Undemocratic Team Anna vs. democratically elected Government. Will the Lokpal eradicate corruption?

Corruption it seems has become a marketable commodity today. Media houses, so-called civil society, political parties, common man all seems to have been bit by the anti-corruption bug. So much so that even the corrupt are becoming anti-corruption crusaders.

Let’s take the case of Lokpal or Jan Lokpal as Team Anna loves to call it (as it is their version of the Lokpal).

Lokpal or ombudsman as it is called elsewhere is a grievance redressal mechanism for the citizens.

The Wikipedia definition:
An ombudsman is an official, usually appointed by the government or by parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens.

As is clear from the ombudsman legislations of different countries, an ombudsman is a trusted intermediary (mediator) between the organization (govt.) and the internal/external constituents (citizens in this case). In simple terms he is a government representative hearing & mediating complaints against the government. He is appointed by the government or the parliament of the country.

But what Team Anna is asking for, through their version of the Lokpal bill, is an extra constitutional authority which can even override the functioning of the elected government. By even bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal they are seriously undermining the office of the Head of the State. How can in an elective democracy an appointed official supersede his appointer? Nothing but the Parliament can be the supreme authority in a democracy. Just think, with all those powers resting with a single individual or a group of individuals, will we not be moving towards a self inflicted dictatorship.

Corruption sure is a cancer that is eating this country and everyone is concerned about it – not just the so called ‘civil society’. But as we all are concerned, we all are also responsible for it. Tell me who does not bribe a TTE to get his wait-listed and sometimes even an unreserved (general) ticket confirmed for a berth. Is the government responsible for the milkman adding water to your milk religiously every day? Or is the farmer asked by the government to inject oxytocin to fruits & vegetables. Neither do the Govt. asks Ekta Kapoor to dish out soap-operas that have corrupted our family values nor news channels who put a question-mark on our intelligence by showing “nag-nagin” & “dilli mein himyug” stories as news.

Corruption in this country is not limited to the government alone. It is part of our daily lives from top to bottom. A Lokpal alone can never fight this menace. We need to bring about a social change – through awareness programmes, campaigns, spiritual gurus and education & training system. We need to tell our citizens that through corruption you may get your work done today but it is going to ruin your tomorrow. We need to inculcate moral values into our system starting from the basic education to IITs, IIMs & Administrative academies.

It is easy to blame the government or the politician for corruption but don’t forget they all come from amongst us. Politicians, bureaucrats, police, media, armed forces – don’t come from Mars – they are as much part of our civil society as Team Anna is. So it has to be a combined concentrated effort on part of every one of us to fight the menace together and not against each other. But yes the Govt. does have the biggest responsibility in the matter.

It is sad that the principal opposition party for petty political gains has been trivialising the issue and not making its position clear on the matter. They cannot behave irresponsibly just because they are not in power. Tomorrow they’ll have to face the same issues when they come to power (if they have somehow concluded they are never returning back, then it is a different matter altogether). The Ramdev drama showed their immaturity & trying to milk the issue for petty gains. If they are really serious about corruption – they should set their house in order in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh & Gujarat.

Now let’s come back to Team Anna & me calling them undemocratic. They are undemocratic because neither are they elected nor appointed nor represent the real civil society. They actually forced themselves upon us riding on the goodwill of Anna Hazare. Their behavior in the panel meetings & outside has largely been dictatorial. If the Govt. does not agree to any of their viewpoints they call the Govt. cheats & liars & threaten with calls of agitation & fast unto death.

The very purpose of the joint-committee is to discuss matters relating to different versions of the draft and arrive at an amicable resolution. But Team Anna members are hell bent on getting their version of the bill forwarded to the cabinet. If they wanted to have their version passed why did they agree to a joint-committee? They should’ve straight away asked the Govt. to table their draft in the parliament. Out of 40 provisions there is agreement on 34. How can you say then that the Govt. is not serious? Now Team Anna says the six points of disagreement (like inclusion of the PM under the purview of Lokpal) are important while the others are less important. I ask them if their other provisions were not so important, why they included them in the first place. They should have put only those six, which they now call utmost important, on the table. How is it that only what the five Team Anna members say is important. Why is nobody listening to what the government has to say? There are other prominent people in this country who understand the law & the constitution far better than the Bhushans. Why should their advice be, not taken on this matter. Why didn’t Team Anna publish their draft and ask eminent jurists & constitutional experts across the country for their opinions? Why is it that Prashant Bhushan calls for a referendum now when the ball is in the parliament? Why did he not have a referendum for his version of the bill first? Do they even know how a bill is drafted in a parliamentary democracy? It is not that the government drafts a bill and gets it passed from the Parliament & the President straightaway. The draft of any bill is published for the people to advice. It is scrutinized by legal experts, state governments and the union cabinet. It sometimes goes to a standing committee for approval and then is presented on the floor of the house. There are various disagreements in the process. The Cabinet members don’t always agree to everything in the draft. A long time is taken to discuss and amend points of disagreement. It is not that people agreeing start calling people who disagree, cheats and liars. In the parliament every point is discussed thoroughly and opinions from the members are noted. A bill can be put to vote then or reintroduced later if amendments are sought by the members.

A section of the media specially the news channels are misleading the country and trivializing the issue by hiding many a facts. How is it that they never tell the other side of the story? Just because you are a politician and are part of the ruling party, you are doomed. Don’t forget – this very Govt. brought us RTI (Right to Information Act) which had become a de-facto tool to fight corruption in this country. It was not Anna Hazare or Ramdev who fought for it. I don’t say that the Govt. is completely clean but let’s give credit where it is due. There is a lot to this Govt.’s credit like the NREGA, Right to Education, Food Security Act, JN-NURM, NRHM (services like 108 are actually conceived and aided by the Central Govt.)

The Indian TV media behaves exactly what the famous TATA DoCoMo ad states – “poora mat bolo, poora mat dikhao, poora mat sunao”

It has become a fashion to always stand against the Govt. without finding the facts first. Let us take the recent case of Arunima in UP. The girl who was allegedly thrown out of a running train around Bareilly. She was called by the media a national athlete. The media blamed the Govt. & asked for compensations & job for her. The media also wanted an apology from the UP CM and Union Railway Minister. When preliminary investigations were done & police pointed to a possible suicide, the media blamed the police for hiding facts. But slowly this became clear that the girl had indeed tried to commit suicide and she was not even a district level athlete let alone a national level one. The exams she said she was going to attend (ITBP) never took place at that time, later she changed her statement that she was going to inquire for a CISF exam. The truth was very different from the one that the media had stated. She had a failed marriage & when her in-laws refused to accept her back, she went to her alleged boyfriend in Delhi. When he also refused to accept her, she jumped out of the train.

This was never reported by the main-stream media because it would have sounded foot-in-the-mouth for the media. There are numerous instances of this but the media does not want to learn its lessons. Don’t know what ever happened to free & fair reporting. These people have become judges, jury & even started pronouncing verdicts. Another example of an independent institution gone wrong. It has become a game of TRPs where someone like Ramdev is given extra importance & 24hr coverage but a lone sadhu (Nigamanand) who gives his life for the same cause is not considered even worth a mention.

A look at Team Anna
Arvind Kejriwal, for whom I’d a lot of respect for his RTI endeavors, shouts unnecessarily and never lets anyone else speak. I’ve seen him on many TV debates – he’ll never agree to the other panelists’ viewpoints and keep disrupting when others speak. I still don’t doubt his integrity but he has lost my respect.

Prashant Bhushan – the mastermind behind Team Anna – is a lawyer by profession, so I don’t need to say more. He speaks gospel truth and anybody who questions him is a Govt. agent. The gentleman has a contempt of court case going against him along with a stamp duty evasion case in UP. His family got farmland allotment in NOIDA which everyone knows, no one gets without right connections. Has crores worth of wealth to his name (his father has arabs - billions) earned allegedly through public interest litigations (PILs). He will sue anyone who questions his integrity. I fear, I may be in line too. In a court affidavit filed by him on a contempt of court petition, the gentleman has stated that he is not comfortable with dharna style of protest (excerpts below). But he is using Anna Hazare to do exactly the same.

Though I was aware of the NBA dharna outside the Supreme Court on the 13th of December, and I must admit that I did nothing to stop it, I was not present at the Dharna. This was not because I do not sympathise with the cause of the oustees who had come for the dharna, or because I disapproved the idea of a dharna outside the court, but because I am not personally comfortable with this mode of protest. I have written about how grossly erroneous from the Majority judgement in the Sardar Sarovar case was, and the enormous injustice that it perpetrates on the oustees. I am also distressed by the fact that the the majority judges have dismissed the review petition without even giving the petitioners an oral hearing, despite such a powerful dissent by Justice Bharucha.
- Excerpts from Prashant Bhushan’s reply to a contempt of court petition filed by Adv. J.R. Parashar & others dated 16/04/2001 (Supreme Court CR No.: 2/2001)

Shanti Bhushan – Father of Prashant Bhushan, an ex-minister and a lawyer himself. Never pushed for Lokpal when he himself was a minister in the union government. Blames the politicians despite being a politician himself. Case of stamp duty evasion in UP. Has a NOIDA farmland allotment to his name. Wealth in excess of Rs. 2 billions.

Santosh Hegde – He is the Karnataka Lokayukta and a retired Supreme Court judge. Is considered as the best Lokayukta the country has today. Despite his efforts he is not able to curb enormous cases of corruption in the state of Karnataka. He resigned as Lokayukta in June 2010, expressing inability to be effective in his anti-corruption mandate owing to a non-cooperative Government of Karnataka. He took back his resignation after persuasion by BJP national leadership fueling assumptions of being associated with the BJP.

Anna Hazare – The man whose shoulders are used for this entire fight for Lokpal Bill. He is a clean and honest crusader with a long history of protests & fasts to his name. He has fought for the cause of the common people for many years. Allegations are that he is being used by the so called “civil society” members to further their own goals. I saw Anna Hazare being tutored by Arvind Kejriwal on a NDTV talk show. When Anna gave an answer that was not to the liking of Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Kejriwal prompted and rephrased the question in Hindi, slighting changing it and hinting to Anna Hazare to change his answer. When asked by a lady as to why the language of Team Anna of late had been abusive – both Prashant Bhushan & Arvind Kejriwal (who are the ones shouting & abusing the most) shrugged off responsibility & placed it on Anna Hazare. Arvind Kejriwal emphasized that only liars & cheats have been used and that too only by Anna Hazare.

The team has called their movement “2nd war of independence”, as if mere constituting the Lokpal will eradicate corruption in this country. And what is the guarantee that the Lokpal thus constituted will be free of corruption itself. Where will the common man go to if the Lokpal staff starts doing what our police does. Is there a guarantee that people will not be threatened in the name of anti-corruption by the Lokpal staffers? After all the Lokpal will be consisting of the same very society from where other people come from.

I dunno how many people have interacted with human rights commission staffers. They are rude, arrogant & threaten people of consequences when confronted. Just see the conduct of pollution control board staffers. It is one of the most corrupt organizations today. They threaten people with dire consequences if they are not paid handsomely.

Lokpal is being tom-tommed in a manner as if it will completely eradicate corruption from this country. For me it is too far-fetched. Even the BJP leaders off-the-record agree that some of the Team Anna’s demands are impractical & absurd.

And it is not the Congress Govt. alone that has to pass the bill. It is the parliament that will put its stamp of approval to make it a bill. Even the state governments have to agree. It would have been wiser if Team Anna had circulated their draft to all political parties & sought opinions from them. They should have tried to build a consensus with all the players that will be involved in the process. It is not just the Congress that is corrupt. There are far more corrupt parties in this country and they also have a stake in passing the bill. Let us say the Union Cabinet under pressure agrees to the provisions that Team Anna consider important. What if after the bill is tabled, the BJP, BSP & SP don’t agree to the draft or to the Team Anna provisions? Will it ever see the light of day?

It is very easy to criticize anyone especially the government. But it is an entirely different case when you are in the same position. If you’ve a solution please put it forward, if not, let the person handling it decide what is to be done. Let us also not be victims to propaganda created by political parties & some individuals. People like Ramdev are businessmen not yogis. They have a hidden agenda for their personal benefits & not for the masses. The man who owns an island in Scotland must tell the people from where he amassed such wealth in such a short period of time. And please don’t tell innocent people that someone donated it to you. His yoga camps are nothing but money mints. People are charged from Rs. 1000 for the back rows to upto Rs.50,000 for the front rows. The ayurvedic medicines that are sold by him are more expensive than Dabur or Baidynath. If he is so concerned about the common man – why doesn’t he subsidise the medicines. How much benefit his yoga gives is anybody’s guess now. The man himself couldn’t sustain 6 days of fasting and had to be admitted to an allopathic hospital – the same allopathy Ramdev claims he’ll make do shirshasana.

Everyone wants a corruption free India but the means to achieve the end should also be corruption free and beyond suspicion. Change doesn’t come in an instant. It took more than 100 years of struggle to free India from the Raj while the fight against corruption has just started.

Future leaders in the sub-continent. Who will prevail? You decide.

Future Leader: India


AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi takes part in a “shramdaan” (voluntary labour) at Pinjra village in Baran district of Rajasthan. (pic courtsey: The Hindu)

Future Leader: Pakistan

Bilawal Zardari, son of Benazir Bhutto & Asif Ali Zardari, completely drunk at a night club/pub in UK

The dance of democracy, shoe-ing of politicians, Varun, Tytler, et.al.

Today the world's largest democracy went into the largest administrative exercise in the world - The Indian General Elections. The first of the five phases covered 124 constituencies all over India. Braving the harsh sun & the extremists' gun 62% voters casted their franchise to elect the next rulers of India.

Some where in the middle of it a news item broke which should have caught the headlines but never did, thanks to the friends of BJP which are quite a many in the media. Except for Vinod Dua on NDTV India, no one bothered to highlight the event.
And the event was - a khadau (wooden slipper) was thrown at the so called "majboot neta". And to add insult to injury the person to throw it was a BJP partyworker. The same BJP that spared no platform when a shoe was hurled at PC & supported the action indirectly is now mum & sees a Congress hand. Poor BJP worker is now arrested. Why did the BJP who took such a "moral high ground" & showed so much concerns about the '84 riots on the PC shoe incident not concerned about its own party workers? Why is it that a shoe thrown at a Congress leader is legitimate but becomes a conspiracy when it is thrown at a BJP leader? It now seems even the party workers are fed-up of BJP double-speak.

There are reports of Varun Gandhi speech CD/DVDs now being circulated, which is another example of the real face of the 'party with a difference'. On one hand they say, Varun never made those statements & on the other hand for petty political gains they are distributing the same CD.

Congress is no saint but atleast they denied tickets to '84 riots accused even if they were under public & media pressure. They have repeatedly regretted & asked sorry for that. Has BJP done that even once? For Narendra Modi they say that he won in the court of the public, but isn't that true for Sajjan Kumar & Jagdish Tytler (both constituencies have a sizeable number of Sikhs & they vote in Congress' favor). In support of Varun, the BJP says that he should be trusted because he says it is not his voice, then why not trust Tytler when he says he was not involved. It seems the BJP wants no rule of law for their men. They'll be considered innocent if they simply deny their involvement & the opponents will be held guilty even if acquitted in a court of law. Don't forget that it was under NDA rule that both Tytler & Sajjan Kumar were given clean chits. It is also interesting to note that nobody reports the BJP & RSS involvement in '84 riots - thanks again to their media friends (they are suitably rewarded with Rajya Sabha tickets). Even the polling agent of Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was involved & there are FIRs registered against more than 70 BJP & RSS men. I'm myself witness to an act of harrasment of a Sikh family by BJP supporters.

BJP wants us to forget 2002 but remember 1984. How do you expect fair governance from people who have such double standards. On one hand Advaniji says "Mandir wahi banayenge" & on the other hand he feels sorry for Babri Masjid demolition. You lead a nationwide Rath Yatra to demolish Babri Masjid & then when it is demolished you cry & feel sorry. So much for a Majboot Neta who can't even accept responsibility. He has cheated the Hindus & now cheating the Muslims too. Kandhamal, Mangalore, Gujarat - though they seem stray incidents to some but let me tell you, vote in the BJP on its own & then see how the whole country will burn.

They are the ones responsible for a low in Indian polity. Last elections it was personal attacks on Sonia Gandhi & this time it is the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The world applauds the man but the country which he is doing proud the world over calls him "weak" - such a shame. Sorry Mr. Obama some in this country don't feel proud of Dr. Manmohan Singh & what he did to this country, though they followed his economic policies & claimed "India Shining".

They are also hitting at all democratic & constitutional institutions nowadays. First it was cash in Lok Sabha (I'm not defending anyone but the matter should have been reported to the Speaker, instead of a public show), then came CBI & now it is the Election Commission. Who ever does'nt speaks what the BJP wants to hear is partisan & working under Congress pressure. If tomorrow the honourable Supreme Court decides against Varun Gandhi they will call it "Supreme Court of Congress". (no contempt of court meant here)

I may seem to many as a Congress agent or chamcha but I'm more concerned about my country & its unity in diversity. I dont want taliban style justice in this country as happened in Kandhmal & Mangalore. Rightists either Islamic or Hindu (hindutva to be precise) are equally dangerous to the secular fabric of this country. Same as are the Islamic terrorists or the "Hindu" ones. The Congress is the lesser evil to me as it atleast believes in taking all the sections together.

But in the end I'll only say - make an informed choice & do vote. Not only is it your right but also your responsibility. After all we only get the Government we deserve.

TATA nano - A billion dreams fulfilled.

This could've come from the Tatas only. The world's cheapest car - cheap only for the price tag but rich in features & design - was launched by the Tatas on Monday, 23rd of March 2009. Tatas are one of the handful Indian businessmen who honour their commitments & take pride in putting the common indian first. The nano is not a dream fulfilled of Ratan Tata only, but also of a billion+ Indians. It instills a sense of pride in every Indian to have achieved a milestone in the automobile industry worldwide with our frugal engineering capabilities & out-of-the-box thinking. The world is awed with disbelief that such a feat has been achieved. Everyone thought it was impossible to built a $2500 or a one lakh rupee car. People said - It will be more of a golf-cart like thing with rexine covers & all. But see the wonder called 'nano'. Not only is it a fully built car but beautiful at that, exceeding all emission & safety standards. There are features that are even absent in the more expensive A & B segment cars like tubeless radials, digital fuel gauge, tripmeter, AC with heater (yes the Maruti 800 AC does'nt have a heater), booster brakes, power windows, front & rear fog lamps, central locking & power windows.

And what a better time to launch it - the economic slowdown (for India, recession for many countries incl. the US) with all its gloom needed a cheer-up. Though the Indian auto industry is doing better despite the slowdown nano is sure to boost up the morale all around. Suddenly the buzz in the market has increased. People are discussing 'nano' features, comparing it with the "better" cars, looking for which model to book & the like. Many of my friends have print-outs from the nano website, with all its features & specs and I'm being called upon to discuss & suggest. (Ya I'm bragging myself here - but I'm an auto-enthusiast too)

I am a fan of the 'nano' since its inception & the photographs you see here are shot by me & a dear friend of mine at the AutoExpo '08. Drove 500+ kms in a single day for the beauty called TATA nano & it overwhelmed me when I first saw her before my eyes. When I reached the TATA stall it was late in the evening (it took 2+ hours to park our car near Pragati Maidan). There was a huge crowd, only comparable to the 'Kumbh Mela' outside the TATA stall, slowly ( a snail seemed faster that day) moving in. When our turn came, the police blocked the entry gate. It felt all our pains were to go in vain. We were about to move out but suddenly the policemen guarding the gate had a change of mind. They removed all the barriers & the crowd shouting with joy barged in. We just flowed with the crowd & flowed without an effort to the nano display. There she was - a beauty of design & engineering excellence, on a huge platform surrounded by a sea of men, women & children. All awestruck & admiring. While the common man was happy that he can now afford a car the better offs were saying - "Ek to leni padegi" - & that included me & my friend. Trust me it was hysteria all around & proudly at that.

I have double reason to feel proud of - First I'm an Indian & secondly I come from Uttarakhand - from where the first nanos will roll out. Ever since the Tatas decided for a factory for nano, Uttarakhand (then known as Uttaranchal), was the frontrunner. The then Chief Minister Pt N.D. Tiwari put all his efforts to bring nano to Uttarakhand. Tatas though opened a factory in Pantnagar in UA but nano for other reasons went to Singur. It was a blessing in disguise for the Tata factory in UA which till then only manufactured the "Chhota Haathi" ACE that the Singur crisis happened. Also because the ACE and nano team is headed by the same guys esp. the brilliant & inspirational Girish Wagh, the production line was easily modified to manufacture nano. Let me here acknowledge Girish Wagh - a young engineer - who is the brain behind both ACE & nano. His father too had served TATA Motors on the Indica project.

It was a lot of hard work, ingenuity & out-of-the-box thinking by the team that made possible a full-fledged car with a price tag to drool over. There were so many hurdles that came right from the design stage to the production, but TATA & the team kept their promises. Many may argue that it is actually going to cost more than a lakh so how come the promise was fulfilled. It was if you take into account that the promise was made many years back & since then inflation has increased a lot. If you take the value of nano today & compare it with prices years ago, when nano was promised - it will be actually going below that one lac rupee mark. And if this argument does not satisfy you enough, nano at even Rs. 1.12L (base model) is still the cheapest & equally affordable.

It has tubeless tyres & digital fuel gauge as standard for all models. Even the 3 times priced Santro can't boast of that. AC on CX & LX models is really better than the Maruti 800AC & even has a heater which is absent in the 800AC. Though it is smaller from the outside viz-a-viz the Maruti 800 by about 5% but from the inside it has 21% more room. It is almost 20cms higher than the Alto so 6 feeters can easily drive it with a few cms to spare. Engine power is almost equal to Maruti 800 with 50kg lesser weight (on the standard nano). The engine is all aluminium - the first on this category of cars. LX & CX come with vaccum assisted brakes (though the brakes are drum type) so as to make braking easy & efficient. Though it is a 4 seater but what is good news for us Indians is that it is 55mm more wider than Maruti 800. So we'll be using it as a 5 seater as we do to all our Marutis just with a bit more room. The LX model features central locking, body colored bumpers & ORVMs, power windows & even front & rear fog lamps. And that (LX) model with all the goodies is still well short of the Rs.2L mark on road. Far less than the humble Maruti 800STD which has none of the creature comforts mentioned above (neither do its higher priced siblings).

And imagine what mileage it gives to you - an impressive 23.6kms to a litre of petrol - my Yamaha RX135 gives me only a little more, while my 800 (the most fuel efficient petrol car currently) gives an overall 16 to a litre.



Just check the specs & features at tatanano.com & i bet you'll want to go ahead & book the nano.
The forms are available for Rs.300/- (Rs.200/- if you book online)at:
a. Select SBI branches
b. Tata Motor Dealerships
c. Croma Outlets
d. Westside Stores
e. Tata Indicom Exclusive Stores
f. World of Titan Showrooms

26/11 & Lahore – Attacks or rehearsals?

Does the events in Mumbai on 26/11 & more recently in Lahore on Sri Lankan cricketers on 3rd March point to something big in the making. Is a bigger attack or maybe a series of them, pending somewhere in the world, especially the US? Many would laugh at my assumption or conspiracy theory (whatever you choose to call it) but many may agree.

I am not being Zaid Hamid, living in a make believe world and having a hidden agenda to subscribe to nor Amaresh Mishra, that I'll even defy logic to support my stance. I think my sanity still prevails. And I am also not saying what I am stating is right. It is just an assumption.

The reason I am making this assumption is because of a few reasons that may have gone unnoticed. There were no hostages taken at all by the attackers – none in Mumbai & none in Lahore, though they had a great opportunity to do so in both cases. Some may argue that they did took hostages in Chabad House/Nariman Bhawan & in Taj, Trident/Oberoi but in reality that was not the case.

If you take hostages you gather them all in one place, a terrorist guards them while the others negotiate. You don’t let them easily escape as little Moshe & his nanny did in Cabard House & other people did at the Taj & Trident/Oberoi.

I was glued to the news channels since the attack started (remained glued for the whole three days believe me) and could see people being rescued by the firemen & security forces. They were rescuing them with ease with no resistance being offered by the terrorists. The attackers were just busy blowing up the Taj. As was evident from the intercepts later revealed by the security agencies, even the handlers were not too keen to keep hostages alive. In a hostage situation you do need to keep the hostages alive in order to negotiate but that was never the case. They were more keen on engaging with the security forces.

The CCTV footages that were later revealed too showed the terrorist roaming around the hotel with no hostages. As Kasab stated – this was no suicide mission – why were they not taking a few hostages as that would have helped them either negotiate or atleast escape.

If only killing was the mission – they could’ve killed atleast a thousand people. Most casualties happened at CST station which as all Mumbai stations is over-crowded. They killed nobody inside the Cama Hospital. On the outside though was a different story where we lost our three bravest men. There were around a thousand people in Trident/Oberoi & Taj hotels when the incident took place. They could’ve easily killed a few hundreds but killed only a few (statistically speaking – though the loss was immense). The arms & ammunitions they were carrying was enough to kill almost all of them (RR Patil even stated that the plan was to kill 5000 people). Then why did they neither killed (the way they should have to achieve that target) nor negotiated?

A mission with no objectives is hard to believe in. According to Kasab & also the intercepts of the handlers – they wanted to negotiate release of fellow terrorists but we never saw that happening. No negotiation attempt was ever made. Instead the handler for the Nariman Bhavan told the terrorist to kill the only surviving hostage (rabbi’s wife) in such a manner that the bullet goes out of the window.

Without a few hostages alive how could the terrorists thought of surviving or negotiating or in Kasab’s version return to Pakistan?

Let us now take the tragedy in Lahore. The terrorists came, attacked & returned safe & sound. (Was this they had in mind when they came to Mumbai? Had they thought the security apparatus in India is as pathetic as theirs?) What was the mission all about? There are reports that they wanted to take hostages. Why was that not done? They could also have easily killed the whole Lankan team as the security was in-appropriate. But they never did that instead went away. If anyone says that it was because of the police they ran away then it is not at all the case. The CCTV footage clearly shows they were very casual in the way they went away. There was no fear at all. It was as if they didn’t give a damn to the police. One guy actually came back with his bike & then took the other two with him. A video also shows them passing by a police vehicle with arms in hand. They could’ve easily diverted as the police van was visible from a distance & there was a road going to the attackers left too, but they chose to go straight. If they didn’t fear the police at all as was evident – why did they left without more killings & no hostages?

It seemed to me as if they were rehearsing for a big game ahead. Remember Kasab’s statement that there were around forty others that were trained with him. If that was a batch of 40 & considering there could be other batches as well we can only conclude that a sizeable number of terrorists are waiting to attack another place from the sea route. That place could be India again & more possibly the US. They could’ve done this to gather information on how the responses would be & then incorporate them in future attacks.

This is all an assumption which I thought could be possible. I could not be right in my assumption but one thing is for sure – I’m not all wrong. Rest for you all to comment & put your thoughts forward.

Arjun MBT - will the controversy end?

The issue about Arjun MBT is as old as the blogosphere itself. No defence blog is complete without the talk of the Arjun MBT (Main Battle Tank). I am also picking up the same old story but with a view to make fellow ordinary Indians stand up to the cause in any small way they can. It is not to gather any kind of support for Arjun, neither against it but to put things in their right perspective. But it sure is an effort to create more awareness and support for the indigenous development programmes.

Fellow bloggers are aware of the controversy surrounding the Arjun MBT & for the newbies – Arjun MBT is portrayed as a failure by (a section of) the media, defence experts & even the Indian Army. The Pakistanis especially are very vocal about it. They leave no chance (they create one if they don’t get one) to tarnish the image of Arjun MBT.

It all started in 1972 after the Indo-Pak war when the Indian govt. thought to have a tank of its own. The task was assigned to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with early 1990s set for introduction of the MBT. Though the project was to make a totally indigenous tank except for the powerpack (engine), Arjun relied heavily on foreign components. Even now it is reported to have upto 60% of foreign components.

The project took a long 36 years in the making with huge cost overruns. An approximate Rs. 300 crores were spent instead of the Rs.15.5 crores originally allotted. But it was not all DRDOs fault. The Indian Army too kept changing its requirements (technically called the GSQR – General Staff Qualitative Requirements) as time passed & major developments took place all over the world. DRDO in turn tried to match everything it can in the changing GSQRs, either by developing in-house or getting it from outside. But after all that, what DRDO came up was a world class battle tank. And if you go by the specs, Arjun MBT can arguably be called the best MBT in the world.

So what is the controversy, the newbies may ask. So I am putting the most controversial aspects here along with the respective facts.

Let’s start by the most contentious issue – weight. The Army says the Arjun MBT is over-weight. Yes it is if you compare this 58.5 ton (originally meant to be 40 ton) tank with the Russian T-90S (Indian acquired version is called Bhishma) which is 46.5 ton approx. But when you look at the class Arjun belongs to, it is on par (even better) with other contemporary tanks in its class like the American Abrams M1 (69.5T) or the German Leopard 2 (62.3T) or the Israeli Merkava (65T). If you consider its actual ground pressure (weight per sq. cm of ground) it actually is even lighter than the T-90S. It is also said that there are no roads or bridges that can support the extra weight. I don’t understand - if we can carry 47 tonnes can’t we strengthen our bridges to carry 10-12 tonnes more? Tomorrow if Russia comes up with a heavier tank what will the Army do? What if Pakistan purchases Abrams? Will they not then buy heavier tanks or will stick to the T-90S because of the lack of roads/bridges.As for the chances of the heavier Arjun sinking during battle in the desert – you decide – Abrams M1 is 10 tonnes heavier & exerts more ground pressure (15.4 psi compared to Arjun’s 11.9) but performed well in the Gulf War.
Same holds true for Arjun’s dimensions & the argument that it is not possible to carry it with the current railway carriages. Are we not even capable of developing special transporters if the current ones don’t suit us? Of course we do & therefore these arguments hold no ground. After all we changed the whole railway system to broad-gauge from meter gauge and trust me that was a herculean task compared to this. And how much does it exceeds the limit – 6 cms on the side of the railcars.

The other thing that was much publicised was over-heating. Yes it did overheated & therefore caused a lot of problems, even the electronics blew away because of the excess heat. But things were improved by the DRDO. Not only did they succeeded in bringing the heatup to acceptable levels, they also hardened their electronics to sustain high heat, all this with no extra cost to the army. Contrast this with the T-90S which also has a heatup problem but the solution Russians offered was to install air-conditioners adding more cost to the tanks.

Next comes the Fire Control System. It was erratic in the beginning with a 20-80% first hit rate. But with Israeli help it is now state-of-the-art with an extremely high hit probability. Arjun has demonstrated extremely satisfying firing characteristics in all situations be it moving to static, static to static & moving to moving. It is supposedly the only tank that can fire on moving targets while on the move.

Coming to survivability – Arjun was also criticised for having a bigger silhouette than T-90S therefore attracting more enemy attention & thus more hits. But Arjun was not designed to avoid enemy hits. Unlike its Russian counterparts which are designed to escape the eye of the enemy Arjun was designed to survive the enemy. Russian tanks are not good at surviving if hit by enemy fire. Their best protection is to escape it. You can see pictures (and read the article too) of the T-90 tanks devastated by enemy fire at Ajai Shukla’s blog – Broadsword. But Arjun MBT survives enemy fire. Trials have shown that Arjun with DRDO developed ‘Kanchan’ armour survives all explosive rounds including the APFSDS (Armour Peircing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot). So to say that there is no tank ammunition currently available to destroy the Arjun will not be all wrong. T-90S has ERA (Explosive Reactive Armour) protection but it doesn’t saves the tank from FSAPDS. And by the way Arjun too supports ERA as an add-on.

Crew protection in Arjun is far better than in Russian tanks (actually they have almost nothing for crew protection – their design actually worsens it). Arjun has its ammunition separated from the crew compartment & stored in water-tight containers. It has automatic fire detection and suppressing system that automatically activates within milliseconds in case of a fire. While in the T-90S the crew sits over the ammunition compartment, so if a mine explodes beneath the tank, it results in the tank ammunition exploding & thus destroying the tank & killing the crew. NBC (Nuclear, Biological & Chemical weapons) protection is standard, which is also there with the T-90S.

Now let’s talk of the Arjun MBT features & their respective advantages.It has an automatic transmission (absent in T-90S) which is helpful during shoot and scoot operations. It has a capability to fire the Israeli LAHAT (Laser Homing Anti Tank) missile, which is considered the deadliest anti-tank weapon. It also extends Arjun’s firing range to approx. 8 kms. It has an in-house developed hydro-pneumatic suspension system that adds to crew comfort & reduces fatigue. The crew commander has an independent panoramic sight along with the gunner’s main sight with day & night capability and can engage targets in emergency. Arjun has been tested to drive under six feet water (also called fording) for 20 minutes.

But the best of all features are the APU & BMS. APU is Auxiliary Power Unit which powers the tank even when the engines are off. So the Arjun can engage an enemy even when in silent “watch mode”. BMS, short for Battle Management System is a specialty of the Arjun MBT which facilitates tactical command, control and communications between the tank and rest of the team, which is further enhanced by inclusion of GPS (Global Positioning System).

If we consider all this, we wonder why Arjun has been given such a bad name. We were developing a sophisticated piece of military hardware and that too for the very first time, so problems were bound to surface. Even the technologically superior countries have a long list of failed/delayed projects. So why this hue & cry? Why has DRDO being ridiculed everywhere as failing to deliver? Is it all DRDO’s fault or is the arms lobby behind maligning the project? Well the blame lies somewhere in between. DRDO is to be blamed for undervaluing the project & not going with it in a systematic way. They were averse to foreign assistance/collaboration for many years. It is only when they couldn’t fairly succeed they sought foreign help. Same was the story in respect to the LCA Tejas. But now better sense has prevailed in DRDO and they are in active involvement with the Israelis, Russians, French & even the Americans.
But the arms lobby, which includes (as media reports suggest) people from the establishment, have also tried its best to sabotage the project with constant disinformation campaign. Physical sabotage of the Arjun MBTs on trial was also reported in the media but remains unconfirmed.

But the online award goes to the Pakistanis who have left no stone unturned in carrying out a disinformation campaign against Arjun & almost all Indian defence developments including the LCA & the missile programme vis-a-vis Pakistani programmes.

I would like to also say something about the Pakistani defence programmes and the propaganda machinery here. Imagine a country which has nothing substantial to claim as indigenous development – not even something as small as a car – boasts of successful developments of high-tech military hardware. Can you imagine missiles being inducted without tests, labelled as home grown? Fighter aircraft (JF-17), cruise missiles(Babur), nuclear programme, Al Khalid MBT all developed by Pakistan indigenously without a single reported failure and that too in a record time frame. It took US almost 30 years to develop its F-16s while Pakistan did the JF-17 in 4 years. But the fact of the matter is nothing is developed by Pakistan but sourced from China, Ukraine, North Korea & even Russia.
I’ll soon be coming with a post regarding all this Pakistani “indigenous development” so let’s leave it at that.

In the end the good news is that Chief of Army Staff Gen. Deepak Kapoor has written to the Defence Ministry appreciating the Arjun MBT thus paving way for further inductions. I am eagerly waiting for the comparative trials between Arjun MBT and T-90S Bhisma, which the Army has been shying away from. I also want the media, which is so hysterically active when it comes to silly issues, pays attention to this & similar issues & creates a mass awareness so as to deter the lobby which has been constantly opposing efforts to defence indigenisation.

I would like to appreciate the Indian Navy here for going all out for indigenous development and also to a greater extent the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Indian Army sure needs to catch up.

A request to fellow bloggers:
Please comment if you can. Not only it gives an insight about how & what others think, but has an appreciation value attached to it too, which helps improve the posts & instills more passion.
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SmarterOne

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Pakistan – At its messiest best?

As the events unfold after Sri Lankan players were attacked in Lahore yesterday it seems very likely that another blame game is ready to be played. Some sections of Pakistani media & the establishment have started blaming India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) for the attacks despite being uncanny similarity with 26/11. Though a few saner media houses have rubbished the charges & instead blamed the home-grown, ever increasing jehadi outfits.

Let’s for once assume it as being done by RAW. This assumption makes RAW the agency that is in control of Pakistan & I’ll try to explain why. For nobody knew which route the players will take to the stadium except the security agencies & even that route was changed at the last moment. They even knew which one of the three buses the players were seated in. That means an insider must have leaked it or the RAW got the route changed according to its designs. There is also a police station within a few yards of where the incident happened & there were no policemen guarding the roundabout (RAW managed this also?). It is also said in the Pakistani media that the attackers crossed over from Wagah. Wagah is on one side manned by BSF & on the other by Pak Rangers. BSF is an Indian force so RAW could have managed slipping people from this side. But how did they evade the Paki Rangers on the other side? This is not a 7600km coastline but a few meter wide heavily guarded road. Has RAW penetrated into Paki Rangers also to such an extent? The security cover provided to Srilankans was very thin. No armed police escorts, no commandos, no bullet-proof vehicles, no aerial surveillance etc. Seems like RAW worked that out too. And no resistance was provided to the attackers. There were no road blockades as is the norm & no chase given to the attackers. So RAW managed that the attackers could easily get away that too unharmed? Any one who saw yesterday’s videos carefully must have noticed the lax manner in which the Pakistani authorities collected evidence completely ignoring set procedures & guidelines. I wonder if that was out of ignorance or deliberate.

If you go by this assumption & a few points that I’ve put forward and also acknowledging the fact that managing a cricket series when a foreign team is there, amidst high security threat, involves a lot of agencies & preparations. There is also a diplomatic aspect of it so the foreign relations setup is also involved. Now if RAW managed to stage the attack in such a scenario & with precise information, one can only conclude that RAW has control over all the agencies involved & if we also include all that is reported in Pakistan as done by RAW (unrest in FATA, Sindh & elsewhere) we can thus conclude that RAW has a limited control over Pakistan.

But if this assumption is wrong (as the case is) it means either it was state managed (ISI/Army) or independently managed by the so called non-state actors - in other words the jehadi outfits. And if ISI is clean (as many analysts in Pakistan are stating) then it only leads to one conclusion – Jehadis are running Pakistan with full control & authority. And this makes the situation, for everyone around the world in general & India in particular, very dangerous.

Pakistani government & authorities are living in a constant state of denial & so is the Pakistani population at large. I am yet to figure out why they can’t understand a simple fact – that this all is leading to the demise of Pakistan as a nation state. China and the US whom the Pakistani establishment regards as friends are doing nothing but making Pakistan a scapegoat in fulfilling their hegemonious designs.

China is supplying arms & ammunition to Pakistan to bolster its own economy & keeping it engaged with India or to put it the other way keeping India engaged with Pakistan to undermine India’s growing economic & military power. China refused Pakistan an economic aid a few days back when Zardari went begging and asked him to look someplace else. A friend would never have done this.

The US on the other hand is using Pakistan as a cushion against Al-Qaida & other terror groups. Paying a few billion dollars against use of its territory & help (also include the almost daily drone attacks) on so called “War on Terror” is nothing short of a compensation for rape. In this case the victim is willingly getting itself raped & is also happy & proud about it. And compare this – US will give Pakistan a USD 15billion aid in 10 years (only if the WOT lasts that long) while India will be spending more than this amount (USD 16 billion approx) to acquire just 126 MMRCA jets. So the aid isn’t helping Pakistan as much to counter India. Also take into account that a sizeable part of that money goes into the pockets of Pak army generals, politicians & bureaucrats so it isn’t helping its economy either.

The eternal enemy India has a better track record than “friends” of Pakistan. India lobbied in the IMF to help Pakistan gain the recent IMF loan it received. BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) routinely helps & bails out PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) in crisis situations. Thousands of Pakistanis come to India and receive medical aid, which is expensive in the west & not available in Pakistan, either free of cost or at a very low cost. Indian doctors have saved many Pakistani lives. Can Pakistan show us even a single instance when those so called friends of Pakistan ever did that? Even after so many wars & everyday conflicts India has never ever stopped supply of water to Pakistan. If we do Pakistanis will die of drought in a few days. Many Pakistanis come to India for better prospects. They are respected as brothers & sisters. They earn a lot here & no one ever doubted their integrity. Can the Pakistanis say this about US & China where the Pakistanis are looked down upon?

Pakistan, if it wants to survive, should come out of the messy situation which is getting messier by each passing day. The only way to do it is to know what is good and eradicate what is bad. Stop messing around with other countries’ affairs (It’s not only India but Bangladesh & Nepal as well which are suffering from ISI & its network. The recent mutiny in Bangladesh is also a handiwork of the ISI – will post a new topic on this soon) and instead focus on your country’s well being.

We will somehow save ourselves but this mess will eat up Pakistan. It’s high time Pakis realize this or, as Swat today, the whole of Pakistan will get out of their hands.

Image courtsey NDTV.com

an addon:
It is just that the poor Paki propaganda machinery does'nt know the strength of RAW. It doesnt gain with such stupid & cowardly acts. When RAW intervened in 1971, Pakistan had to part with, what is now, Bangladesh.

A request to fellow bloggers:
Please comment if you can. Not only it gives an insight about how & what others think, but has an appreciation value attached to it too, which helps improve the posts & instills more passion.
Thanks & Regards
SmarterOne

Don't know how to comment?
Click on the Title of this post & the post opens in its own page. There you can read other comments & post yours too. You can always post as anonymous!