determined by changes in the global political economy.</div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-81785753667142772562015-12-05T01:51:00.000-08:002015-12-05T03:08:56.552-08:00 Kejriwal, visit Cuba: Learn Urban Farming to Reduce Delhi’s Pollution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 1946, India was hit by acute food shortages. ‘Grow More’ campaign was launched by the British government. Army released a lot of its machinery for digging wells, leveling ground etc. Viceroy’s private secretary, G.E.B. Abbey, wrote to Mahatma Gandhi to inform him that ‘in Delhi a considerable part of the central vista’ was to be ploughed up and the gardens of bungalows were to be used for growing vegetables on a large scale. </span></div>
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Gandhi’s, 21 February 1946, letter to the Viceroy further suggested that that small and medium sized vessels of the Royal Indian Navy, which were on patrol or guard duty during the war, be converted for the purpose of fishing to provide an additional source of food. Gandhi also suggested that a law be passed to convert all public gardens into fields growing vegetables.</div>
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<br /></div>
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After the demise of Soviet Union when Cuba was faced with acute food shortages it turned to urban farming to collectively meet its growing food needs. Today in Cuba more than 35,000 acres of urban gardens produced 3.4 million tons of food. In Havana, 90% of the city's fresh produce came from local urban farms and gardens, all organic. More than 200,000 Cubans worked in the expanding urban agriculture sector.</div>
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We need to trigger our minds and think
as to why we grow only grass in most of the urban towns and cities. Why don’t
we grow the much needed organic vegetables and wheat on India gate lawns? Actually
during the industrial revolution there was strong economic logic in switching
land use. Growing grass curtailed agricultural activity and ensured the
movement of labour from farms to factories. But fields could not be completely
abandoned because there was a lurking fear that industry may fail and economy
may have to revert to agriculture. Thus lush-green lawns became a part of a hedging
strategy that eventually created the rural-urban binary. Today, we are
culturally conditioned to think of green grass lawns as beautiful and the
thought of interspersed crops and concrete as ugly as well as unacceptable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
The radical solutions offered in 1946, to ‘grow more’ are more valid in twenty first century Delhi or any metropolitan town that is struggling with ‘pollute less’ strategies. The idea of converting gardens into farms is as relevant as it was seven decades ago. Today, urban households are not just subjected to soaring food prices but also to vegetables that stale and chemically treated. The lack of organic farming coupled with unhygienic transportation is an urban nightmare. The trucks carrying vegetables add enormously to polluting the city. Total green area under Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is in the range of 5000 hectares (12,350 acre). In Lutyens Bungalow zone (LBZ) 5,600 acres of land grows only grass. To maintain manicured grass in LBZ gardens the government spends Rs.70, 000/acre, every month. If only total grasslands of Delhi could be used to grow organic vegetables, it could meet Delhi’s vegetable needs locally. Not only will it help Delhi have fresh, organic vegetables it will also reduce the number of trucks that bring vegetable to Delhi from other states, reducing the pollution levels considerably.</div>
</div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-42262856538777238152014-12-20T06:06:00.000-08:002014-12-20T06:06:27.804-08:00WHEN US MILITARY AIRCRAFT SMUGGLED GOLD INTO INDIA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1950s, India, a gold guzzler had banned import of gold. In sharp contrast, the bullion markets in Hong Kong and Macau were free of government controls, incentivising the Chinese syndicates to smuggle gold into India where the price of yellow metal was highest in Asia. Normally, gold entered India hidden in boats and the bulkheads of ships and was smuggled in through the dock gates by the ship’s crew concealing gold ingots in their bodily cavities. </span></span></div>
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In June 1954, Custom House, Calcutta (now Kolkata) confiscated 560 bars of gold worth £61,000 from Eastern Queen, a vessel owned by the Hong Kong based Indo-China Steam Navigation Company. Almost six months later, on 29 December 1954, at about 8.30 a.m. near the crossroad of Canning Street and Clive Street in Calcutta, the customs team intercepted the courier, a ‘respectable’ person hired by the smugglers. This was an intriguing catch, because “an entirely different racket unconnected with the Chinese traffic” emerged after the case unravelled. The new players neither belonged to the Hong Kong-Macau network, nor were they using the sea route to smuggle in the yellow metal. </div>
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The carrier was W.B. Zadkar, a 37 year-old, ground engineer of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), Calcutta, where he had been working since the mid-1940s. Prior to joining BOAC, he was in the Indian Air Force. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Zadkar was apprehended when he was about to reach his destination at 164, Cotton Street, Calcutta, the house of the president of Bullion Merchants Association of India, to deliver two tin boxes that had landed on Christmas night in a KLM flight.</div>
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<br /></div>
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One box contained 10 bars weighing approximately 50 tolas (583.20 grams) each, and the other had 42 bars of smaller size, each weighing approximately 10 tolas (116.63 grams). The custom official reported that rough illustrations on the small bars read: “NM Rothscheld (Rothschild) & Sons RMR” and “10 tolas 999.0”. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Zadkar was initiated into the gold smuggling racket by an unknown person who used to call up at his office phone using different names. The mysterious man, who looked like an “Arab or a Westerner but not a Chinese” had first met Zadkar at Grant Hotel, Calcutta. Five months prior to being apprehended, Zadkar had got a cable from London that stated “Shipped two carpets on Thai”, which meant that two boxes of gold had been dispatched on their plane. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During his five-month-old association with the smuggling gang, Zadkar handled gold worth £31,000. For three-and-a-half months Zadkar’s job was confined to take over the stuff from the plane parked at the tarmac and deliver it to people waiting outside the gate in a car. Later, he was asked to deliver the stuff directly to various locations in Calcutta. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The most intriguing revelation in Zadkar’s testimony was that on at least six occasions he had picked up gold from the “chokes” in the USA Air Force planes, MATS Skymaster”. India had an agreement with the US government that permitted Military Air Transport Services (MATS) planes night halt facilities at New Delhi and Calcutta airports. The customs’ report corroborated that in the period between the months of August and December, 1954, nine US Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster planes and two Thai Airways aircraft night stopped at Dum Dum airport. These planes were prohibited from carrying arms, ammunition and military personnel in uniform; however, they often violated these guidelines.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Zadkar’s revelation about the involvement of US military aircraft in the smuggling net led the customs collector, Calcutta to seek Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) permission to rummage the US army aircraft. The MEA was reluctant to give a blanket clearance to search military aircraft because such flights could be searched only on confirmed suspicion that they were carrying arms, ammunitions and other military hardware. This particular incident triggered an inter-departmental debate within the government at New Delhi. The customs department argued that the immunity accorded to military aircraft was invalid if it indulged in smuggling of contraband goods, because such acts violated the customs regulations. Customs department wanted explicit permission to rummage foreign military planes, without having to wait for permissions from New Delhi. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Finally, on 1 February 1955, the Ministry of Finance (Revenue Division) passed an order stating that “if the customs authorities have a definite suspicion that any article (including those other than arms) are being smuggled into or from India in military aircraft, they will be perfectly within their right to search such aircraft and their personnel.” Incidentally, with effect from the first of July 1955, the Indian government levied handling and housing charges on all US military aircraft using civil airports in India. </div>
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<i>This article is based on a secret Ministry of external affair file of 1955 at the National Archives of India, New Delhi</i></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-43636786875568387202014-09-26T07:23:00.001-07:002014-09-26T07:23:09.239-07:00Of Strategic Suckers...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This Review essay is published in Economic and Political Weekly</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">http://www.epw.in/book-reviews/cuckoo-strategy-china.html</span></span></div>
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In a vintage warship, the crow’s nest is the topmost spot on the ship’s mast from where a “lookout” scans the seas for incoming danger. In a modern warship this vantage point has been replaced by the radar. However, for students of strategy, the story of the cuckoo surreptitiously laying eggs in the crows’ nest continues to be relevant. The wise crow is lured out of his nest into a chase when provoked by the continuously jarring sounds produced by the male cuckoo. While the crow is busy in hot pursuit, the female cuckoo quietly moves into the crow’s nest, throws out some of the crow’s eggs, thereby making place to lay her eggs. Unknowingly, the crow warms all the eggs and nurtures the babies when the eggs hatch.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;">The crow is a perfect example of a strategic sucker. In the secular world too, there are nations who are suckered to provide their military manpower to fight someone else’s war. The first question to ask vis-à-vis China is whether the 1962 conflict was India’s own war? The lack of dispassionate analysis of the period has led Indian strategic thought to shy away from identifying and naming the cuckoo that clandestinely came and laid its egg in the Indian nest.</span></div>
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<b style="outline: none !important;">Foreign Strategy of India</b></div>
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According to K M Panikkar, America and Apa Pant were the twin factors responsible for a sudden deterioration in Sino-Indian relations in the mid-1950s (Gupta 1982: 14). A powerful American lobby having deep links with all political parties in India, barring the Communist Party of India, pushed the Indian establishment on an escalatory path vis-à-vis China that eventually resulted in a border war. Apa Pant, India’s political officer in Sikkim (1955-61), was instrumental in building a Tibet lobby within India. He convinced many “senior Indian political leaders like Jai Prakash Narain, G B Pant and the ex-president Rajendra Prasad to take up the Tibetan cause as their own” (Gupta 1982: 15). Purshottam Das Trikamdas, an old associate of Apa Pant, inspired the international commission of jurists to publish two reports on Tibet in 1959 and 1960 with an aim to establish that Tibet enjoyed de facto sovereignty between 1912 and 1951.</div>
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In 1959, India entered the game of brinkmanship vis-à-vis China and kept climbing up the escalation ladder. India was gullible enough to follow western instructions both on Tibet and its boundary with China and ended up fighting a frivolous war. By allowing asylum to Dalai Lama, India acted like a foolish crow that hatched American strategic eggs. The United States (US) actions in Tibet provoked the Sino-Indian war that fulfilled the American goal of preventing any possibility of Soviet Union, China and India forming a progressive joint front against western imperialism. The 1962 war was used to widen the wedge in the communist bloc and inch closer towards making Mao Zedong, a “Chinese Tito”, who could speak openly against the Soviets (Xiang 1992: 319). The conflict shook Jawaharlal Nehru’s belief in non-alignment, teaching him an unforgettable lesson on the relevance of empires in the postcolonial world.</div>
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Some argue that recent scientific studies have revealed that not all varieties of cuckoos are cunning. In some cases, the pungent juices secreted by the newlyhatched baby cuckoos protect the nest from being attacked by predators, thereby ensuring that the left-behind baby crows are also nurtured in a protected environment. According to this logic, America was not a cunning cuckoo since the war proved beneficial for some in India too. The US, by instigating India to take on China, helped the capitalist-driven Indian state to stem the growth of the left movement in India. The venom spewed against the communists during and in the wake of the 1962 war was enough to cause a three-way divide in the Communist Party of India and push the leftist forces on the defensive for times to come.</div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-64026126459938567342014-09-18T21:46:00.004-07:002014-09-18T21:46:39.117-07:00Imperial Intrigues in Tibet and the invalidity of 1914 Simla Conference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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ONE hundred years ago, in July 1914, a tripartite convention, involving Great Britain, China and Tibet, culminated in Simla (now Shimla). The conference, which began on October 13, 1913, was held at Wheatfield, a property of the Maharaja of Darbhanga. Apart from the large conference chamber, separate meeting and retiring rooms were provided for the respective plenipotentiaries and their staff. The refreshment room on the third floor catered to the needs of the delegates. The Tibetan delegation was lodged at a place called Mythe. The Chinese party was put up at Okover. The residence of Sir Henry McMahon, the British plenipotentiary, was called Konckdrin.</div>
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Despite elaborate plans and preparations, the six-month-long conference was a failure. However, it produced a secret bilateral accord between Tibet and Great Britain, which was signed in Delhi, away from the conference venue. The dubious agreement was disavowed by all the three parties to the convention.</div>
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This is an article published in Frontline Magazine</div>
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<span style="color: #3b3a39; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">http://www.frontline.in/world-affairs/british-wiles-in-tibet/article6412659.ece</span></span></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-12926202657433406482014-07-05T06:46:00.002-07:002014-07-05T06:46:44.523-07:001914- Simla Conference AND an Invalid Treaty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
year 1904 was a watershed year in Tibetan history. It introduced a decade of
large scale loot, violence and imperial lust to an otherwise tranquil land. The
British military forays into Tibet were staunchly opposed by the Chinese in
1905. They were driven out and forced to
sign an agreement with China in 1906. After good three to four years of
complete Chinese control, in 1909, dissent against Chinese authority surfaced
in Tibet. The situation deteriorated to an extent that in 1910, the 13<sup>th</sup>
Dalai Lama went on an exile to Darjeeling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
tremors of 1911 republican revolution in China also reached Tibet. In November 1911, Chinese troops stationed in
Lhasa revolted against the Chinese Amban. Tibet seized the opportunity,
presented by political chaos in Peking, to assert her autonomy and insist on
the return of the deposed Dalai Lama to Lhasa.<sup> </sup>In the beginning of
1912, Great Britain decided to reconsider the whole case of Tibet autonomy
afresh.’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On
January 13, 1912, the Foreign office in London posed three questions to
authorities in India and sought their opinion before formulating a viable Tibet
policy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Was raising the banner of
opposition against the inclusion of Tibet in China proper British justified by
earlier treaties? Will such opposition serve British interest? </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"> OR</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Will such a protest and
opposition lead to outbreak of anti-British indignation within China and harm
English settlements </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"> AND</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The Steps that need to be
taken to implement the strategy of opposition</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">T</span></b><span lang="EN-US">he Government of India
opined: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">ü <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Opposing inclusion of Tibet
in China proper would serve the British better. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">ü <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Since the Chinese had not
harmed the Russians after their interference in Mongolia, the British too were
not likely to face the Chinese wrath. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">C.A. Bell, political
Officer, Sikkim went a step further and proposed not to allow Chinese to go to
Tibet via India. And join hands with Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim to deny rice to
Chinese soldiers stationed in Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The proposed embargo of
rice was based on the premise that since rice was the staple food of Chinese
troops; its non-availability would lead to their withdrawal from Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Chinese sensed danger
emanating from the British-Dalai Lama alliance that was nurtured in Darjeeling
during 1910-12 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In April 1912, Yuan Shih-kai
republican government adopted a more conciliatory gesture towards Dalai Lama.
Allowed him to return to Lhasa and restored all previous rank and titles
conferred on him earlier. Amban Lien Yu who had committed atrocities against
Tibetans was dismissed and a new ‘government agent in Tibet’ was appointed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The British military
officers saw turmoil in China as an opportune moment to intervene. They were
waiting to grab an opportunity for action. Lt Col. J Manners-Smith, British
government’s representative in Nepal suggested using Nepalese military to
establish an autonomous government in the Tibet. Manners-Smith’s proposal was
shot down not only by Sir Henry McMahon but also by the Maharaja of Nepal who
said, the ‘game would not be worth the candle,’ mainly because Tibet was poor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">However, what was more vigorously
pursued by Sir McMahon was a 21 April 1912 Proposal by Major W.F.T O’ Connor
that suggested:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"> Acknowledge the</span> legitimacy of the new Republican
dispensation in China, <b>BUT ONLY WHEN</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">•
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">China
gives an undertaking that the <i>status quo</i> as it existed at the time (say)
of the signature of the Adhesion Agreement (April 1906) should be preserved and
adhered to</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">•
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The
establishment of British agent at Lhasa </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">•
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The
cancellation of the trade regulations of 1908 </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">•
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Establishment
of a British representative at Lhasa</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">on
17th August 1912, Sir J. Jordan, the British Minister in Peking, gave a
memorandum to the Chinese. This memorandum became the initial basis for
starting a new set of negotiations on Tibet: Jordan asked: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">As
per 1906 treaty the Chinese did not have any right of active intervention in
internal administration of Tibet and to alter the <i>status quo</i> in Tibet?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Chinese
must reduce their troop level in Lhasa <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Chinese response was:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">As
per Article II of the 1906 convention, only the Chinese state had the right to
intervene in Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">2000
troops in Tibet were required to meet the obligations imposed on her by the
1906 Convention and trade regulations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Anglo-Tibet
trade treaty of 1904 was <i>ultra vires</i>
and was not above the 1906 Convention. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Great
Britain trade with Tibet was well protected and they had no business to interfere
in Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">The</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> British were keen to raise
the pitch on Tibet issue: Rumour
mongering was resorted to. In the first week of January 1913, English papers
commented extensively on a statement in the Russian Daily, regarding a scheme
for joint protectorate of Great Britain and Russia over Tibet. The Russians
denied all such reports. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">They
British claimed that they did not want Tibet for themselves. They neither
wanted to establish a protectorate over it nor formally annex it. They did not
intend to increase their responsibilities and expenditure without any
corresponding economic advantage. Then what were they seeking in Tibet:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">T</span></b><span lang="EN-US">he British professed that
all they wanted in Tibet was a reasonably friendly government that would not
interfere with their frontier and insignificant trade interests. The British
could not outsource the administration of Tibet to either Russia or Nepal.
China was the only legitimate and viable power capable of exercising suzerain
rights in Tibet. However, the question was that re-installation of China had to
be a controlled process, that neither provided any room for drastic action nor
any scope for the Chinese to have a free run in Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Military operations in
Tibet had to be avoided because the British were already preoccupied in Persia
and there was no will to spend money and occupy Tibet for a prolonged duration,
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">However, the reinstallation
of China in Tibet was also opposed by A.H. McMahon who argued:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">China’s
re-entry would lead Russia to sign an agreement with Tibet on the lines of
Mongolian agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">China
could not be trusted<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">·
</span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Going
back on the 17 August 1912, Memorandum that had been given wide media coverage
will cause loss of prestige for the British. Therefore McMahon proposed a
hardline ‘active assistance to Tibet’ - which literally meant giving assistance
in money, arms and (temporarily) British officers for organizing Tibetan forces<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Progress Towards Simla<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">At this stage the British
idea primarily was to start bilateral talk between Tibet and China that would
be fully controlled by them <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">·
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">In
end January 1913, Chinese agreed to resume negotiations on the basis of 17<sup>th</sup>
August 1912, memorandum </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">·
<!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">On
March, 1913, Dalai Lama approached to send a delegate to discuss terms of peace
with General Chung in India.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">J. Jordon was opposed to
London’s idea of Sino-Tibetan bilateral dialogue. He wanted London to get
interested in Tibet and go in for a tripartite agreement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
aim of the proposed tripartite agreement was to: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Get assurance from the
Chinese that they would not encroach on Tibet’s eastern border </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Acceptance by Tibet of a
Chinese Amban with a 300 escorts at Lhasa</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ø <!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">If negotiations failed,
Britain would have direct negotiations with Tibet independent of China. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Except
for the tripartite agreement, the Foreign office in London approved of Jordon’s
proposals. Tripartite Agreement was opposed because London did not want to get
entangled in the process of implementing it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jordan,
CA Bell and McMahon felt that the British could not decline to accept
responsibility there. The department of foreign and political affairs in India
was pushing London on the on the grounds that they were receiving repeated
requests from Dalai Lama to help him make Tibet independent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Constant persuasion by Charles
Hardinge, India’s Viceroy was able to convince London to hold a tripartite
conference. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In July 1913, Dalai Lama wrote to
Viceroy of India: almost announcing the Conference
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Conference Begins
13 October 1913<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Venue:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Wheatfield, a property of
Maharaja of Darbhanga </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">British Team: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Sir Henry McMahon, C.A.
Bell and Archibald Mr. Rose (from British embassy in China). </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Chinese Team: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Ivan Chen, Mr. Shah and Mr.
Wang.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <b><span lang="EN-US">Tibetan Team: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Lonchen Shatra, Techi Kusho, Depon Taradeba and Kusho Nyendron. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Apart from the large
conference chamber, separate meeting and retiring rooms were provided for each
of the British, Chinese and Tibetan Plenipotentiaries and their staff. The
refreshment room on the third floor catered to the wants of members of all
three nationalities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Arrival & ceremonials<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">24 September 1913 - Kusho
Lonchen Shatra reached Simla. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">After one month of sea
voyage the Chinese party reached India via Singapore on 3<sup>rd </sup>October,
1913. The ceremonials and diplomatic
niceties to be accorded to Ivan Chen were largely drawn from the experience of
receiving the Chinese Commissioner who had come to attend the 1905
negoitiations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The 1905 convention was a
bilateral affair between the China and Great Britain. However, during the trade
negotiations of 1907-08, the Tibetan Commissioner was also brought to the
negotiating table. In 1907-08, both the Chinese and the Tibetan Commissioners
travelled in the same special train from Lhasa and arrived together in Simla, the
venue of the negotiations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">During the Simla
Convention, the Chinese diplomatically conveyed their closeness and hold over
Tibet by informing. The British that their ‘party had brought very warm clothes
for wearing in Tibet, where they expect to go immediately after the
conference.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This was to indicate to the
British that the Chinese were free to move in and out of Tibet. In 1905
convention, the Tibetan delegate was absent mainly because the Chinese wanted
the British to remain distant from Tibet. In 1908, the Chinese brought the
Tibetan delegate along for negotiations with Britain, primarily because of
their confidence in managing Tibet and also because the Chinese saw British as
an ally in their strategy to keep Russia away from their territories. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The British Minister decided
to treat both the Chinese as well as the Tibetan delegates <i>on equal terms.</i>. Neither of them was accorded official honours. The
policy of treating the Tibetan delegate at par with the Chinese Plenipotentiary
was to display the independence of Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Chinese had however,
wanted the Tibetan negotiator to occupy the same position as he had during the
1908 negotiations where the Tibetan commissioner was ‘authorised to act under
the directions of the Chinese commissioner. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
conference kick-started with routine calling on and separate reception by
Viceroy for both the Chinese and the Tibetan commissioners <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ivan Chen was a seasoned diplomat;
he had been in Chinese embassy in London for 14 years. On 7th October 1913 he met
A.H. McMahon where he was informed of a <i>Reuters</i>
news item regarding the election of Yuan Shi Kai as president of Chinese
Republic and of the fact that Great Britain was likely to recognize the Chinese
republic on 10th October 1913. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The month of October and November
was spent sharing of maps prepared by the British and the counter claims put
forward by Tibet and China. On 10 November, 1913, McMahon forwarded a draft of
a tripartite treaty for consideration of the Indian government and for
communication to London and British minister in Peking. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In the agreement, the
British added a clause that required the Chinese to pay amnesty and indemnity amounting
to Rupees 4,24,840 due for losses incurred by Nepalese and Ladakis in Tibet in
consequence of the acts done by Chinese officials and soldiers in that country.
The Chinese delegate refused to discuss or consider any question of indemnity
to Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In Mid- November, Ivan Chen
considered it impracticable to discuss the frontier of Tibet until the maps had
arrived in Peking. Chen also proposed the priority list for discussions: a) The
political status of Tibet b) The reinstatement of the Amban 3) The frontier
issue. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 12 January 1914, the
conference reconvened after Christmas holidays. On 17 January, 1914, McMahon
announced his proposal of Inner and Outer Tibet in the conference. He proposed
to recognize in his treaty an extended Tibetan territory covering the whole
area included in Lonchen’s claim. And this entire area was then divided into
two zones namely and inner and outer Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“Inner Tibet” comprised of <b><span style="color: red;">Kokonor</span></b>
and the area between <b><span style="color: red;">Batang and Tachienlu</span></b><span style="color: red;"> </span>but
including <b><span style="color: red;">Chaimdo</span></b>.
The “Outer Tibet” comprised of the remaining portion of the country, which were
both geographically and politically under more direct control from Lhasa. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">McMahon’s political
solution rested on recognition of autonomy of Outer Tibet. China was granted
rights to exercise its historical control in Inner Tibet without infringing on
the integrity of Tibet as a geographical and political entity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">McMahon’s logic was that autonomy
rights to China in inner zone was actually a gain for both Tibet and Britain
because:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">a) The Chinese were
precluded from declaring it as their province. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">b) Preserved the
territorial integrity and safety from outside exploitation, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">c) The Treaty had
safeguards, which apply to all of Tibet under 1904 agreement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 7 March 1914, both
Tibetan and Chinese delegations communicated their criticism of the McMahon’s
pronouncements on Inner and Outer Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lonchen Shatra maintained
that both Outer and Inner Tibet were under the direct control of Lhasa
government that had all the rights to collect and levy taxes and also appoint
the hereditary chiefs. He refused to recognize the consolidation of Chinese
influence even within the Inner Zone. China while rejecting the zones was only
willing to grant limited autonomy in a loosely defined area particularly
limited to the Lhasa and its vicinity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 19 March 1914, Ivan Chen
read out the telegram<b> </b>received from authorities
China. Which read:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Having
carefully considered what the British Plenipotentiary said at the meeting of
the Conference on 11 March and being desirous of finding a solution for this
Tibet question, we now instruct you to recommend strongly the following
proposal to the consideration of the British Plenipotentiary. We propose that
all the places east of the Nu Kiang , the Salween that have been made Chinese
districts shall be administered by China absolutely while those places west of
the river up to Gimada shall remain in the same way as they have been in the
time of Manchu dynasty , and we are prepared to make declaration that we will
not convert into Chinese districts. Jyade and Dam shall be treated in the same
way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In the 7<sup>th</sup> April
meeting Ivan Chen presented documents that showed Salween as the boundary
between Szechuan and Tibet without mentioning Giamda. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> By 14 April private talks about Chinese
withdrawal and the negotiations breaking off had gained momentum. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">on 22<sup>nd</sup> April,
1914 the draft Convention and the map was to laid upon the table to be
initialed in full conference. It was clarified that in the event of Chinese
refusal to initial the draft, the entire proposal would be withdrawn. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">After this Ivan Chen was
locked up in intense ten-hour discussions at the foreign office. According to
McMahon this prolonged interview was of little interest because Ivan Chen did
not raise any substantial issue. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On the night of 21<sup>st</sup>
April, Ivan communicated five additional demands received from his government. Presenting
new demands clearly showed that the Chinese governments did not attach any
importance to the threat of a rupture of the meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Things were becoming
difficult for McMahon to achieve his objectives. He enacted a drama at the
meeting by withdrawing the convention from the table and showed to the Chinese
and Tibetan colleagues that the rupture of the conference was on the cards.
However, McMahon later agreed to continue with the meeting after a week on 27<sup>th</sup>
April. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ivan Chen was offered a few
more minor concessions. After extensive deliberations with his team Ivan Chen,
finally agreed to initial the Draft. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 29<sup>th </sup>April,
Ivan Chen informed the British that his government had disavowed his action in
initialing the Convention and declined to recognize the settlement. The Lonchen
considered Ivan Chen’s unwillingness to sign the conference as resembling the
story of “water catching fire”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lonchen was informed by the
British that the Chinese had agreed to all other articles of the Convention
except Article 9, relating to the boundary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 17 June 1914, McMahon’s
message of desirability of signing the proposed Tibet Convention at the earliest
was sent to the British government. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Secretary of State for
India’s telegram stated that “pending further instructions, Sir Henry McMahon
should not sign the Tibet Convention unless the Chinese delegate also signs.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 21<sup>st</sup> June
1914, Secretary of State for India once again stated that the Foreign Office
was strongly averse to a separate Convention with Tibet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The divisions in the
British ranks were discernable. On the one hand the government of India tried
to convince London to sign the Treaty with Tibet alone on the other hand the
British Minister in Peking suggested a restrained course of action. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Finally, the Viceroy of
India wrote to Secretary of State for India on 22<sup>nd</sup> June, 1914, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I am not
aware of considerations which impel the foreign office to deprecate the signing
of the Convention by Sir AH McMahon with the Tibetan Plenipotentiary
independently of China if the Chinese government still hold out, but if these
considerations are based entirely on Sir
J. Jordan’s doubts as to the prospects of concessions and mining leases
in China being compromised by such action, I would like to bring to Your
Lordship’s notice that Tibetan situation is a purely Indian question which
closely affects the defence of our frontiers and that His Majesty’s government
should not allow British commercial concessions to weigh in the balance. We
have good reason to believe that China will also join in signature if faced
with fiat accompli in signature of the Convention with Tibet alone.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3 July 1914, was announced
as the last and final date of the conference. The Chinese refused to sign and
the agreement was concluded on bilateral basis between Britain and Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 6 July 1914, Ivan Chen
wrote to McMahon regarding his government’s latest message that stated: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“The
Government of China has no right to alienate any portion of her territory and
this account for their inability to sign the Tripartite Convention and to
recognize any Convention or other similar documents that have been signed between
Great Britain and China (Tibet?).” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On 7<sup>th</sup> July
1914, <i>Reuters</i> reported,
“Representatives of Great Britain, China and Tibet who have been sitting at
Simla are now separating. Sir Henry McMahon proceeded to England. The Chinese
and Tibetan delegates left for Peking and Lhasa respectively.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Finally all that the
six-month long convention produced was a secret Anglo- Tibetan agreement, whose
validity in terms of international law remains challenged. The convention
according to the original edition of the standard work on British Indian
treaties, Aitcheson’s Treaties, Volume XIV, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“The Simla Convention was
abortive because of the Chinese refusal to sign it, and that, in consequence,
it was of no great international significance.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(<i>This article is based on British Archives in India. The full paper is under publication)</i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-44570801724170983472014-03-20T22:58:00.001-07:002014-11-19T10:02:06.119-08:00Was Lt Gen. BM Kaul of the 62’ war fame a Poltroon or a Patsy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The recent release of the net version of, yet to be declassified, Henderson Brook’s Report (HBR) has revived the debate on Lt gen BM Kaul and ‘Forward Policy”. Much like the maps and borders, independent India’s strategy had brazenly borrowed the word “forward policy” from the old British files on Tibet to build up a case, against China. The HBR not only omit’s the role of political class in 1962 war but also the international influences that shaped Pol-Mil thought in India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The origins of the ‘forward policy’ in Indian strategic lexicon date back to early 1900s. Forward policy was what the British had employed in Tibet, ostensibly as a “counter policy” against Russia’s “aggressive” intent. Explaining to the Chinese, the so-called “British Mission in Tibet” or British military forays into Lhasa, Sir Walter Lawrence wrote in </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The North American Review,</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> in 1904. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><i>“It is well that those who inhabit the fortress, and that those who live on the glacis over the Indian frontiers, should know that their misfortunes, whether they take the form of taxation, or of military occupation, are due, not to the "forward policy" of India's rulers, but to the aggressive policy of India's greatest enemy. There is no such thing now as a “forward policy “in India. The old idea of a Lawrence policy, and of a forward policy, as the only two alternatives, is out of date. New factors have come into play, and the Indian policy of to-day may be defined as one of preventive defence.” </i></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In late 1950s, the relative decline in the British influence on India was balanced by enhanced American presence in Indian political economy. By 1957 the quantum of US AID and World Bank loans had increased manifold. Many within the Indian establishment were desirous of piling up India defence with western, especially, American weapons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On 26 November 1962, when war with China was on the verge of getting over, TT Krishnamachari (TTK) wrote a letter to government of India, promoting a M-14 gun from an American company. The company had approached then Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr. Pratap Singh Kairon. These were some of the key players pushing the “shopping list” of arms that was to be handed over to the USA. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the wake of Independent India’s first major financial scam, the Mundra scandal, TTK was removed as Finance minister in 1958. Post war, in 1962, TTK was made the minster for Economic and Defence Cooperation (E&D) for a brief period before taking on the finance responsibility. During his short stint at E&D ministry, TTK went to Washington in 1963, asking the Kennedy administration for military aid to the tune of $1.3 billion.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftn1" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">[1]</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Another key player in Nehru’s cabinet during the 1962 war was Morarji Desai, finance minster from 1958. Desai’s dislike for Krishna Menon, the defence minister is well known. Desai was responsible for stalling many of the proposals forwarded by the MoD headed by Krishna Menon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Morarji Desai’s closeness to the American establishment was well known even to the Chinese. Commenting on Nehru’s American proclivities, the Chinese leadership remarked, “Nehru, is however a representative of the gross bourgeoisie. <i>The reactionary tendency has the upper hand in the Nehru government policies. In his pro-American policy, there is no difference between Nehru and Desai.”</i><a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftn2">[2]</a> </span></div>
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Another stalwart in this game was Lt Gen BM Kaul. A by-product of flamboyance and nepotism, Kaul became the most discredited military commander of the 1962 debacle. As Corps Commander, Kaul not vacated his post during the war, but also reported sick and parked himself in Delhi. </div>
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According to <a href="http://www.idsa.in/taxonomy/term/392">K. Subrahmanyam</a>, as the Chief of General Staff, Gen Kaul, “met the US under Secretary of State <span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; text-align: left;">Chester Bowles</span> the summer of 1962 without the knowledge of the Prime Minister and Defence Minister and discussed with him the possibility of a Chinese attack that fall.<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftn3">[3]</a> The question is, why did Kaul, a serving army officer meet Bowles? If Kaul knew about the imminence of the attack, then why did he proceed on leave? </div>
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More intriguing is the fact that with war clouds hovering over the country, both the Prime Minister Nehru as well as Defence Minister Krishna Menon had left the country in the month of September. The Director of Military Operations was sent on the Vikrant cruise. </div>
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Despite <a href="http://www.idsa.in/taxonomy/term/392">K. Subrahmanyam</a> raising these pertinent issues in his earlier writing, they have largely remained buried. For some reasons, scholars, who have been looking for release of Henderson Brook’s Report had conveniently ignored these glaring gaps in the 1962 war story. </div>
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The popular discourse does disgrace Kaul but his tenure as India’s defence attache to USA in 1947-48 and his other American connections have largely remained obscured.</div>
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Kaul enjoyed good rapport with the high and mighty in the US. In 1948, Nehru, before his 1949 US visit, asked Kaul to approach the US authorities for an exclusive Indo-US military relationship.<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftn4">[4]</a> Nehru bypassed ambassador, Asif Ali, because Kaul was considered to be close to Louis Johnson, then US Defence Secretary. <a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftn5">[5]</a> </div>
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The questions that need to be asked is, why did the Army Headquarters, with Gen Kaul as the key players in the game did not play according to the rules? Their actions resulted in a frivolous war and made India lose 3000 of its brave soldiers.<br />
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According to page 10 of the net version of HBR report:<br />
<i>“The relevant orders from Delhi were deliberately not passed to the command...There is no doubt that the implementation of the “forward Policy” in the manner it was done, was carried out deliberately by Army headquarters without the necessary backing, as laid down by the government.” (Emphasis added).</i></div>
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Nehru, who in accordance with Chester Bowles' advice went on to adopt a mini-Monroe doctrine to assume leadership in the Asian region got entrapped into fighting a war that had very little to do with Indian national interests. Therefore, it is all the more important to get to the root of the 1962 war and dispassionately ask, was Lt Gen Kaul a poltroon or a patsy? </div>
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Can we just dismiss the case by stating that Kaul was a coward, a poltroon who reported sick during or war? Or do we need to move beyond and probe; was Gen Biji Kaul a Patsy, a sacrificial lamb who was used by Galbraith, the American Ambassador to India in 1962 and finally thrown away into the dustbin of history.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Dennis Kux, Estranged Democracies: India and United States – 1941-1991, Sage Publications, 1993,P.213 </span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref2">[2]</a> Prozumenschikov,MY, The Sino-Indian Conflict, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Sino-Soviet Split, October 1962: New Evidence from the Russian Archives, Record of Conversation (from East German archives) between Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Mongolian leader J. Zedenbal, Beijing, 26 December1962 http://www.claudearpi.net/maintenance/uploaded_pics/Cuba_and_SinoIndian_conflict.pdf </div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref3">[3]</a> <a href="http://www.idsa.in/taxonomy/term/392">K. Subrahmanyam</a>, “Nehru and India China Conflict of 1962”, <a china="" east="" fa11="" href="https://files.nyu.edu/mr4/public/robertsmoss/Syllabus/04%20Asia" india="" nehru="" revolutions="" s="" sino-indiawar.pdf="" ua="" vietnam="">https://files.nyu.edu/mr4/public/robertsmoss/Syllabus/04%20Asia's%20Revolutions%20China%20India%20Vietnam%201885-1962%20EAST%20-UA%20531%201%20001%20FA11/Nehru&Sino-IndiaWar.pdf</a> </div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref4">[4]</a> AG Noornai, “In Constant Repair”, The Hindustan Times , 16 April 2004 </div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref5"></a><a href="file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/ViewPOINT-%20POLTROON%20or%20Patsy.docx#_ftnref5">[5]</a> <a href="http://www.idsa.in/taxonomy/term/392">K. Subrahmanyam</a>, “Arms and Politics”, Strategic Analysis Volume: 29 Issue: 1, January 2005, <a href="http://www.idsa.in/strategicanalysis/ArmsandPolitics_ksubrahmanyam_0305">http://www.idsa.in/strategicanalysis/ArmsandPolitics_ksubrahmanyam_0305</a></div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-2921255420175703232014-03-14T00:32:00.000-07:002016-02-06T22:54:34.315-08:00Modi's Dubious Connections Exposed by Forbes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> When
Arvind Kejriwal says that Modis Gujarat model reeks of crony
capitalism, the India media doesn’t listen. When he says, there is
something fishy in Modi-Adani friendship, it turns a blind eye and
launches a frontal attack on Arvinds intentions - raising frivolous
issues like Kejriwal's flat size and room numbers. Forbes, a
billionaire's mouthpiece, has come out with a scathing story (“Doing Big
</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /> Business In Mo<span class="text_exposed_show">di's Gujarat”)
on the dubious bonds between Modi and Adani. Hope the India media will
wake up and take notice. One wishes and prays that at least, a few India
journalists will turn ‘conscientious objectors’ and tell their
proprietors that they will not partake in the subversion of Indian
democracy by remaining quiet on Modis misdemeanors. Modi's complete
biases are visible in the price at which he has gifted people's property
to his businessman buddy. According to Forbes, Between 2005 and 2007,
Modi ensured, "at least 1,200 hectares of grazing land was taken away
from villagers" and handed over to his close friend Adani for as low as
"one U.S. cent a square meter (the rate maxed out at 45 cents a Getting
the land at rock bottom price is just the beginning of the loot of state
resources. A part of the same land is then rented out by Adani to other
companies including the Indian Oil Co., for as much as $11 a square
meter. <br /> <br /> The India media that maintains a 24x7 vigil on all
Bollywood weddings and funerals seems to have switched off its cameras
when the marriage of Adanis son was celebrated last year at Goa. It
should have been natural for the media to gravitate to Goa. But Alas!
The media failed</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> to gate-crash and catapult their TRPs by showing
Modi attending all “ceremonies over a couple of days, genial and relaxed
like a favourite uncle.” Adani is no simple contractor businessman. He
is ranked “609 in the world with an estimated worth of $2.8
billion’. His commercial mining interests stretch right up to Australia.
As a businessman Adani is entitled to spread his wings far and wide
across the globe. But his close connections with Modi raise serious
issues. It brings into discussion Modis direct and indirect ties to
global finance capital and the big international money - a matter that
has direct bearing on India’s foreign policy. <br /> <br /> Some sections of
the Indian media are just not able to gauge the maturity displayed by a
rookie politician, who has made it his life's mission to highlight
India's real aliment. India’s strength lies in the fact that we still
have lots of scribes uphold the flag of journalistic ethics and
professionalism.</span></span></div>
</div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-58384136860564385302014-02-13T00:46:00.000-08:002014-02-13T03:19:31.694-08:00INDIA’S PROCUREMENT PRICE OF DOMESTIC GAS IS MORE THAN THE CHINESE SELLING PRICE OF IMPORTED GAS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who says there is no Gas Pricing Scam in India<br /><br />A) <span style="color: red;">China</span>’s Increased sale price of imported gas to its industrial consumers = $0.18 per cubic meter or $4.7 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu)<br /><br />B) <span style="color: red;">India</span>’s increased procurement price of indigenous gas from domestic producers = $0.31 per cubic meter 0r $8.2 per mmBtu<br /><br /> A-B = $0.14 Cubic meter or <span style="color: red;">$3.5 mmBtu </span><br /></span><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">India’s existing price of $4.2 is close to the Chinese increased price of $4.7 mmBtu</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">According to China’s top gas producer PetroChina the new prices would increase its profitability by 20 billion yuan ($3.27 billion) every year from 2014.<br /><br />· The average price of imported gas to Asia is roughly $14.59 per million British thermal units, or roughly $0.55 per cubic meter.<br /><br />· China increase prices and hiked them by 15% in July 2013. India will be doing it in April 2014. <br /><br />· </span></div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-1097118055588698972014-02-10T22:21:00.000-08:002014-11-19T10:01:23.956-08:00AAP IS CONTINUATION OF LEFT POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Politics is essentially left. Right is non-political. Rightist forces are traditionally too close to religion and business to moderate them. </span></div>
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Left with its natural inclination for people’s concern is oriented to keep religion away from completely controlling people’s life and preventing business to ruthlessly purse its profit maximizing ways. </div>
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Therefore, it is natural that close to elections, even the die-hard rightists begin speaking the language of the left - poverty elevation, free food and housing etc. </div>
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The latest entrant into Indian politics AAP is inherently leftist, because it cannot afford to be right. However, it refrains from calling itself socialist, mainly because wearing a left straitjacket is unfashionable in the 21st century India. </div>
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AAP does not seem to be oblivious of the reality that big business has a massive role is fomenting crony capitalism in the country. Corruption is not a matter of demand and supply. Corruption is because of the dilution of politics resulting from the amalgamation of demand and supply- business-politician nexus.</div>
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Unlike, the communists, AAP does not intend to confront the capitalist directly by launching an all out war against the rich. Instead, it intends to decouple the state machinery from the tweezers grip of big money and set it free to act against the defaulting capitalists. </div>
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In one of the TV shows, a common man told Arvind Kejriwal that in the absence of right to education, he was forced to be corrupt. Much like his boss, he too wanted his children to get educated in Delhi Public School. He further said that till the time right to education was enshrined in the constitution and its provisions implemented, Lokpal would continue to be inconsequential. </div>
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A traditional leftist would have jumped from his seat and hugged the common man and asked him to join the revolutionary moment to throw out the capitalist. </div>
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On the other hand, Arvind Kejriwal’s solution rested on the premise that since private schools cannot be closed, our endeavour is to make the government schools so good that even moneyed people would come to them.</div>
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Arvind Kejriwal is thinking of positive change by clearly stating his agenda. The communists, on the other hand, are engaged in typical Delhi politics where they are desperately trying to stitch together a coalition of third parties that are financed by big business. So rather than talking to the public, the communists are engaged in political management. They refuse to learn from history. </div>
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Their single point agenda of preventing communal forces have landed India in such a state where the communal forces do not even need a mask. They are openly projecting Modi - the ugliest communal face - as the future leader of India. </div>
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If only the left had followed a politics of principles and not towed their boats behind Nehru, India would have been a different country and Communist party would have been our AAP. </div>
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AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7042384025854887407.post-36372411077274818412014-02-03T10:44:00.002-08:002016-02-06T22:54:49.423-08:00The Banning Of ‘ Sikast-e-Zindan’ and the Domestic Politics Of 1962 War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>Paper presented at the Institute for Chinese Studies and University of
Oxford conference on: “India-China in the 20th</i></b><i> <b>and 21st</b> <b>Centuries: Where History and International
Relations Meet – Part II”</b> <b>on 6-7
January, 2014 at ICS, Delhi<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Banning Of ‘ Sikast-e-Zindan’
and the Domestic Politics Of 1962 War<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Watch the Video<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k5hpnbXs1E<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k5hpnbXs1E" target="_blank">1962 war- history of internal politics in India</a></span></div>
AtulBerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783321776226256347noreply@blogger.com0