The US ambassador to India, Kenneth I Juster, proposed during his first public speech in Delhi that scaling up of strategic relations with India can also involve posting of liaison officers in each other’s combatant commands. He claimed that this was aimed at taking the relationship from ‘the strategic to the durable’. This was a gesture to India that the […]
A few conflicting reports over the last week have enhanced the distance between the government and veterans. The recent announcement of the defence minister to not withdraw the cases presently in the courts against pensions and disability claims by veterans and war widows has angered the armed forces community, both serving and veterans. Similar has been the case with no […]
A candid, clear headed army chief shared his views in his press conference preceding army day. The conference covered a wide range of views from handling the Doklam crises to creating an army for the future, handling Pak’s misadventures, impact of education influencing the minds of the youth in Kashmir to the governments decision to cut the funding of education […]
There are reports in the media about the home and defence ministries reviewing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and seeking to dilute some sections of the same. This is to cater for comments made by the supreme court, demands by the PDP and NC as also a few expert committees. Similar attempts had been made by the government […]
Since the tweet by Trump at 4 AM on new years day, blaming Pak for consuming US funds and doing nothing in battling the Taliban and Haqqani network, relations between the two have only been spiralling downhill. The US has suspended all military assistance to Pak, issued threats and yet attempted to cajole them to act. Like always, back channels […]
The defence minister recently withdrew the controversial order of 2016, which had degraded army ranks as compared to their civilian counterparts. It was a welcome new year’s gift to the forces. However, there are many other contentious issues which still await her attention. Many are irritants from the past, while a few are recent decisions. Further is the need to […]
January 14th is armed forces veterans’ day. It is a day when veterans would be felicitated by the serving and briefed on ongoing schemes impacting them. The armed forces are possibly the only service, where veterans are cared for and respected all through life. This is because of a close bonding between the serving and them. In most infantry regiments, where […]
While the army does not hold patent rights for nationalism and national unity, it alone has done more to enhance this feeling within the nation as compared to any other institution or organization. Every soldier is a nationalist, willing to lay down his life safeguarding the nation’s citizens & interest. He walks into the line of fire knowing he may […]
Nitin Gadkari, the union minister for shipping in an address in Mumbai last week, questioned the authority of the navy in blocking a proposal for a floating jetty in Malabar Hill of Mumbai. He went on to state, ‘Where is the navy at Malabar Hill? A mindset has developed to create roadblocks in projects. Bring the project before me. We […]
Background Over the years, despite a collection of ceasefire agreements, violations along the LoC continue to rise. These increased from 152 in 2015 to 820 in 2017. Infiltrating militants killed in 2015 were 30 and in 2017 they were 59. Foiled attempts rose from 18 in 2015 to 33 in 2017 and Indian army soldiers killed in J and K […]