Events in the past one year has brought the military, mainly the army, into limelight for all the wrong reasons. While it has continued with its tasks of maintaining national security, dominating the Line of Control (LoC), ensuring a near normal environment in Kashmir thus enabling the government to commence dialogue through an interlocutor, it has been witnessing criticism from […]
The genesis of the article is derived from the vast flow of anti-army chief comments on social media, mostly from the veteran community. This article is not intended to defend any individual or institution or to assuage the support being provided by the veteran community, but to project realities, which are being glossed over. The present army chief assumed his […]
Since the announcement of employing the army to construct three Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) in Mumbai, a discussion has been launched on whether the government decision was right or wrong. Opposition politicians including Captain Amarinder Singh and Omar Abdullah amongst others warned the government against employing the army meaninglessly in roles earmarked for others. The army chief in an interview […]
A recent report of senior decorated veterans being manhandled and pushed away from their protest venue at Jantar Mantar by the Delhi police, was largely ignored by the media. However, social media was abuzz with the news, including videos of police highhandedness. The last time it happened was pre- Independence Day of 2015, when police roughed up aged veterans, even […]
The home minister, Rajnath Singh, recently appointed Dineshwar Sharma as the centre’s interlocutor for Kashmir. He went on to state that Sharma is free to interact with any group or member of the region, which in his view, is a stake holder. Thus, the restrictions placed by the government of not talking to the Hurriyat, which it considered anti-national and […]
Since the announcement by the defence and railway ministers on the army being tasked to construct the Foot Over Bridges (FOB) at Elphinstone railway station in Mumbai and two other places, there has been a flurry of criticism for the government’s decision. The Elphinstone FOB, is being constructed where a recent stampede claimed over twenty-three lives and left scores injured. […]
India has over the decades only modernized its military by importing hardware. It has been the largest importer of military hardware, as its Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) maintained monopoly, preventing the private sector from entering the market and itself being a failure in almost all military technologies, less missiles and space. Thus, with dependency on imports, the military’s […]
I had written a fortnight ago, in this column, on the ‘equivalence commission’. It is now back in the limelight, even before the earlier controversy had died. The previous commission formed in 2016, post the MoD issuing a controversial letter degrading military officers rank structure, was tasked to establish equivalence between them and the civil cadre. The commission had internal […]
Introduction The Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, announced the recommencement of the dialogue process in Kashmir, with the appointment of Dineshwar Sharma, the former IB Director, as the centre’s interlocutor. Sharma has been given a free hand to interact with any group or member of society, seeking the aspirations of the people, to enable the centre to move forward with a […]
War, ethnic cleansing and droughts create refugee movements, compelling hordes of suffering humans to move from their permanent residence seeking shelter, food and security to life. In reality, no one desires to leave his place of residence and become a refugee in an alien land, irrespective of present difficulties or benefits it may provide in the future. However, wars and […]