geopolitics_april_2011

D E F E N C E � D I P L O M A C Y � S E C U R I T Y

VOL I, ISSUE XII, APRIL 2011 � ` 100

DEALING

WITHLANDMINES

THE

HOWITZERSAGA

THE DEFENCE MINISTER WANTS INDIA TO HAVE A GREAT MILITARY, BUT DOES OUR BUDGET REFLECT THAT?

geopoliticsAN ALTERNATIVE IN AFGHANISTAN

MARCHINGAHEAD

MARCHINGAHEAD

final April cover 4:GEOPOLITIC COVER2.qxd 4/6/2011 4:06 PM

The P-8I provides India with the most advanced

maritime patrol solution. With its high-bypass

turbo fan jet engine, fully connected mission

system and next-generation sensors, the P-8I

delivers unmatched mission effectiveness and

range. It also brings a commitment to Indian

industry to a value-added, long-term partnership.

21st century maritime security.

JAPAN 10-11-16-17.qxd 4/7/2011 4:00 PM Page 59

(4)April 2011www.geopolitics.in

COVERSTORY

(P38)

Are budgetary allocations for Indianarmed forces adequate for a countryexpected to play a global role?Three distinguished military officers,one from each service, discuss.

MMiilliittaarryy PPrroovviissiioonnss

HORRORS OF LANDMINES

SPECIAL FEATURE (P18)

The issue of landmines is haunting the Indian armed forces and

police. It is time now to look at various existing technologies to

detect these dreaded devices.

SEAWAY THUGS

FOCUS (P44)

Finally, the world’s patience is giving way to some

stern actions against the Somali pirates. India is

devising ways to take them on.

SPECIAL REPORT (P29)

VOLATILE ACQUISITIONThere are more questions than answersto the Defence Ministry’s keenness toacquire the Howitzer M777 gun from theUS through the FMS route.

DEF BIZ (P26)

THE OFFSETS GAMEWhile the government’s policy on the off-sets clause is fine on paper, there are var-ious issues that make it difficult toimplement.

INTERNAL SECURITY (P54)

PARAMILITARY SPYINGHaving one’s own and separate intelli-gence network will provide the much-needed independence in intelligence-gathering for enhancing the operationalefficiency of the individual force.

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ARE WEREALLY SAFE?

SPOTLIGHT (P10)

Indian nuclear plants can draw lessonsfrom the tragedy of the Fukushimareactors in Japan. The Indianestablishment has risen to the occasionand is willing to modify its safetyparameters.

KIDNAPPING AS ATOOL (P50)Whenever Maoists face majorreverses in their fight againstsecurity forces, they use theabduction strategy to achievetheir objectives.

CONSTRUCTION AID(P58)It’s high time for the internationalcommunity, particularly India,had a re-look at the strategytowards Afghanistan based on the‘reconstruction approach’.

FISHY ISSUES (P62)Instead of politicising theissue of stray of fishermen,India and Sri Lanka need toconsider water between themto be a common heritage, nota contested territory.

MOMENTOUS SHIFT(P66)The Dalai Lama’s sudden decision to renounce politicshas deeper internationalimplications. It is also a hugeconcern for Tibetans living inIndia.

Editor-in-Chief

K SRINIVASAN

Editor

PRAKASH NANDA

Sr. Correspondent

ROHIT SRIVASTAVA

Publishing Director Director (Corporate Affairs)

ROHIT GOEL RAJIV SINGH

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G E O P O L I T I C S

gTHE EUROPEAN UNEASINESS WITH THE

CHANGING AMERICAN STRATEGY IN THE

ARAB WORLD IS THE UNDERPLAYED

FACTOR THAT EXPLAINS BEST WHAT IS

HAPPENING IN LIBYA THESE DAYS.

THE LIBYAN TURMOIL

DIPLOMACY (69)

D E F E N C E � D I P L O M A C Y � S E C U R I T Y

VOL I, ISSUE XII, APRIL 2011 � ` 100

DEALING

WITHLANDMINES

THE

HOWITZERSAGA

THE DEFENCE MINISTER WANTS INDIA TO HAVE A GREAT MILITARY, BUT DOES OUR BUDGET REFLECT THAT?

geopoliticsAN ALTERNATIVE IN AFGHANISTAN

MARCHINGAHEAD

MARCHINGAHEAD

Cover Photo:Press Information Bureau, Government ofIndia

Cover Design:Ruchi Sinha

Contents New P-4-5.qxd 4/7/2011 1:28 PM Page 3

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April 2011www.geopolitics.in

UNRAVELING THETANGLE

A NEW report released recently by theCentury Foundation, entitledAfghanistan: Negotiating Peace, said itconsulted extensively with US officials incarrying out research and making recom-mendations. The report’s main proposalis to have the United Nations SecretaryGeneral name a “facilitator” to supervisepeace talks among Afghans and foreignstakeholders in Afghanistan.

While no individual was specified, JimDobbins, a member of the task force thatproduced the report and a former US topenvoy dealing with Afghanistan, sug-gested three possibilities: former UN Sec-retary General Kofi Annan, former UNrepresentative to Afghanistan (and Cen-tury Fund Task Force Co-chair) LakhdarBrahimi, or Staffan de Mistura, the cur-rent head of the United Nations Assis-tance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

De Mistura is already promotingpeace talks and international buy-in to aprocess initiated by Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai. He has convened ambas-sadors from the United States,Afghanistan’s neighbours and other inter-ested parties several times this year inKabul in what is called a “Silk Road”initiative and hoped to hold aconference in Istanbullater this year to en-dorse a “stability pact”for Afghanistan.

The 15-memberCentury Fund TaskForce also travelledwidely, consultingvarious parties inAfghanistan andPakistan. Al-though Iran didnot respond to arequest to visitTehran, Brahimi

met with the thenIranian Foreign Min-ister ManuchehrMottaki outside Iranand there were con-tacts with Iranian ac-ademics as well, saidJeffrey Laurenti, theCentury Fund’s Di-rector of Foreign Pol-icy programmes.

An upcoming re-port for anotherthink-tank, the At-

lantic Council recommends both multi-lateral and bilateral talks between the USand Iran to discuss Afghanistan’s politicalfuture. In a speech before the Asia Societyin New York, Secretary of State HillaryClinton pledged a “diplomatic surge” thisyear to complement the military offensiveand efforts to accelerate Afghan eco-nomic development.

“Both we and the Afghans believe thatthe security and governance gains pro-duced by the military and civilian surgeshave created an opportunity to get seri-ous about a responsible reconciliationprocess, led by Afghans and supported byintense regional diplomacy and strong

US-backing,” she said. The Century

Fund report said:“For all sides, thelonger negotia-tions are delayed,the higher theprice is likely tobe for restoring

peace at the end.”

NEPAL-CHINABHAIBHAI!

CHINA’S ARMY Chief recentlywrapped up a high-level visit toNepal and signed a new aid dealwith Kathmandu’s military that fur-ther cements ties between the twoneighbours. General Chen Bingde,Chief of the General Staff of China’sPeople’s Liberation Army, led thefirst visit by a high-level Chinesemilitary delegation to Nepal in 10years. The 70-year-old Generalsigned two agreements with hisNepalese counterpart, GeneralChhatraman Singh Gurung, inwhich he announced $19 millionworth of aid to the Nepalese Armyfor infrastructure development.

“The purpose of my visit is tostrengthen friendship and coopera-tion between Nepal and China,”Chen told reporters. “This coopera-tion is not only conducive for ourpeople but also for the world peaceand the Asia Pacific region.” Chen,who led a 15-member delegation in-cluding the top security official fromneighbouring Tibet, held talks withNepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav,Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanaland Defence Minister BishnuPaudel.

The Nepalese Army is seen as theonly strong state institution and theChinese are keen on investing in it.The former monarchy until its endin 2008 acted as an ally for the Chi-nese. With the monarchy gone, theyare on the lookout for a trustworthyally and the Nepalese Army couldwell be the one.

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US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clin-ton has described relations betweenthe United States and Pakistan as “verychallenging”, a tacit admission ofstrained ties between the key allies.Clinton said Islamabad was caughtbetween wanting to help and dealingwith its own extremist threat.

“It’s a very challenging relationship,because there have been some prob-lems. It’s a very difficult relationship,because Pakistan is in a hard position,trying to figure out how it’s going tocontend with its own internal extrem-ist threat,” she said. “But I think, on theother hand, we’ve also developed goodlines of communication, good oppor-tunities for cooperation, but it’s some-thing we have to work on every day.”

“We were very appreciative of get-ting our diplomats out of Pakistan,and that took cooperation by the gov-ernment of Pakistan,” she said. “Wehave cooperated very closely togetherin going after terrorists who pose athreat to both us and to the Pakistanisthemselves.”

(7)April 2011

SRI LANKA’S military is finding new waysof establishing its invincibility. The militaryheadquarters of the army’s 51st Divisionthat was inaugurated at Kopay near Jaffnasome time back has reportedly been builton a graveyard of the Tamil Tigers that wascleared explicitly for this project. Althoughthere is no outward feeling of rancour atthis move by the army, deep down there is afeeling of anger at what is perceived as aninsensitive and wanton attempt to insultthe memory of those who fought againstthe majoritySinhala rule.

And nowthe govern-ment hasadded insultto injury. Ifclearing thecemetery wasan insult,building the51st division’sheadquartersis seen as adding salt to their wounds.Apparently, Kopay was not the only grave-yard that was destroyed; there are severalothers in the Jaffna Peninsula area thatwere cleared to rid the region of any rem-nants of the LTTE.The childhood home ofVelupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE foundertoo, was demolished as part of this strategy.

His home is situated at Valvettithurai inthe Jaffna Peninsula. The graveyards havebeen an important element of the LTTEs‘martyr’s cult’ programme.When the SriLankan Army took over Jaffna in 1995 it haddestroyed many of these graveyards thatwere restored painstakingly by the LTTEwhen they wrested back control to reflectthe sacrifices being made for a TamilElaam. Graveyards for Tigers killed in bat-tles with the Sri Lankan army or policewere not created, but buried and the “tuyil-am illam” or resting place became an emo-tional magnet for the locals.

Many Tamils are either too scared of

official retribution, or too apathetic tomark the commemoration since therebels’ defeat last year. Over 20,000 insur-gents were killed during the three-decadeconflict. One such cemetery was turnedinto a playground; another in Jaffna wasconverted into an army camp. SureshPremachandiran, an MP from northernJaffna, says his party, the Tamil NationalAlliance, has tried in vain to stop thedemolition of war cemeteries.”Destroy-ing graves is unacceptable,” he said.

“Those peoplewho wereburied there arehumans. Theyfought for theTamil people,”he told the BBC.

The responsecame thick andfast on the netfrom outragedSri Lankans, onewebsite onlan-

ka.com said: “The LTTE is a ruthless terrorist organ-isation banned even in the UnitedKingdom. A terrorist organisation can-not have legitimate cemeteries on thesoil of a sovereign state. The BBCshould understand this bare fact. TheLTTE was not the sole representativeof the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Govern-ment of Sri Lanka reserves the preroga-tive and the legitimate right to buildmilitary camps on any part of the landof the nation.

Illegal cemeteries are not allowed inany part of the territory in Sri Lanka.There is an absolute necessity to burymemories of the treacherous LTTE ter-rorist group in the interest of the futureof all Tamils and the generations tocome. No remnant of terrorism shouldbe left to observe as it would affect thepsychology of the Tamil youth of todayand tomorrow.”

ERASING A BLOODY PAST WHEREARE WE?

PRESIDENT BASHAR al-Assad has told parliamentSyria will defeat those behind a “plot” against hiscountry.

“Syria is a target of a big plot from outside” hesaid in his first speech since anti-govern-ment demonstrations erupted in mid-March.

Although much could be read into thenuances of his 45-minute address to par-

liament in Damascus, he did not comeup with anything dramatically new or

tangible to break the cycle of disturbances and pacify outragedactivists angered by the deaths of scores of protesters.

Buoyed up by huge officially-encouraged demonstrations of pop-ular support, Mr Assad did not look or sound like a leader whothought his days were numbered.

Addressing an adulatory parliament, and with crowds of regimeloyalists chanting slogans of praise outside, he clearly believed hewas talking from a position of strength.

He felt strong enough to admit that the state had failed to meet thedaily needs of many citizens, and had failed to deliver more swiftlyon political reforms that he said had been in the pipeline since 2005.

SYRIA’S PRESIDENT ASSAD VOWS TO DEFEAT PLOT

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Statebuilding has emerged as a global policy priority and new paradigm for building peacein post-conflict societies. However, the practice of statebuilding is full of dilemmas for whichthere are no simple solutions, argue DAVID LANZ and DIDIER PÉCLARD

gGEOPO L I T I C S

gGLOBALWATCH

PEACEBUILDING THROUGH

STATEBUILDING?

PEACE CONUNDRUM: Enhancingpeople to people's indigenous capacities


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www.geopolitics.in

FOLLOWING THE verdict of a ref-erendum on self-determinationlast month, South Sudan looks setto become the world’s youngestindependent state come July 2011.

The international community, whichalready has a massive presence in theregion, is preparing a series of ‘statebuild-ing’ programme geared to maintain peaceas Africa’s largest county splits in two. SouthSudan will thus become a test case for state-building, which has emerged as a globalpolicy priority and begs numerous ques-tions: What is statebuilding? How has theconcept evolved? Why is it currently envogue? And what are the dilemmas associ-ated with peacebuilding through state-building?

From liberal peacebuilding…The end of the Cold War freed interna-

tional organisations of their bipolar con-straints and sparked great enthusiasmabout (finally) realising the promise of col-lective security enshrined in the UN Char-ter. Thus, the UN Secretary GeneralBoutros Boutros-Ghali proposed “An Agen-da for Peace”as his blueprint for the newera. Boutros-Ghali’s vision included‘peacebuilding’ in post-conflict contexts,which he defined as “action to identify andsupport structures which will tend tostrengthen and solidify peace in order toavoid a relapse into conflict”. A series ofoperations were thus deployed — toNamibia, Angola, Cambodia, El Salvadorand Rwanda among others — with the aimof building peace by overseeing elections,disarming combatants, resettling refugeesand spearheading far-reaching politicaland economic reforms.

The success of these operations wasmixed at best. There were some abysmalfailures, such as Rwanda and Angola, wherethe violence that broke out after the peace-building operation had been deployed wasworse than the initial civil war. In othercountries, peacebuilding succeeded in cre-ating relative stability, but the performanceof most post-conflict governments was afar cry from the aspirations of ‘liberalpeacebuilders’. Critics like Roland Parisattributed this failure to the shock thatpolitical and economic liberalisation pro-duced in states wholly unprepared for suchfar-reaching changes. Others maintainedthat promoting a Western model of democ-racy is futile in countries that do not havethe necessary institutional structure; ittook European countries centuries todevelop such a framework.

…to statebuildingThe common recommendation resulting

from this critique was that more sustainablepeacebuilding required an increasedemphasis on building political institutionsthrough which the transformation of post-conflict states could be managed. Theemergence of statebuilding as the primarytool for peacebuilding was fostered by twodevelopments in world politics post-9/11.One was that ‘failed states’— alternativelycalled ‘weak’ or ‘fragile’ states — came to beseen as security threats, providing safehavens for terrorists, and generatingunwanted immigration. ‘Fixing states’through statebuilding has thus become arealpolitik challenge. This was compoundedby the US experience in Iraq andAfghanistan, where the consolidation of thestate proved to be far more difficult andcostly than the invasions that brought thenew regimes to power.

Second, a fragile state has increasinglybeen framed as an obstacle to development.For example, at last year’s UN Summit onthe Millennium Development Goals (MDG),it was often said that no fragile state hadmanaged to achieve even one MDG, andthat such countries accounted for 75 per-cent of the ‘MDG deficit’. In line with PaulCollier’s call to focus aid on the “Bottom Bil-lion”, statebuilding has thus emerged as aremedy for poverty alleviation and econom-ic development in post-conflict societies.

These factors provide the backgroundagainst which statebuilding has become aglobal policy priority and as such, “a newparadigm” for building peace in post-con-flict societies. Thus, UNDP and the WorldBank run a joint programme on statebuild-ing in fragile and post-conflict situations; theUS and the UK have declared it a priority, ashave major think tanks. The OECD, throughits Development Assistance Committee, hasbeen particularly proactive. Its reports haveset the standards for international state-building policy, encouraging national devel-opment agencies to take up the issue.

The trend toward statebuilding is some-what problematic, because the remediesprescribed are often overly normative andmechanical: fragile states are seen as sickpatients in need of treatment, or as prob-lems that can be ‘fixed’ through social andpolitical engineering. The latest OECDreports, however, offer a more complex pic-ture. They go beyond a strictly functionalistapproach, according to which the state pro-vides certain public goods — security, pub-lic infrastructure, education, health, etc. —and the role of international statebuilders is

simply to improve on this delivery. Instead,the reports emphasise the intangibledimensions of the state, such as its legiti-macy, as well as the importance of state-society relations. The reports also remindinternational donors that statebuilding is adeeply political and primarily endogenousprocess that requires context-specificknowledge and responses -— not a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach.

Walking the talk?It remains to be seen whether the inter-

national community is able to ‘walk thetalk’ when it comes to statebuilding.Indeed, the practice of statebuilding is rid-dled with dilemmas. The mantra that ‘state-building promotes peace’ cannot concealthe multiple tradeoffs and contradictionsbetween the two objectives. In the interestof peace and stability it can make sense toaccommodate ‘spoilers’, for examplethrough a power-sharing agreement, as inBosnia, but these very actors may alsoundermine the emergence of an effectivestate in the long run. Likewise, a heavyinternational presence may be crucial tomaintaining peace in the short run, as inEast Timor and Kosovo, but unfortunatelythis can then lead to donor dependency,and discontent in the host society. More-over, elections are a necessary step forstatebuilding, but they can contribute tore-igniting violent conflict, as recent eventsin Côte d’Ivoire show.

South Sudan is a case in point for thesedilemmas. To strengthen statebuilding,donors should channel funds through thenew government in Juba. However, in acountry where 85 per cent of the populationis illiterate, and formal state institutionsremain underdeveloped, it is tempting fordonors to simply circumvent the state andfund NGOs on the ground instead. Further-more, statebuilding programs that build thecapacity of government agencies inevitablystrengthen the party that is currently inpower. In the case of South Sudan, thiswould be the former SPLM rebels. State-building efforts would then be unavoidablybolstering their political leverage, despitethe group’s questionable commitment todemocracy and allegations of corruption.

South Sudan shows that there is nopanacea for dealing with the dilemmas ofstatebuilding. A first step, however, is torecognise that states are formed in a pro-tracted and often messy process of negotia-tion, over which international actors haveonly limited control.

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gGEOPO L I T I C S

gSPOTLIGHT

FUKUSHIMA-I has become ahousehold name today. After thestrongest earthquake of the past140 years, Japan faced the deadlyTsunami, which brought death

and destruction in the country. Among oth-ers, one of the serious damages occurred atone of the nuclear energy production cen-tres of Japan: Fukushima-I. Internationalmedia flashed updates about the nuclearreactors located in the complex. The updateaccompanied discussions and assessmentsof the unfortunate situation at the complexas well as pondering on the global nuclearrenaissance. For one week, fire and explo-sion in one reactor after another kept com-ing. Side by side, the apprehension of acomplete meltdown and subsequent radia-tion release dominated the global.

Fukushima-I houses six units of powerreactors. During the earthquake, units 4-6were under periodical inspection. The oth-er three units (units 1-3) were automatical-ly shut down. However, the Tsunamiknocked down the onsite emergency dieselgenerator set which affected the cooling ofthe shutdown plants. The Tokyo ElectricPower Corporation started injecting seawa-ter to cool the reactors. Subsequently, theJapanese Self-Defence force also used heli-copters to spray water on the reactors.

At the time of writing, between 50 and100 workers were fighting the battle todouse the rising heat from the differentunits to prevent the complete meltdown ofthe fuel core. To a great extent, they suc-ceeded in stabilizing the situation. Peoplefrom the nearby areas were evacuated as aprecaution against increased radiation.

The situation appears to be improvinggradually. Partial restoration of power tothese nuclear plants has taken place andsoon expected to be restored fully. Althoughfood and seawater developed contamina-tion, Japanese authorities maintained thatthe radiation level had started coming downnot only in the Fukushima complex but alsothe areas surrounding and near Fukushima.

A release of the Japanese Ministry ofEconomy, Trade and Industry informed thatall the workers who worked to restore theelectricity plant of the reactors are not underthreat. The release informed, “Workers puton Full Face-piece Respirator with charcoalfilter, TYVEK Suit and so on, which are

Japan's nuclear emergency has led to the questions all over theworld about the safety and stability of nuclear power. In India,anti-nuclear voices have become louder and sharper. ButRAJIV NAYAN dismisses most of their concerns and arguesthat Indian nuclear establishment is on the right track

IS NUCLEAR ENERGYINHERENTLYUNSAFE?

IS NUCLEAR ENERGYINHERENTLYUNSAFE?

ARE WE REALLY SAFE?: Japanesetsunami has stirred the world, includingIndia and has raised a big question markon the future of nuclear energy

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gSPOTLIGHT

g

effective radiation protection equipments,and after the operations contamination wasexamined. Therefore, the internal exposureof the workers was controlled at very low lev-el. Until now the internal exposure has notbeen reported.”

An International Maritime Organisationbriefing noted: “International flight andmaritime operations can continue normal-ly into and out of Japan’s major airports andsea ports, excluding those damaged by theTsunami…” However, Tokyo Electric PowerCompany officials admitted that they hadunderestimated the earthquake and itsimpact at the level of planning.

The twin tragedies and the consequentradiation danger have stirred the world,including India. The world has experienceda variety of reactions including reviewing oflong-term national nuclear energy plans,shutting down of old nuclear power plantsin some countries (possibly temporarily)and a complete debate on all aspects ofnuclear energy. Environmentalists are up inarms all over the world; even supporters ofnuclear energy are demanding augmentingof safety measures. Risk and emergencypreparedness are becoming the new phras-es in talk shops. In sum, anxiety and futureuncertainty are dominating not just discus-sions but also policy decisions.

Quite naturally, India cannot remaininsulated to global developments. Televi-sion news channels found a new item to runits news machine for 24 X 7. Later, the issuesneaked and started dominating the spaceof the print media as well. Several issues ofnuclear energy came up for discussions.Safety was, of course, providing the overalldirection of all the discussions. A number ofcommentators felt that if an advancedindustrial country like Japan with richresources cannot run safe reactors at thetime of crisis or natural calamity, the situa-tion could be worse for a country like India.

There are some obvious questions. Isnuclear energy inherently unsafe? Will Indi-an nuclear plants eventually meet the fateof Fukushima reactors? The answer is sim-ple: nuclear energy is not inherently unsafe.The World Nuclear Association informs: “Inover 14,000 cumulative reactor-years ofcommercial operation in 32 countries,there have been only two major accidentsto nuclear power plants at Three Mile Islandand Chernobyl, the latter being of little rele-vance outside the old Soviet bloc.”

The Fukushima complex has been affect-ed by an accident (earthquake and Tsuna-mi), struggling to avoid a nuclear accident

and successfully issuing warning to popula-tion to vacate the potentially affected area.In fact, people were evacuated and a largenumber of people left Tokyo to escape radi-ation if the rescue mission fails to controlthe situation in Tokyo. People had enoughtime to take safety measures even in theFukushima case. India faced two majoraccidents involving nuclear power plants inrecent years. One was the earthquake inBhuj and the second Tsunami in 2004. Noth-ing happened to any of the reactors.

Let us talk about the Boiling Water Reac-tors (BWR), which are in operation inFukushima. Years ago, in 1979, reactornumber 2 of the Three Mile Island had asimilar problem. The reactor had faced theproblem of the meltdown of the nuclearfuel core. The incident, on the one hand, ledto the end of new nuclear procurement inthe US and, on the other, it instigated adebate about the modification in nuclearreactor and complex designs. For example,

one of the suggestions was to include arobust filtration system.

Sweden even installed the filtered ventsystems in the Barseback reactors it operat-ed in a number of countries. Other alterna-tives to deal with melting of the core cameup. India has been operating two BWRs inTarapur. These units are the Tarapur AtomicPower Station TAPS-1 and TAPS-2. TheNuclear Power Corporation of India Limit-ed (NPCIL) records: “The safety of theseBWR plants was reanalyzed few years agoand reviewed by Atomic Energy RegulatoryBoard (AERB). Following this, the two BWRsat TAPS- 1&2 have been renovated, upgrad-ed and additional safety features back fittedto latest state of art safety standards.”

Other 18 operational reactors of India arePressurized Heavy Water Reactors(PHWR).These reactors have a different kind ofdesign. The NPCIL informs, “The PHWRsare of different design than that of BWRsand have multiple, redundant and diverse

shutdown systems as well as cooling watersystems.” In BWRs, the heat generatedthrough nuclear fission in the core sets offcirculating water to boil which finally pro-duces steam. The generated steam isradioactive. It directly drives a turbine. Thenthe steam is cooled in a condenser andtransformed back to liquid and it circulatesback through the reactor. The PHWRs donot allow boiling of primary loop water.

This kind of reactor has an arrangementfor running the reactor when power breaksdown as happened in Fukushima. It hasdesign features to withstand earthquakesand severe flooding. In a press conferenceduring the Japanese crisis, the head of theNPCIL said, “The Indian PHWRs, built fromthose at Narora after early 1990s, wereenclosed in a calandria vault, which wassurrounded by a pool of water of 260tonnes.” Moreover, it was the exposure ofthe back-up generator to Tsunami thatplunged the plants into crises. This prob-lem may be addressed by keeping the back-up diesel generators at a safe distance. Thislesson has been underscored by Indian sci-entists in one of the press conferences theyaddressed during the Japanese crisis.

Though India has made many improvi-sations in the design of the PHWRs (theyare CANDU type reactors — the CANDU isan abbreviation of Canada Deuterium Ura-nium; the CANDU reactor was built byCanada), the Canadian governmentreleased a statement — soon after theFukushima mishap — which highlightedthe safety features of these kinds of reac-tors. Some of these were as follows:� A design that can use passive convection

cooling for the primary systems to keepthe reactor cool in the absence of power;

� The use of dousing tanks high in thereactor or containment building thatwork on gravity, which can be used toreplenish secondary side inventory andrefill the steam generators, as required,to continue heat release in the event of aloss of power;

� Use of ceramic uranium fuel pellets thattolerate high temperatures;

� Two independent and diverse shutdownsystems;

� Calandria vessel that contains the fuelrod assembly and heavy water modera-tor; and,

� High-density, reinforced concrete con-tainment walls, almost a meter thick.

India has required institutional and regula-tory frameworks for ensuring nuclear safety.

THE TWINTRAGEDIES ANDTHE RADIATIONDANGER HAVESTIRRED THE

WORLD,INCLUDING INDIA

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gGEOPO L I T I C S

gPANORAMA

Japanese tsunami has been like a giant wave that is lashing against the Indian 'nuclear'establishments. Here is an A to Z of what it means to India and the world.

TTUURRBBOO REACTIONS!

MAY 4, 1987(KALPAKKAM)

Refuelling accident damagesreaction core

SEPTEMBER 10, 1989(TARAPUR)

Radioactive iodine leaks atabove normal levels

MAY 13, 1992(TARAPUR)

A malfunctioning tube causesplant to release 12 curies ofradioactivity

MAY 31, 1993(NARORA)

Plant suffers a fire at its steamturbine blades. Shutdown lasteda year.

MAY 13, 1994(KAIGA)

During construction, an innercontainment dome meant tocontain radiation collapses

FEBRUARY 2, 1995(KOTA)

Plant leaks radioactive heliumand heavy water into the RanaPratap Sagar river

DECEMBER 26, 2004(KALPAKKAM)

During the tsunami, sea waterenters intake tunnel of plant.Plant shut down

NOVEMBER 25, 2009(KAIGA)

Employees fall ill. Tests show tri-tium content in urine of 92employees who drank waterfrom cooler. A disgruntled staffhad poured radioactive heavywater into it.

“WE HAVETECHNICALKNOW-HOW,BUTNUCLEARPOWER ISESSENTIAL.URANIUM

SHOULD BE RE-CYCLED ANDUSED TO MAKE FUEL,OTHERWISE WE WILL HAVE TOIMPORT. IF WE DON'T USENUCLEAR POWER, WE WILLHAVE TO IMPORT COAL ALSOIN THE FUTURE. WE NEED ADIALOGUE ON NUCLEARCONTRIBUTIONS.”

ANIL KAKODKARFORMER CHAIRMAN OF THEATOMIC ENERGY COMMIS-SION

“WE HAVEASKEDATOMICENERGYCOMMISSIONTO LEARNLESSONSFROM JAPAN.

WE STORE OUR FUELSDIFFERENTLY. IN JAPAN,THEY STORE HYDROGENFUEL. WE HAVE ASKED FOR ADETAILED REVIEW OFDESIGN AND SAFETYFEATURES, WHICH THEY(ATOMIC ENERGYCOMMISSION) WILL SUBMITTO PRIME MINISTER.”

SHIV SHANKAR MENONNATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR

“THE ACCIDENTAT THEFUKUSHIMAPLANT,TRIGGERED BYJAPAN'SSTRONGESTEARTHQUAKE,

MAY FUEL PUBLIC CONCERNABOUT THE SAFETY OF NUCLEARPOWER. WE CAN’T CLOSE OUREYES TO PEOPLE’S CONCERNS,WHICH MAY BE HEIGHTENEDAFTER THE JAPAN ACCIDENT. OURNEW LAUNCHES WILL HAVE TOKEEP IN MIND PUBLICSENTIMENT AND NATURALLY,THIS PROCESS WON'T HAPPENOVERNIGHT.”

SHREYANS KUMAR JAINCHAIRMAN, NUCLEAR POWERCORP OF INDIA

“THEDEPARTMENTOF ATOMICENERGY ANDITS AGENCIESHAVE BEENINSTRUCTEDTO

UNDERTAKE AN IMMEDIATETECHNICAL REVIEW OF ALLSAFETY SYSTEMS OF OURNUCLEAR POWER PLANTS,PARTICULARLY WITH A VIEWTO ENSURING THAT THEYWOULD BE ABLE TOWITHSTAND THE IMPACT OFLARGE NATURAL DISASTERSSUCH AS TSUNAMIS ANDEARTHQUAKES.”

DR MANMOHAN SINGHPRIME MINISTER

N-mishaps in India

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gPANORAMA

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�� Project Launched

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� Zone I (least active)

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� Zone III (moderate)

� Zone IV (high)

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Higher zone represents greater risk

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Seismic Zones

India has 7 nuclear plants with 20 reactorsPLANT LOCATION SEISMIC ZONENarora, Uttar Pradesh IVKakrapar, Gujarat IIITarapur, Maharashtra IIIKaiga, Karnataka IIIKalpakkam, Tamil Nadu IIKudankulam, Tamil Nadu IIRawatbhata, Rajasthan II

4,780 MWis the power-generation capacityof all our N-plants taken together

60 yearsis the design life of a modern nuclear power reactor

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� KAKRAPAR, GUJARAT —Operations continued after the Bhujquake, 2011

� TARAPUR, MAHARASHTRA —Not impacted by Latur quake, 1993

� KALPAKKAM, TAMIL NADU —Power generation was stopped for aweek after the 2004 tsunami. But nopermanent damage.

How India fared

India's N-stock

BOILING WATER REACTORS (BWRS):Use water to drive turbines. Heat isproduced by nuclear fission. This caus-es the water to boil, producing steam.The steam drives the turbine blades,producing electricity.

PRESSURISED HEAVY WATER REACTORS (PHWRS):Uses heavy water to drive the turbines.

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Kovvada

��6 X 1,000 MW

Haripur

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Narora

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��2 X 700 MW

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��2 X 160 MWBuild by same firm that supplied reactors to Fukushima

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“THIS ACCIDENT ISRAISING A CERTAINNUMBER OFQUESTIONSTHROUGHOUT THEWORLDCONCERNING THESAFETY OF

NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND ENERGYCHOICES. FRANCE CHOSE NUCLEARENERGY, WHICH CONTINUES TO BEAN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF HERENERGY INDEPENDENCE AND THEFIGHT AGAINST GREENHOUSEGASES.”

NICOLAS SARKOZYPRESIDENT, FRANCE

“I'VEALREADYINSTRUCTEDOURNUCLEARREGULATORYAGENCY TOMAKE SURE

THAT WE TAKE LESSONSLEARNED FROM WHAT'SHAPPENED IN JAPAN ANDTHAT WE ARE CONSTANTLYUPGRADING HOW WEAPPROACH OUR NUCLEARSAFETY IN THIS COUNTRY.”

BARACK OBAMAPRESIDENT, US

“WITH THETSUNAMI ANDEARTHQUAKE,WE DO NOTHAVE ROOM TOBE PESSIMISTICORDISCOURAGED.

WE ARE GOING TO CREATE JAPANONCE AGAIN FROM SCRATCH.EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEJAPANESE PEOPLE MUST HAVESTRONG RESOLUTION TO MOVEFORWARD AND OVERCOMETHESE DIFFICULTIES.”

NAOTO KANPRIME MINISTER, JAPAN

Without nuclear power plants, these countries would have to turn to other means to generate electricity. Solar and wind power are increasing as part of the grid, but in bigozone depleting, ice melting nations like the US, Russia and China, fossil fuels are themost available way to keep the lights on.

Nuke Power Share of Electric Grid

� US10 out of a total 104 reactors are locatedin seismic zone V — the highest.

� FranceNone out of its 58 reactors are in a highseismic zone.

� BritainNone of its 19 reactors in high seismiczone.

� China13 reactors in total, no official clarity onseismic zoning.

Risk factors world over

USA20%Russia

18%

Brazil2.9%

India2.2%

China1.9%

www.geopolitics.in April 2011


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“THE COLOSSALTRAGEDY THAT HASSTRUCK JAPAN HAS NODOUBT PUTCONSTRUCTION OFNUCLEAR POWERPLANTS INTO THEPUBLIC GAZE, AND

EVERYONE IS ASKING THEMSELVES, CANNUCLEAR ENERGY REALLY BE SAFE?THE ANSWER IS CLEARLY THAT IT CANBE AND IS SAFE, BUT ONLY IF THERIGHT DECISIONS ARE MADE ONNUCLEAR POWER PLANTS' LOCATION,DESIGN, AND OPERATORS.”

DMITRY MEDVEDEVPRESIDENT, RUSSIA

“JUST LIKEJAPAN, CHINAIS PRONE TOEARTHQUAKEDISASTERS.THE THREATOF AMELTDOWN

AT JAPANESE NUCLEAR PLANTSHAS ALREADY PROMPTED FORSAFETY INSPECTION OF THECOUNTRY'S NUCLEARFACILITIES AND BACKLASHAGAINST PLANS TO INVEST INNEW PROJECTS. ”

WEN JIABAOPREMIER, CHINA

� Nuclear reactors have sensors thatmeasure and detect the earthmovement triggered by seismicactivity.

� The moment the acceleration of theearth a value known as the OperatingBasis Earthquake, the reactorautomatically starts shutting down.

� Once the reactor starts shutting down,an emergency cooling mechanism isalso activated.

� Reactors typically have dieselgenerators as backups as power likely

fails after massive earthquake or dueto tsunami water. Batteries are alsoprovided to power the coolingmechanism if diesel generators fail.

� If all power supply and backups fail— like in Fukushima — the reactor isin a state known as Station Blackout.In such situation, meltdown is theonly option.

� However, Indian N-plants aredesigned for convention-basedcooling even in a Station Blackoutstate.

How the reactors react to quakes, tsunamis

Where do we put this radioactive junk?Unlike the US, some countries recycle aportion of the uranium. The rest of thehigh level waste gets stored deep underground in special geological centers.Two years ago, the US closed one ofthose disposal centers. Yucca Mountainis no longer used to dump high levelradioactive waste caused by nuclearpower generation.

Total waste estimate: 29.6 million cubicmetric tons in 366 facilities worldwide.

Avg nuke waste per unit: 300 cubic tonsof low to intermediate level waste storedon site on in special near surface facil-ties. And 30 tons of high level waste isgenerated per 1 gigawatt annually.

Avg coal waste per unit: 300,000 tons ofcoal ash annually.

The Waste Factor

Of the 442* power stations worldwide,the US has the most. A look at the US vsthe BRIC nations.USA: 104Russia: 32India: 20China: 13Brazil: 2*Avg power station generates 1 gigawattof electricity. Assuming each power sta-tion does that amount, then 442gigawatts is enough to provide electricityto 309.4 million people.

Nuclear Power

Reactors Globally

0

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

New nuclear power projects underway

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60



(16)April 2011

The AERB is the institutional arm of nuclearsafety in the country. It is supposed to devel-op policy for radiation and industrial safe-ty. For the purpose, it evolves safety Codes,Guides and Standards for sitting, design,construction, commissioning, operationand decommissioning of different types ofnuclear and radiation facilities. It is respon-sible for licensing or granting approval ofeach stage of the work mentioned above.

Also its job is to see that Indian nuclearfacilities are complying with the rules andregulations under which permission hasbeen granted. The AERB has a system ofreview and assessment, regulatory inspec-tion and enforcement in this regard. Itreviews nuclear emergency, safety reviews fortransport of radioactive and nuclear materi-als among other functions. For nuclear emer-gency, state and local level officials aretrained to handle the situation. The IndianPrime Minister has promised strengtheningof the AERB to strengthen nuclear safety.

India interacts with the internationalcommunity for nuclear safety. Althoughbilateral exchanges do take place, yet themost valuable exchanges take placethrough international organisations. TheInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)and the World Association of Nuclear Oper-ators (WANO) are the two most importantinstitutions through which nation-states,including India, share experience aboutnuclear safety. IAEA has set safety standardsfor nuclear facilities and has codified pub-lished documents on nuclear safety.

It also extends safety assistance to itsmember countries. In its meetings, the safe-ty unit of the IAEA had appreciated India’ssafety record, plan and management a cou-ple of years ago. WANO, which has a chapterin Tokyo, aims at augmenting “the safetyand reliability of nuclear power plantsworldwide by working together to assessbenchmark and improve performancethrough mutual support, exchange of infor-mation and emulation of best practices”.

India has commendable legal frameworkto ensure nuclear safety. The Atomic EnergyAct, the principal legal authority for under-taking legal business in the country, has a

special section elaborating nuclear safety. Inmany other sections, too, the act has provi-sions for nuclear safety. For example, the actmentions how the transportation of radioac-tive substances is to be handled. There areother acts in the Indian legal framework suchas Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines,Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Sub-stance) Rules, 1984; Atomic Energy (Safe Dis-posal of Radioactive Wastes) Rules, 1987;Atomic Energy (Factories) Rules, 1996; Atom-ic Energy (Control of Food Irradiation) Rules,1996; and Atomic Energy (Radiation Protec-tion) Rules, 2004, which help in nuclear safe-ty administration and enforcement.

Moreover, the regulation and guidelinesframed under the Atomic Energy Act pro-vide further details for nuclear safety. Anynuclear facility which is not complying withthese regulations and guidelines may facepartial or complete shutdown. As a pre-cautionary measure, the atomic energyestablishment envisions “beyond design

basis accidents” which may result in a radi-ation emergency in the public domain. Forthe purpose, “Off-site Emergencies” andon-site Emergencies plans are drawn. Oneof the guides for safety is on the Site Con-siderations of Nuclear Power Plants for Off-site Emergency Preparedness.

At the very outset, the guide makes itclear that any nuclear power plant will be‘designed, constructed, commissioned andoperated in conformity with nuclear safetystandards.’ The guidelines also demand thatfor nuclear power plants, authorities shouldstrive to select ‘sites with low populationdensities’. Yet another Guide on QualityAssurance in Sitting of Nuclear Power Plant(No AERB/NPP/SG/S-10) lays down:“Nuclear safety should be the fundamentalconsideration in the identification of theitems, services and processes to which theQAP [Quality Assurance Plan] applies. Agraded approach based on the relativeimportance to nuclear safety of each item,

gSPOTLIGHT

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GETTING ALERT: Will Indian nuclearplants eventually meet the fate ofFukushima reactors? However, the Indianestablishment has risen to the occasionand is willing to modify its safetyparameters. Inset: Logo of Atomic EnergyRegulatory Board — the institutional armof nuclear safety in the country

(Continued from page 11)

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(17)April 2011

service or process should be used.” There is also a guide on “Extreme Values

of Meteorological Parameters”. This guideprescribes taking into consideration ofmeteorological parameters such as windspeed, rainfall intensity as well as total rain-fall, storms, cyclones, maximum and mini-mum temperature for designing nuclearfacilities for nuclear safety. This guide fur-ther clarifies: “Structural safety requiresthat structures important to safety shall bedesigned to withstand the extreme values ofthese parameters likely to occur during thelifetime of the facility.”

There are other nuclear safety guidessuch as Management of Nuclear PowerPlants for Safe Operation; Maintenance ofNuclear Power Plants; Commissioning Pro-cedures for Pressurised Heavy Water BasedNuclear Power Plants; Surveillance of itemsimportant to safety in Nuclear PowerPlants; Preparedness of the operatingorganisation for Handling Emergencies at

Nuclear Power Plants; Management ofRadioactive Wastes arising during opera-tion of PHWR Based Nuclear Power Plants;In-Service Inspection of Nuclear PowerPlants; and Operational Safety ExperienceFeedback on Nuclear Power Plants

As per the nuclear safety guidelines,“Each nuclear power station of the presentgeneration has an Exclusion Zone surround-ing the power station in which no habitationis permitted and this area is under theadministrative control of the plant authority.An area of larger radius outside the Exclu-sion Zone is declared as the Sterilised Zonewhere growth and development is restricted.The Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ)extends further beyond the Sterilised Zone.”

One of the guidelines for setting up anynuclear power plant is that it should meet thedesign parameter of Operating Basis Earth-quake. In the Indian regulatory system, Oper-ating Basis Earthquake has been defined as“the maximum ground motion that can bereasonably expected to be experienced at thesite area once, with an estimated return peri-od of about 100 years”. Also, the regulatorysystem lays down that the reactor designshould be compliant of Safe Shutdown Earth-quake (SSE) — the maximum level of groundmotion expected to occur once in 10,000years. In other words or putting it more sim-ply, the Indian design and the licensing sys-tem have already taken the earthquake factorinto account. Besides, unlike the Japanesereactors, the Indian nuclear reactors are inthe lower seismic zones.

A few in India have questioned the pro-posed Jaitapur nuclear security complex fora number of reasons. First, the parallel wasdrawn to multiple units housing theFukushima site, and it was claimed thatmultiple units multiplies the danger ofradioactive release. Critics are failing torealise that the emerging crises were han-dled in a much better fashion with the sameresources and efforts at one site. Imagine

six units of Fukushima scattered at placesfar away from each other. For the authori-ties who were battling the grave situationwould have given up their efforts long back.The second complaint is that the Jaitapursite is prone to Tsunami.

This fact has been refuted by the AtomicEnergy Establishment. It is much above theseal-level to face the Tsunami. Moreover,after the 2004 Tsunami, the Indian atomicestablishment erected a huge protectionwall around Kalpakkam, which is nearer thesea. One of the scientists also informed:“The mean sea-level near the Prototype FatBreeder Reactor (PFBR) site was 6.7 metres,the PFBR plant’s grade-level was more than15 metres. A Tsunami bund, with 5.5 lakhtonnes of stones, had been built on theshore near the PFBR. There were fourdiesel-generator sets to provide alternativeelectricity in case of station black-out andthey were located in different places wheresea water could not reach.” These experi-ments may be used at Jaitapur.

Third, Evolutionary Power Reactors ofAreva (the French company) , which maybe installed at the site, are being scruti-nised. Regulators of a few European coun-tries, including France, have asked forredesign of the reactor. A former atomicenergy chief has expressed satisfaction.Quite possibly, Areva may have alreadyoffered a modified design. Otherwise, theIndian nuclear establishment may testthese reactors on their safety parametersbefore licensing its operation. Thus, safetyis not going to be compromised.

The Japanese incident, certainly, gaveworrying moments to the internationalcommunity. The anxiety raised a big ques-tion mark on the future of nuclear energy.However, the Japanese experience givestwo big lessons. First, the policy decisionshould not be taken at the time of tensionand anxiety. Second, nuclear safety is anevolutionary issue. One has to be on a con-stant alert and keep changing design, legal,regulatory and institutional requirementsaccording to the emerging reality. The Indian nuclear establishment has risen tothe occasion and explicitly sent the mes-sage to the country and outside that it iswilling to modify its safety parameters inthe light of the Japanese experience. Forsure, there is no room for complacency.Indian nuclear safety culture will act as abulwark for Indian nuclear energy.

(The author is Senior Research Associateat the Institute for Defence Studies and

Analyses, New Delhi)

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INDIA HASCOMMENDABLE

LEGALFRAMEWORKTO ENSURENUCLEARSAFETY

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BLASTS THATMATTER

Landmines are one of the major issues haunting the Indian armed forcesand police. UDDIPAN MUKHERJEE delves into the various existingtechnologies to detect these dreaded devices, especially the anti-personnelones, and argues that the major impediment is to detect plastic landmines


TRUE GRIT: Hollywood blockbuster HurtLocker, that swept the Oscars last yearwas a riveting cinematic recreation on thehorrors of land mines and thepsychological and physical scares thatthey leave on people

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IT IS not without reason that theChhattisgarh police is planning toarrange a conference focusing on therole of technology in anti-insurgencywarfare. The Special Task Force (STF)

dealing with anti-Maoist operations in thestate has been entrusted to examine themodalities of this conference. Among otherthings, the STF and the state police seekknowledge in detecting landmines, whichpose a grave threat to the security forces notonly in the state, but in almost all theMaoist-dominated areas of India.

Undoubtedly, landmines pose a formida-ble challenge to the world community. It isboth a theoretical and a practical problem todetermine the location of each and everylandmine in a geographical area. To defusethem thereafter is an additional difficulty.

In fact, one of the last century’s unsolvedproblems is the landmines left behind fromwars and insurgencies. It is estimated that15,000-20,000 victims are claimed per yeardue to landmines. The US State Departmentreports that a total of 45-50 million minesstill remain to be cleared worldwide.Research also tells us that around 100,000mines are detected and destroyed per yeararound the globe.

Thus, going by the present rate of clear-ance and assuming no new mines are laid;a simple calculation shows that it will takeanother 450 - 500 years to get rid of all theexisting landmines. However, according tosome estimates, roughly 1.9 million newmines are being placed annually!

Interestingly, mines are inexpensive —costing as little as $3 each and hence, oflate, have turned out to be the poor rebel’spotent weapon. But, on the other hand,they impose devastating consequences onthe affected populace. In 1995, a surveyconducted in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambo-dia, and Mozambique found that one inthree victims of mine-blasts died. And aswould be explained later, many of the vic-tims are children.

For example, in Afghanistan, the surveyfound that, on an average, 17 in 1,000 chil-dren had been injured or killed by land-mines. For those who survived the blasts,the most common injury reported was lossof a leg. Loss of arms, blindness, and shrap-nel wounds were also found to be frequent.

In a January 2011 Issue Brief publishedby the Centre for Land Warfare Studies(New Delhi), Rahul Misra asserts that thereare as many as 10 million mines in Cambo-dia and one in every 236 Cambodians is anamputee. Laos, according to Misra, is themost-troubled country. It had two million

tonnes of ordnance dropped on its territorybetween 1964 and 1973. Also, as per the brief,

one of the most problematic issues facingVietnam is that it continues to view thelandmine as a necessary and legitimateweapon for self-defence.

Furthermore, the medical bills for sur-vivors of such blasts can bankrupt fami-lies. Many victims have to undergo multi-ple surgeries. Children who lose limbsrequire multiple prosthetic devices overtheir lifetimes. Even the rumours associ-ated with landmines may halt all normalactivity in an affected area. For example, a1999 study claims that in Mozambique, atown of 10,000 was deserted for four yearsbecause of a rumour that mines werepresent. Later, a three-month clearanceoperation found only four mines. Inci-dentally, the extensive mine contamina-tion of Afghanistan’s fertile valleys hasreduced agricultural production in thoseareas. A 1995 study by Andersson and hisgroup estimated that without mines, agri-cultural land use in Afghanistan couldincrease by 88-200 per cent.

Generally, mines are of two types: anti-personnel and anti-tank. It is the formerwhich is a major cause of concern in thelong-term. Ironically enough, anti-per-

sonnel mines were first used in World War IIto prevent opposing soldiers from clearing

(19)April 2011

TYPES OF MINES

Anti-Personnel Mines

Blast Mines (Designed tocause severe injury to a

person)

Fragmentation Mines(Designed to project

fragments across a widerarea)

Anti-Tank Mines

Anti-Personnel Mine (Blast Type) Components

Pressure Plate

PlasticMine

Casing

Main Explosive Charge

Firing Pin

MARCH 1, 2011, marked 12 years since theinternational treaty banning antiperson-nel mines became a binding internation-al law. A total of 156 nations are parties tothe Mine Ban Treaty, and another two havesigned but not yet ratified. China, India,Russia, and the United States are amongthe 37 states that have not yet joined. Butnearly all of those states are in de factocompliance with most of the treaty’s pro-visions. Every NATO member except theUS has foresworn the use of anti-person-nel mines, as have other US allies, in-cluding Afghanistan and Iraq.

Despite President Obama’s creation ofthe Land Mine Policy Review in 2009, theUS still has not agreed to sign the MineBan Treaty. The agreement, if signed,would require the US military to destroya stockpile of over one million mines.

Paradoxically, India, along with Rus-sia, China and Pakistan, remains one ofthe largest producers of landmines, evenif not an active user. Globally, 13 coun-tries produce anti-personnel mines,many of which are taking measures to

reduce their mine production. India hasthe sixth largest stockpile of landmines(estimated to range between four andfive million anti-personnel mines) inthe world. But India refuses to become aparty to the international Mine BanTreaty, though it supports the vision of aworld free from the threat of anti-per-sonnel mines.

India’s official stand on the MineBan Treaty is three-fold. First, India haslegitimate security concerns as it shareslong borders with Pakistan and China.Therefore, landmines are needed to de-fend its long borders. Second, Indiahas consistently argued since 2005 forthe availability of cost-effective, alter-native technologies and proposes thatonce such technologies are available itwould ban anti-personnel landmines.Third, India has always argued that itperceives landmines as defensiveweapons and believes that they are pri-marily laid to check infiltration andstop hostile movement from across theLine of Control.

A WORLDWIDE BAN

Stake Mines Bounding Mines Directional Mines

Detonator Explosive

Charge


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anti-tank mines. The original anti-personnelmines were improvised from hand grenadesand simple electric fuses. Since then, minedesign has changed substantially. Modern-day mines can deliver blasts of lethal pelletsextending in a radius of up to 100 m. Some aredesigned to resemble toys or other everydayobjects, such as pens and watches. Presently,at least 350 mine types exist, manufactured bysome 50 countries.

Anti-tank mines are larger and more pow-erful than anti-personnel mines. However,anti-personnel mines are the most commontype of mines, yet the most difficult to findbecause they are small and often made ofplastic. Anti-tank mines generally containmore metal than do anti-personnelmines and are thus more easilydetectable by simple metal detectors.Both types are buried as close to thesurface as possible and are found in avariety of soils and terrain: rocky orsandy soil, open fields, forested areas,steep terrain, and jungles.

For both types of mines, detona-tion is typically caused by pressure,although some are activated by a trip-wire or other mechanisms. Thus, themajor challenge for a land-minedetector is to do its job without hav-ing direct contact with a mine. It alsomust be able to locate all types ofmines individually in a variety ofenvironments.

Although hundreds of varietiesexist, anti-personnel mines generallycan be classified as either “blast” or“fragmentation” types. Blast mines areburied at shallow depths. They are triggeredby pressure, such as from a person steppingon the mine. The weight needed to activate ablast mine typically ranges from 2 to 10 kg.This indicates that these mines are easilytriggered by a small child’s weight. Theycause the affected object (e.g., foot) to blastinto fragments.

Blast mines typically are cylindrical inshape, 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) in diameter, and1.5-3.0 inches (4-8 cm) in height. Generally,they contain 30-200 gm of explosives. Thecasing may be made of plastic, wood, or sheetmetal. Plastic-encased blast mines are some-times referred to as “non-metallic mines,” butnearly all of them contain some metal parts,which are usually the firing pin and a spring-washer mechanism, weighing about a gram.

The major obstacle in detecting mines isthat close to 100 per cent of the mines in anyarea must be found with few false alarms, i.e.,mistaking a rock for a mine. The UnitedNations, for example, has set the detection

goal at 99.6 per cent, and the US Army’s allow-able false-alarm rate is one false alarm inevery 1.25 square metres. However, no exist-ing detection system meets these criteria.Nonetheless, there are a number of generaltechniques of detecting landmines, whichmay be enunciated in a nutshell.Magnetometers: It is marginally effective inits de-mining operations and good only forclose-in (point) detection. The approach iseffective for ferrous metal while has problemswith plastic and non-ferrous metal.Radar: This technique has the potential forwide-area applications. However, it has prob-lems with detecting plastic mines in somecategory of soils.

Infrared sensors: This again has potential forwide-area detection but may be affected bysoil disturbance and thermal effects. Millimeter wave sensors: It has the potentialfor wide-area detection, albeit at a slow scan-ning rate. Moreover, it can fail to discriminatemines from surroundings. Visible light sensors: The major problem withsuch devices is that they cannot detect burieditems, though they might detect mines plant-ed at the surface.Light detection and ranging (LIDAR): Its

potential use is against recently emplacedmines and surface-laid objects. Electromagnetic induction: They are onlygood for point detection of metal mines. Byits very nature, it has problems in detectingplastic landmines.

Apart from the detection technologiesmentioned above, dogs and other ‘sniffers’ arethe most viable. Nevertheless, they have highongoing expenses, are subject to fatigue andcan be fooled by masked scents. As has beenpointed above, metal detectors are sensitive

to metal mines and firing pins but cannot reli-ably find plastic mines. Infrared detectorseffectively detect recently-placed mines, butthey are expensive and limited to certain tem-perature conditions. Also, thermal neutronactivation detectors are accurate but are largefor field use, slow and expensive.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is sensi-tive to large mines, has good coverage rate at adistance and with signal processing, can dis-criminate anti-tank mines from clutter suchas rocks beneath the ground surface. Thistype of radar, however, remains expensiveand cannot detect anti-personnel mines.

In 2005, Frigui, Ho and Gader proposed areal-time software system for landmine

detection using GPR. The systemincludes an efficient and adaptivepreprocessing component; a hid-den Markov model (HMM)-baseddetector; a corrective training com-ponent and an incremental updateof the background model. The pro-posed software system was appliedto data acquired from three outdoortest sites at different geographiclocations, using a state-of-the-artarray GPR prototype. The resultsindicated that, on an average, thecorrective training componentimproved the performance of theGPR by about 10 per cent.

Way back in 1993, researchersat Livermore invented a Microp-ower Impulse Radar (MIR). Theinvention led directly to battery-operated pulsed radar that is

remarkably small and inexpensive, had awide frequency band, and worked well atshort ranges — all necessary attributes oflandmine detection systems.

MIR’s small size, light weight, and low-power requirements made it superior to anyprevious attempts to use GPR to detect land-mines. MIR’s ultrawide bandwidth was thesource of high-resolution imaging capabili-ties that differentiated it from similar land-mine detection technologies. Furthermore,the ability to group individual MIR units inarrays increased the speed and coverage areaof the detection work.

In laboratory tests, the prototype MIRclearly distinguished plastic antipersonnelmines from surrounding soils. In field tests atFort Carson in Colorado and Fort A P Hill inVirginia, funded by the US Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency (DARPA), the sys-tem performed well, though at a slow pace.Naturally, more research in this directionwould bear real fruits in proper detection oflandmines, especially the plastic ones.

April 2011

Magnetometers:

DEMINING TECHNOLOGY

Radar:

Infrared Sensors:

Millimeter Wave Sensors: Visible Light Sensors:

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR):

Electromagnetic Induction:

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geopolitics

DEF BIZ

UNDER A CLOUDHas the plan to acquire the M777 gun from the United States

gone awry?

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ASHOK LEYLAND Defence Systems(ALDS), a newly-formed company in whichthe Hinduja flagship Ashok Leyland holds26 per cent stake, has formed a strategic al-liance with German heavyweight Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW ) inthe development of advanceddefence systems for the In-dian defence establishmentas well as other defence forcesworldwide.

The scope of the co-operation will initiallyinclude the development of armouredwheeled vehicles, recovery vehicles, artilleryand combat systems, bridge laying systemsand other similar products. ALDS brings to

this strategic alliance the expertise and ex-perience of designing and developing de-fence vehicles that has made Ashok Leylandthe largest supplier of logistics vehicles to theIndian Army with over 60,000 of its Stallion

vehicles forming the Army’s veri-table logistics backbone.

KMW will provide the tech-nology and the technical assis-tance that will be required for the

development of these defence systems. A170-year-old company, KMW leads the mar-ket for highly protected armoured wheeledand tracked vehicles. The armed forces ofover 30 nations worldwide rely on the Ger-man firm’s systems.

ASHOK LEYLAND TIES UP WITH KMW LOCKHEEDIN TALKSWITH BDL

IAF CHOPPER FLEET TO FLY HIGH

THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) helicopterfleet is all set to get a boost during the nextnine years with plans for inducting 300attack, transport and observation choppersin advanced stages of implementation indeals worth $5.5 billion.

Among the choppers to be inducted willbe 12 VVIP transports, 22 attack, 15 heavy-lift, 130 medium-lift and 120 light utilityhelicopters of varying types, sizes andcapabilities.

The deals for most of these helicoptersare expected to be signed during 2011-12,with the acquisitions being completedbefore 2020, according to IAF sources.Among the first procurements will be the 12VVIP transport helicopters for the Palam-based Communication Squadron. Indiahad signed an $800 million (`3700 crores)deal with British-Italian helicopter manu-facturer AgustaWestland for its AW-101

platform in March 2010. The three-engined AW-

101s, which will provide safe,secure and comfortabledomestic journeys for thePresident, the Prime Ministerand other senior politicalleaders, are scheduled fordelivery in late 2013. Thesewill replace the existing VVIPfleet of aging Soviet-era Mi-17s.

The IAF will also induct 80Mi-17-IV over the next coupleof years to augment its medi-um-lift capability. It is also inthe final stages of deciding on

50 additional Mi-17s over and above the 80it ordered in 2008 for $1.3 billion.

To augment its existing two squadronsof 30 Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack choppers, theIAF is on the verge of concluding a $500million contract for 22 combat helicopters,for which US aerospace major Boeing’s AH-64 Apache and Russian Mil’s Mi-28 are incontention.

The IAF is also testing two platforms,again from Boeing and Mil, to meet itsneed for 15 heavy-lift helicopters to replacethe four Mi-26s.

To replace its ageing 1970s vintage fleetof 75 Cheetahs and Chetaks, the IAF is inthe process of procuring 64 light utility hel-icopters (LUH).

The IAF currently operates 300 helicop-ters of various types, 100 of which will bephased out by the end of this decade as the300 new choppers start arriving.

US AEROSPACE major LockheedMartin, which has already formed ajoint venture with the Tata group formaking aerospace components inIndia, is exploring further tie-upswith both private and government-owned defence organisations.

According to Lockheed MartinIndia Private Limited ManagingDirector Jagmohan Singh, thecompany was looking forward topotential partnerships, includingwith Bharat Dynamics Limited(BDL). Initially, it would go for pro-duction of anti-tank guided mis-siles, provided it gets clearancesfrom the governments of the USand India. “We have sought theapproval of the US governmentand are hopeful of receiving itsoon. After getting a go aheadfrom the Indian government, wewill start working with local com-

panies to get the production facil-ities here,” Singh informedrecently a symposium organisedby small-scale industries.

Though the ongoing talks withIndian companies are at initialstages, the company’s focus in Hy-derabad would be on missile sys-tems for which it wants to tie upwith local industry apart from BDLthat makes missiles for the coun-try’s forces. “If given a chance wewill associate ourselves with localindustry and try to set up produc-tion facilities in Hyderabad, Ben-galuru or Chennai,” he said.

Tata Lockheed MartinAerostructures, the JV betweenTata Advanced Systems and Lock-heed Martin, will be manufactur-ing aerostructures for C-130 Jaircraft of the latter that was in-ducted by the defence forces earlythis month. The JV is one of thethree new aerospace units beingset up here by the Tata group.

DefBiz 22-25.qxd 4/7/2011 2:31 PM


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PE FUND FOR DEFENCE SECTOR SREI, A leading infrastructure providerand financing company, isplanning to float a privateequity (PE) fund dedicated toIndia’s defence and securitysector.

The fund, with an initialcorpus of $150 million, is set to be thefirst of its kind. But even before the fundgets conceived, Srei and its listed groupcompany Shristi Infrastructure Develop-ment Corporation Limited (SIDCL),which specialises in infrastructure devel-

opment and civil engineering work, arealso exploring manufacturingopportunities in the defencesector and eyeing two inter-national companies for a pos-sible joint venture.

Speculations are thatnegotiations may even lead to a buyoutby Srei. While one of these companies is asubsidiary of Thai conglomerate Tyco Fireand Security, the other is a Finnish player.Both are into defence component manu-facturing.

ISRAEL’S NESSPLANS JVS

ISRAEL’S NESS Technologies Inc. isexploring forming a joint venture withan Indian state-owned defence com-pany or a private technology compa-ny as it looks to expand in the bur-geoning defence market for com-mand and control systems.

The company’s Indian arm cur-rently caters to the local defence mar-ket only via government-to-govern-ment deals. India purchased Ness’command and control software forthe Phalcon radar for airborne warn-ing and control system (AWACS) fromIsrael.

“This will continue to be the routethis year. But this could change nextyear, either through a JV or throughdirect sales to Indian agencies,including defence PSUs (public sectorunits),” Satyajit Bandyopadhyay, Pres-ident and Managing Director of NessTechnologies India (Pvt.) Ltd, said in apress interview recently.

Ness’ command and control sys-tems span a range of airborne, navaland on-ground platforms and can bedeployed on unmanned aerial vehi-cles and satellite launch vehicles. Itsdevices can also be carried by foot sol-diers and commandos for both regu-lar military and anti-terrorist opera-tions. Israel has sold both unmannedaircraft and AWACS systems to Indiain significant numbers, and the Min-istry of Defence has projected morerequirements for the former.

Ness employs about 3,000 peoplein India and aims to double this in thenext three years.. “We are looking tohire 1,000 people this year itself,mainly in our Hyderabad, Bengaluruand Mumbai centres,” Bandyopad-hyay said. Ness has offices in Chennaiand Pune as well. The expansion istargeted towards augmenting its out-sourced product engineering servicesas well as IT.

THE AIRBUS Military A400M has completed a challenging series of tests to deter-mine the lowest speed at which it can take off — known as minimum unstuck speedor Vmu. During the tests, performed at Istres in France, the aircraft’s nose was raiseduntil a special ‘bumper’ fitted to the rear fuselage struck the ground at the maximumpitch-up angle of 13 degrees.

THE FIRST SIGHT

THE FIRST A330 MRTT Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) for the UK Royal AirForce is here captured with trailing its two underwing hose and drogue refuellinglines, as well as one from its centreline fuselage refuelling unit. The photo was takenfrom Spanish Air Force F-18 during a recent handling qualities flight as the FSTA nearscivil and military certification.

DefBiz 22-25.qxd 4/7/2011 2:31 PM

(24)May 2010

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HCL’S `̀300

CRORE DEAL

WITH IAF

SMALL ARMS FOR PRIVATE FIRMS

THE MANUFACTURE of so-called small arms,or weapons such as pistols, assault rifles, car-bines and machine guns that are carried byinfantry soldiers, may soon be opened to pri-vate companies.

Officials from the ministries of HomeAffairs, Defence and Commerce, as well assenior intelligence and police officers metindustry representatives in February to dis-cuss issuing licences for making small armsto the private sector, according to responsiblegovernment sources. Although there is no

official data on the sizeof the market in India, asafe guess is that theemerging market couldbe worth `3,000-4,000crore.

Currently, only thegovernment-owned ord-nance factory board’sunits in Ichhapore andKanpur manufacturesmall arms for domesticuse and export. The Feb-ruary 17 meeting dis-cussed establishing theentire supply chain ofsmall arms — from man-ufacturing to end use,location of units, ven-

dors’ qualification and security whetting,excise-related issues, award of contracts, trialsand guarantee of purchase, said one of thepersons mentioned earlier.

Four groups were formed to come up withfeasibility reports on opening up the sector.Incidentally, the government is likely to buynearly 250,000 units of small arms, witharound 43,000 to be imported. There is a sud-den spurt in orders, owing primarily to anti-Naxal operations and other internal security-related issues.

IT HARDWARE firm HCLInfosystems has baggedan order from the IndianAir Force to deploy wide-band CDMA-basedportable wireless net-work at a cost of over`300 crore.

The WCDMA networkwill provide backboneconnectivity and ensurevideo interactivity forvideo calls, cross con-nectivity with other com-munication platform likeIP-based communicationwithin the Air Force Net-work, HCL Infosystems

has said in a statement. The WCDMA network

will be integrated withthe Air Force Network(AFNET), which has beendeployed earlier by HCLInfosystems. The 3G net-work will also have trans-portable mobile basestations for establishingcommunication withhigher echelons evenfrom remote locations inthe country. HCL Infos-ystems will implementthe whole project onturnkey basis.

RAFAEL MAKES BUMPERPROFITS

ISRAEL ARMS major, Rafael has made profitof $170 million in the financial year 2010,$58 million more than thelast year’s profit. Rafael’sorder backlog in 2010 was$3.5 billion, comprising 1.8years of sales activity, ofwhich 74 per cent is intendedfor export to countries in Eu-rope, Latin America, the USand the Far East.

In 2010, Rafael completeddevelopment of “Iron Dome”for short-range rocket andmissile defense, and deliv-ered it to the Israeli Air Force,and is developing “David’s Sling” formedium-range defence. In addition, Rafael’s

TROPHY, an active defence system againstanti-tank rockets, mounted on Merkava

Mark-4 tanks, became battleproven in an IDF operationalactivity near Gaza.

Vice Admiral (Ret.) YedidiaYaari, President and CEO ofRafael, said: “These achieve-ments, joined by a positivestart of 2011 will create fur-ther growth for the company.The company’s high-qualityhuman resources, togetherwith investing in researchand development, enableRafael to offer a diverse array

of capabilities and products at the fore-front of advanced technology.”

DefBiz 22-25.qxd 4/8/2011 12:48 PM

(25)May 2010


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THE DEPARTMENT of Telecom (DoT) believes that the excheq-uer can get a minimum of `85,850 crore by selling just 50 percent of the airwaves the Defence Ministry vacates.

Its calculations are based on the assumption that about 20MHz of second generation (2G) and an equal amount of thirdgeneration (3G) can be sold to mobile phone companies if theDefence Ministry was to free up these radio frequencies. Intotal, the telecom ministry is seekingthat the armed forces vacate up to 80MHz of airwaves for commercialtelephony.

The broadband wireless spectrumauctions in India last year deliveredthe government an unexpectedbonanza of `38,543 crore ($8.25 bil-lion), twice the amount predicted byanalysts. The 3G and broadband spec-trums jointly fetched `1,06,000 crorefor the government against its esti-mates of `35,000 crore.

The telecom department’s projec-tions are part of its response to the Defence Ministry’s latestthreat that it will not release additional airwaves for commer-cial use. It also marks the first time that the department has puta value to the airwaves it is seeking from the armed forces.Defence Minister A K Antony had recently told Finance Minis-ter Pranab Mukherjee that the telecom department had failedto meet all timelines on building an alternative communica-tion network for the armed forces, and warned that it could

result in the services stopping all vacation of airwaves. As per the MoU between both ministries, the armed forces

were to vacate 25 MHz for 3G and 20 MHz for 2G. This will hap-pen in a phased manner and will be linked to the completion ofthe alternative network that the DoT is building for the defenceforces. Besides, the telecom department was also slated to setup an exclusive defence band and defence interest zone for the

armed forces to keep its part of thebargain.

While the armed forces havealready freed up 15 MHz 3G spec-trum, which was sold during lastyear’s auctions, and also vacated 15MHz 2G spectrum, which has beenallocated to new operators, theremaining airwaves — 10 MHzspectrum in 3G (for two operators)and 5MHz in 2G — will be releasedonly after the alternative optic fibrenetwork being built by BSNL iscompleted.

It is estimated that the telecom department may earn morethan their estimates if 20 MHz each of 2G and 3G airwaves areauctioned. But for this, the armed forces’ support is crucialsince the DoT, in a study last year, has observed that there areno 2G airwaves available with it in the 900 MHz band, whileonly tiny bits are available in the 1800 MHz. (The 900 MHz and1800 MHz are the two frequency bands in which 2G airwavesare present).

`85,850 CRORE FROM SPECTRUM

THE INDIAN AirForce is set to placeorders for 10 BoeingC-17 Globemaster-IIIstrategic airlifters in adeal valued at $4.1 billion.Discussions between theIAF and the US Air Force(USAF), as well as the In-

dian Ministry of Defence and the USDepartment of Defense concluded onFebruary 15, with Boeing accepting thedetailed terms for 30 per cent manda-tory offsets clause.

The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS), which is the final authority for

major defence and other acquisitions,is about to approve the deal funds forthe purchase of the C-17s that havebeen approved for the fiscal 2010-11. Itis believed that there would further or-ders as IAF’s fleet of Soviet vintageheavy strategic lift IL-76 aircraft is al-

ready 26 years old. These aircraftare being modernised and

would serve the IAF forabout 10-15

more years. I n d i a

has about20 IL-76 air-

craft and theIAF may eventually go

in for about 25 C-17s.

IAF FINALISES ORDER FOR 10 C-17S

DefBiz 22-25.qxd 4/7/2011 2:31 PM

THE ONE word that was on every-body’s lips at Aero India 2011 was:‘Offsets’. As it well might have beengiven that a slew of foreign acquisi-tions by the Indian military, not the

least of which is the $10 billion-plus MMRCAdeal, are in the offing. However, while mostdomestic players would naturally want tojump on the offset bandwagon, it would beworthwhile to take a closer look at the natureof the offset game as it stands today.

As a result of the lessons learnt post-Kargil, the Indian establishment realised that

it had to undertake a significant convention-al force modernisation programme in orderto maintain deterrence amidst a nuclearoverhang. However, it was evident that thelargest chunk of this modernisation planinvolved the import of systems from over-seas. Clearly this was unacceptable in thelong run since without an indigenouslyequipped military there is no real independ-ence in foreign policy.

To redress this, a Defence ProcurementProcedure (DPP) was introduced by the gov-ernment in 2002 which began to chart out a

plan for indigenisation. This procurementguide went through several iterations in thelast decade beginning with a ‘buy’, to “buyand make”, to “buy and make Indian” andfinally “make”. Indeed, the DPP has charted acourse, which mirrors the emergence of newcapabilities in Indian industry, India’s ever-burgeoning weapons procurement budgetand the decline of Western military capitalacquisitions. These factors have contributedto India being able to exercise far greater pre-rogative in a world arms market where buyerswith money and industrial capabilities are

While the government's policy on the offsets issue seems fine on paper, there are variousissues that make it difficult to implement, explains SAURAV JHA

April 2011


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THE OFFSETS GAME -

A CLOSER LOOK

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beginning to hold sway. In fact, the time isripe for India to embark on its stated goal ofreversing the current 30:70 ratio of indigenousto foreign equipment in the inventory of itsarmed forces by 2020.

Cut to circa 2011 and we see the latest iter-ation of the DPP, i.e. DPP-2011, which putsgreat stress on an offset policy that mandatesthat for any weapons purchase of more than`300 crore from abroad, 30 per cent of thetotal value will have to be re-invested back inIndia by the overseas vendor/beneficiary. Theways in which this can be done, are manifold:through direct purchase, execution of exportorders, licensed production, technologytransfer, joint production partnerships andforeign direct investment.

Thus, as we can see fromthe above, an offset is essen-tially a counter-trade mecha-nism for re-routing fundsback to the home country inorder to spur sector develop-ment domestically. Impor-tantly, any foreign vendorpitching for Indian sales hasto firm up a detailed offsetplan before it can secure agiven contract since theDPP-2011 states: “Offset con-dition will form a part of theRFP and, subsequently, ofthe contract. Offset condi-tions as specified in the RFPwill be binding.”

DPP-2011, however, allowsoffsets to be bankable, i.e. anyoffsets in excess of obligationsunder a specific contract willremain valid for a period oftwo financial years after theconclusion of the contract inquestion. These credits couldthen be discharged against new RFPs that arefloated in that two-year period. However,there is a restriction on the transferability ofthese credits between players with DPP-2011explicitly stating that banked offset credits arenon-transferable except between the maincontractor and the sub-contractors within thesame acquisition programme.

The offset regime is governed by theDefence Offsets Facilitation Agency (DOFA),which has been set up under the auspices ofthe Department of Defence Production(DDP). DOFA aims to be a single windowagency that facilitates the implementation ofthe offset policy outlined by the Ministry ofDefence (MoD). Its roles, therefore, includeassisting potential vendors in interfacing withIndian industry, technically evaluating offset

proposals, monitoring offset provisions, help-ing with policy improvement, liaising with theintegrated defence staff and service head-quarters, advising in consultation with themilitary and DRDO areas where offsets are tobe preferred and of course promoting theexport of eligible products and services.

While the offsets issue seems to be doableon paper there are actually several issuesthat seem to be cropping up with its imple-mentation. For one, foreign companies com-plain that there aren’t enough entities in theIndian sector to tie up on offsets and that notmany have the capacity to absorb a broadrange of capabilities. This complaint seemsto have been addressed in DPP-2011 bybroadening the offsets clause to be dis-

chargeable in the civil aviation and internalsecurity markets. DPP-2011 explicitly states:“The list of eligible offsets now cover mostaspects of civil aerospace, including aircraft,both fixed wing and rotary, air frames, air-craft components, avionics, aircraft designand engineering services, aircraft material,technical publications, flying training insti-tutions, and technology-driven institutions.A wide range of weapons and services forcounter-terrorism have been included in thelist of products under ‘internal security’.These changes will provide a wider range ofoffset opportunities to vendors participatingin defence procurements and encouragebuilding up of indigenous manufacturingcapability in crucial areas.”

This move has actually been pretty con-

troversial since some commentators havesuggested that this essentially defeats thepurpose of a ‘defence offsets policy’ alto-gether given that the MoD has, over theyears, fought to segment defence offsetsfrom the broader national offsets policy.The argument is that global arms majors,who are in any case reluctant to see the riseof low-cost competitors, will simply use thisas an excuse to get non-core IT-related workand repeat manufacturing items sourcedfrom India. A focused offset policy, on theother hand, would compel global majors tolook seriously at cultivating India’s emer-gent small and medium enterprises fordefence-related work.

One way to ensure that offsets do result inthe absorption of state-of-the-art technologiesis by enabling the so-called multiplier mecha-nism which would relaxthe value requirementon the basis of the levelof technology beingoffered. DPP-2011seems to reflect thiswhen it states: “The DAC(Defence AcquisitionCouncil) may, after duedeliberation, also pre-scribe varying offsetpercentages above 30per cent or waive off therequirement for offsetobligations in very spe-cial cases. Such direc-tions may be madeapplicable for differentclasses of cases or forindividual casesdepending upon the fac-tors involved such as

type of acquisition, strategic importance ofthe acquisition or technology, enhancedability of Indian defence industry to absorbthe offset, export potential generated, etc”

Many vendors also feel that the gover-nance mechanism for offsets isn’t sufficientlyresponsive to absorb all-round inputs on pol-icy making. DOFA is a particular target forcriticism and is being painted as an inade-quately equipped bureaucracy ill-suited todeal with the avalanche of offsets that isexpected to result in the next few years. Aproposal to set up an office for DOFA at Del-hi’s Pragati Maidan has been pending forsometime now.

However, the greatest impediment tomaking offsets truly useful is the 26 per centFDI cap according to both domestic and

(27)April 2011

AN ACCENT OF INDIGENISATION: Defence Procurement Policy-2011puts great stress on offset policy in terms of weapon purchase


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foreign companies. In fact, this is theone aspect of the offset game wherewe do seem to have some consensus.The limit, according to most foreignvendors, precludes the possibility oftransferring any meaningful technol-ogy. A move towards 49 per centseems to be desired by many industryplayers.

All in all, while offsets certainlyrepresent a massive opportunity for Indian industry, there is a need to be very vigilant about what exactlyis being transferred. Monitoring and implementation must alwaysreflect the philosophy that the aim is to reverse India’s import depend-ency in the defence sector with a view to having 70 per cent indige-nous arms by 2020. Unfortunately, at the moment, offsets seem hostageto a lack of ideas going forward andthe will to really step on the gas forindigenisation.

April 2011

“OUR APPROACH TO OFFSET IS MEANT TO INFUSETECHNOLOGIES INTO LOCAL INDUSTRY RATHER THANJUST FULFILL OFFSET OBLIGATIONS. THIS APPROACHNOT ONLY GIVES A BOOST TO LOCAL INDUSTRY BUTALSO REDUCES THE OVERALL COST OF OUR PRODUCTS.THE DEFENCE PROCUREMENT POLICY OF 2011 GIVES USAN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK IN DUAL AEROSPACEDOMAINS. SOUTH AFRICA WOULD BE A GOOD CASE STUDY. AFTERSOUTH AFRICA PURCHASED GRIPEN, WE WENT IN ANDPURCHASED COUPLE OF COMPANIES. WE REVAMPEDTHE SOUTH AFRICAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY ON A LARGESCALE. THEY BECAME SO STRONG THAT NOW THEY AREEXPORTING VARIOUS SYSTEMS. IN FACT IDAS OF HALDHRUV IS DEVELOPED AND PRODUCED BY SAABAVITRONICS IN CENTURION, SOUTH AFRICA.”

INDERJIT SIAL,COUNTRY HEAD, SAAB INTERNATIONAL INDIA

“WE (WANT) TO MEET OUROFFSET OBLIGATIONS TO THEUTMOST SATISFACTION OF OURCUSTOMER. AS OUR AIM IS NOTJUST TO COMPLY WITH THERFP OBLIGATIONS, WE HAVEGONE A STEP FURTHER BYOFFERING INDIA THEOPPORTUNITY FOR ANUNMATCHED INDUSTRIALPARTNERSHIP, WHICH WOULDMAKE IT A TRUE PARTICIPANTIN THE EUROFIGHTERTYPHOON PROGRAMME. WEARE INTERESTED IN THEINDUSTRIALISATION OF THEINDIAN AEROSPACE ANDDEFENCE INDUSTRY, THEREBYLEVERAGING THE SIGNIFICANTENGINEERING TALENT THATLIES HERE. THAT IS HOW WESEE OUR PARTNERSHIP WITHINDIA - NOT JUST COMPLYINGWITH OFFSETS, BUTSUPPORTING INDIA’S SELF-RELIANCE.”

DR. MATTHIAS SCHMIDLIN,CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR,EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON, INDIA

“WITH RESPECT TO OFFSET POLICIES, WE ARE VERYPLEASED THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA TOOKSUCH A DISCIPLINED APPROACH IN UPDATING THEDEFENCE PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE. THANKS TOTHIS REVIEW, GUIDELINES FOR OFFSET POLICYWERE EXPANDED TO INCLUDE CIVIL AEROSPACE,INTERNAL SECURITY, TRAINING PRODUCTS ANDSERVICES. FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE, THIS OFFERSAN OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIAN COMPANIES, ASWELL AS GLOBAL BUSINESS SUCH AS RAYTHEON, TOLOOK MORE BROADLY AT AVENUES OF PROMOTINGINVESTMENT IN THE INDIAN DEFENCE SECTOR. WESEE THIS AS A POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT FORRAYTHEON GOING FORWARD AS WE EXPAND OURPARTICIPATION IN INDIA'S DEFENCE, SECURITY ANDCIVIL SECTORS..”

WILLIAM BLAIR,PRESIDENT, RAYTHEON INDIA

“THE OFFSET GUIDELINES ARESTRUCTURED TO ENHANCE THEAEROSPACE AND DEFENSE INDUSTRY,SUPPORT THE MATURITY OF THETECHNOLOGY BASE, INCREASEINDIGENOUS CAPABILITY TO BUILD ANDSUPPORT DEFENCE PLATFORMS ANDENHANCE THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESSOF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR FIRMS OFALL SIZES.INDIA'S DPP AND OFFSET REGIME IS AVERY PROGRESSIVE MOVE BY THEGOVERNMENT AND WILL BRING TANGIBLEBENEFITS TO INDIA. THE REVISIONS SOFAR HAVE MADE REAL IMPROVEMENTS,BENEFITING FROM PAST PROCUREMENTEXPERIENCE AND FROM WELL-MEANINGGUIDANCE FROM THE INDUSTRY.THE GOVERNMENT'S RELEASE OF THENEW DEFENCE PROCUREMENTPROCEDURES FOR 2011 IS A VERYPROGRESSIVE STEP. WE WELCOME THENEW REVISIONS ON BROADENING THEAPERTURE OF OFFSET CREDIT TOINCLUDE CIVIL AEROSPACE ANDINTERNAL SECURITY.”

MARK KRONENBERG,VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT, BOEING DEFENSE, SPACE &SECURITY


(29)April 2011

HOWITZER MISFIRES AGAINThere are more questions than answers to the Defence Ministry’s keenness to acquire theM777 gun from the United States through the FMS route, writes ROHIT SRIVASTAVA

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INDIA’S QUEST of two decades forupgradation and modernisation of itsartillery seems to have got stuck inquicksand. The much-awaited induc-tion of ultra-light howitzer BAE sys-

tem’s M777 (with its 155 mm diameter bar-rel) under the foreign military sales routehas come under a controversy. Incidentally,the M777 will be the first artillery guninduction since the Bofors guns wereacquired in the late 80s from Sweden.

The leaked field trial report of the gun, acopy of which was sent to the Armythrough a mail, listing proof about theshortcomings of the gun, is the latest road-block that has hit the howitzer acquisition.The Army took cognizance of this and hasconstituted a Court of Inquiry under athree star General to look into the matter.

The `3,000-crore ($647m) deal for 145M777 howitzers, which was finalised in2010 between the US and India, had a con-troversial beginning. In July 2009, the Min-istry of Defence (MoD) black-listed severalfirms after investigation by Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI). Singapore Technology

(ST), which was slated to provide its Pega-sus 155mm lightweight howitzer, was oneof them.

This opened the road for the BAE systemto push for its gun. The initial proposal wasfloated in 2008 by the Indian Army and therewere only two contenders: BAE and ST. TheST Pegasus was 155mm/ 39 caliber with 5.4tonnes weight and can fire three rounds in24 seconds in burst mode. The M777 is ofsimilar caliber but weighs 4.2 tonnes.

India was left with only one option, asthere were only two portable guns: thePegasus and the BAE 155 ultra-light. Indiaapproached the US government in 2009 forthe BAE 155 ultra-light howitzer, which hadaround 70 per cent US components andrequired US government’s approval forexport. As Guy Douglas, spokesperson ofBAE, otherwise a British company, said:“The gun is made in the US and the IPR ispredominantly held in the US. Obviouslythere is a supply chain involving the US.”

The deal got approval from the USDefense Security Cooperation Agency(DSCA), which said in its January 2010,

notification, of a possible Foreign MilitarySale to India of 145 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed Howitzers with Laser InertialArtillery Pointing Systems (LINAPS) andassociated parts, equipment, training andlogistical support for a complete packageworth approximately $647 mn. The logisticsand maintenance support would be provid-ed by the BAE and Mahindra Defence System in a joint venture.

Sources in the Defence Ministry suggestthat the Indian Army wanted an opera-tional gun which could be deployed imme-diately on the field. The urgency of India toincrease its indirect fire capability in thenorth-east against China compelled it to gofor acquisition without wasting time.

VOLATILE ACQUISITION: The leakedfield trial report of the M777 howitzer guncame out of the realm of secrecy, exposingvulnerability of acquisition process

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The need for a light artillery gun was feltduring the 90s and the Indian Army made aproposal for such guns during 1999-2000.The purpose was to increase the offensivecapability of mountain divisions in thenorth-east. The efficiency of Bofors duringthe Kargil war proved the usefulness ofindirect artillery fire in the mountains.

A proposal was, therefore, made for 100guns, which got approved in the year 2001.The light howitzer was to constitute fiveregiments with 18 guns each — three regi-ments for the north-east and two for the airborne regiment. Ten guns were to be inreserve. The number of guns was laterincreased to 145 as the Chinese capabilitiesin the north-east enhanced, sources said.

Lt Gen Vinay Shankar, former DG, artillery,says, “We need light howitzers for two basicrequirements. First, we have difficult terrain

and some areas are not easily accessible, vul-nerable and tactically important. We needadequate artillery to defend. Second, weshould be ready to go beyond our border tosecure national interest.”

Sources in the Army suggested that Indiahad a plan for two air mobile division,which could be deployed in places likeNepal, Mauritius, Afghanistan to secureIndians and their interests and in ourisland territories if and when the contin-gency arose. Each of these would have anartillery regiment of light howitzer gun.

The Indian Army had the option to gofor smaller caliber guns like 102/120mmguns, manufactured by Ordinance FactoryBoard (OFB) but it decided to standardise

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TO BRINGUNIFORMITY WITH 155MM

GUNS BOFORS,INDIA CHOSE155MM LIGHTHOWITZERS

BE SHORT OF: The various fronts in which the M777 Howitzer gun has failed, include its compatibility, its air portability trials and thesighting system that deals with night vision



(31)April 2011

its artillery to single caliber and wanted tohave more destructive power. Thus, tobring uniformity with 155mm guns Bofors,India chose 155mm light howitzers.

The155mm is the optimum caliberacross the globe. The majority of the gunsare 155mm/45 calibers, but to keep theweight light the Indian Army chose 39 cal-iber gun. The expected range with this cal-iber is said to be 30 km. The range of anygun depends upon the length of the barrel;the longer the barrel, the longer the range.

ControversyThe real controversy, however, is about

the leakage of the field trial report. Thereport suggests that the gun’s performancewas not up to the mark. The Army staffquality requirements — parameters, onwhich any product for acquisition has toqualify — were not fully met.

Sources revealed that the gun’s perform-ance on some of the key parameters like airportability, range, accuracy, etc. was notsatisfactory. Since the gun would be pur-chased through FMS and would be opera-tional, the purchase of the gun was notsubject to failure or success in trials. Thetrials are not being referred to as field trialsbut as ‘confirmatory trials’. That clearlyshows that the purchase of the gun wasalmost certain. India was paying for the tri-al cost unlike other trials where the costsare borne by the contender. The trials wereconducted in Sikkim.

Highly-placed sources in Ministry havesaid that the “gun will be purchased. Wedon’t have any other option. The result ofthe trial proves that the gun is good and willnot compromise on the operational capa-bility of the Indian Army”.

Even the Army has reasoned that no gunor any other weapon system for that mattercan ever satisfy all our requirements.India’s requirements are unique and varied;no system can be designed to cater to allconditions. Thus, we have to compromiseevery time we buy anything.

At first glance, the argument does soundcorrect but it is not that simple. Reliablesources point out that the gun has only per-formed to the optimum level. The Army fac-tored in the minimum requirement from thegun and knows where the gun will be used,as there are places in mountains where itcan be deployed either by road or by heli-copter. The mountainous areas, unlike theplains, do not offer unhindered range. Thus,if a gun can hit the required distance on theplains, it may not be perfect for longer rangein the mountains. Thus, it is possible that

the Army has either been arm-twisted toaccept the BAE system or time is runningshort and the Army is left with no choice.

As a senior artillery officer said on condi-tion of anonymity, “The Indian Army needsa gun. Whatever is available you have topick. You can’t have a perfect solution, thereare no perfect systems, and there are trade -offs.” He further added, “Among light how-itzers, there are just two manufacturers,BAE and ST. Forget BAE, but if you require agun, then why not the one from Singapore?

India blacklisted ST on charges of corrup-tion. Fair, but what about the corruption orinefficiency within the defence public sec-tor units? They have not been able to per-form up to the mark. Numerous allegationsof retagging of imported products in thename of indigenisation are ignored. Thenational interest has been compromised bydelays and escalation in cost.”

There are speculations in the DefenceMinistry that Singapore Technology isbehind the leak. But the ministry seemsdetermined to go ahead with deal. Sourcesassociated with ST have denied these allega-tions and clarified that they have no interestin this deal, as being an FMS with US theyalways knew they had no chance. But theyalso pointed out that why any deal, whichhas US connection, never gets postponedand go through mostly, of late through theFMS route, even when the alternate systemis available at a competitive price.

Even in this controversial deal, the offsetand technology transfer, which has becomecornerstone of our acquisition policy,doesn’t apply.

gDEFBIZ

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www.geopolitics.in

THE REALCONTROVERSY,

HOWEVER, ISABOUT THE

LEAKAGE OF THEFIELD TRIAL

REPORT

QUESTIONS ARE MANY: Will artillery procurement of Indian Army remain caught in a maze?


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GENERAL V K Singhbecame the first Indi-an officer to beinducted into the‘Hall of Fame’ of USArmy War College,Carlisle, USA, onMarch 11, 2011. Thisdistinction is extend-ed by the US Army toall officers fromfriendly foreign coun-tries, who rise to the

post of ‘Chief ’ of theirrespective armies, afterattending the covetedcourse at the US ArmyWar College. A “Mas-ters” degree in StrategicStudies is awarded oncompletion of thecourse. General V KSingh (then Brigadier)had passed out fromthe US Army War Col-lege in 2000-01.

MMiittaallii ggeettss ggaallllaannttrryy aawwaarrdd

PERISCOPE

G E O P O L I T I C S

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ARMY CHIEF HONOURED

EVEN BEFORE the Army decides to accordpermanent commission to women and allowthem in combat, Mitali Madhumita’s “SenaMedal”, the first to be awarded for gallantry toa woman Army officer, has broken anothermale bastion that promises to remain etchedin Indian military history. This comes amidthe raging debate over women’s permanentcommission in the Army and vindicates thestance of all aspiring permanent commissionwomen officers.

History was created on February 25 at the‘Yodha’ hall of the ‘DOT’ division of southwest-ern command, when Lt General S K Singh,General Officer Commanding in Chief con-ferred the medal on Major Mitali Madhumita,who hails from Orissa, in the investiture cere-mony held at the Hisar cantonment.

An officer of the Army Education Corp,Mitali has been given a gallantry award for theexemplary courage, grit and valour displayedby her after the attack on the Indian embassyby terrorists in Kabul (Afghanistan) on Febru-ary 26, 2010. She helped in saving a number oflives of those severely wounded in that attack.

A total of 19 persons including seven Indi-ans had been killed in that incident. At thattime, she was not a part of combat arms buther job was to teach at facilities in Kabul. Butwhen the incident took place, she immediate-ly rushed to the spot and saved the lives ofthose buried under the debris after the attackwithout caring for her life.

THE CABINET Committee on Securi-ty (CCS) is reported to have decidedto induct the indigenously-producedand developed Akash surface-to-airmissile defence system into the Indi-an Army. It will be deployed on boththe western and eastern fronts of thecountry’s borders.

It is understood that the IndianArmy will now place orders for tworegiments of the missile system,which has already been inductedinto the Indian Air Force (IAF). Thetotal order for the Army stands at`14,180 crore at present. The IAF hasinducted two squadrons of the mis-sile system and is looking to place

orders foranother sixthat will bebased in thec o u n t r y ’ snorth-east tocounter Chi-na. They willbe procuredat a cost of`6,200 crore.The ‘regi-ment’ is theArmy equiva-lent of an IAFsquadron.

The low-reaction-time Akash, which is 5.6-metre-long, is designed to neutralisemultiple aerial targets attacking fromseveral directions simultaneously,with a digitally-coded commandguidance system, in all-weather con-ditions. It can even take on sub-son-ic cruise missiles, which is a usefulpotential given the fact that arsenalsof both hostile neighbours — Pak-istan to the west and China to thenorth — are equipped with ripped-off versions of the American Toma-hawk. The Akash induction will helpthe Indian armed services replacethe obsolete Russian-origin Pechoraand OSA-AK missile systems.

ARMY TO HAVE AKASH

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BBoolldd KKuurruukksshheettrraa wwiitthh SSiinnggaappoorree AArrmmyy

INDIAN ARMY and Singapore Army havejust completed a month-long joint exer-cise named ‘Bold Kurukshetra 2011’ atBabina in Jhansi. The exercise began onMarch 1 and continued until March 29. Itinvolved multi-tiered planning, use ofnew generation equipment and joint exe-cution of mission by artillery batteries andcombat groups. Besides matching eachother’s capability in artillery fire power,the two armies also honed their skills inanti-militancy exercises.

Exercise Bold Kurukshetra is an annualevent between the two armies. SingaporeArmy sends its armoured divisions toIndia and practices with Indian armoureddivisions. Singapore lacks facilities to trainits forces due to shortage of land mass.This was the sevent edition of the exercise.

OVER 37 years after the project wascommissioned by the government, theindigenous Arjun tank has been for-mally inducted into the 75Armoured Regiment at Jaisalmer. Ithappened in mid-March. Accordingto Lieutenant General A K Singh,General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the southerncommand, 45 Arjun tanks wereinducted.

It may be noted that 75Armoured Regiment is the onlyIndian armoured regiment to beraised on foreign soil during the1971 Indo-Pak war at Gadra road(now in Pakistan) on March 12, 1972.The tank comes with a 120 mm mainrifled gun with indigenously developed

APFSDS ammunition, a 7.62 mm co-axi-al machine gun, and a 12.7 mm machine

gun. It is powered by a single MTU mul-ti-fuel diesel engine rated at 1,400 hp,and can achieve a maximum speed of 70

km/hr (43 mph) and a cross-countryspeed of 40 km/h (25 mph). It has a four-

man crew: commander, gunner,loader and driver.

Automatic fire detection andsuppression, and NBC (nuclear,biological and chemical) protec-tion systems are provided. All-round anti-tank warhead pro-tection by the newly-developedKanchan armour is claimed tobe much higher than availablein present third generationtanks.

In March 2010, the Arjun waspitted against the T-90 in com-

parative trials and performed well. Sub-sequently, the Army placed an order foran additional 124 tanks on May 17, 2010.

AArrmmyy rreeaaddyy ffoorr qquuiicckk mmoobbiilliissaattiioonnCAN INDIAN Army mobilise troops with-in 48 hours? The Army believes it can andwill seek to validate its answer at an annualexercise involving about 10,000 personnelin the Rajasthan-Punjab region in May.

After terrorists attacked Parliament inDecember 2001, the government had or-dered Army mo-bilisation. ButO p e r a t i o nParakram took27 days, bywhich time suf-ficient interna-tional diplomat-ic pressure hadbuilt up to pre-empt any mili-tary strike onPakistan. Sincethen, the Armyhas been work-ing hard to bringdown its mobilisation time. Reports saythat better road management, offloading,rail links, equipment and man-manage-ment have reduced the time to 48 hoursand every strike corps had been working atreducing its mobilisation period.

Army’s preparedness will be tested inthe two-week exercise, Vajra Prahar, thatwill involve the Ambala-based 2 StrikeCorps, besides elements from the Patiala-based 1 Armoured Division, Meerut-based22 Division and Dehradun-based 14 Divi-

sion, also called Rapids. Earlier, the Armyused to launch an attack after an entire for-mation had gathered, but the new ap-proach is for small battle groups withcommand-and-control abilities carryingout early launches. As elements have to begathered from far-flung places, it’s im-

portant toplan in ad-vance.

Incidental-ly, the Pak-istani armyhad held a wargame last yearnear its Indiaborder witharound 50,000troops mo-bilised in threedays from oneend of thatcountry to the

other. Former Army Chief General V PMalik had once pointed out that distancesin Pakistan were shorter. “We took 20 daysto mobilise troops for Operation Parakram.The lesson learnt was to reduce the time,which brought forth the doctrine of coldstart for strategic re-location. Today, we arein a much better position,” he had said.

Every year, the three corps take turns tohold war games. Last year, 21 Corps had itsfirst drill based on nuclear biologicalchemical warfare.

ARJUN TANK INDUCTED

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PROPOSEDPORTS INORISSA

313IN OPERATIONS across the country. The details are asfollows: The Army lost 114 men in 2009, 187 men in2010, and 12 in 2011 till March 8. Moreover, eight per-sonnel were killed in 2009 and 15 in 2010 fromRajasthan. All these casualties were reported from Jam-mu and Kashmir. Inaddition, the Navylost one of its person-nel during opera-tions in 2009, but sawno casualties in 2010.The Air Force saw nocasualties at all in thelast two years.

BY PAKISTAN were reported along the borderin Jammu and Kashmir since 2010. 44 cease-fire violations were reported in 2010, whilefive such cases have happened in this year sofar. The Government of India has taken upthe issue of ceasefire violations with Pak-istan’s military authorities at the appropriatelevel through the established mechanism ofhotline, flag meetings as well as weekly talksbetween the Director Generals of MilitaryOperations.

ON THE recommendation of the investigative agencies tothe Defence Ministry for being involved in ‘illegal gratifica-tion’ in the Ordnance Factory Board scam in 2009. The fourinternational companies that have been recommended forblacklisting by the CBI, include Israeli Military Industry(IMI), Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), GermanRheinmetall Air Defence and Russian CooperationDefence; while two Indian firms are T S Kisan and Compa-ny Private Limited (New Delhi) and R.K. Machines ToolsLimited (Ludhiana). The decision to take penal actionagainst the firms would be decided in consultation withLaw Ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission.According to the ministry, the Israeli firm IMI has beenprovided all available documents and has been directed tosubmit its reply to the show-cause notice within 15 days.Due to the blacklisting process, several Defence Ministryacquisition projects have either been stalled or beenscrapped, which include the artillery modernisation pro-gramme and upgrading of existing Indian Army howitzers.

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CASES OF CEASEFIREVIOLATIONS

CONSIDERED A securitythreat. The DefenceResearch and Develop-ment Organisation(DRDO) has raised objec-tions to setting-up of threeproposed ports in Orissa’sBalasore district. The areais extensively used byDRDO and armed forcesfor test firing of missilesand various weapons. Outof three ports — Ichudi,Chandipur and Baha-balpur — proposed in Bal-asore district, the DRDOhas raised objections toIchudi port on the groundsthat it would be operatingclose to the launch com-plex used by it to test firemissiles. “Movement ofships will pose a securitythreat to DRDO installa-tions. Further, proposedports fall within the noti-fied area of DRDO andIndian Air Force (IAF)where dynamic trial andfiring of unproved arma-ment stores are bring con-ducted on regular basis,”said Defence Minister A KAntony, adding that nospecific alternate site issuggested by the DRDO.

ARMYPERSONNELLOST THEIRLIVES SINCE2009

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IN THE armed forces has been addressed and accordingly, several measures, includ-ing increasing the intake of Short Service Commission (SSC) officers, have been initi-ated to meet the shortfall.The extent of shortage of officers is around 12,349 in theArmy, 1,818 in the Navy and 837 in the Air Force, while the shortage of pilots in the AirForce is about 426. There is, however, no significant problem of shortage of personnelbelow officer rank in the armed forces. In addition, all officers, including those in theShort Service Commission (SSC), are now eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain,Major and Lieutenant Colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable servicerespectively. The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 to 14 years.

6 FIRMS TO BEBLACKLISTED

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FOR BEING guilty of sexu-ally harassing women col-leagues in eight casesreported since 2008. And ofthese seven officers, threeeach were from the Armyand the Air Force and onefrom the Navy. According torecord, are four cases fromthe Army and one from theair force in 2008, and, onefrom the Navy and twofrom the Air Force in 2009.Fortunately, there are nocases of sexual harassmentof women officers in thethree services in 2010 andnone has been reported tilldate this year. The govern-ment has taken steps tocheck recurrence of suchincidents in the future. Inthe Army, all commands aredirected that cases of sexu-al harassment will beviewed very seriously andstrict action taken againstthe perpetrators and com-mensurate punishmentmeted out to them so thatthe same acts as a deterrentfor others. The environ-ment has been sensitised inorder to maintain a healthyand respectful relation withfellow or superior lady offi-cers. Same kind of well laiddown procedures and regu-lations exist for Navy andAir Force also.

OFFICERSPUNISHED7

HAS BEEN announced by FinanceMinister Pranab Mukherjee in his 2011budget proposals. Defence personnel,who have suffered 100 per cent disabil-ity during the course of their govern-ment service, will henceforth get aone-time compensation of `9 lakh onpar with paramilitary personnel fight-ing Maoists. And those who sufferedless than 100 percent but over 20 percent disability, would be provided aproportionate amount as one-timecompensation.

ARE PART ofinfrastructured e v e l o p m e n tp r o g r a m m e ,undertaken byChina for theconstruction ofroads, railwaysand airfields. Toenhance themilitary profile,the total roadnetwork in the Tibet Autonomous Region isassessed at 58,000 km in 2010, along with fiveairfields becoming operational at Gongar,Pangta, Linchi, Hoping and Gar Gunsa.

IN DEFENCEResearch andD e v e l o p m e n tO r g a n i s a t i o n(DRDO) projectsfor upgradingexisting facilitiesand setting upnew ones for vari-ous programmes.The projectsinclude setting upa new Aeronauti-

cal Test Range for `1,300 crore, Aerostat Test Rangefor `500 crore, Electronic Warfare test range foranother `500 crore. The programmes and projectsare likely to be completed in the next three to tenyears period depending on various governmentclearances and other procedures.

5300CRORE IS THEAMOUNTTHAT THEGOVERNMENTIS PLANNINGTO INVEST

58,000

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KM ROADS, FIVEAIRFIELDS IN TIBET

HAVE BEEN recorded by ArmedForces Tribunal (AFT), which wasinstituted in 2009. Consideringthe successful running of princi-pal bench at Delhi and regionalbenches at seven locations —Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow,Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai andKochi — the government has decidedto set up one more regional bench atMumbai. The provision for Circuit Benches

in the scheme of AFT is expectedto take care of any problem

relating to accessibility ofthe tribunals to the service-men and ex-servicemen.The constitution of thetribunals has broughtdown the number of offi-cers and jawansapproaching High Courts

through writ jurisdictions.The regional bench at

Chandigarh disposed of themaximum number of 1897

cases since 2009, followed by1525 cases by the principal bench.

LAKH WORTHDISABILITYCOMPENSATIONFOR SOLDIERS

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MONEYMATTERSMONEYMATTERSThe defence allocation in this year’s annual budget amounts to `1, 64,415.49crore ($36.03 billion). That represents an 11.59 per cent growth (`17,071.49crore) over the previous year’s budget. Of this `7,872.68 crore has beenearmarked for revenue expenditure and the balance `9,198.81 for capitalexpenditure. In totality, revenue expenditure has grown by 9.01 per cent to`95,216.68 and capital expenditure by 15.33 per cent to `69,198.81 crore.

Overall, this year’s defence budget is 1.83 per cent of the projected GDPof the country and 13.07 per cent of the total Central governmentexpenditure.

Roughly speaking, in 2011-12, the Army, with an approximate budget of`83, 415 crore, accounts for 51 per cent of the total defence budget. The Airforce, with `46,151.78 crore, accounts for 28 per cent and the Navy’s share is15 per cent at `25,246.89 crore. Defence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) has been given `10,253.17 crore while ordnancefactories (OFs) `776.79 crore.

The major share is for the Army and that is because of the large scaleprovision under revenue expenditure, which is primarily driven by pay andallowances. In terms of capital expenditure, the Air force with a budget of`30,223.83 crore is the most capital-intensive, followed by the Army(`19,163.07 crore), Navy (`14,657.83 crore), DRDO (`4,628.3 crore), and OFs(`399.96 crore). On the revenue side, although the growth has beennecessitated by the increase in pay and allowances, there has also been anincrease in the budgetary provision for other revenue items to covermaintenance and services.

Are these budget allocations adequate for a rising power like India, whichis expected to assume more global responsibilities in the days to come? Thisquestion is all the more relevant if we view the 11.59 per cent rise against thebackdrop of about 11 per cent inflation over the last one year. Besides, thetotal allocations in the budget are far below the minimum 3 per cent of theGDP that the armed forces of the country have been expecting for years. Thefigure has not touched even the mark of 2 per cent of the GDP that successiveStanding Committees on Defence in India’s Parliament have beenrecommending.

Most of all, do our budgetary allocations reflect the concerns raised bymany distinguished experts over steady increases in the defence expenditureof Pakistan and China, our potential threats? Incidentally, China hasincreased its official defence expenditure for 2011 by 13 per cent to $ 91.5billion while its actual expenditure on defence is likely to be close to $ 150billion (3.5 per cent of its GDP).

All this is not to suggest that there is no scope for rationalisation in India’sdefence expenditure. Timely decisions on procurements and increasedefficiency in domestic defence production will save money. Last but not theleast, in the wake of various scandals that the country has been witnessingof late, the need of financial transparency in the Indian military is tooimportant to be overstressed.

In the pages that follow, three distinguished military officers have offeredtheir views on the subject. Over to them…



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Lieutenant General Satish Nambiarachieved international recognition as thefirst Force Commander and Head of Mis-sion of UNPROFOR, the United NationsProtection Force in the formerYugoslavia, between March 1992 andMarch 1993. He was commissioned fromthe Indian Military Academy (IMA) intothe 20th Battalion of the Maratha LightInfantry in December 1957. He retired asthe Deputy Chief of the Army Staff inAugust 1994. He had the honour of serv-ing as the Colonel of the MechanizedInfantry Regiment of the Indian Armyfrom June 1988 to till retirement inAugust 1994. Excerpts from the inter-view:

Are you satisfied with the defence budgetfor 2011?I think it is a fair allocation. But theredeeming feature one sees this time isthat last year’s budget allocation has beenutilised after a long, long time. For yearsand years the allocations have not beenutilised, they’ve lapsed which I think inmany ways indicates that we may be get-ting our act together in terms of balancingthe acquisitions against our projectedplan. The other thing I would like to addhere is basically related to the often pro-pounded theory of the budget being percentage of GDP. You know they said thisbudget is only 1.8 per cent of GDP andthat it should be 2.5 or 3 or whatever.

I’ve never agreed with that philosophybecause my logic has always been that,firstly, you make your plans and your pro-jections for our national security require-ments and the government should beasked to meet them. They may be able tomeet it in full; in fact no country in theworld, even the United States ever doesmeet budgetary demands in full. Youknow what the armed forces ask for isnever (given) because most of the timeyou are overestimating your require-ments. Besides I have never followed the

Air Marshal Pranab Kumar Barbora wascommissioned as a fighter pilot in June1970 and saw action in the 1971 war withPakistan. During his service career, hehas had the distinction of being part ofthe team during formation of the firstJaguar Squadron of the IAF and alsoinducting the Air Combat Simulator intothe IAF, the first of its kind in Asia. He hasheld many operational assignments. Hewas the Air Attaché in Russia and retiredas the Deputy Chief of Indian Air Forceand earned a reputation for his outspo-ken and frank assessment of issues. He isthe first person from the North-East toreach such a coveted position. Excerptsfrom the interview:

Your views on the budget?Let me put it this way — what is 12 percent (hike)? Twelve per cent just caters forpartially, the inflation. So by saying 12 percent, I don’t think it has any relevancebecause the cost factor keeps going upevery year. But when you talk of the over-all increase in the percentage of GDP,which varies between 2.2 and 2.4 per centof our GDP that is given to our defenceservices, it is nothing very much. But thebeauty of this whole thing is we have beenthe biggest importer of weapons in the lastfew years. Okay fine. The reason for thatof course is many. Our PSUs and DRDOhave not come up to the expectations, sowe have to spend abroad. Also, wheneverany service has demanded something veryseriously — except for one odd aberrationlike the Indian Army’s requirement forartillery has been pending for such a long,long time — the government has given usthe money — albeit late. It does have anindirect effect on the defence prepared-ness of the nation. Not that we are inca-pable of taking on any kind of a threat, butwe could have definitely performed farbetter if we had the assets that we hadwanted at the correct time. Is 12 per cent okay?

Commissioned in the Indian Navy in1961, Vice Admiral Avnish Rai Tandonhad a distinguished career. He had therare distinction of being Flag OfficerCommanding-in-Chief of two of theIndian Navy’s three naval commands:the Southern Naval Command and theWestern Naval Command, from where heretired on March 31, 1998. Earlier, he hadcommanded the Western Fleet and beenthe Deputy Chief of Naval Staff. As Con-troller of Warship Production and Acqui-sitions, Admiral Tandon was responsiblefor the design and construction of war-ships like the INS Delhi class and sub-marines. As Assistant Chief of Naval StaffPolicy and Plans he worked closely withthe MoD and other ministries whilebeing responsible for financial and forceplanning for the Indian Navy. Excerptsfrom an interview:

Are you happy with this year’s defencebudget?Let me explain one thing: Army and AirForce have to work within the nationalboundary of India. So when you are talkingof defence, they can’t cross the boundary.If they do, it is an inimical act, whereas theIndian navy is operating all across the In-dian Ocean. What are the roles that theNavy has to play? For coastal defence, youcan come anywhere, you can land any-where. India’s coastline is 7500 km. Thereare also islands. Therefore, if a pirate oper-ates off Lakshadweep, the Army and the AirForce cannot immediately go there. Then,we have 200 nautical miles of what iscalled Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),which has also to be patrolled and re-sources within the EEZ are all sovereign re-sources of India. So, the definition of de-fence is slightly different in case of the Navyas opposed to the Army and Air Force.

Are you then saying the budget for the Navyis inadequate?Let me clarify that. General Sunderji was the

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P K BARBORAAIR MARSHAL (RETD.)

AVNISH TANDONVICE ADMIRAL (RETD.)



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logic that the budget should be a percent-age of the GDP, because my point hasalways been — and now really in manyways being indicated — as your GDPgrows, your budget grows even if yourallocation is just one per cent.

The basic thing is your requirements.The government has to meet it and theywill meet it to the extent they can. One ofthe things, right from the time I was inservice, and following events later, I havefound that notwithstanding the alloca-tions, if in an emergency situation thedefence forces are required to have more(money), I don’t think the governmenthas ever been found wanting in givingthe (funds).

But who is responsible for the moneylapsing all these years?I think a lot it has to do with the systemthat we follow. In fact, it is basically thecivil bureaucracy that has not beingaccountable.

Will you elaborate?Where is the accountability? If things gowrong, the armed forces are to blame andon the other side, the political establish-ment can be blamed that you have notmade enough allocations, the bureau-crats are never found answerable. But theirony is that they are the ones who are thesort of go-between, between the armedforces and the political establishment.This relationship should have beenstraightened out long ago. I don’t think ithas yet been straightened out.

Should the armed forces interact directlywith the political masters?You don’t require an interpreter any more.Obviously, the civilian bureaucracy has aplace, in the sense that the Minister couldask them, consult them, use them for theirinputs but they should not be the inter-face. This is where I think the problemlies, unless, of course, they are account-able. I make this point, not because of anyantipathy to the civil servant but the sys-tem has not yet been straightened out.

You think that is the primary reason forthe lapse of money or the issues are notbeing taken up on time?I think so. You see the person taking thedecision must also be accountable for it.That does not always happen in this casebecause these chaps take the decision in

No. It’s not sufficient. But every year whyis it, that we are surrendering money backto the government? It’s not that in thedefence services we have not made out aplan. We’ve got plans for 15 years in place,but when it comes to the clearance of aproject, I feel because of the so-calledcompulsions of the government in otherareas, they do not clear our projects. Thisresults in getting something late andunfortunately depending on country-to-country that we are importing items from.At the end of the day, we get the same itemat a higher cost.

There is also the urgent need to stream-line the defence budget…No. Each service has its own norms of howto bid for a budget and how to utilise thebudget. There will be occasions when themoney is allocated to you whether on therevenue side or on the capital side. Andfor reasons an item that I was looking atwithin this financial year, is not beingcleared because of various reasons. I havegot the budget, now what do I do? I go infor an item which is not high on my prior-ity list. So, it derails the priority of theservice if things like this happen.

You spoke about the lack of utilisation ofthe budget. What is the prime reason?There are other loopholes also. I am notgoing to be service-specific but many atime what happens within the system isthat they tend to change our QRs that isthe qualitative requirements of a system.And when we do that, whether it’s DRDOor a foreign company or anyone, obvious-ly it will take more time. And the productis not going to be available to you by aspecific time. So once we have decidedwhat it is that we want, please don’t keepchanging your requirements.

One of the reasons why this happens isthat there is this ‘holy cow’ attitudeabout the armed forces in this nation: nodebate, no discussion. Because of lack ofdebate and discussion, there is less ofaccountability.Yes, let’s talk about the LCA: Light Com-bat Aircraft. Let’s forget about when itwas conceived, thought and came intoplace — I don’t know. I’ve attended somany meetings on this subject. We hadquarterly meetings, that were attendedby everyone. Okay, they will give a timeline for the product and in the next

first to postulate that the maritime bordersof India are important. It was agreed by theChief of Staff that the Navy’s budget shouldbe 18 per cent of the budget. We are talkingabout 1987. In 2005-06, the Navy’s budgetwas 17.5 per cent and in 2007-08 the budg-et reached 18 per cent. But since 2008-09 ithas been going down. Now it is 15 percent. My point is that the naval plan seemsto be slowing down.

Are the allocations under the R&D headingappropriate? The Navy’s experience with the DRDO isthat we have had very few successful proj-ects. There are any number of projectsthat didn’t take off. But we had some suc-cesses such as the Brahmos missile, whichis a joint venture of DRDO and Russia.There are other electronic warfare systemswhich have come late from the DRDO butcertainly are acceptable. Now my question is: Are we getting enoughnew technology from the DRDO? We haven’treceived much of new technology in spiteof the fact that we have funded substantial-ly. It is the Navy which has funded the Ad-vanced Light Helicopter project when it wasnowhere on the horizon. It is the Navywhich said we would take fighter aircraft foroperating on seas. We are ahead in judgingand appreciating the capability of DRDO. Iam not sure we need to put more moneyinto DRDO. I think we should put moremoney into DRDO where there is private-public partnership (PPP).

Coming back to the macro picture, what doyou think of an emerging power like Indiaallocating less than two per cent of the GDPto defence?Our budgetary figure at this point is 1.83 percent. Over the years we have remained ataround two per cent. We have not exceed-ed more than 2.5 per cent at any stage ex-cept for one year in 86-87 when we were at3.16 per cent. It was a year when there wasa jump of 35 per cent which, of course, gotnegated very soon when money fell shortdue to the drought of 1987. So we had be-tween 2 and 2.5 per cent for 20 to 25 years.By the way, we tend to forget defence expen-diture as percentage of government ex-penditure. Everyone says that defence isbuying up 20 per cent of the government ex-penditure. They call it very derisively as non-planned expenditure. Now, in this case, wehave never exceeded 17. 81 per cent whichis around 3.16 per cent of our total budget



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the sense that it is on file. Okay, yes theface is the political head but the man whohas taken the decision is the facelessbureaucrat.

Here again the armed forces are alsopartially to blame because they have againa system where, and this I say with a lot ofself-criticism which one endured evenwhile in service, that you know with eachchange of head — the Chief — sometimesyour priorities change. That’s idiotic. Imean there may be very few exceptions, itcan’t be the rule. Every time the Chiefcomes in there are different priorities. Thatis another reason why some of these thingsfall behind in terms of acquisitions or pur-suing it to the logical end. Some new chapcomes in and he thinks—the joke that Ihave always highlighted in terms of ourleadership is that — at every level of com-mand, from the battalion Commander tothe Chief of the Army Staff, the chap whoassumes the charge, starts from the basisthat all his predecessors were nuts and he’sgoing to sort out the system. That can’twork. Obviously, the chaps who haveworked before you were as capable if notbetter.

The increasing use of foreign militarysales equipment comes in at hugelyinflated costs as opposed to the tender-ing system…Well I’m not too sure that you can blamethe armed forces for that because thearmed forces hold a piece of the equip-ment. The manner in which you get it andwhat are the arrangements for it is not forthe armed forces to decide. That is for thepolitical class and for the bureaucracy...

Your concern is only the equipment.You tell us what equipment there are, fewpieces of equipment and you evaluatethem. Now you know in this evaluationprocess, there are allegations that some-times there are favourites, but this is ahuman failing, but if you’ve got the rightpeople, people of integrity doing it, thenit’s okay. This business of direct sales, gov-ernment-to-government I think is relatedmore to the lack of ability to negotiate thistendering process, I don’t think the armedforces come into that.

What is your take on Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) in defence produc-tion? The present position makes for lit-

meeting, almost all of them want a delay.But are we willing to hold the PSUs or theDRDO or even the private sector which iscoming in, accountable for it? We just say,okay blacklist a private firm but are wegoing to blacklist our HAL? Have weblacklisted our ship-building yards? Wehaven’t because unfortunately thosePSUs are employing our people. So, thereis a little bit of a mix-up between nation-al requirement of security and a biastowards the HR side.

Do you think budget is in sync with ourperspective planning?Yes It is in sync. Unfortunately again,because of the priorities at times goinghaywire, because of the timeline in clear-ances of various projects and also indige-nous manufacturers not living up to time-lines or the quality of the product, we aresuffering. Finance is not an issue. Anytimewe wanted something specific, the govern-ment has agreed to it, albeit a little late.

Do you think the private sector in thiscountry has a role to play in defence pro-duction? Today, we are restricted to 26 per centFDI. I have said so categorically earlieralso, if someone will have only say 26 percent FDI in a company that he is joiningup for a defence-related issue, he doesn’thave control of the company to be able toperform to his requirement. So, he findsthat he is restricted. He is not going togive out his niche technology. He’ll saywhy should I part with this when I hardlyhave any say in the company? But, I pre-sume there must be some other issueswhich do not allow the government tostraightaway say, okay, from 26 per cent Iincrease it to 49 per cent.

Like I have mentioned earlier and say itagain, Pakistan does more export than wedo in defence items because of our rulesand regulations. It is high time we tookstock of all this. We have produced alongwith Russia, the Brahmos missile. Howmany have we exported till date? Becausethere is no export, the indigenous produc-tion cost is going up. You know every yearthey give a big chit to the government say-ing I have made so much money. Whohave you made it from? You have made itfrom us!

From left hand to right hand…

in these 20 years. That’s not too much of in-surance for the country’s security. Eventhis insurance is one part of the story. Theother part is that we should have enough tomaintain our power in the context of ourimmediate neighbourhood that is alwaysready to create problems for us: Pakistan onthe west and China on the north and east.Till a few years back, we were not on Chi-na’s radar, but now that we are, it is alwaysdoing something to us. We have to worry asfar as the land border is concerned. The roleof our air force is going to increase manifoldin future wars.

Do you agree that our defence budget is notin sync with our military vision? There is a problem and I will only tell youthe process. There is not only a ‘Babu’ in theministry of defence; there is another also inthe department of defence finance which iscontrolled by the Ministry of Finance. So,even if a ‘Babu’ agrees on finance side in theDefence Ministry, he will say I have an ad-versary in the Ministry of Finance. Yes, Iagree that 1.83 per cent of GDP for defenceis not enough. We need something like 18-20 per cent of the government expenditureon defence, while we are at 14-15 per cent.They say that we are giving you a ten percent hike but inflation is 11 per cent.

Do you think there is some room forstreamlining the defence budget? Almostevery year, the armed forces have not beenable to spend the allocated money thoughthe last year was an exception.I have already talked about the negative role‘Babus’ play in Defence-finance. In earlieryears, it was as if they were under a directivethat if ̀ 100 crore were allocated, at least ̀ 20crore will not be spent. They keep sendingthe file up and down, so the money is allot-ted but not spent. I have worked with themfor many years. They just don’t let youspend. It’s just a charade they have allocat-ed so much to you. They have allocated asper what is called ‘REZ’ or revised estimatewhich comes by December, knowing prettywell that you can’t spend the whole amountin the next three months. They will say ne-gotiation is going on. But then why did theyincrease the money in revenue expenditure?

Let me explain the revenue expenditure.It is the expenditure spent on maintenanceof the human resources and the mechani-cal equipment. In our case, this is to say al-lowances, petrol, ammunition, etc. All this

SATISH NAMBIARLT. GENERAL (RETD.)

P K BARBORAAIR MARSHAL (RETD.)

AVNISH TANDONVICE ADMIRAL (RETD.)



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tle incentive for companies to set upshop here?I was a member of the Kelkar Committeeand we went into this aspect in somedetail, basically it was related to allowingour private industry to get into this wholebusiness of defence sales. So my personalview is, which I think is the recommenda-tion we made, that is we should allow pri-vate industry to participate in thisendeavour. That, of course, has a numberof implications because obviously theyhave to be assured of returns and then theother aspect, of course, is that many ofthem may want to wish to have tie-upswith foreign companies. That I think upto a certain percentage was recommend-ed by us. Obviously, we should not go infor a complete foreign company (settingshop) because I don’t think it is a verywise thing for a country like our’s sincedefence industry is of a globally competi-tive nature.

You need it if the domestic defenceindustry — that is simply not there —has to get a fillip?It’s a shame for a country like our’s. Theyhave the capability, they have the where-withal, and they have all the good inten-tions. But they must obviously being acompany, be assured of some returns. Andthat is where I think even the R&D aspectcomes in that either the governmentshould provide these R&D resources. And Ithink there is some rethink on this proba-bly. But it can only be to the extent thatsecurity does not get compromised.

What about offsets, how does it helpwhen there is no clarity on many of thebanking credits?I don’t know the intricacies of this wholething. You are talking of this offset bank,so I won’t try and comment. But my basicphilosophy on this is that your offsetshould include even policy decisions,unrelated to defence. I mean even if weare investing in defence equipmentwhich someone is very keen to sell you,even your foreign policy decisions youshould be able to manipulate or get themto adjust it. I mean, in the sense it cannotbe written into an agreement. But to thatextent, particularly now that we are goingin for such big acquisitions and thingslike that, I do think that we must get somebenefits out of it towards furthering ournational security interests.

You take it from Peter and give it to Paul.Now we have to be seriously thinkingabout our export norms. Firstly, we’vegot to be serious about timetables. Weare still lost in our offset policy; we donot know how to apply offset policy. Ihave said so categorically. There arecountries which are applying 100 percent offset. Like offset policies of SouthKorea or Netherlands which are workingbeautifully. Why can’t we pick up thegood points from them and apply to oursystem and modify it to suit our require-ments?

Now we just say 30 per cent offset, 50per cent offset — do you know, out of thehand figure, another ten years, the offsetshould bring in $40 billion? Where are wegoing to pump it? Who can absorb this?You require corporate houses of very bignature in India to be able to take on thatmuch money plus investment and thendo the exports as well. But in the last sixmonths I have noticed there is a definitepush in the Ministry of Defence tostreamline this offset issue. But we arestill far, far away.

What about the exorbitantly high pricesfor purchases through FMS route? Look, there are certain policies of the gov-ernment which I am in no position toreally comment about as to how they goabout accepting the bids and how theyallocate bids. But there are some provi-sions in the defence procurement systemwhich says that I do not necessarily haveto go to the lowest bidder also. The gov-ernment has the loophole to go to anoth-er bidder and also remember it is finally apolitical decision. After we, the services,put up a request for an item, we haveevaluated the systems. We have saidcompliant non-compliant, depending onthe number of bidders. Then the bid isopened for those who are compliant. Butat times something else may be availableto you that is also compliant but compli-ant in a better manner.

One is raising this particularly in thecontext of the recent aircraft acquisition.The costs have been phenomenal, farabove what was sold elsewhere.The FMS route moves faster because it isimmediately a government to govern-ment deal. No more tender etc etc. Any-time there is a tender in any kind of adeal, it’s a long haul. Two years at least.

is part of revenue expenditure. Now in thecase of Army it’s huge at about 75 per cent;so, there is very little left for capital expen-diture (modernisation, etc). In the Navy,revenue expenditure was 40 per cent — wehave always tried and not let it go beyond45, because our money goes into highlycomplex machines called ships and sub-marines, which cost a lot of money. TheNavy has only 50,000 people in ships andanother 50,000 in dockyards, depots, etc. So,when our revenue expenditure for thisyear is around 40 per cent, we have somemore money to pay for ship building whichis constantly going on.

Now, how should we streamline? We mustdevelop the system of financial empower-ment. It has been there since 1991 but needsmore teeth. By this, a large number of thingswhich are required for revenue expendituredon’t have to go every time to finance defencefor clearance.

Your take on the role of FDI and PPP in ourdefence sector as you mentioned that theDRDO’s contribution is not much to talkabout.FDI, perhaps, is not a correct word in de-fence but we should say FDI in terms of jointventure. Here both money and technologyare important. For example, in the case ofISRO, we have done very well and we havedone most of the research with the help ofRussians. We have managed to become to-tally self-sufficient or let’s say very self-suf-ficient in terms of space technology, but indefence let’s say it’s a mind block. Defenceis holy cow. You can have a scam of a lakh ru-pees in telecom but that’s not serious. Foryou more serious is the bribe of ̀ 64 crore inthe Bofors gun deal.

So, defence being the holy cow, everything about defence needs to be dissectedand should be transparent. Let us remem-ber that no FDI will come to set up indus-tries like the Tatas, L&T etc. So what I’m say-ing is the FDI in terms of JV (joint venture)with big industrial houses of India shouldbe encouraged. I don’t think we should wor-ry too much about secrets of defence beingleaked out because it’s the user that final-ly matters and what is being put in equip-ment has to be latest and certainly suited tothe user. I think there is a huge opportuni-ty for the foreign investments in joint ven-tures. We also have eight defence public sec-tor undertakings; you will have to make aconsortium of private, public and foreign industries.


THE HIJACKING of the Egyptiancargo vessel MV Suez, with sixIndian crew members onboard,by Somali pirates has once againbrought to the forefront concerns

about the safety of Indian seafarers. Appar-ently, the hijackers have demanded over $four million ransom to release the ship andcrew. However, the ship owners have com-municated their inability to pay the huge

ransom, putting the lives of the crew at risk. The families of the crew members, run-

ning from pillar to post, seeking governmentand public empathy, may draw some conso-lation from the fact that almost all crew

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SEAWAY THUGS: Finally the world's patience is giving way to some stern action against the Somali pirates. India is at the forefrontof this exercise to protect the critical routes to Europe across the Horn of Good Hope

SAVING OUR

SEAFARERS

The increasing number of sea-hijackings by Somali pirates in theGulf of Aden has created a number ofchallenges for India. SHISHIRUPADHYAYA identifies them andsuggests some remedies

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members held hostage by Somali pirates in2010 and even before that were released ingood health, albeit after being held for sever-al months. Therefore, the crew of MV Suezwill also be eventually released safely (per-haps, on the payment of a reduced ransom).

The first time that the question of safetyof an Indian crew made national headlineswas when the MV Stolt Valor, a Japanesetanker with an Indian Master and some Indi-an crew, was hijacked by Somali pirates. Theprotests by the families of the sailorsprompted the government to deploy theIndian Navy on anti-piracy patrols in Octo-ber 2008. The Indian Navy has since doneyeoman’s service having safely escorted overa thousand ships and successfully thwartedseveral pirate attacks. However, the threat ofpiracy has in no way reduced and piratescontinue to operate with impunity all overthe Arabian Sea and parts of the IndianOcean, even coming close to Indian shores.In 2010, the Somali pirates hijacked 49 shipsand held over 1000 crew members hostage.

India provides over 6 per cent of the man-power to the global shipping industry includ-ing a majority of officers; therefore, many ofthe ships hijacked include Indians onboard.There have been instances of ships beinghijacked even in the Internationally Recom-mended Transit Corridor or IRTC in the Gulfof Aden (a narrow sea lane under navalpatrol), right under the ‘noses’ of warships.This year, more than 12 ships were hijackedin the first six weeks. Going by statistics, itwould appear that 2011 could as well be abad year for our seamen. How are the piratesmanaging this and what are the optionsbefore the international community?

ChallengesA key challenge being faced by the navies in

combating piracy is the lack of adequate legalmechanism for trial of the pirates arrested.According to the latest study by the UN, nineout of the ten pirates arrested at sea are actual-ly released since international laws require thewarship arresting the pirates to hand themover to the civil authorities concerned in itscountry.

Thus, pirates arrested by a Norwegian war-ship would need to be transported to Norwayto stand trial. This poses a huge logisticalchallenge and, therefore, most navies are notkeen to undertake this exercise. The net resultis that most pirates are let go scot-free — afterhaving their arms and equipment dumpedoverboard — only to return to business withmore experience. This is grossly counterpro-ductive to naval efforts.

The other key challenge to warship patrols

is the formidable task of maintain-ing constant surveillance of theentire region under threat. Accord-ing to a study, on an average, a war-ship has about ten minutes notice torespond to a ship under attack frompirates. This implies that only a war-ship (with a helicopter) within about20-30 miles from the victim ship is ina position to take necessary action,to chase away or apprehend thepirates. Currently, the area underthreat from pirates would requireabout 350 ships on task, but no morethan 30 ships are generally availableon patrol.

Thus, more often than not, thepirates capture the merchant shipwell before any warship arrives onthe scene. In such a situation, thewarship has an option of carryingout a commando raid to secure theship. Marine commandoes aretrained in anti-hijack operationsand can accomplish such operationswith relative ease against the ill-trained pirates. But, inherently thisis a risky option, since there is risk ofcollateral damage or the crew mem-bers getting injured or even killed.

People wonder why the Indiangovernment does not consider theoption of commando operations tosecure the release of MV Suez withIndian crew. After all, we have one of thefinest navies in the world and our highly-skilled marine commandoes have given anexcellent account of their skills and capabili-ties in various operational missions. More-over, in the many instances of hijacking, afew such commando operations have beenattempted and all have been successful,except that in some cases, a few crew mem-bers lost their lives or were injured in thecrossfire. Notable instances of successfulcommando operations are that of the Maer-sk Albama and the Samho Jwelry.

The Maersk Albama, a US-flagged vessel,manned by an American crew, was hijackedby Somali pirates in April 2009 about 240miles off Somalia; the first instance of hijack-ing of an American ship since the early 19thcentury! The Master was held captive bythree Somali pirates onboard a lifeboat whileone pirate was present with the crewonboard the Maersk Albama. The ship wasbeing steered towards Somali waters withthe lifeboat (which had the Master held atgunpoint by three pirates) following.

Meanwhile, a USN destroyer arrived onthe scene and commenced shadowing the

Maersk Albama. As the ship and the lifeboatwere heading towards Somali waters, at anopportune moment, US marine snipersonboard the USN destroyer (on orders fromPresident Obama) shot and almost simulta-neously killed all the three pirates holdingthe Master captive. The remaining pirateonboard the Maersk Albama was quicklyoverpowered by the crew and later arrested.The ship and the crew were thus rescuedwith no loss of life or property.

The Samho Jwelry, a South Korean-ownedbut Malta-flagged chemical tanker, washijacked in January this year by 13 Somalipirates somewhere in the high seas betweenOman and India, en route from UAE to SriLanka. The 21-man crew comprising eightSouth Koreans (including the Master), twoIndonesians and 11 Burmese were forciblydirected to take the ship to Somalia. Mean-while, a South Korean naval destroyer, whichhad arrived on the scene, shadowed theSamho Jwelry, probably without the knowl-edge of the pirates.

At some stage a few pirates onboard theSamho Jwelry were seen disembarking tolaunch an attack on another Mongolian vessel

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Liqiud Petrolium Gas Carriers1

6

4

8

2

14

12

1

Fishing Vessels

Cargo Vessels of Various Types

Bulk Type-Carriers

HELD HOSTAGE BY SOMALI PIRATES

Tankers

Dhwos (Small Wooden Ships)

Tugboat

Yatchs


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in the region. At this juncture, the naval com-mandoes onboard the South Korean destroy-er launched a daring operation to rescue theship and its crew. Eight of the 13 pirates werekilled and five arrested. The Master, caught inthe crossfire, was shot in the stomach but lat-er survived while the other crew were rescuedsafely. The Mongolian ship being targeted bythe pirates was also saved.

Commando operations are a feasibleoption but there are a few salient challengeswhich must be clearly understood. First, theshipping industry is largely multinational innature and the merchant ships of today areakin to floating multinational enterprises.For example, a ship owned by a Germanbusiness house could be registered in Pana-ma, managed by a Greek company, insuredby an American company, re-insured by aUK company, chartered to a Korean client forcarrying Chinese cargo and manned by crewfrom India, Bangladesh and Philippines.Over 10 different countries involved in oneship! Thus, before any government decidesto launch a commando operation, it wouldhave to factor the interests and sensitivitiesof all the stakeholder states since there is arisk of collateral damage. Moreover, somecountries may prefer to pay ransom ratherthan risk the lives of their crew.

Secondly, time is of essence and the periodavailable for confabulations with all stake-holders is very limited, generally about four tofive days when the ship under the custody ofpirates is headed for Somali waters. In the caseof the Maersk Albama and the Samho Jwelry,the ship-owners were from the same countrywhose navy carried out the operation. TheMaersk Albama was not only under the USflag but its entire crew was also American.

Further, some analysts have suggestedthat commando style operations could leadto increased violence by Somali pirates andtrigger off a dangerous trend. Some analystsclaim that the killing of the four American

citizens onboard the SV Quest in March thisyear could have been precipitated by theMaersk Albama incident. Thus, before theoption of commando raids is considered bythe government, the element of risk (whichwill vary in each case) and reprisals wouldhave to be factored.

OptionsThe challenges before the government of

India are also being faced by many othermaritime states. The truth is that navies arenot omnipresent and the area to be keptunder surveillance is simply too large to cov-er with the 30-odd ships on patrol. The keythus lies in privatising some of the securityrequirements. The shipping industry isalready turning to private security arrange-ments ranging from passive deterrent devicessuch as barbed wire fencing to active meas-ures such as armed guards. Many hijackingattempts by Somali pirates have been suc-cessfully deterred by use of private security.

Even a rudimentary security mechanismcould effectively delay an attack allowingmore time for warships on patrols to react. Pri-vate security has always been used on landthough it may be a new phenomenon at sea.The high seas, today, are no longer vast deso-late regions, but akin to lonely stretches ofhighways where highway robbers prowl. Thus,private security can be used effectively incombating piracy, however, this would need tobe effectively closely coordinated with navalforces and regulated by international laws.

As regards commando operations to res-cue ships and crew, it is felt that navies wouldneed to make their decisions based on theunique factors of each case. It may be easierto launch such operations in cases where theship is located about two to three dayssteaming distance from Somali waters andalso where the primary stakeholder and thenavy involved are from the same state. But, incases where multiple stakeholders areinvolved it would be difficult to launch anyoperations without the assent of all partiesconcerned and more often than not, paucityof time would preclude such an option.

Finally, the ideal strategy to combat thepirates would be an effective synergy of pri-vate security measures employed by theshipping industry — in close coordinationwith naval forces — and proactive specialoperations by navies to deter pirates fromoperating with impunity. This will save manyIndian seafarers from Somali pirates.

(The author, a senior naval officer, ispresently with the National Maritime Foun-

dation. Views expressed are personal)

April 2011

Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma

A GLOBAL maritime watchdog, Inter-national Maritime Bureau (IMB), saysthat pirates captured a record-setting1,181 hostages in 2010 as ship hijack-ings in waters off Somalia escalated.Pirates seized 53 vessels worldwidelast year. All but four of them were offthe coast of Somalia.

As regards Indian hostages, about495 Indian sailors were held hostageby Somali pirates in the last fouryears. Barring 64, all of them havebeen released safely last year. Of the64 sailors, 11 crew members of RakAfrikana, were just set free in mid-March, presumably after paying highransoms. Other Indians still captiveare on MV Iceberg-I, MV Suez, MVAsphalt Venture, MV Savina Caylyn,and MV Sinin. According to the Indi-an Shipping Ministry, MV Savina Cay-lyn and MV Sinin have 26 Indians ascrew members — they were hijackedthis year, in January and February,respectively.

On March 15, the Indian govern-ment decided to incorporate changesin its Navy’s rules of engagementagainst pirates in the Indian Ocean,widening the scope of its offensiveoperations but within the frameworkof international laws of the seas.

Rules of Engagement are set ofregulations and action proposed forthe armed forces before they are sentinto operations that may involvedefensive and offensive actionsagainst enemies.

It is understood that the govern-ment has accepted an Indian Navyproposal to allow merchant vesselsto take armed guards on board —like some commercial airlines takein sky marshals — and create “strongrooms” in which the crew memberscan take shelter and from which theycan send SOS during an attack sothat the naval commandoes will getthe opportunity to storm the shipwithout the risk of any collateraldamage. The armed guards, akin tosky marshals deployed on civil air-liners to prevent highjacking, arelikely to be drawn from retired per-sonnel of Navy and Coast Guard,who are well-versed in maritime andsecurity matters.

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FINDING ITSELF wanting in times of exi-gencies, the Home Ministry is likely to movea proposal in the Cabinet Committee on Se-curity (CCS) to have its own dedicated full-fledged air wing by 2013, sources say. The Cen-tre aims to have 25 helicopters, maximum fourmedium-rangeaircraft having acapacity of 125seats and a num-ber of smaller 20-30 seater aircraftin the air wing thatwill be manned bythe BSF. Althoughthe BSF currentlyhas an air wing, itis poorly managedand has only fourobsolete Avro air-craft of which onlytwo are fit to fly.

The HomeMinistry's proposed move, it is said, came in thewake of its dissatisfaction with the Indian AirForce (IAF)'s inadequate response in certaincrunch situations caused by Left-wing ex-

tremism, insurgency in the Northeast and theKashmir separatism and in times of disasters.Paramilitary officers complained that duringcertain key operations against the Maoists inChhattisgarh and Orissa they lost the advantageas the IAF could not send its choppers in time

for deployment. The proposal,

to be put beforethe CCS, will in-clude full-scalemaintenance andrepair centre and,hence totally self-sufficient and in-dependent of theIAF, including thepilots who will bepicked up fromthe paramilitaryforces andtrained. To checkthe misuse of the

aircraft and the choppers by top officers of theparamilitary forces, the Home Ministry will alsobring out extensive set of rules on the use ofthe air wing.

AIR WING FOR MHA

INDIA AND Bangladesh have reportedlyagreed to redraw their 4,100 km bound-ary. Straightening of the boundary wouldinclude ending the contentious issue ofover 200 enclaves located in each other’sterritory. The deal would be announcedwhen Prime Minis-ter ManmohanSingh visits Dhakaimmediately afterthe West Bengalelections. The visitin all likelihoodcould take place inJune. The broadcontour of the bor-der agreementreflects India’s aver-sion to disturbingsettled populationsand exchange ofterritory. This essentially meansBangladeshi enclaves in Indian territorywill remain with India, while Indianenclaves in Bangladesh will remain withthem. This might mean a little bit of areatransfer mainly from India to Bangladesh. The people would be given a choice todecide, if they want to be Bangladeshi cit-

izens or Indians. Enclaves are small areasthat are in the middle of another country.The straightening of the boundary wouldmake for easier policing, and if necessary,possible fencing of the border. Many partsof the Indo-Bangla border are already

fenced. A headcount is cur-rently underway inthe enclaves onboth sides — 130Indian enclaves inBangladesh and 95B a n g l a d e s h ienclaves withinIndian territory.However, bystraightening outthe 4,100-kmboundary, Indiamay end up losing

some land because it has more enclaveson the other side that would be absorbedby Bangladesh. The 130 Indian enclaves,known locally as “Chitmahals”, occupysome 20,000 acres while the BangladeshChitmahals in India occupy about 12,000acres. In effect, India would end up losingaround 8,000 acres.

INDIA, BANGLA TO REDRAW BORDER

THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) has saidthat it has deployed Garud SpecialForces commandos and four choppersfor anti-Naxal operations but with-drawn the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) operating in Maoist bastions inChhattisgarh. To protect its choppers from Maoistsattacks, Garud commandos have beendeployed on these helicopters to retal-iate whenever such a situation arises.“Four IAF choppers are operating inRaipur, Dantewada and Jagdalpurareas. We also used to operate UAVs inthese areas to track the Naxals but theyhave been withdrawn,” IAF chief P VNaik told reporters recently. The IAFchief said the choppers “carry a GarudSpecial Force member on board whomans the gun, which is not the inte-grated part of the helicopter”. On thewithdrawal of UAVs from anti-Naxaloperations, Naik said, “Beyond a cer-tain season, it loses its surprise ele-ment... And these UAVs were notmeant for what they were being usedfor.” He said the IAF withdrew theUAVs after it found that it was not ableto meet the requirements. On the Rules of Engagement (RoE) inNaxal-affected areas, the IAF chief saidvery “stringent” rules have been pro-vided to the IAF for firing back when itschoppers come under attack from theNaxalites. “We follow very stringentrules as we don’t want any collateraldamage to take place in our own terri-tory and we can fire only at the sourceof fire which is determined by the cap-tain of the chopper,” Naik said. It is tobe noted that after the IAF lost one ofits personnel inRaipur during thelast general elec-tions, it hadsought rules ofe n g a g e -m e n tfrom thegovern-m e n tfor tack-ling theissue.

ANTI-NAXALOPS: SPECIALFORCES IN,UAVS OUT

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ARE THE Maoists a divided lot? It seems so fromthe list of prisoners that they have sent to theOrissa government. The Orissa Maoists led bySabyasachi Panda seem to be unhappy with thelarge number of the Andhra Pradesh cadres thatthe committee leaders want freedom for, accord-ing to intelligence sources.

Senior intelligence sleuths saythat the Maoists’ selection ofcadres, who they wanted tobe released in exchange ofabducted Malkangiri Dis-trict Collector R VineelKrishna recently, coulddrive a wedge down thecadres. Of the nineMaoists named in thelist, only two —Gananath Patra andTapan Mishra — werefrom Orissa. The rest —Sriramulu Srinivas,Ashutosh, Sobha, GuntiPrasadam, Padma, Iswari, Sari-ta and Gokul Kulpidia (a truckdriver held with Padma, Iswari and Sarita) — are

either from Andhra Pradesh or Jharkhand. Incidentally, Sabyasachi’s wife Subhashree —

in jail since January2010 — differedwith the Maoistsand said Krishnaand Majhi should

be released withoutany condition.

While appearing inthe court recently, she told

reporters that the process ofbringing the Maoist problem to

an end should start from Orissa. Itmay be noted here that while the

Maoists sought withdrawal of cases againstPadma, wife of top rebel Rama Krishna, and

Shobha, wife of top guerrilla Kishenda aliasPrashant Bose, there was no such demand to freeSubhashree. Besides, the two Orissa Maoistswho figured in the demand list — Chasi MuliaAdivasi Sanghactivists Gananath Patra and TapanMishra — belong to upper castes. Oriya cadresare mostly tribals. They are upset because noth-ing has been achieved so far to appease theirtribal support base, officials say.

ORISSA, ANDHRA MAOISTS HEADINGFOR A SPLIT?

SOME 300 personnel ofthe Combat Battalion forResolute Action (COBRA),a special anti-Naxal force,have been deployed inMadhya Pradesh’s Bal-aghat district, to combatthe growing presence ofthe Left-wing rebels. Thedeployment is part of astrategy to surroundNaxal-hit areas in Maha-rashtra, Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, Bihar andOrissa.

The Centre will decidestandard operating proce-dures for them. COBRA, aunit of the paramilitaryCentral Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF), was set upin 2008 at a cost of `1,390crore, of which `899 crorewas spent on land and in-frastructure. Around `492crore will be used for man-power training over threeyears. In the first phase,these battalions weretrained at the Army’s in-surgency and jungle war-fare training centre in Mi-zoram and the CRPF’santi-terror training centreat Silchar.

Of the 10 COBRA bat-talions trained in guerrillawarfare, nine have alreadybeen deployed in Maoist-hit states.

COBRACOMBATFOR MPNAXALMENACE

VS

ORISSA

AND

HRA

PRADESH

NO ARMY OPERATIONS AGAINSTMAOISTS: GENERAL VK SINGH GENERAL VK Singh, Chief of ArmyStaff, has categorically stated thatthe Indian Army was not involvedin any ground operations againstMaoists in the country. “There are

no Army operations against theMaoists. We are only involved intraining and guiding the paramili-tary forces fighting them,” he toldin a press interview.

DoT PLANS TASK FORCE FORTELECOM ROLL-OUT IN NAXAL AREAS

IN A move to reach telecom services to Naxal-affected areas, the Department of Tele-com is planning to set up task forces at the district levels to help roll out and protecttelecom infrastructure. The task force will comprise local youth in Naxal-affected dis-tricts and will be constituted in collaboration with the state governments.

It may be noted that telecom services have not reached a large part of the states suchas Orissa and Bihar where the fear of Naxalites is preventing operators from venturinginto these areas. Even if they do set up a tower, it is damaged by anti-social elements.Therefore, the department is looking at roping in local people — youth, ex-servicemen— in protecting the infrastructure. This will not only enable them to avail the benefitsof communication but also act as source of employment.

The Ministry of Communications has already asked the state-owned Bharat SancharNigam Ltd to take the first step and roll out 500 new base stations across 31 districts inBihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The districts being covered include Dantewada, Dhan-bad and Singhbum, which are some of the worst Naxal-affected areas in the country.These areas have been neglected in terms of telecom infrastructure development. Chhat-tisgarh, for example, has a tele-density of only about 5 per cent compared to the na-tional average of 56 per cent.

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MAOISTS’WINNING FORMULA

While the Maoists have been successful in capitulating “theState” in a series of abductions in many parts of the country,the government continues to struggle in formulating anycoherent framework of response either for negotiation with,or for coercive action against, the abductors, points outDEEPAK KUMAR NAYAK


KIDNAPPING AS A TOOL: WheneverMaoists face major reverses in their fightagainst security forces, they use theabduction strategy to achieve theirdemands

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ON FEBRUARY 16, just two daysbefore the scheduled video-conference of Union HomeMinister P Chidambaram withthe Collectors of 60 Maoist

(CPI-Maoist)-hit Districts to gauge theimpact of the Integrated Action Plan (IAP)for the affected districts, R Vineel Krishna,District Collector of Malkangiri in Orissa,was abducted by the Maoists while he wasreturning after an ‘interaction programme’in Kudumulu Gumma block of the district.Along with the District Collector, the Maoistshad also abducted two junior engineers.

One of them was freed on the same dayand was sent backwith a note giving anultimatum of 48 hoursfor the release of theCollector and the jun-ior engineer, PabitraMajhi. The Maoistsraised a number ofdemands seeking toblock certain develop-ment projects, andrelief for tribal popula-tions, but the princi-pal objective of theabduction, beyond thetheatre it generated,was to secure therelease of a number ofincarcerated leadersand cadres. Theseincluded, specifically, Central CommitteeMember Motilal Soren alias Ashutosh Sen,arrested in March 2009 from Rourkela, Srira-mulu Srinivas, Gananath Patra, Jeevan Bose,Ganti Prasadam, Sirisha alias Padma, Ish-wari, Roja Mandangi alias Sarita from Malka-ngiri jail; Central Committee Member Sheeladi, from Jharkhand Jail and Padma fromChhattisgarh Jail; tribals and Chasi MuliaAdivasi Sangh (CMAS) workers in Koraputand Malkangiri jails; and Sitanna Hikaka ofDumsil village, reported to be a close aide ofMaoist ‘Chief’ Ram Krishna, allegedly takenaway by the Police from Narayanpatna onNovember 25, 2010.

On February 17, 2011, Orissa Chief Secre-tary Bijaya Patnaik disclosed that thedemands include discontinuation of Opera-tion Green Hunt (OGH), the joint anti-Nax-alite (anti-Left Wing Extremist, LWE) opera-tions by state police and central paramilitaryforces, and withdrawal of security forces(SFs) from the Malkangiri district. On theMaoists demand to stop OGH, the NaveenPatnaik government conceded, “There willbe no coercive action by the security forces

as long as Maoists do not indulge in anyunlawful activity.” State Home Secretary U NBehera, on the same day, declared, “All anti-Naxal combing operations in the state will bestopped,” and that the state government wasready to talk to the maoists.

Late in the night of February 17, themaoists sent a press release written in Teluguto reporters, saying that Someswara Rao, for-mer Professor of Economics at SambalpurUniversity, Haragopal, retired Professor ofPolitical Science, Central University, Hyder-abad, and Dandapani Mohanty, the Ganjam-based convener of Political Prisoners ReleaseCommittee, be appointed mediators. After

three days of intense negotiations, the medi-ators announced, on February 22, inBhubaneswar, that the hostages would be setfree and safely returned within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, CM Patnaik declared, “Wewill certainly honour the commitmentsmade to the mediators.” Of the 14 originalMaoist demands, eight were agreed upon: � The Odisha government would write to

Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to takeaction on the extremists demand forrelease of Maoist Central Committee(MCC) members Sheela di and Padma.

� Scheduled Tribe (ST) status would be giv-en to the Konda Reddy and Nukadoracommunities.

� The multi-purpose Polavaram project ofAndhra Pradesh would be halted.

� Pattas (land allotments) would be given totribals dispossessed of their land in thedistricts of Malkangiri and Koraput.

� Irrigation projects would be executed inMaribada and Maniamkonda villages inMalkangiri.

� Compensation based on the High Court(HC) order would be given to the kin of

Tadangi Gangulu and Ratanu Sirika whodied in custody.

� Relevant laws would be drafted to regu-late mining operations in Mali and Deo-mali bauxite mines.

� The government would ensure minimumdisplacement of tribals and adequatecompensation wherever developmentprojects were implemented.

On March 4, 2011, the Odisha High Courtgranted conditional bail to four Maoistcadres, identified as Roza Mandangi (21), anAdivasi woman from Koraput, Gokul Kuldip-ia (42), a jeep-owner, Andaluri Iswari (30), anactivist with a women’s group in Vishakhap-

atnam and Kendu-la Sirisha alias Pad-ma, wife of seniorMaoist leaderR a m a k r i s h n a ,whose release hadbeen demanded bythe Maoists. As forthe release ofAshutosh Sen,Srinivas Sriramulu,Gananath Patraand Tapan Mishra,it agreed to exam-ine the cases ontheir merits. Onwithdrawal of cas-es against tribals,the governmentagreed to review

the cases against 629 tribals lodged inOdisha jails.

Further, the government noted, “We havebeen taking suo moto action for withdrawalof minor cases against tribals. In the past,9,013 cases involving petty offences by thetribals have been dropped. The state will,within a period of three months, review cas-es against the tribals held on charges ofMaoist activities and land-related disputesin Narayanpatna area. The process will startin 15 days.”

In the interim, a media storm had beenraging across the country over the Malkan-giri Collector’s abduction, and a number ofdemonstrations in his support had beenorganised in Malkangiri, Bhubaneswar andother locations in Odisha. Vineel Krishnawas eventually released on February 24, andreturned home to a hero’s welcome.

Several questions, however, lingered. Theabducted Collector’s location was known vir-tually throughout the drama, and reportssuggest that local officials were in touch andwere even delivering food and supplies tohim, yet the state government did not

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Maoist Related Abductions: 2005-2011*

State 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total

Andhra Pradesh 11 01 01 25 00 04 00 42

Bihar 23 08 03 64 20 34 00 152

Chhattisgarh 07 130 90 57 30 30 06 350

Jharkhand 00 10 26 15 58 27 22 158

Karnataka 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 01

Maharashtra 00 00 02 00 00 02 00 04

Odisha 00 04 13 11 25 45 03 101

West Bengal 00 00 00 08 58 46 03 115

Total 41 154 135 180 191 188 34 923

*Data: till March 14, 2011

MASTERS IN KIDNAPPING


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The 2005 batch IAS officer, R Vineel Krishna, was bornand brought up in Hyderabad. Krishna completed BTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras in 2001. Theyoung, energetic and bold Krishna, who joined as theDistrict Magistrate of Malkangiri in December 2009,was taken as a hostage along with Junior EngineerPabitra M Majhi by the armed Maoist rebels. Afterremaining in Maoist captivity for eight days, he wasreleased on February 24. In an interview to KISHOREDASH after his release, Krishna shared his feelingsduring his days of captivity. Excerpts:

IT HAS

BROUGHT

GREATER

SENSITIVITY

TO MY

LIFE

On the eight days as a Maoisthostage.

It was quite tense all the while. Iwas constantly worried about myfamily, well-wishers and how theywere coping. Somehow, we carried onfor a week.

On the living conditions in the tribalareas

I was not new to the villages in thecut-off area. The conditions there arebad as the area is totally remote andinaccessible. Besides, normal peopledid not come to the camp much. Wewere in a secluded location and natu-rally, the conversations were minimal.But it was a life-changing experience.The episode of staying in the jungleand experiencing how Adivasis live hasbrought greater sensitivity to my life.

On going back to those areas Let me think. We need to serve

people, even if they live in the cut-offarea. Yes, it is definitely remote, butthat should not stop anyone fromreaching out to people and ensuring

that development takes place inthat area. All-round develop-

ment of the peopleacross the districtwould be my mottoand I am working onthat mission.

On the releaseThe Maoist had

the plan to set

me free on February 25, but the newsthat was aired on the radio on Febru-ary 24 morning said that the “media-tors turned down the additional con-ditions put up by Maoist leaders”.Their fresh appeal compelled theMaoists to rethink and release me onthe same day. They brought me to the“praja court” (people’s court), attend-ed by 1500-2000 Adivasis. First, theMaoist leaders made speeches, hit-ting out at the government’s failures.Then they asked me to respond. I saidI cannot answer for what happeneddecades back. I concentrated on whatI have done. I told them that while Icannot boast of having done greatthings, from the bottom of my heart,however, I can say that we have beentrying to bring some development tothe area.

On the ordealI constantly kept thinking of my

family. In fact, that was the only thingI kept thinking about and I remembermy thoughts very well.

On the dealThe government did what it

thought right. I have no more to comment.

On mediator Professor HargopalYes, I know him. He had taught me

Public Administration in a Hyder-abad- based coaching institute whileI was preparing for the Union CivilServices Examination.


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consider any options other than immediateand complete capitulation. On his return,Krishna made a statement that was deeplysympathetic to their actions.

According to media reports, moreover, hewas in touch with his wife over the phonethroughout. The Maoist leaders and cadreswho were released in the exchange for theCollector had been arrested after greatefforts and significant loss of life on the partof the police and paramilitary forces, andwould inevitably return to violence, costingfurther lives.

Despite the extraordinary media atten-tion this incident received, the reality is thatthe Maoists have routinely used abductionas a tactic to arm-twist both the state and thecentral governments to secure operationalrelief or release of leaders andcadre in the past as well.Indeed, the South Asia Terror-ism Portal database records atleast 923 incidents of abductionby the Maoists between 2005and March 14, 2011.

The data indicates thatChhattisgarh, with at least 350such cases over this period, hasbeen the worst afflicted by suchactions. Jharkhand, Bihar, WestBengal and Odisha have alsobeen seriously affected. Manyof these abductions haveincluded government officials,and have resulted in the releaseof Maoist leaders and cadresthat keep unfolding now andthen. Indeed, this has been anenduring trend, and one of thetactics the Maoists have beenable to consistently rely upon tosecure transient objectives, particularlyincluding the release of cadres and suspen-sion of SF operations.

Even in the early phases of the revival ofthe Maoist movement, in the 1980s and early1990s, the rebels had carried out a series ofhigh-profile abductions of politicians andofficials. The most prominent among suchincidents included the 1987 abduction of 11government officials, including seven IndianAdministrative Service (IAS) officers, by theCommunist Party of India-Marxist Leninist[People’s War Group] (CPI-ML-PWG) atAddateegala in the East Godavari District ofAndhra Pradesh. The N T Rama Rao govern-ment yielded to the Naxalite demand torelease top PWG leaders from the Rajah-mundry Central Jail, including WadkapurChandramauli, after Civil Liberties activist KG Kannabiran negotiated with the Naxalites.

The government officers were released after12 days in Naxalite custody.

Four years later, the Naxalites abducted PSudhir Kumar, Member of the LegislativeAssembly (MLA) for Hyderabad city, from hishouse in Basheerbagh in Hyderabad, AndhraPradesh, in 1991. He was released, again, afterCivil Liberties activists intervened and the gov-ernment released some top Naxalite cadres.

In 1993, present Andhra Pradesh TribalWelfare Minister Pasupuleti Balaraju, thethen Congress MLA from Chintapalli, wasabducted along with IAS officer Dasari Srini-vasulu and a few engineers. Balaraju andothers remained in Naxal custody for morethan three weeks. They were released afterthe government agreed to free PWG leaderKranthi Ranadev and other cadres from jail.

More recently, Block Development OfficerPrashant Kumar Layak was abducted fromhis office in Dhalbhumgarh, around 180-kilometres southeast of Jharkhand capitalRanchi, on February 13, 2010. The Maoiststhreatened to kill Layak if their demandswere not met within 72 hours. The demandsincluded the freeing of 14 arrested Maoists,the withdrawal of forces from GhorabandhaPolice Station area, an end to search opera-tions, and a compensation of `10 lakh to thefamily members of Sanjiv aka Somen Mun-da, who had allegedly been killed by theNagrik Suraksha Samity (NSS)-Police com-bine at Jiyan. The outcome was a foregoneconclusion. CM Soren, like CM Patnaik, suc-cumbed to the demands to secure therelease of the BDO.

Again, in Lakhisarai (Bihar) on August 29,2010, the Maoists abducted four policemen —

Sub Inspectors Rupesh Kumar and AbhayYadav, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Lucas Tete,and Havildar Ehtesham Khan — after theencounter and ratcheted up the stakes bydemanding the release of eight prominentMaoists in Bihar’s jails: Jai Paswan, VijayChourasia, Prem Bhuian, Pramod Barnawal,Ramvilas Tanti, Ramesh Tirki, Arjun Koda andRattu Koda. The Maoists then executed LucasTete in the night of September 2, after two‘deadlines’ given by them had passed withoutresponse from the government — beyondappeals for the release of the abducted police-men — and warned that the remaininghostages would also be killed unless their com-rades were released. On September 6, however,the three surviving policemen were releasedafter Chief Minister Nitish Kumar conceded to

the Maoists demands and hadannounced safe passage forsome 200 extremists, out of thearea in which they had been sub-stantially contained by augment-ed forces.

In the latest incident, onMarch 3, 2011, cadres of theMaoist-backed People’s Com-mittee against Police Atrocities(PCPA) abducted a policemanfrom West Midnapore District inWest Bengal. The government,on the brink of assembly elec-tions, has again been put on testin this case, which remains cur-rently still unresolved.

Despite an unending cycle ofMaoist abductions and statecapitulation, it is clear that nogovernment has yet formulatedany coherent framework ofresponse, or created the neces-

sary pool of trained resources, either for nego-tiation with, or for coercive action against, theabductors. Nor has there been any effort toassess the cumulative costs of such incidentsto the state, and the impact these have had onSF morale, capacities and operations.

If anything, this apparent flip-flop, com-pounded by the outcome of the Vineel Krish-na’s abduction, can only underline India’scontinuing inability to deal firmly withhostage crises. In what threatens to becomea recurrent nightmare, more Maoist leadersand cadres, incarcerated at great cost insweat and blood by the SFs, can be expectedto routinely walk free, even as operations arecompromised or suspended, every time therebels hold a gun to someone’s head.

(The author is a Researcher at Institute forConflict Management, New Delhi)

MAOISTS TARGET: Senior officials and politicians


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PARAMILITARYESPIONAGEPARAMILITARYESPIONAGE

Most of the paramilitaryforces are developing theirrespective intelligence units.The rationale is that havingone’s own and separateintelligence network willprovide the much-neededindependence inintelligence-gathering toenhance the operationalefficiency, reports ROHITSRIVASTAVA.


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India has been facing numerous secu-rity threats since its Independence.Today the threat has multiplied frominsurgencies to Maoism in large partsof the country. While dealing with

these threats, the vital need of sound andright intelligence that is actionable is dire-ly felt by the security forces. No wonder,why after every major terrorist attack thefirst debate that begins in the country is onintelligence — did we have any prior intel-ligence or not; if yes, was it shared amongthe agencies and was the intelligenceworth reacting to?

The Indian intelligence set-up is a com-plex web of agencies. During 1960s, afterthe defeat in the war with China in ‘62 andthe war with Pakistan in ‘65, the need foran external intelligence agency was felt. In‘68, Research and Analysis Wing was estab-lished as an external intelligence agencyand Intelligence Bureau (IB) was restrictedto internal intelligence only.

Over the last two decades, new threatshave thrown new challenges for intelli-gence sleuths, particularly those involvedin counter-insurgency (CI) and anti-Naxaloperations. They require accurate and pre-cise intelligence for any operation. The IBhas not been able to do justice while theparamilitary forces resent doing intelli-gence work.

It may be noted that the onus of providing local intelligence to CI forces iswith the local police. The local police havethe required force strength, penetration,access to local population and trust, which are absolutely vital to gather intel-ligence. But the CI experience has shown that in most cases the local police iseither not motivated to collect or doesn’thave confidence in sharing informationwith the paramilitary. As a result, the lackof intelligence hampered, thus, the effec-tiveness of paramilitary forces, who,invariably come to the picture while con-fronting the enemy. This is particularlytrue in Naxal-affected areas where thelocal intelligence is non-existent as thepolice have generally vacated the policestations or the police penetration in theinterior is very little.

To overcome these shortcomings, theparamilitary forces (PMF) have begunintelligence-gathering in their areas ofoperation. However, it is now increasinglyfelt that there is the need of a dedicatedcadre for intelligence-gathering in order tobe really effective for CI operations. Atpresent, the only PMF with a dedicatedcadre/ branch for intelligence is the Border

Security Force (BSF). The branch is calledG branch and has, reportedly, been verysuccessful in Kashmir.

Speaking on condition of anonymity toGeopolitics, a senior BSF officer with con-siderable experience of intelligence inKashmir said, “Intelligence is a must. Everygood organisation will give 35 per cent ofthe share of results to intelligence with itsmeagre strength of one per cent workforce.”

The success of BSF’s ‘G’ branch was firstseen during the ‘71 war. The intelligencenetwork on the border played a significantrole in the war. Since then, the branch hasbeen playing important roles in bordermanagement and insurgency, especially inKashmir and the Northeast, where its offi-cers have been deployed in counter-insur-gency duty.

ITBPRecently, the central government

approved the Indo Tibet Border Police,responsible for guarding 3488 km of theSino-India border, to set up its own inde-pendent intelligence network. This has

been in response to last year’s suggestionthat the ITBP should have a separate intel-ligence wing as part of the `3,000-crorerestructuring and modernisation plans.

A responsible source in the ITBP said,“The restructuring of the force was envis-aged to make the operational capability inline with the present situation. The restruc-turing will be to increase the number ofbattalions and create uniformity in the bat-talion strength. The number of companiesper battalion will be fixed to six.”

ITBP is also involved in anti-Naxal oper-ations in Chhattisgarh. The battalionsinvolved in the operations require intelli-gence and the units do gather intelligencefor operational effectiveness, but a dedi-cated cadre will be developed at every lev-el of the organisation, it is felt.

Sources suggest that the proposed intel-ligence cadre will be headed by InspectorGeneral (IG) at the ITBP headquarter, fol-lowed by a DIG at the frontier level, andthen by a SP and other officers at the sectorlevel. The force strength will be of 400 forall of India. The ITBP at present has 45 bat-talions.

Sources informed: “At the border we dohave intelligence capability and we are thelead agency on the Indo-Tibet border butnow the system is being institutionalisedand we will have earmarked manpower,infrastructure, budget, training and specialequipment. At present our people haveother responsibilities too.”

Training for the intelligence cadre willbegin in April and will be provided by theforce itself while other agencies will pro-vide specialization. Every rank will havedifferent training modules. The trainingwill be provided to ranks from head con-stable to DIG. Officer cadre will be trainedin news analysis, intelligence analysis, andgeographical information system — a veryessential tool for a force operating in themost difficult terrain above 18000 ft. Con-stables and junior officers will be trainedin intelligence gathering, interception ofradio and wireless and observation.

Sources suggest that the real reason forthis new setup is the in-house capabilityfor intelligence processing and analysis.This will help them in coordination withthe “Multi Agency Centre” in the HomeMinistry.

It may be noted that the Kargil reviewcommittee had suggested the concept of alead intelligence agency (LIA). The BSF hasbeen marked as the LIA for the Indo Pak-istan border except the Line of Control(LoC), the ITBP for the Indo-Tibet border,RAW for external intelligence, IB for inter-nal intelligence and the Indian Army forLoC. A PMF officer at IG level said, “It’s agood concept which is working well. Wemeet formally and this has helped inremoving mental blocks and reaching outto one another.”

CRPF and CISFThe Central Reserve Police force (CRPF)

has been under immense criticism for itsinefficiency in Kashmir last year and anti-Naxal/Maoist operation in central India. Asenior CRPF officer said, “We have nointelligence; we are looked down by thelocals and the support from local police isminimum.” According to him, “J and KPolice is a good local intelligence unit(LIU) but the same can’t be said about the

THERE IS A NEEDOF A DEDICATED

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police in Naxal-affected states.”Recently, the CRPF appointed an

officer as IG intelligence, who is mandatedto create an intelligence cadre within theorganisation. Three years back, the proposal was sent for raising the cadre and only since last year have officers been sent to intelligence agencies fortraining. Sources have informed that 10 special police officers per sector will be earmarked for intelligence-gatheringand analysis. The CRPF has 14 sectorsacross India and every unit will have designated personnel for intelligence-gathering. But the pace seems very slow.An officer related with the intelligencebranch in the CRPF said, “It’s too early to suggest on force structure, it is like talking about a child when the marriagehas just taken place.”

The Central Industrial Security Force(CISF), since its inception in 1969, has hadits intelligence cadre, which is part ofevery unit. Intelligence training is in itstraining curriculum. The CISF also trainsits officer cadre at CBI, IB and other PMcentres, but its field intelligence is gath-ered from LIUs.

Coordination and trustIn India, the paramilitary forces operate

with the Army in Kashmir under unifiedcommand and with local police in Naxalareas. The need, therefore, for coordina-tion is said to be vital. The forces do coop-erate but the laurels that one gets for everysuccessful operation is something no onelikes to share with sister organizations andthat is where the problem begins.

Sources in PMFs suggest, “In our area ofoperation (Kashmir) when we request theArmy to support, they react very slowly.They don’t enter into battle; they just pro-

vide outside coverage.” But, the armysources have a different version. They saythat “many a time the PMF intelligence isnot only faulty but misplaced. We have hadbad experiences in past; so, we are cautious.We can’t risk fake encounter allegations.”

The lack of coordination has often to dowith officers and their own rapport withone another. A very senior paramilitaryofficer said, “Since you have to work simul-taneously, by and large, overlapping doestake place. During execution there aresome problems.” He further said, “Unlikethe IB which can only develop sources, wecreate sources, gather information, devel-op it and then transfer it to operationaltroops. Every organisation believes inguarding the sources whereas the sametrust is not shown by other agencies”.

At the same time, however, some seniorparamilitary officers point out that if thelocal police does good intelligence workand IB penetration in the interior areas isincreased, the need for PMF intelligencewill be very little. All told, the LIU is mostsuitable for local intelligence as the PMFcadre is always an outsider in a diversenation like ours. But that is not happening.

April 2011

NEW THREATSHAVE THROWN

NEWCHALLENGES

FORINTELLIGENCE

SLEUTHS

STRONG GUARD: Paramilitary forces along with army and local police work unifiedly in tandem during naxal operations


AFGHANISTANNEEDS MORETRADE THANAID

A HOLISTIC APPROACH ISNEEDED TODEAL WITH THEFISHERMEN OFINDIA AND SRI LANKA

FUTURE WORRIESWhat are the implications of the Dalai Lama’s renunciation of political power?What are the implications of the Dalai Lama’s renunciation of political power?

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DESPITE TREMENDOUS resou-rces made available toAfghanistan by internationalcommunity, very little debatehas taken place on the issue of

aid ownership, reverse resource flows anddecisions concerning nature and place of aidprojects. With proper implementation ofreconstruction projects, many issues con-

cerning governance, legitimacy, corruption,sustainability of the Afghan economy andregional cooperation can be tackled, which inturn can help in improving security situation.

In the last four decades, the country haswitnessed diverse projects of nation-buildingand socio-political transformation. The cur-rent international project of building democ-racy and market economy is mandated by the

United Nations and being implementedmainly by the western alliance led by theUnited States. This is truly an internationalproject where more than 70 nations havecommitted over US$ 90 billion for Afghanreconstruction. So far, the US governmenthad pledged about $70 billion, out of which asignificant portion has already been dis-bursed. More than 50 per cent of this aid hasgone into building the Afghan National Armyand Afghan National Police. These figures donot include resources provided for about100,000 US troops serving in Afghanistan.

The next major commitment toAfghanistan is from Europe. Individual Mem-ber States of the EU and the European Com-mission are also making significant contribu-tion to security and justice reforms, develop-ment and reconstruction, counter-narcotics,etc. The EU has also deployed a police mis-sion. Together they have committed around$12 billion for reconstruction activities.Besides, almost all EU nations are also partic-ipating in NATO-led International SecurityAssistance Force (ISAF) mission with around30,000 troops.

Their military involvement in Afghanistanhas been controversial at times because of thelimits of their deployment and “nationalcaveats” on many of their troops. Many EUnations committed themselves thinking thatit would mainly be a peacekeeping and recon-struction effort rather than a project of “waron terror’ in which they have to engage withthe resurgent Taliban. Moreover, there wereproblems of coordination with other interna-tional partners as well as within the EUnations. It is clear that Europe’s commitmentto Afghan reconstruction is long-term, even ifsome of the European nations withdraw theirtroops from the ISAF in the next few years.

Japan has pledged around $1.8 billion toreconstruction. Together with the UN, Japanis a leading nation in Disarmament, Demobil-isation and Reintegration (DDR) and alsoinvolved in the construction of the Kabul-Kandahar highway and Kabul internationalairport terminal. China has committed about$130 million in grants to Afghanistan. Itremained disengaged in the country until theAfghan administration opened its energy,mineral and raw material to foreign investors.In 2007, Chinese companies were selected aspreferred bidders for the Aynak project, thesecond-largest copper mine in the world.

China plans to invest $2.9 billion in theproject; with investment reaching to $5 bil-lion in the future. The Chinese company alsoplans to build a 400 MW power station and arailway line to facilitate exports. It is becom-ing clear that in any future scenario, China


It is high time for the internationalcommunity, particularly India, to have are-look at the strategy towardsAfghanistan, based on the“reconstruction approach” and considerhelping the country play its traditionalrole of facilitating trade and commercethrough its territories, arguesGULSHAN SACHDEVA

RETHINKINGRECONSTRUCTION

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gwill be more involved in Afghanistan. Iran hasspent about $300 million in Afghan recon-struction mainly in infrastructure and capaci-ty-building. Russia has also made settlementof Afghanistan’s debt to former USSR, whichaccording to some Russian expert estimates,totals to $10 billion.

With a broad understanding that a peace-ful and stable Afghanistan is crucial forregional stability, India is also trying to play anactive role. So far it has pledged assistanceworth $1.3 billion. Indian projects cover areaslike road construction (218 km Zaranj-Delaram road), power (transmission line fromPul-e-Khumri to Kabul), Salma dam project,construction of parliament, and many proj-ects in the areas of agriculture, telecommuni-cation, education, health and capacity-build-ing. More than thousand young Afghans alsocome to India every year on short and long-term fellowships.

To justify our projects, we are always toldthat the population of Afghanistan has a verypositive perception of Indian activities in thecountry. Many opinion polls do show thatAfghans have a favourable opinion aboutIndia. But we should not confuse Indian pop-ularity with these few projects. India is popu-lar in Afghanistan as an idea because ofdemocracy, development and secularism. It isalso very popular among ordinary Afghansbecause of Indian films and serials, which areshown on different TV channels daily. So,India would have been popular inAfghanistan with or without these projects.The projects, which will have bigger impact inthe long run, are in the areas of humanresource development and fellowships, whichactually involve very little resources.

As a result of joint international efforts,large gains have been made in the areas ofeducation, health, infrastructure, and womenempowerment which need to be consolidat-ed. More than five million Afghan refugeeshave returned home since 2002. The numberof school-going children has grown fromunder one million in 2001 to more than 7.5million (37 per cent of them are girls). Since2000, 9000 new schools have been built andmore than 1,47,000 teachers have beentrained. The percentage of people living inareas where basic healthcare facilities aremade available has increased from 9 per centin 2002 to 85 per cent. Nearly 76 per cent ofchildren under the age of five have beenimmunised. Due to reduction in child mortal-ity, the lives of approximately 500,000 childrenhave been saved since 2003. For the first timein decades, Kabul has round the clock electric-ity.

It is remarkable that despite a difficult

legacy, the macroeconomic stability inAfghanistan has been maintained withhigh growth rates. Till 2007, inflationremained reasonably low and theexchange rate has been stable. Morethan a dozen private commercialbanks, four private airlines and 13microfinance institutions areoperating in the country. Today,about 13 million Afghans havemobile connections. This repre-sents roughly half of the popula-tion. One million now use theinternet. Broadly free and pri-vately owned media sector hasdeveloped. Presently,Afghanistan has sevennational TV stations(of which six are pri-vate), numerousradio net-works, plus a diverse

and increasingly professionalprint media. According to government

sources, about 12,000 kms of roadshave been rehabilitated, improved,or built. This includes the 2,200-km-long ring road which connectsall major town of Afghanistan,national highways, provincialroads and rural roads. Althoughpoppy cultivation is still a veryserious problem, there has beenreduction in the area under cul-tivation since 2007.

The strategic location ofAfghanistan will always beimportant for India, particu-larly in the context of diffi-cult India-Pakistan rela-tions. However, the coun-ty’s importance for Indiais much bigger thanperceived in this nar-row context. OnceA f g h a n i s t a nbecomes stable,trade through Pak-istan and


KEY MILESTONE: The Kandahar-Kabulhighway is one of the key constructionprojects of Afghanistan


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Afghanistan could also alter India’s continen-tal trade. By 2015, India’s trade with Europe,CIS plus Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan wouldbe in the range of $500 to 600 billion annually.

Even if 20 per cent of this trade is conduct-ed through road, $100-120 billion of Indiantrade would be passing through Afghanistanand Central Asia. With improvement in India-Pakistan relations, an important portion ofIndian trade, particularly from the landlockednorthern states including Jammu & Kashmir,will be moving through Pakistan andAfghanistan. With the possibility of this tradepassing through Afghanistan and central Asia,most of the infrastructural projects in theregion will become economically viable.

While looking at the regional economicdynamics, it is clear that both India andPakistan would be paying huge economiccosts for not cooperating in Afghanistan. Iftrade stops in Pakistan, many road and oth-er infrastructural projects will neverbecome viable because of low volumes.Similarly, the North-South corridor involv-ing Iran will never be able to significantlyalter India’s continental trade.

Despite the difficult security situation andlimited capacities, Afghanistan could emergeas an important player in regional economiccooperation. This has major implications forregional peace and stability as well as India’slinkages with the Eurasian region. High eco-nomic growth in both Central and South

Asian regions may push policy makers towork for integration strategies. Policy-makersin Afghanistan believe that after decades ofwar now the country has a unique opportuni-ty to realise its potential as a ‘land bridge’between Central Asia, South Asia and theWest Asian region.

Increasingly it is pointed out that withenhanced cooperation, land-locked energy-rich Central Asia could be connected to ener-gy-deficient South Asia. Similarly, Afghanistancould also realise significant revenues as tran-sit fee and improve its economic activities inthe process. The country is already playing animportant role in various regional organisa-tions like Economic Cooperation Organisa-tion (ECO), South Asia Association for Region-al Cooperation (SAARC), Central Asia RegionalEconomic Cooperation (CAREC), etc.

It has also initiated an institutional mecha-nism called Regional Economic CooperationConference on Afghanistan (RECCA). The firstRECCA was held in Kabul in 2005, second inNew Delhi in 2006, third in Islamabad in 2009and fourth in Istanbul in 2010. Through vari-ous declarations, countries in the region havealso accepted the centrality of Afghanistan foreconomic cooperation. In this context, therecently-concluded Afghanistan-PakistanTrade and Transit Agreement (APTTA) is alsoimportant, though it is still a partial agree-ment designed to exclude India. Under theagreement, Afghan trucks are allowed to carry

Afghan transit export cargo to Pakistani portsand also to the Wagah border. If implementedproperly, this has the potential to boostAfghanistan’s development and regionaltrade. Over time, it may also create insur-mountable pressures within Pakistan andAfghanistan to open up trade across the bor-der with India.

It is realised that the projects implementedthrough the Afghan government institutionshave relatively better success rate. Still, veryfew donors trust the Afghan governmentinstitutions. The whole reconstructionapproach involving Provincial ReconstructionTeams (PRTs) and tied aid (involving mainlydonor citizens and companies) needs tochange fundamentally.

For long-term sustainability, Afghanistanultimately has to play its traditional role offacilitating trade and commerce through itsterritories. If proposals concerning regionaleconomic cooperation originating fromAfghanistan are implemented by other coun-tries, this could ultimately improve chancesof peace in the entire Eurasian region includ-ing India and Pakistan.

(The author teaches at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity and has headed the Asian

Development Bank and the Asia Founda-tion projects on regional cooperation at

the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul)

April 2011

United States:The US government haspledged about $70 billion, outof which a significant portion

has already been disbursed. More than 50per cent of this aid has gone into buildingthe Afghan National Army and AfghanNational Police. These figures do notinclude resources provided for about100,000 US troops serving in Afghanistan.

China:China has committed about$130 million grants toAfghanistan. It remained dis-

engaged in the country until Afghanadministration opened its energy, mineraland raw material to foreign investors. In2007, Chinese companies were selected aspreferred bidder for the Aynak project, thesecond-largest copper mine in the world.China plans to invest 2.9 billion in theproject; with investment reaching to five

billion in the future. The Chinese compa-ny also plans to build a 400 MW powerstation and a railway line to facilitateexports.

Europe:The European Union has com-mitted around $12 bn. for recon-struction activities. Besides,

almost all EU nations are also participatingin NATO-led International Security Assis-tance Force (ISAF) mission with around30,000 troops.

Japan:Japan has pledged around $1.8bn. to reconstruction. Togetherwith the UN, Japan is a leading

nation in Disarmament, Demobilisationand Reintegration (DDR) and is alsoinvolved in the construction of Kabul-Kan-dahar highway and Kabul international air-port terminal.

Iran:Iran has spent about $300 mil-lion in Afghan reconstructionmainly in infrastructure and

capacity building.

Russia:Russia has made settlement ofAfghanistan’s debt to formerUSSR, which according to some

Russian expert estimates totals to $10 billion.

India:India has pledged assistanceworth $1.3 billion. Indian proj-ects cover areas like road con-

struction (218-km Zaranj-Delaram road),power (transmission line from Pul-e-Khum-ri to Kabul), Salma dam project, construc-tion of parliament, and many projects in theareas of agriculture, telecommunication,education, health and capacity building.

“CONSTRUCTION AID”


PREPARING FOR FOURTH GENERATION WAR

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FISHES KNOW no frontiers; fisher-men choose to ignore them for var-ious reasons. Wherever sovereigncoasts are in proximity (as in thecase of India-Pakistan, India-

Bangladesh and India-Sri Lanka), straying offishermen is normal. Although India-Sri Lan-ka relations are presently at an all-time high,shooting and harassment of Indian fishermenallegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy has come asa potential irritant in bilateral ties.

With the Assembly polls in the state ofTamil Nadu round the corner, the issue is ex-pected to get further politicised. There is im-mense pressure from Tamil Nadu on New Del-hi to act decisively. Victory or defeat of partiesin the Assembly constituencies of 12 coastal dis-tricts of the state depends largely on the standand action taken on the issue by the parties.Colombo also has domestic political compul-sions due to the upcoming local polls in thenorthern areas of Sri Lanka.

India and Sri Lanka share a maritime border

of over 400 kilometres that spreads along fourdifferent areas: the Bay of Bengal in the north,the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar in the cen-tre and the Indian Ocean in the south. In the PalkBay region, the minimum and the maximumdistances between the coasts of two countriesare around 16 km and 45 km, respectively. Thismeans territorial waters of each country insome areas stray into the other’s.

Till the ethnic conflict broke out in Sri Lan-ka in the early 1980s this was not an issue. But,with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) emerging as a dominant militant group,with a naval wing of its own (Sea Tigers), thingschanged for the worse for fishermen on bothsides. They were caught in the crossfire betweenthe Sri Lankan Navy and the ‘Sea Tigers’. The ‘Ee-lam War IV’ in Sri Lanka has now come to anend with the defeat of the LTTE, but the fish-ermen issue continues.

When the ethnic war was on, the Sri LankanNavy was focused on ‘Sea Tigers’ and themovement of LTTE boats around the island.

Straying of Indian fishermen was overlooked,except to monitor goods smuggled in and outof northern Sri Lanka that would help theLTTE’s war-making capabilities. After the war,the Sri Lankan Navy is back to its primary taskof patrolling the island’s maritime borders.

The monitoring is also aimed at preventingthe possible return of LTTE cadres, who fledfrom the island during the height of the conflictin 2009, to revive insurgency all over again. Se-curity concerns still persist in Sri Lanka. Its Navy,therefore, has not let its guard down. Moreover,fresh from its victory over the LTTE and alsosupport from countries like China and Pakistan,Sri Lanka has become more assertive about itssovereignty and territorial integrity.

Relaxation of fishing restrictions along SriLankan coasts after the war has led to SriLankan fishermen to venture into the seasaround. Indian fishermen, who thus far enjoyedmonopoly over the resource-rich waters, havenow got competitors in the form of their SriLankan counterparts. At times, this leads to con-

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FISHY FRONTIERSFISHY FRONTIERSInstead of politicising the issue of the straying of fishermen, it is time that India and SriLanka take a holistic view of the problem, consider the water between them to be acommon heritage, not a contested territory, and devise a mutually-beneficial roadmapfor the fishing community, argues N MANOHARAN

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frontation between the two fishing communi-ties, and, in turn, draw the intervention of navalforces of either country.

The main complaint of Sri Lankan fishermenhas been against mechanised Indian trawlersthat indulge in pair, mid-water, pelagic, and bot-tom trawling and in turn severely damage ma-rine resources and the sea bed. Ironically, mostof the trawlers from Tamil Nadu are owned bymerchant capitalists from non-fishing castesand other social backgrounds. The entry of ‘out-siders’ has not only threatened the local cus-tomary laws of fishing communities, but alsoturned several traditional fishermen from own-ers to labourers.

These fishermen wage earners work underwhat is known as “fisheries compulsions”: thelesser the catch, the meagre the incentivesand the fear of losing the job. They have littlechance of being gainfully employed other thanin the fishing sector. The risks, therefore, isworth taking by crossing the internationalboundary line and poach in untapped Sri

Lankan waters. If they are shot in the process,they try to claim compensation by maintainingthat the shooting has taken place inside Indi-an territorial waters. For them, the value of ‘life’is cheaper than the compulsion of ‘livelihood’.Also, the trawler sector in Tamil Nadu is polit-ically influential and financially sound makingit more obdurate to solutions that could cutdown its profit margins.

Straying of fishermen also takes place in-advertently due to ignorance of imaginary ma-rine boundaries, engine failure or even due tosudden turbulence at seas. But, to be fair toSri Lanka, not all Indian fishermen who strayinto Sri Lankan waters are arrested or shot. SriLankan fishermen, who venture on high seasfor ‘multi-day fishing’, are also caught poach-ing in Indian waters off coasts of Kerala,Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman andNicobar Islands and even Orissa. They are,however, not shot at but arrested and prose-cuted. Overall, the issue is complex andevades easy solutions.

Holistic approachWhat is, hence, required is a comprehensive

and humane approach leading to pragmatic so-lutions on an urgent basis. It is surprising thatdespite the existence of certain practicalarrangements to deal with the issue of bonafidefishermen of either side crossing the interna-tional maritime boundary line, firings on fish-ermen continue. The Joint Working Group thatmet in January 2006 agreed to,i. Examine the possibility of not arresting

straying fishermen within five nautical milesof the maritime boundary on either side;

ii. Consider releasing the small fishing boatsalong with the fishermen on humanitariangrounds; and,

iii. Enhance coordination between the twonavies to curb illegal activities.However, whether this agreement is being

followed in letter and spirit is a big question. Atthe outset, the right to life of fishermen shouldbe respected; then there is the livelihood issue.It should be noted that the use of force against

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A WAY OF LIFE: The big trawlers arecompletely changing a way of life forfishermen both in India and Sri Lanka.And the consequences are the bitterclashes between the two sides


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Indian fishermen, who cross over advertentlyor inadvertently into the other country’s marineborders, leading to death, does not happen evenat marine boundaries with countries like Pak-istan. This happens only at the India-Sri Lan-ka borders. The Sri Lankan Navy, therefore,should take greater care in handling straying In-dian fishermen.

To avoid shooting incidents due to “mistak-en identity”, ‘coordinated patrolling’ betweenmarine forces (Sri Lankan Navy and Indian CoastGuards) of both countries can be considered.Additionally, developing fish farming extensivelyin Indian waters would prevent fishermen fromventuring into other waters in search of a ‘bigcatch’. India can also consider leasing fishingblocks, especially those identified as ‘surplus to-tal available catch’, from Sri Lanka.

Through this, Sri Lanka could also earnmuch-required foreign exchange. To preservemarine resources and to provide enough sus-tenance to the traditional marginal fishermenof both the countries, it is important to imposea strict and complete ban on mechanisedtrawlers. However, given the dependency, im-mediate phasing out of mechanised trawlersfrom coastal fishing may be difficult. But, it hasto be done sooner than later. What should bedone with these large trawlers that cost about$ one million? There are numerous options thatone can explore.

As an alternative, these large trawlers couldbe encouraged to venture into high seas in In-dia’s exclusive economic zones (EEZs) ratherthan into territorial waters of Sri Lanka. Withsuitable modification, they can also be used aspatrol boats by the Coast Guards. Presently, the

Indian Coast Guards face immense shortage ofpatrol vessels. Reinventing sustainable fisheriesis vital for solving many issues. The issue ulti-mately lies in proper fisheries management. Ifadequate fish population is maintained in thePalk Bay and Gulf of Mannar areas, most of thefishermen would not find the need to ventureinto other’s ‘territories’.

India also can consider taking on Katchcha-tivu Island, that has been on the centre of con-troversy, on long-term lease. As a bigger neigh-bour, India has been accommodative to SriLankan sensitivities on the issue to the extentof gifting the strategically-vital Katchchativu Is-land despite opposition from Tamil Nadu. Itshould be noted that the Maritime Agree-ments of 1974 and 1976, which fixed marineboundaries between India and Sri Lanka, weredone much before the United Nations Con-vention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) thatcame into force in 1994.

New Delhi never asked for renegotiation inthe light of this new development, despite im-mense pressures from Tamil Nadu to wrest theisland back from Sri Lanka so as to protect theinterests of its fishermen. Colombo shouldtake note of this and reciprocate accordingly bytaking a liberal approach on Katchchativu Is-land and its visitors.

As an additional safety measure, the IndianNavy’s proposal of fitting Global Positioning Sys-tem (GPS) in every boat should be imple-mented. GPS provides the fastest and most ac-curate method for fishermen to navigate, meas-ure speed and determine locations. Costs of in-stallation could be shared by the centre andTamil Nadu, with a token contribution from the

fishermen concerned. Apart from training thefishermen about its usage, the local adminis-tration should sensitise them on the dos anddon’ts in international waters.

Apart from respecting the rights of their SriLankan counterparts, Indian fishermen shouldvoluntarily try and avoid using trawlers thatdamage plankton and in turn make the seabedunfavourable for breeding of new fishes andprawns. There is already an agreement betweenthe fishermen of two countries on this, but it isnot adhered to. Arranging frequent meetings be-tween fishing communities of both countriescould be explored so as to develop a friendlieratmosphere on mid-seas during fishing. ‘So-lution from below’ has greater chances of suc-cess than a ‘solution imposed from above’ by thegovernments.

There have indeed been meetings betweenfishing communities since 2003, but erratic andnot so fruitful in terms of tangible results. If theyare systematised and institutionalised, onecan expect them to be more successful. It is im-portant that whatever agreements, reachedby the fishing communities amongst them-selves, receives strong backing from the gov-ernments and their marine forces. Else, thesemeetings will be exercises in futility.

Overall, if the issue is not approachedholistically, the marine frontiers between Indiaand Sri Lanka will remain fishy and troubled.It is better if water between India and Sri Lan-ka is seen as a common heritage than a con-tested territory.

(The author is Senior Fellow, Centre forLand Warfare Studies, New Delhi )

April 2011

“EVERYPOSSIBLEMEASUREWILL BETAKEN INORDER TOIMPROVE

RELATIONS WITH SRILANKAN AND INDIANFISHERMEN. LARGE SCALEFISHING USING TRAWLERSIN THE INTERNATIONALWATERS HAD SOURED THERELATIONSHIP BETWEENTHE FISHERMEN OF BOTHCOUNTRIES .”

REAR ADMIRAL WEERASEKERA,NORTHERN COMMANDER SRI LANKA NAVY

“WE NEED TO BECONSCIOUSOF THESENSITIVITIESON THE SRILANKAN SIDE

AND OF THE SRI LANKANFISHERMEN WHO HAVESTARTED FISHING.INCIDENTS IN THE LASTTWO MONTHS HAD CAUSEDMUCH CONSTERNATION ININDIA AND THE SECURITYOF INDIAN FISHERMENWOULD ALWAYS RECEIVETHE HIGHEST PRIORITY.”

S M KRISHNA,EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER

“THEINCREASINGINCIDENTSOFFISHERMENKILLINGS,TORTURE

AND ARRESTS IN THERECENT PAST HAVE BECOMEA REGULAR THING. THEONLY SOLUTION FOR THIS ISTO GET BACKKATCHATHEEVU. ATTEMPTSWITH THIS EFFECT WOULDBE MADE CONSULTINGCENTRAL GOVERNMENT.”

M KARUNANIDHI,CHIEF MINISTER TAMIL NADU

“INNOCENTFISHERMENARE OFTENSHOT AT ORTORTUREDBY THE SRILANKAN

NAVY AND THE INDIANGOVERNMENT IS DOINGNOTHING TO PROTECTTHEM. THERE HAS BEEN ANESCALATION IN ATTACKS ONTAMIL FISHERMEN AT SEADURING THE UNITEDPROGRESSIVE ALLIANCEGOVERNMENT’S RULE.”

NITIN GADKARI,PRESIDENTBHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP)


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MOMENTOUSSHIFT IN THETIBET MOVEMENTThe Dalai Lama’s sudden decision to renounce politics hasdeeper international implications. BHASKAR ROY analyses


DISTRESSFUL SITUATION: Dalai Lama'sdecision to renounce politics but willremain as spiritual leader and continue toadvocate meaningful autonomy for Tibet,is a major cause of concern for Tibetans

THE DALAI LAMA’S announce-ment on March 10 that he wouldstep aside from his political roleand concentrate on religious workwas dismissed within hours by the

Chinese as a “trick”. Chinese foreign min-istry spokeswoman Jiang Wu said: “He hastalked often about retirement in the past fewyears”, and described them as “tricks todeceive the international community”.

Tenzing Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, tookthis decision after deep consideration. Byrepeating his intention to retire for the lastseveral years, he was preparing his people forthe eventuality. The Dalai Lama’s Kashag(Cabinet) or the Kashag of the Tibetan Gov-ernment in exile, and his top emissaries knewthe day would come. But when such a leader,acknowledged as the face and spirit of theTibetan movement, decides to relinquish hispolitical responsibilities, opposition and dis-may from the people are natural. There isalso concern how the new inheritors of thishuge responsibility take forward this mission.

The Dalai Lama’s decision was irre-versible. Although at 76, he enjoys excellenthealth, he knows his life is not infinite. As hesaid, he wanted to set up a democratically-elected government by the people. The elec-torate comprises Tibetans outside Tibet/Chi-na. This move will not only contrast with theChinese government’s dictatorial system inTibet but also make an impression on theinternational community. The Chinese can-not resolve the Tibet issue in the near futureunless they drastically change theirapproach, was the Dalai Lama’s message.

The Chinese have reneged on their agree-ments and words. The May 23, 1951, 17-point agreement (for the peaceful liberation

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gof Tibet) signed between the Chinese CentralGovernment and the local government ofTibet gave the Tibetans far more autonomyand liberty than anything they can even thinkof today. It promised continuity of the estab-lished status, functions and powers enjoyedby the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the ninthPanchen Lama. Income of the monasterieswould remain untouched. Like all minoritiesof China, the Tibetans would be allowed topreserve and develop freely their language,customs, habits and religion without interfer-ence from the central government in Beijing.

The Tibetan leaders reconciled with thefact that their legitimate independence wasoverrun by the Chinese People’s LiberationArmy (PLA), and still settled for the bestunder the conditions. The West did notcome to their aid. But all these came tonought soon after when Mao Zedong gotengrossed in an internal power struggle andadopted a hard-line Stalinist policy ofrepression. This led to the Tibetan people’suprising of 1959 in which about a hundredthousand Tibetans were killed, and the DalaiLama fled to India with his followers andsupporters. Since then, the Tibetans suf-fered a harrowing time under Communistrule, especially during the Cultural Revolu-tion (1966-76). They lost what they had gotunder the 17-point agreement, and their lothas not improved very much since.

A Beijing-based Chinese NGO, the Gong-meng Law Research Centre in China, pro-duced a study in 2008 pointing out that themoney spent in Tibet by the Central govern-ment rarely reached the Tibetans and mainlywent to the Hans. Instead of taking cues fromthe study, both the NGO and the study werebanned by the government.

The March 14, 2008, Tibetan uprising wasto draw the attention of the internationalcommunity to the plight of the Tibetans.This was the year of the Beijing Olympics.The revolt was crushed and the Dalai Lamawas blamed for inciting the uprising thoughthere was no evidence.

It is no wonder that Beijing has failed mis-erably to win over the hearts and minds ofthe Tibetans. The government has bannedthe display and possession of the DalaiLama’s photographs. The virulent Chinesepropaganda against the Dalai Lama does notimpress anybody other thanthe members of the Chi-nese Communist Party.The Dalai Lama isimpervious to suchinsults as “wolf inlamb’s clothing”, the“serpent’s head” and

other such labels. There are some uncorrob-orated reports that sections among Chineseagencies had considered assassination of theDalai Lama in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The Chinese government has decreedthat all new living Buddhas, including thenext Dalai Lama, will be found and ordainedby the central government. That just cannotconvince the Tibetan people. The 11thPanchen Lama, recognised by the DalaiLama, has been despatched to oblivion bythe Chinese government, and they have putup their own. The 11th Panchen Lama select-ed by the Chinese, on the other hand, hasfound no following among the Tibetans.

The Chinese government has alsodeclared that the 15th Dalai Lama will befound in Tibet by them. The history of theDalai Lamas is witness to one of them beinga Mongolian. Therefore, the next Dalai Lamacan be from anywhere, as the 14th DalaiLama has declared. And that will be the rele-vant and the real Dalai Lama for Tibetansinside China and in the rest of the world.There are no two opinions on the issue.

The Dalai Lama’s declaration to step asidefrom his political responsibilities came at atime when the Chinese National People’sCongress (NPC) convened in Beijing for its

annual conclave.Deputies (rep-

resentatives)from all overC h i n a

includingTi b e t

were gathered there, and those concernedwith the Tibet question could discuss imme-diately on his decision. In the backgroundwas the Dalai Lama’s thought, or decision,that there may not be any 15th Dalai Lama,and that he was a mortal. But he also saidthat he might live for more than a hundredyears. This is not medically impossible giventhe state of his health and the sharpness ofhis mind at 76 years.

Predictably, there was an immediateresponse from the Tibetan Deputies gath-ered in Beijing. Tibet’s Communist Party Sec-retary Zhang Qingli, a hardliner, describedthe Dalai Lama as a “wolf in monk’s robe” anepithet used by Premier Zhou Enlai after theDalai Lama fled to India. Zhang also chargedhim with trying to “split” China, which is acommon Chinese refrain.

The responses of the two top ethnicTibetan officials should be something that theChinese government should take into consid-eration. Although both of them were clearthat Tibet was part of China, Qingba Puncog,Chairman of the Tibetan People’s Congress,said that as a Living Buddha and a religiousleader the Dalai Lama did have some influ-ence on his believers, and his death wouldhave “some minor impact on Tibet”. PadmaCholing, the head of the Tibetan local govern-ment, went a step further to state that it wasnot “upto anyone” to abolish the “historicalprocess” of the reincarnations of the DalaiLama and the Panchen Lama.

The statement of Qingba Puncog andPadma Choling, to say the least, challengessome of the fundamentals of the Chinesegovernment’s policies and positions on theDalai Lama and the religious process of

recognising Living Buddhas: one, theyreiterated the relevance of the Dalai Lamato Tibet and the Tibetans in China; and,two, they do not subscribe to the Chi-nese government’s policy of politicis-ing the reincarnation process.

The new structure of the Tibetangovernment in exile is expected toplay a more dynamic, two-prongedrole in the international arena, espe-cially the West. The Dalai Lama, as areligious leader of modernity, willcontinue to campaign for the free-dom and development of Tibetanreligion, language, culture, her-itage and the freedom of spirit andthought, and protection of ecolo-gy and environment of Tibetindependent of the Chinese. Thisis the duality of dharma yogiand karma yogi according to

Hindu philosophy, which is



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closely linked to Buddhist philosophy inmany ways. These issues form part of theDalai Lama’s “middle way” autonomy pro-posal for Tibet and the Tibetans.

The new political leaders of the exilegovernment will be free to debate issuesamong themselves unconstrained by theDalai Lama’s religious philosophy and utterrestraint. These are political men andwomen, well experienced in the West andWestern political approaches in which free-dom of religion, thought and expressionplay a very significant role. There is a Tibetcaucus in the US Congress and one in theEU Parliament. It is very possible that anNGO be raised on the fringes of the UnitedNations to make their point whenever theAssembly meets. A much more vibrant andorganised action can be planned and exe-cuted with UN Human Rights Commissionin Geneva.

Internationally, the Tibet contact groupslike the International Campaign for Tibet(ICT) can feel much more free to raise theircampaign without looking over their shoul-ders to see if they have the Dalai Lama’sapproval. In brief, a new force to demand theminimum rights of Tibetan people in Tibethas been unleashed, which will be welcomedby the democratic world. This force, however,

is unlikely to raise demands, which portendsthe break-up of China’s territorial integrity.

Generally unnoticed and unspoken, therehas been a slow erosion of support for Chi-na’s hardline Tibet policy from traditionalcentres. The most important is Taiwan. Fromthe initiation of Taiwan under KMT (the par-ty that ruled China before the Communiststook over) rule, Tibet was recognised as anintegral part of China. This was because theKMT claimed that it was the real governmentof China and the two sides would unite oneday. A body called the Mongolia Tibet AffairsCommission (MTAC), located in Taiwan butalso funded by China, was established. Thiswas to counter the Tibetan, and then Mon-golian, separatist movements.

The MTAC was abolished by the Democrat-ic Progressive Party (DPP) after President ChenShui-bian came to power in Taiwan in 2000.Since then, the Dalai Lama has visited Taiwan,which confirms that even after the KMTreturned to govern Taiwan the old commonal-ity on Tibet with Beijing no longer exists.

Russia, which follows the erstwhile SovietUnion position of endorsing China’s policyin Tibet, is beginning to feel internationalpressure. The Kalmayka Republic of Russia isoverwhelmingly Buddhist and its Presidentis an ardent follower of the Dalai Lama.

Japan, a predominantly Buddhist country,which did not counter Beijing’s claim onTibet and still does not, has arrived at a situ-ation when it can become neutral, saying it isChina’s concern but Tibetans as always arefree to visit Japan.

Many feel that India is caught in a cleftwith the new changes in the Tibetan exilegovernment. This is not correct, and can behandled well. The Dalai Lama is an hon-oured guest in India, the Tibetans arerefugees openly in India, India does notrecognise the Tibetan government in exile, itis not allowed to conduct political activitiesin India, but they are allowed to act as perIndian laws. China suspects that India coop-erates with the US on the Tibet issue. Thisremains a suspicion, but China has acceptedIndia’s declared position.

The Dalai Lama’s move has raised seriousconcerns in China. Writing in the People’sDaily (March 22) English edition, Li Hong-mei said that the Tibetan government in-exile was poised to be “ruled by terrorists”.Ms Li Hongmei is no ordinary journalist. Sheis the editor of the on-line edition of thenewspaper that in turn is the mouthpiece ofthe CCP. This alarm is the collective under-standing of the Chinese authorities, and themessage is to alert the international commu-nity to prevail upon the Tibetan governmentin-exile and other pro-independenceTibetan groups like the Tibetan Youth Con-gress (TYC) not to disturb the stability ofTibet through sabotage. Li Hongmei likenedthe TYC to terrorist organisations like the AlQaida. The article also hinted that Chinawould use all force at its disposal to root outany challenge in Tibet.

Earlier (March 14), Tibet CCP SecretaryZhang Qingli had warned a “severe crack-down” on separatist and disruptive activitiesin Tibet. Zhang’s statement on the sidelinesof the recently-concluded NPC Sessionmakes it abundantly clear that Tibetans inTibet and other parts of China will lose moreof the liberty they have left. Such policieswill not only disturb the situation in Tibetbut further sharpen the Tibetan-Han divideto an irreconcilable situation.

A new Tibetan movement, then, is on theblock. There is no amicable solution in sight.The best situation available for China is torevisit the 1951 17-point agreement andDeng Xiaoping’s approach, and work with theTibetan government in-exile. No country inits right sense is planning to disintegrate Chi-na. Beijing should be confident about that.

(The author, a retired civil servant, is a vet-eran China-watcher)

April 2011

REVERED EXIT: The Tibetan cabinet has accepted the Dalai Lama's decision to retire asthe political head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, but parliament has still not agreed


(69)April 2011

It seems that Europe is notprepared to play the role ofa second cousin to theUnited States indetermining the futurecontours in the Arab worldthat is under turmoil. Thisunderplayed factor is themost important one inexplaining what ishappening in Libya thesedays, argues RSN SINGH

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SINCE THE exit of PresidentMubarak in Egypt, the geopoliticalcontours of the Arab world havebeen changing rapidly. What wastouted as a revolution for democra-

cy has now degenerated into pure interna-tional power politics. This is particularly truein the case of Libya, where there seems to bea clear clash of interests between the UnitedStates and its leading European allies. Libyawith its vast oil resources is too important forEurope, to allow it to lapse into uncertaintybecause of the recent changes in Americanpolicy towards Middle East and North Africa.

Europe, particularly Italy and France, inthat order, had invested too much inGaddafi. The way the internal situation inLibya has developed, partly indigenous andpartly orchestrated by the US, Gaddafi’souster has become imminent. Nevertheless,some of the European countries like Franceand Italy do not want to surrender theirinfluence in Libya to the US. Accordingly,France inspired the formation of the rebelLibyan National Council (LNC) as the coun-try’s legitimate government and quicklyrecognised it in early March 2011, thereby

preempting the US. The Libyan National Council has 31 mem-

bers with Officers In-Charge for foreignaffairs, military affairs and importantly forgovernance of Libya’s oil sector. The council’sleader is Mustafa Abdul Jalil, a formerDeputy UN Ambassador, who broke awayfrom Gaddafi. Till today, the US, which isbacking the ongoing armed action by NATOon Libya, sanctioned at the behest of ahyperactive France, has not yet accordedrecognition to the National Libyan Council.

The fault linesThe 6.4 million Libyan people continue to

be divided over regional and ethnic lines inthe ongoing ‘Civil War’ since February 2011.Even geography conspires to accentuate thisdivision: 90 per cent of Libyans inhabit only 10per cent of the area, primarily along the coast.

Tripolitania in the west and Cyrenaica inthe northeast are the two major populationcentres with a population density of 50 per-sons per square kilometre, but in the remain-ing areas it is less than one person per squarekilometre. These two population centres areseparated by one of the most formidable

ECONOMIC STAKES: Unrest in Libyapushes oil prices to its highest level

BEHIND THELIBYANTURMOIL

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desert in the world, wherein in certain areasit rains once or twice in a decade.

The other region is Fezzan in Southwest-ern Libya, which constitutes 30 per cent ofthe country’s landmass. The people inhabit-ing this area are basically pastoralists, whocross borders of Algeria, Chad and Niger.The population in Fezzan is estimated to be0.45 million, i.e. nearly eight per cent of thetotal population.

Tripolitania and Cyrenaica sided with Axisand Allied powers respectively during WorldWar II. Subsequently, when Libya was grant-ed independence in 1951 and King EmirSayid Idris al-Sanusi, a Cyrenaican wasinstalled as the head of the state with thesupport of Western powers. The people inTripolitania resented while the people ofCyrenaica celebrated. In 1969, when a 27-year-old Gaddafi along with 70 young armyofficers, overthrew King Idris in a bloodlesscoup, the reaction was in the opposite order.

Under Idris, Cyrenaica benefited political-ly and economically. Idris in fact could notbreak the shackles of his Cyrenacian identityprimarily because that was where he derivedhis power from.

Gaddafi on the other hand, tried to pro-mote nationalism by repudiating the tribalsystem and by creating an Arab nationalistregime. It may be mentioned that Libya has140 tribes and clans. Gaddafi’s search for anew national identity for Libya floundereddue to the exigencies of political power. Hispower base essentially lay in the west to thecentral part of Libya. Euphemistically speak-ing, the Cyrenacian tribes were punished byGaddafi all through his rule. It is these tribeswhich now sensed an opportunity anddecided to strike back.

Gaddafi, meanwhile, is being stoutly sup-ported by his own tribe Gaddadfa as well asAl-Magarha tribe.

The regional and tribal fault lines, in thisfourth largest country in Africa, have there-fore hardly been bridged over the years.Viewed thus, what is happening in Libya isfar from an ‘Arab Revolution’. It is the eventsin Tunisia and Egypt that have provided theopportunity and impetus. This is despite asound economy. Libya has a very generoussocial security programme especially in thefields of housing and education.

External dimension and linkagesThe external dimension and linkages to

this so-called revolution in the case of Libyacannot be ignored.

The Arab Revolution in Egypt led byNasser had significant impact on Libya.This revolution was at the height of Cold

War and as an outcome there was request ofBritish and American bases to be evacuatedfrom Libya. It may be recalled that Britainand Libya had signed a 20-year friendshiptreaty and in 1954 US had setup theWheelus Air base near Tripoli. By 1970, theBritish forces and American bases werewithdrawn, and consequently, cooperationincluding in the field of defence betweenUSSR and Libya intensified.

The coup by Gaddafi in 1969 should beseen as an adjunct of the Cold War. The dis-covery of oil in 1959 had raised the geopolit-ical stakes of the Soviet Union, US andEurope in the country. At the time of inde-pendence, Libya was one of the poorestcountries in the world. Its most significant

exports were metal scraps of World War II.Today, Libya is one of the world’s tenth

richest oil-producing countries and ofcourse Africa’s richest.

Libya holds the largest proven reserves inAfrica followed by Nigeria and Algeria. 80 percent of the reserves are located in the Sirtebasin. This basin constitutes the heart ofLibya running from the approximately thecenter of the country to the coastline in thenorth. It also extends towards the west forsome distance and to the east, falling short ofthe border with Egypt. As per estimate, only25 per cent of the Libyan oil has been explodemainly due to sanctions, which was effectivefor at least two decades. The UN and the USlifted sanctions in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

If the Cold War was the impetus for thecoup by Gaddafi, this time, Libya is engulfedby a different kind of revolutionary wave,which many consider as being inspired andabetted by the West. It appears regimechanges are being sought for an orderlytransfer of power in the Arab world, becausemost of the dispensations have outlived theirage and utility. Most of these ruling dispen-sations turned into family businesses and sohas Libya under Gaddafi and his eight sons.Only a popular swell on the ground, engi-neered or otherwise can uproot them. Giventhe wherewithal and monopoly over instru-ment of war and violence of the rulers, it isimpossible to bring regime changes withoutexternal support.

The entire script is being calibrated withEgypt serving as the epicenter. But in case ofLibya, the calculations have been upsetbecause of Gaddafi’s tenacity and his self-destructive ways. He has been using the safe-ty and security of his own people as a bar-gaining chip in dealing with the rest of thewestern world. He and his sons are display-ing acute paranoia and therefore the ruth-lessness in dealing with the situation. Theruling dispensation in Libya therefore can bevery unpredictable and dangerous.

Gaddafi — The darling of the WestThe exigencies and greed for power has

seen Gaddafi sway between socialism andcapitalism from anti-Americanism to pro-Americanism. Libya till late 2003-04 wastreated a terrorist and pariah state by theWest, after the bombing of the Pan Am air-craft in 1988 over the Scottish town ofLockerbie. Unnerved by the US invasion ofIraq and the consequent fate of SaddamHussain and the rising discontent due tosluggish economy caused by sanctions,Gaddafi was compelled to make a complete‘U’ turn. He began to placate the West by tak-

"OPERATION SAFE HOME COMING"

Operation Safe Home Coming of15000-odd Indians from Libya was trulya well-coordinated Inter-ministerialeffort. The operation was successfullyconcluded at 0700 hrs on March 13.Spread over 14 days' starting from Feb-ruary 27, the operation involved arrivalof 53 flights including that of Air India,Kingfisher, Fly Dubai, Emirates, EgyptAir, Jet Air and Emirates.

The passengers were received at Del-hi (Terminal 2) and Mumbai. The opera-tion was coordinated by Ministry ofExternal Affairs, Ministry of OverseasIndian Affairs, Department of Shipping,Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry ofDefence and the State Governments ofUP, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Odisha, Kar-nataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

Evacuation of Indians from Libya wasconducted with the help of IL-76 Plane,Naval Ships and Commercial Vesselsfrom Libya to Egypt, Malta and Tunisia.Indians were airlifted from Tripoli,Alexandria, Djerba, Sebhe and Malta.

Ministry of External Affairs haddeported officials to set up facilities atAlexandria, Malta, Djerba and Sebheand to assist in the evacuation process.

On arrival, passengers were providedwith assistance to return to their home-town by train, road or air. Major Indianfirms operating in Libya were briefedand assisted on regular basis to receivetheir workers.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao,Secretary (East) Latha Reddy and Secre-tary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs,Dr A Didar Singh led the coordinatedOperation Safe Home Coming.

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ing formal responsibility of the Pan Ambombing in 2003. Following this, the rehabil-itation of Gaddafi in the international com-munity was most dramatic especially afterthe payment of compensation to US victimsof the Pan Am bombing in 2008 by Libya.

Following the emergence of this new rela-tionship between the West and Gaddafi, themajor oil companies were once again activein Libya. They stepped up oil exploration,using Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques.Libya had proposed to increase its oil produc-tion by 40 per cent, i.e. from 1.8 million bar-rels/day to three million barrels/day by 2013.

AssessmentThe turnaround by Gaddafi and his bon-

homie with the West was strategic coup ofsort. Libya became one of the most ardentsupporters of the ‘war against terrorism’. Infact, Libya was touted as a fine example ofresponsible change in the discourse ofIslamic fundamentalism. Italy signed afriendship treaty with Libya in 2008. Thetreaty included a nonaggression clause.Also, Italy paid $ 5 billion to Libya to com-pensate for the colonial rule. Gaddafi’s son,Saif al-Islam, was awarded a PhD degree by

the London School of Economics, allegedly,after having accepted 1.5 million poundsdonation from Libya. All the major oil com-panies of the West were enthusiastic aboutthe fresh and increasing prospects in Libya.It was a happy situation for the West. Whatwent wrong then?

The regime change in Egypt, which ush-ered in the so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’, ifWikileaks are to be believed, was engineeredby the US for which it had been workingsince 2007. Egypt was to serve as the pivotfor the geopolitical change in North Africa.The European powers, particularly France,were not comfortable with the happeningsin Tunisia and to an extent in Egypt. When itcomes to the North African region, the Euro-peans do not see it through the US strategicprism. The economic stakes of the NorthAfrican region and Europe is intertwined,because of geography, separated as they areby only the Mediterranean Sea.

It is pertinent to note that most of Libya’soil exports are to the European countries i.e.Italy-38 per cent, Germany-19 per cent,Spain-8 per cent, France-7 per cent, China-7per cent, Greece-3 per cent, etc. Importantly,the oil sold by Libya to Europe is lighter and

sweeter, which implies that it has low sul-phur grades. The heavier crude oil is export-ed to Asian countries. In addition, oil supplyfrom North Africa to Europe is most timelyand cost effective. In the recent years, therehas been rapid increase in export of gas fromLibya to Europe. In 2004, the 540-kilometre-long Green stream pipeline between Libyaand Italy became operational. This pipelinehas a capacity of 11 billion cubic metres ofnatural gas per year.

North Africa, particularly Libya, is there-fore critical to the very well-being of Europe.It is for this reason that the French have tak-en the lead. It is for this reason that againstall norms of international diplomacy, Italyhas repudiated its 2008 friendship treatywith Libya and has allowed its military basesto enforce the no-fly zone.

Europe has given clear message to the USthat they consider North Africa to be theirvital area of concern and influence, andtherefore expect the same kind of reciproca-tion for their role in the US-led interventionin Iraq and Afghanistan.

(The author is a former official of Researchand Analysis Wing, Government of India)

MISRULE EPITOMISED: People protesting for peace in Libya

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THE INDIGENOUS develop-ment of a field gun, firstlaunch of ‘Nirbhay’ (a longrange missile) and first testflight of Agni-5 are threemajor initiatives ahead of theDefence Research and Devel-opment Organisation(DRDO) in 2011.

The controversial Boforsgun is the last imported field

gun the armed forces have.The new Indian field gun willbe an Industry-DRDO-drivenventure.Already 4-5 indus-tries have been identified forthe project, according to Dr VK Saraswat, Chief of DRDO.The gun in both versions(towed and self-propelled)will take a few years to devel-op and would be a majorproject led by the domesticindustry.

The launch of the long-range, sub-sonic, cruise mis-sile ‘Nirbhay’, being devel-oped by the AeronauticalDevelopment Establishment(ADE), Bengaluru and theRCI, Hyderabad is alsoexpected to get into the flighttrials mode this year. Thethird project is Agni-5, thebeyond 5,000-km, long-rangeballistic missile, which will beflight tested in 2011.

DRDO PLANS THREE

PROJECTS THIS YEAR INDIA HAS conducted low-altitude trials with its develop-mental Lakshya-2 target drone,with the aircraft performinghigh-g manoeuvres at altitudesas low as 82ft (25m). Accordingto DRDO, on a test conductedon December 20, 2010, thedrone flew5.4nm (10km) atan altitude of82ft, with anaverage altitudedeviation of lessthan 3ft. OnDecember 23, itflew the systemfor 10.8nm at analtitude of 490fttowing a targetthat was flownat a height of164ft.The tests had four objectives.The first was to assess the Lak-shya-2's flight-control systemand ability to use autonomous

waypoint navigation with GPSupdates. DRDO scientists alsolooked at its ability to fly pro-grammed low-altitude flights inboth clean and tow body con-figurations, and to performhigh-g manoeuvres in bothregimes.

The process also assessed thedeployment of the Lakyhya-2on its mobile launcher, andintroduced new features in itsground control station.

LAKSHYA-2 PERFORMS

LOW-ALTITUDE TESTS

TECH SCANgg

DRDO IS currentlyworking on aimproved Mark-II ver-sion of the surface-to-air missile and willhave its first flight-testby end of 2012. AkashMark-II version willcarry minor criticalimprovement overMark-1 variant andwill not be a com-pletely new missile,

New MK-2 will have better accuracy and will also be little fasterthen the current variant.Mark-2 variant will also will have faster reaction time to coverthe threat and will have an minor extended range to the missilewhich will be 10 to 12 km improvement over the Mark-1 vari-ant. Mark-2 variant will be replacing old Soviet Union-acquired SA-3 GOA (Pechora) SAM systems. India's plans tofortify North Eastern border area with China by installingAkash MK-1 close to the border there

AKASH MARK-II BY

2012

ISRO'S 'LUNAR TUNNEL'

COULD BE FUTURE BASE

INDIAN SPACE ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) scien-tists have discovered a giantunderground chamber onthe moon, which could beused as a lunar baseby astronauts forinter-planetar ymissions. Scien-tists at the SpaceA p p l i c a t i o n sCentre (SAC),using data gatheredfrom Chandrayaan-I'sTerrain Mapping Cameraand Hyper Spectral Imager(HySI) payloads, found a1.2km-long buried, uncol-lapsed and near horizontallava tube. The hollow cave situatedjust above the lunar equatoron the nearside of moon,

can accommodate a largenumber of astronauts andscientific instruments, andalso protect them from hos-

tile lunar environment.“Such a lava tube

could be a poten-tial site for futurehuman habit-ability on themoon for future

human missionsand scientific

explorations, provid-ing a safe environment

from hazardous radiations,micro-meteoritic impacts,extreme temperatures anddust storms,” according to AS Arya of SAC, Ahmedabad ,who led a team of scientistsreporting the findings in'Current Science'.

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THE CREATION of robots that can hidefrom humans while spying on them bringsautonomous spy machines one step clos-er. The spy approaches the target build-ing under cover of darkness, taking azigzag path to avoid well-lit areas andsentries. He selects a handy vantage pointnext to a dumpster, taking cover behind itwhen he hears the footsteps of an unseenguard. Once the coast is clear, he is on themove again — trundling along on foursmall wheels.This is no human spy but a machine, aprototype in the emerging field of covertrobotics. It was being put through itspaces at a demonstration late last year byLockheed Martin’s Advanced TechnologyLaboratories at Cherry Hill, New Jersey.With an aerial drone to their credit (see“Unseen watcher in the sky”), the compa-

ny now wants to design autonomousrobots that can operate around humanswithout being detected.What makes the robot special is its abilityto build a computer model of its sur-roundings, incorporating information onlines of sight. The robot is fitted with alaser scanner to allow it to covertly map itsenvironment in 3D. It also has a set ofacoustic sensors which it uses to distin-guish nearby footsteps and their direction.Lead engineer Brian Satterfield says therobot was designed to operate withinfour constraints: “Avoiding visible detec-tion by sentries of known locations,avoiding potential detection by sentrieswhose positions were unknown, avoidingareas in which the robot would have nomeans of escape, and, as this robot wasdesigned to run at night, avoiding areasthat were well lit.” To make it hard to spotin the dark, the robot was painted black.If the robot believes it is in danger ofbeing detected by an approaching sentry,it will try to get to a place where it canhide, Satterfield says. His comment is anexample of how natural it is for us to talkabout such robots as if they understandhow they are perceived and have a “theo-ry of mind”.

“Lockheed Martin’s approach doesinclude a sort of basic theory of mind,

in the sense that the robot makesassumptions about how to actcovertly in the presence ofhumans,” says Alan Wagner of theGeorgia Institute of Technology inAtlanta, who works on artificialintelligence and robot deception.But the level at which the robot’ssoftware operates is probably limit-

ed to task-specific instructions suchas, “if you hear a noise, scurry to thenearest dark corner”, he says. That’s

not sophisticated enough to hidefrom humans in varied environments.“Significant AI will be needed to developa robot which can act covertly in a gener-al setting,” Wagner says. “The robot willneed to consider its own shape and size,to have the ability to navigate potentialpaths, [to be aware of] each person’s indi-vidual line of view, the impact that itsmovement will have on the environment,and so on.”Satterfield’s robot was built with off-the-shelf components. Both he and Wagnersay that specialised hardware which ismore compact and quieter will improve

future robots’ mobility and their ability tostay hidden. “There are very few funda-mental limits that would prevent robotsfrom eventually conducting extendedcovert missions and evading detection byhumans,” Satterfield says.Lockheed Martin’s work looks ready toemerge, albeit quietly, into the real world.The US army recently solicited proposalsfor a “persistent surveillance” robot withconcealment capabilities and suited forextended deployments. Later this year,the US Department of Defense is expect-ed to back that up with cash awards forworking designs.

ROBOTS KNOW WHEN TO HIDE

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UNSEEN

WATCHER

IN THE SKY

IN 2006 Lockheed Martin developeda stealthy aerial drone, known asStalker, for US special forces inAfghanistan. Launched by hand, itweighs 6 kilograms and has a 3-metre wingspan.The electric-powered drones itreplaced are quiet, but Stalker isdesigned to be even quieter, with a“hush drive” combining a silencedelectric motor and a special pro-peller. Stalker is said to be inaudiblebeyond 80 metres away, and can flyat night with the aid of infrared sen-sors and low-light cameras.Stalker can also accurately deliver apayload weighing up to 1 kilogram,such as remotely operated camerasor microphones for eavesdroppingon a target.

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In a democracy, there is always a “love and hate”relationship between the media and the military. Ajournalist wants information but the military is notalways in a position to tell the truth. American gen-erals never spoke the truth when they were losing

the war in Vietnam. There are times when the journaliststhemselves get influenced by the military. During a war,the journalists often move along with the troops andbegin to identify themselves too closely with the officersand soldiers.

On the other hand, there are times whenthe military officers succumb to the charmof the media glamour. They lose the balanceand discipline and say things which maynot be the reality but ensure for themselvesheadlines and temporary glory. In this ageof “breaking stories”, it is entirely possiblethat the scoops are based on uninformedand out-of-proper-context information thathas been “disclosed” by the military sources.

In this column I had once discussed how GeneralMcChrystal was relieved of duty in Afghanistan over aRolling Stone magazine article by journalist MichaelHastings. The article quoted McChrystal making derisivecomments about top officials in the Obama administra-tion. But this time I want to highlight the developmentsin India that I find quite disturbing.

A leading TV journalist recently asked Army Chief General VK Singh about the involvement of Lt. Col PrasadS Purohit in the Samjhauta train blasts and in spreadingthe cult of “Hindu terror” in the country. The Army Chiefreplied that “Purohit is an aberration” and that he wouldensure that such people have no place in the Army. I thinkthis was a dangerous reply. The charges against Purohitare far from being proved. Besides, the dreaded LeT ofPakistan was declared a banned organisation by the Unit-ed Nations on the basis of the reports of the US intelli-gence agencies that it had caused the blasts. But the Indi-an agencies all of a sudden discovered the hands of the“Hindu terrorists” after the NDA government was votedout and the UPA assumed power at the centre.

As it is, there has been always a crisis of credibility ofthe central investigative agencies if the record of poorconviction of their accused is taken into account. Moreoften than not, they have been more loyal than the kingof the day. We later were told of the “definite” hands ofthe “Hindu terrorists” like Purohit in the Samjhautablasts on the basis of the “confessions” of one SwamiAseemanand. But now the same Swami tells the Courtthat his statement was extracted forcibly by the investi-gating agencies!

Given this, I think it would have been proper for theArmy Chief to reply that the law would take its own

course and Purohit, if found guilty, would be dealt withaccordingly. In stead what he did was that he pro-nounced Purohit guilty, even before the accused hasbeen formally charge sheeted!

The Army leadership has also not shown the maturityin dealing with the much-maligned Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai. The charges were that in the name ofKargil war widows, top officials of the armed forcesformed a housing society on the land belonging to the

Defence ministry. The defence minister andthe Army Chief took the charges very seri-ously, ordered enquiries and threatened totake actions against the wrong-doers. Thetruth, as it has emerged now, is that theapplication for the formation of the Societydid not refer to the war widows and what ismore important, the Defence Ministry hasadmitted in an affidavit submitted to Mum-bai High Court that it has no record of the

land in question to prove ownership! This is not to suggest that there were no wrong doings

in the Adarsh Society. But the violations of the rules herehave to be dealt with at the civilian level. And that is beingrightly done. I think there was nor reason for the Armyleadership - I understand Defence Minister AK Antony’sconcerns; after all, he is a politician — to issue threatsopenly and repeatedly to the officers — both retired andserving, just because the media went hyper via “breakingnews” - without doing any thorough research.

The same is the case with the so-called Sukana scan-dal. Here a senior General has been punished for issu-ing a no objection certificate to a school building on aproperty that did not belong to the Army. He thoughtthat the school would prove beneficial to the childrenof Army personnel in the area. There were never anymonetary considerations. But, he has been punishedon the ground that he was influenced in his decision bya superior in the Army headquarters and that he hadnot informed his then immediate superior in Kolkatta,who, incidentally, happens to be the present ArmyChief, and who came to know the clearance throughhyped media reports.

I have tremendous respect for the Army Chief, who,my sources say, is one of our finest officers with impec-cable integrity. I think the problem with him is that hethinks that all in today’s media in India also valueintegrity. Unfortunately, that is not true. Many of ourmedia leaders believe in power without accountability.Why should our armed forces, one of the very best Indi-an institutions, be hyper-sensitive to what these medialeaders say and write?

[email protected]

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Right Angle

Prakash Nanda

THE MILITARY AND THE MEDIA

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