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IN THIS ISSUE

The Internet War Full-scale Flare-up in Cyberspace

Water Wars

Intra-Continental

Conqueror of Northern Frontier Gen. Zorawar Singh acceded Ladakh to J&K

War on Terrorism

Key Role for ‘Modi-fied’ India

Damocles Sword Hanging over Asia?

US Vs BRICS

A Visionary Par Excellence

Who will Dominate the Future World Order BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries are emerging as an important group of nation, and their importance on the world scene is being closely watched by countries with major economic clout, especially the US which doesn’t want “intruders” in its domain.

Nation Remembers Eknath Ranade

23 Pakistan’s Self-destruction Talibanisation Gaining Momentum

IN THIS ISSUE

Transcending Boundaries Volume: 16 Issue: 05 December 2014 Maargasheersha (Jaya)

Published & Printed by NARAYAN SEVIRE for and on behalf of the owners JNANA BHARATHI PRAKASHANA, Mangalore aseemamagazine@gmail.com / 0824-2497091

Gurudwara Attacked Intolerance on the rise in Australia

Govt. Without Shackles Time to Build New Temples of Progressive India

Nehruvian Blunders India can neither correct nor forget them

Afghanistan Changing New govt. forging ahead with confidence

From 4 to 47… How Did Amit Shah pull off this victory?

Business Sutra Desi Sutras for Modern Business

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Full-scale Flare-up in Cyberspace • Raju Shanbhag

They have a strong presence on social media, which has become an he rules of engagements have important recruitment tool to atchanged. The battles are no lontract foreign fighters to their cause. ger fought in the battlefields; Their efforts are paying off. An inthey are now fought on computer creasing number of Europeans and screens. With a new battalion of cyAmericans are making their way to ber soldiers invading the internet like Syria to fight with ISIL. never before, governments across While on the one hand, ISIL has the world are getting the ‘digital been happy exploiting internet for shocks’, for which they are woefully its gains, not all the Muslims are The unprepared. happy about it. Khaled al-Shaya, It’s not as if the modern day a top Saudi cleric, believes internet has beco internet wars are restricted to that internet has insulted me as essential as food developed nations. India is Prophet Mohammad right in the middle of this and has called Islamic and sleep for the modern youth, warfare and even Saudi countries to ban and especially for those in the US, China Arabia, which clamps legislate against and India. Most of them use it for on anything modern Google. His anger and expressive, is erupted after the gleaning information and communicating using the internet to search engine bewith friends and relatives. But, as it happens make a case against hemoth refused to internet itself! take off an allegedly with modern inventions, its side effects are Religious establishoffensive video from chilling. For example, recall the video ments are also using YouTube, a video this modern platform sharing site it owns. clipping of beheading posted on the internet to spread their docThe controversy by the ISI militants. Already, it is war trines. There is place arose when a video out there on the internet, with multifa for everyone in the inentitled “The Innocence ternet, and it displaces of Muslims”, appeared rious groups and interests “on everyone. on YouTube in July 2012, the net”, propagating their The US seems to be under the titles The Real Life amongst the nations that has of Muhammad and Muhammad own agenda. grasped the true potential of interMovie Trailer. The controversy was net in spreading love or hatred. Reimminent and it spread far beyond cently, retired US General John Allen the realms of online. It stirred up nucalled upon the US to battle against devious plans. If the world does not merous demonstrations and violent ISIL on the internet. He said, “It is wake up, it will not long before ISIL protests in Egypt and then spread to only when we contest ISIL’s presence spreads its digital tentacles all across other Arab and Muslim countries and online, deny the legitimacy of the the world and recruit more people some Western countries. The promessage it sends to vulnerable young than we can manage. tests have left hundreds injured and people... it is only then that ISIL will ISIL, which, knows the powers of led to over 50 deaths. Fatwas have truly be defeated.” the internet, operates a sophisticat- been issued against the video’s parJohn Allen is among the many secu- ed online presence, posting frequent ticipants and a Pakistani minister has rity experts who are advising govern- propaganda videos and publishing offered a bounty for killing Nakoula, ments of their respective countries its own expertly designed magazine. the producer. The film has sparked

to take internet warfare seriously. Unlike traditional battlefields, the enemy on the net is faceless, and is not bound by boundaries of any nations. Islamist Jihadis have understood it well. They are using the internet to spread hatred against people other religions and in the process, recruiting impressionable young minds to their

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Battle for the Internet I

debates about freedom of speech and internet censorship. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not as if only the Muslim world is caught up in the internet wars. Even popes are not far behind when it comes to using the internet to their advantage. A few years ago, Pope Benedict XVI made history by becoming the first pope to send a tweet, and again by becoming the first pope to officially join Twitter. Pope Francis, fast becoming known as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pope of the Peopleâ&#x20AC;?, has now followed in their footsteps. It has been common knowledge that numerous missionaries working across the world to convert more and more people to Christianity are actively engaged online. They have their web sites, they flock to social media to spread the word of God, and they do use Twitter and YouTube to make the message heard. Back home, internet is as essen-

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tial as food and sleep for the Indian youth. This was revealed by a survey conducted by Cisco, with 95% of respondents stating that internet is an essential part of their lives. India is now the third largest user of internet after the US and China. Not only the usage, but even the impact of internet is beginning to manifest in a big way. A large part of the Indian youth came ahead to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and campaigning for Modi was at the peak on its internet. Social causes and important events are discussed intensely over the internet. The wars have already begun over the internet. The group that is most vocal and has the highest number of tech savvy users will win it. And whoever wins it will have a very prominent say in matters of the world in coming days.

nternet has the potential to change the course of a society and topple governments. The governments know it. So, there have been severe restrictions on internet usage in many countries across the world. Not surprisingly, nations that have oppressive authorities top this list. Internet is severely restricted in North Korea. The country is probably one of the hardest places on the planet to tweet from. Access to computers and mobiles phone is available to an elite few. Most North Koreans only have access to a state controlled intranet, called Kwangmyong, or Bright. But internet freedom is under threat even in developed countries like the UK and the US, which have very high degree of freedom of expression, says Dunja Mijatovic, the representative for freedom of the media for the 56 countries that make up the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE is an inter-governmental grouping that includes countries across three continents, taking in the EU, Russia and the transition countries of eastern Europe the US and Canada.

The water crisis in South Asia a major concern as it also has implications for the stability the region. The region’s three major rivers is the Indus, Ganges and the Brahmaputra sustain water supplies for China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, all of which fall into a region classified as water-stressed, as the population in these countries increases at the rate of 25 million a year.

Intra-Continental Damocles Sword Hanging over Asia? • Prashanth Vaidyaraj

ater is now being described as the ‘Blue Gold’. The reason for this is that potable, clean water is becoming very scarce. World’s population grew by a factor of 3.8 in the 20th century, but water use in the same period grew by a factor of 9. Today, with the world population crossing the seven-billion mark, it should come as no surprise that more than half of humankind lives in water-stressed areas. That figure will only increase to two-thirds during the next decade. It is such an alarming future that makes water

as, or more, precious as gold. Construction of extensive dam-building projects across the Tsangpo River by China, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, threatens the entire eastern region of India. The potential for conflict is further underscored by China’s unrivalled global status which is also the source of trans-boundary disputes over rivers that flow to the largest number of countries, ranging from India and Vietnam to Russia and Kazakhstan. Yet a fast-rising China has declined to enter into water-sharing or cooperative treaties with any country, including India, even as it taps the resources of international rivers.

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The Indian concerns over plans to divert the Brahmaputra are not unwarranted. The two components of the diversion scheme include the construction of the world’s largest hydroelectric plant on the Great Bend of the river on the Tibetan plateau; the second is the diversion of the waters northwards across hundreds of kilometres to China’s northwestern provinces. Such a project would not only dry up the Brahmaputra after a few years but will also parch India’s entire North-east. The construction of Baglihar Dam in Jammu and Kashmir remains a source of significant tension between India and Pakistan. The latter objects to it, though India is eligible to construct the dam as per the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. As per the treaty, India is within its rights to utilise the waters of the Indus to fulfil its needs for power generation and drinking water requirements. India has generously agreed to allocate four-fifths of the six-river Indus system to Pakistan in the treaty. Despite such benevolence, Pakistan repeatedly accuses India of trying to control the flow of the Indus, an allegation that India has dismissed. B.G. Verghese, senior journalist, writer and author of ‘Waters of Hope: Himalayan-Ganga Cooperation for a Billion People’, opines that water is the latest battle cry not just for the Pakistani establishment but for the jihadis too. Last year a Pakistani extremist, Abdur Rehman Makki, told a rally that if India were to “block Pakistan’s waters, we will let loose a river of blood.” Likewise, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terror group, has threatened to blow up India’s dams. Assorted hardliners in the Pakistani media cheer them on. A horrid editorial in Nawa-i-Waqt, a Pakistani newspaper, warned in April 2014 that “Pakistan should convey to India that a war is possible on the issue of water and this time war will be a nuclear one.” On the eastern front, Bangladesh has opposed India’s plans to dam the Teesta and Barak rivers in its northeast. Despite setting up a Joint River

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The Teesta flowing in Bangladesh

An Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA) Task Force report suggests that India will become water-stressed by 2025 and water-scarce by 2050.Water shortage will become harder to manage as the region’s population grows by 1.7 per cent yearly, creating more demand for food and causing further climate change.

Balighar Dam Commission for water management as early as 1972, tensions between the countries on how to share resources recently came to a head in a dispute over the Teesta River. The Teesta, the fourth largest river shared by India and Bangladesh, also pro-

vides livelihood opportunities for 7.3% of the total population of Bangladesh, said a report published by the Asia Foundation, which surveyed both countries. Fishermen, farmers, boatmen and small traders on both sides of the borders are being forced to change their livelihood as the river stays dry for at least six months a year. A permanent treaty on sharing of the Teesta River water has evaded the two neighbours. Similar rows over water-sharing are certain in the future as Asian nations become water scarce and desperate for water access. Maj. Gen. Muniruzzaman, a Bangladeshi security expert, has predicted that “if ever there were a localised conflict in South Asia, it will be over water.” The effects of this can be seen already as weak river flows in several South Asian rivers are unable to subside waste. These river waters are becoming increasingly unsafe for drinking, cleaning and cropping, while encouraging parasitic diseases like Naegleria and deadly viruses such as dengue. Water tables are dropping and this is evident as the areas around the Ganges and the delta of the Indus in Pakistan are becoming semi-deserts. This results in more pumping of groundwater, which increases cases of arsenic poisoning. The growing water shortage can be

dealt with by governments collaborating to improve water management and monitoring systems and inculcate some lifestyle changes in its respective populations. For example, a survey found that the water usage in Delhi is nearly twice as much as in London, because the sporadic supply encourages people to store more and also leads to increased waster pilferage. Thus the onus is also on the governments to streamline water usage and conservation measures in their respective countries. As South Asia becomes increasingly water scarce, the potential for conflict looms large unless urgency and willingness is shown by governments to create multilateral arrangements and practices on inter-basin water sharing. Organisations such as the United Nations Water Agency and SAARC

China Dam have a major role in promoting this agenda. Diplomatic dialogue as well as political co-operation is the only way forward in the hope of finding

solutions to a problem that has the capability to escalate to proportions we may not be able to manage.

Karnataka government census enumerates atheists C hief Minister Siddaramaiah’s pet project, which he had promised during the assembly polls, the Social and Educational Survey in Karnataka, popularly called the “caste census”, is set to begin in early December. However, the Karnataka Government claims that the purpose of the census goes beyond identifying the numerical strength of each caste. A person being surveyed in the census can even opt not to identify himself/herself by any religion or caste. They have the option of identifying themselves as an ‘atheist’ or saying that they “do not know” their religious identity or also simply refuse to state it. There are separate codes to enumerate all these choices, apart from the names of religions. Chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes H. Kantharaj said the survey hopes to get an all-round perspective not only on caste, but also on issues of

economic, educational, social and political backwardness through an elaborate questionnaire with about 53 questions. Enumeration in each household will take 40 to 45 minutes. The commission website (http://

w w w.backwardclasses.kar.nic.in) lists 1,065 castes which are “known to be existing in Karnataka” to serve as a lead, based on various government orders, reports by earlier commissions and Edgar Thurston’s iconic book ‘Castes and Tribes of Southern India’. An additional 160 caste names were later added based on representations. Apart from this, there are 101

scheduled castes and 50 scheduled tribes. The enumerators will also ask for alternative names by which communities are known in the course of the survey, so that one caste known by two names in different regions is not listed as two castes. They will also make special efforts to ensure that homeless and nomadic tribes, who tend to be at the bottom of the scale on social and educational indicators, are not left out of the survey. “Caste Surveys” have been a subject of much debate with equal number of people supporting or opposing it. While those who oppose it are of the opinion that such surveys would reinstate the statusquo of the prevalent ‘caste system’, those who support say that they need to be aware of their enemy before trying to vanquish it. Whatever may be the result, it needs to be seen whether this mammoth exercise would benefit anyone at all.

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US Vs BRICS

Who will Dominate the Future World Order • Ghanashyam

oday the United States is the only superpower enjoying a larger say on global affairs, from environment to terrorism, and global security to economic policies. But an equal distribution of this power can make the world far more livable. An increased role of other large economies, such as China, Russia and India can bring about a cohesive atmosphere. This article analyses the unipolar v/s multipolar dynamics, and the roles BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) can play alongside the US and Iran. Today the world order is more or less determined by the size of the economy and the ability to spread information around. The role of economy is well understood but not the role of information. Not only politicians but also technologists and others

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BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries are emerging as an important group of nation, and their importance on the world scene is being closely watched by countries with major economic clout, especially the US which doesn’t want “intruders” in its domain. The US would like to have a unipolar world, while BRICS aims at a multipolar world. In taking important decisions on issues confronting the world, the US is taking the lead, witness what is happening in the Middle East, and terming Vladimir Putin as “New Hitler”. have a role to play to make this world a better place. China and Russia are openly challenging the American supremacy, while the poor South American country of Venezuela and Muslim Iran are at the second rung of opposition. The American Century is drawing to a close, and the US Defence Department will have to be more flexible in

dealing with a faster-paced multipolar world, according to the ‘Global Trends 2030’ report released in December, 2012. In its annual report, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts an end to the Western supremacy, citing the rising economic prowess of Asian countries. By 2030, according to the Council, Asia will surpass the West in

gross domestic production, population, military spending and technology investment. If this occurs, China would become the world’s largest economy, with India and Brazil close behind. Other rising nations could include Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey, while Russia, Europe and Japan could continue their declines. That means Asia will decide how the world should behave. “Enabled by communications technologies, power will shift towards multifaceted and amorphous networks that will form to influence state and global actions,” the report says. Countries unable to understand or use these new technologies “will not be able to punch their weight.” NIC predicts that “demand for food,

water and energy will grow by approximately 35, 40 and 50 percent respectively.”

BRICS Phenomenon The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs. BRICS will incorporate other global South Asian nations in the near future. BRICS countries represent almost three billion people, which is 40% of the world population, with a combined nominal GDP of US$16.039 trillion (20% world GDP) and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves. Smaller countries, such as Egypt,

Argentina, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, and most recently Bangladesh, have expressed an interest in joining the BRICS. The BRICS countries have long been considered a threat to the USled unipolar world. So, according to experts, the US is bound to counter BRICS – most probably through information campaign. Today the United States is doing everything it can to demonise Russia over its dispute with Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is labelled as the “New Hitler”. A furious ‘information war’ has been launched against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The Wall Street Journal and its media allies are busy characterising the Brazilian economy as “statist”.

US Plans to Dominate the World T

he ‘Joint Vision 2020’ of the US Defense Department is talking of gaining what is calls ‘full-spectrum dominance’ of the world by raising the ability of its military so as to make it operate alone, or with allies, to defeat any adversary and control any situation globally. The way to achieve this is through investing and developing new military capabilities. “To build the most effective force for 2020, we must be fully joint: intellectually, operationally, organizationally, doctrinally and technically,” the report states. New equipment and technological innovation are cited as important, more important is having trained people who understand and can exploit these new technologies. The joint force must win over the full range of conflict, be prepared to work with allies and co-operate with other US and international agencies. ‘Joint Vision 2020’ addresses

full-spectrum dominance across the range of conflicts from nuclear war to major theater wars to smaller-scale contingencies. It also addresses amorphous situations like peacekeeping and non-combat humanitarian relief. Key to US dominance in any conflict will be what the chairman calls “decision superiority” -- translating information superiority into better decisions arrived at and implemented faster than an enemy can react. The development of a global information grid will provide the environment for decision superiority.

Innovation has always been the hallmark of the American military. In 2020, this native American talent will be even more important. Normally applied to communications and materiel, “interoperability” in the military became a catchword in the 1970s, when it became apparent that many of the NATO allies could not operate with each other. ‘Joint Vision 2020’ expands the term to include the development of joint doctrine and information sharing. ‘Joint Vision 2020’ is a blueprint. While many of its facets could come true, not all will. Changes in the world or changes in America may render some points moot. ‘Joint Vision 2020’ carries on some of the recommendations to transform the US military from ‘Joint Vision 2010’.

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Controlling Information T

otal Information Awareness (TIA) was a programme of the US Information Awareness Office. It was operated from February until May 2003, before being renamed as the Terrorism Information Awareness Programme. Based on the concept of predictive policing, TIA aimed to gather detailed information about individuals in order to anticipate and prevent crimes before they are committed. As part of efforts to win the War on Terror, the programme searched for all sorts of personal information in the hunt for terrorists around the globe. Although the programme is not continuing officially, data mining software is being adopted by other government agencies. The TIA programme objective is to create a counter-terrorism information system that increases information coverage and make it scalable, provides focused warnings within an hour after a triggering event, supports collaboration, analytical reasoning for hypothesis, test and propose theories and mitigating strategies. As a “virtual, centralised, grand database”, the scope of surveillance includes, among others, cred-

There is a possibility of the US imposing sanctions on China for its “aggressive” position in the South China Sea, or Hong Kong, or Tibet. You cannot rule out similar sanctions on India and Brazil as the Western media believe that India is violating human rights in Kashmir and Brazil is destroying Amazon jungles. The Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DDIS) has recently reported sighting a Russian submarine in its waters and fighter jets and missiles on the island of Bornholm. DDIS did not disclose any concrete details of its sightings. Pointing to the Russian military exercise over the Baltic Sea, it went on to the extent of predicting “a new frozen European war” in the

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it card purchases, magazine subscriptions, web browsing histories, academic grades, bank deposits, passport applications, driver’s licences, toll records, judicial records, divorce records, etc. Health information collected by TIA include drug prescriptions, medical records and individual DNA. Hollywood is the most amazing propaganda machine ever seen in this world. Hollywood is exporting billions of brains worldwide the hollywoodistic standards for the understanding of reality, which include but are not limited to the way of thinking, behaving, dressing, what to eat and drink, up to how to express your dissent. Yes, Hollywood is even able to instruct us on how exactly to express our dissent against the American Way of Life. Just to name one example (but there are plenty), Western dissidents frequently would quote the film “Matrix” when referring to an invisible network of control upon our lives, but even Matrix is part of the matrix -- if I may put this in a comic way. Here is the hollywoodistic packaging of the process of our understanding that we live in a deceptive world.

next few years. Alarmed by such claims, Vladimir Davydov, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Latin America, remarked: “The current situation shows that there are attempts to suppress not only Russia but also the BRICS, given that the global role of this association has only intensified.” Maybe it is true that the post-Cold War world is bound to remain immensely volatile. Countries today aiming for true multipolar world should revise their priorities and start to seriously compete on the informational field, rather than focus just on economic issues. Power today is all a matter of percep-

tion and the US is still the unmatched master of this game. We won’t have any truly multipolar world until other players with comparable skills enter the game. The US is not really bothered by countries bypassing it in their businesses, but it starts to get nervous if they use currencies other than dollars for their trade and it really gets mad when important non-aligned news networks appear on the information chessboard, which sounds quite odd given that freedom of press is a central point of American modern mythology. But no non- US-aligned information source is in fact jeopardising their monopoly of reality. That is why they would need to demonise the

competitors and label them as antiAmerican or worse. However, often non-aligned journalists or news publishers are just an un-American reality, not necessarily anti-American. But in the eyes of US hegemonists, any un-American information is by definition anti-American, since the consistency of their empire relies most of all on their monopoly of the perceived reality. Remember Karl Rove’s quote. Thus, non-US-aligned countries, which really aim at a multipolar world, have no choice but to learn from their adversary and act accordingly. Beyond the creation of their own state of the art news networks, they should also begin to provide substantial support to independent information in countries where the news is currently US-dominated. Independent journalists, writers and researchers in Western countries today are doing their work merely out of civic passion, often unpaid and at the cost of public mockery, social marginalisation and economic struggle. Vilified in their own countries and getting zero help from countries who supposedly are aiming to escape US domination, this is not a good beginning for the end of US Full Spectrum Dominance.

Controlling Global News Flow T

he US also has control over the mainstream news worldwide, the CIA having infiltrated most of the networks which count. German journalist Udo Ulfkotte who worked for “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, one of the main German newspapers, recently confessed in his best-selling book “Gekaufte Journalisten” to have been paid by the CIA for years to manipulate news, and that this is quite common in the German media. We can safely assume that this is also very common in other countries. This global grip on media allows the US to dominate the war of perception to an extent that allows them easily to turn white into black in the eyes of the public. It was amazing how the UScontrolled European media could twist facts during the recent crises in Ukraine. The Nazi-infected junta of Kiev, which came to power with a coup, was able to bomb and kill their own citizens for months while the Western media would always depict them as the good

Mir Quasem Ali Gets Death Sentence A special court in Bangladesh has announced death sentence to a senior member of the country’s largest Islamist party. It is a capital sentence for atrocities committed in 1971 independence war against Pakistan. But the sentence was not without a drama. As soon as the sentence was pronounced, Mir Quasem Ali, the accused, protested. He called the witnesses who testified against him “fake”. 62-year-old Quasem Ali is a member of Jamaat-e-Islam and is considered to be one of the party’s top financiers. According to Bangladesh, Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators have

killed three million people during the nine-month war. About 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people forced to flee to refugee

side - while at the same time Putin would be portrayed as the ‘New Hitler’ for no reality-based reason. Most of the information circulating in the world today is processed by computers running US-based operating systems (Microsoft and Apple), while people -- including those who oppose the US -- communicate with each others via CIA-controlled Facebook, Gmail, and so on. There are already a few cases of non-US-aligned news services with excellent quality and the ambition of a global audience, and the most notable are Russia Today and Iranian Press TV. But that’s still barely nothing compared with the ongoing tsunami of USaligned audio-visual information which streams around the globe 24 hours a day. Russia Today is now planning to develop also channels in French and German. That’s progress, but still far from enough. (Research support from Media Syndicate)

camps in India. The tribunal found Ali guilty on eight charges, two of which carried death sentence, including the abduction and murder of a young man in a torture cell. Ali was also sentenced to 72 years in prison on the other charges. His lawyers said they would appeal. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called the trials a long overdue effort to obtain justice for war crimes, four decades after Bangladesh split from Pakistan. But critics say she is using the tribunals to weaken the country’s opposition parties.

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Conqueror of Northern Frontier Gen. Zorawar Singh acceded Ladakh to J&K

The Statue of Gen. Zorawar Singh in Jammu

• Rakesh Kumar Sharma

y the time he was killed with a fireball high in the mountain ranges of Tibet in freezing weather, General Zorawar Singh the legendary soldier who won all but the final battle he fought between 1830 and 1840’s, had carried out his assignment. His army had captured much of Northwest Frontier, from Ladakh to Tibet. His prowess did not go unnoticed. Even his own enemies built a memorial in his name in recognition of his valor.

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Zorawar Singh was born in the village of Anasara in the Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, in April 13, 1786. He was only 20 years old when he underwent military training in Jammu. Son of a Chandravanshi Rajput family, Zorawar signed in as a soldier for Dogra King Raja Gulab Singh. Gulab Singh put him in charge of guarding the Reasi Fort. His skill in battle faced its first test when the fort was attacked by Dewan Singh, who was the ruler of Jammu. Though armed with a few soldiers. Zorawar chased back Dewan Singh’s army

and, in return, was rewarded with the position of Inspector of Commissariat in charge of supplies for all the forts in North Jammu. In Kishtwar, he put in place several fiscal and judiciary reforms and that prompted the king to promote him to the governorship of Kishtwar and Kussul. Later He was given the title of ‘Wazir’ in Kishtwar.

Conquest of Ladakh In 1834, the Dogras attempted to capture Ladakh which was then divid-

ed into nine districts. Wazir Zorawar Gen. Zorawar Singh Singh mobilised an army of 5000 had mastered the art of men, pulling together youths from winning wars, because he Kishtwar, Jammu and surrounding arwon almost every battle eas. Soon his army rumbled through the Suru River Valley and captured Lahe fought. The greatest of dakh, defeating the army led by Comall his achievements was mander Bakra-Sis. acceding Ladakh to Jammu A month later, the Ladakhis hit and Kashmir. Zorawar back, with a contingent of 5,000 soldiers confronting Zorawar’s men on a Singh is the only Indian hilly terrain. Zorawar retained control general who conquered of Suru Valley, pushing the Ladakhis territories beyond the further up towards Pashkyam. The Indian subcontinent. Even weeklong pitched battle ended with the death of the Ladakhi commander. his enemies, the Tibetans, But Gyalpo, then the King of Laadmired his valour and dakh, took on board the soldiers of built a memorial in his the fallen commander and went after honour. Zorawar’s army. With just 500 soldiers, Zorawar kept on marching deeper into the army territory and soon he took control of Sud Fort, defeating the 4,000- strong Ladakhi army. The Ladakhi commander sued for peace, but Queen Zi-Zi turned down the proposal. By April, 1835, the Ladakhis had mobilised a huge army of 22,000 men. Yet their forts fell to Zorawar Singh one after another. He acceded Ladakh to Gyalpo Tsepal as a vassal state of the Dogra Kingdom. But repeated uprisings in the following months forced him to annex Ladakh to the kingdom of Jammu. In November 1839, Zorawar Singh bolstered his army signing up more soldiers from the defeated Ladakh army and went further up the road to acquire Baltistan, a mounGen. Zorawar Singh tain region about 2,000 feet above the sea level. The Balti kingdom had eight dis- cally conquered by Zorawar Singh. By tricts. Ahmad Shah was the most the summer of 1840, he had captured powerful ruler who was controlling all the valleys and heights of Baltisthe central districts of Skardu. By tan and merged them into the Jammu now the Rajas of Kartaksha, Tolti, kingdom. Khaplu, Kurrus and many others had surrendered to the General. After the Conquest of Tibet victory of Thomakhon and occupation of Skardu, Baltistan had been practiGeneral Zorawar Singh’s next and

last military expedition was the conquest of the western Tibetan region called Nari or Naris, bordering the eastern frontier of Ladakh. By June 5, 1841, he had moved his army to the outskirts of western Tibet. His force consisted of Dogras of Jammu and Balti and Ladakhis. He first captured the Tibetan District of Rudok and then Gartok, the provincial headquarters of western Tibet. In August 1841, after the Dogra army defeated the Tibetan force led by its governor, the Tibetans fled to Taklokot, leaving room for Zorawar Singh to expand his empire to Mayam-La Pass. The indefatigable general continued his conquest of Tibet in the winter too. He marched towards Taklakot. The Dogra force under Basti Ram was sent to occupy Taklakot, following which the Tibetan General Pishi withdrew his forces to the other side of the Mayam-La pass. On September 6, 1841, with the Dogras capturing Taklakot. Zorawar Singh’s conquest of western Tibet was now complete. By now, years of fighting had taken its toll on Zorawar’s army, and the freezing temperature and less visibility hampered their movement. During mid-winter, in October 1841, Tibetan forces led by Minister Kahlon Sakhang surrounded Dogras from all sides. The Tibetan army, three times larger, defeated Zorawar’s in a series of

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battles across the mountain ranges. Zorawar Singh thought of ceding his Tibetan territory up to Chi-Tang and join his lieutenant Basti Ram. But the Tibetans had blocked all the roads leading to Basti Ram. In December, Zorawar Singh divided his army into five units to fight the Tibetans. The plan failed as the Tibetan army was over 10,000 strong or about three times the size of Dogras. Zorawar Singh then moved towards ToYo. On December 12, 1841, the enemies caught up with him. He fell off his horse having been hit by a fireball. But he continued to fight till his last breath. Zorawar Singh was victorious even in his defeat. The Tibetans were so impressed by his valour that they built a memorial in To-Yo and scrawled “Singhka Chortan” on it. This is a unique instance of its kind in history that a memorial was erected for a gallant enemy. Gen.Sir A Cunningham writes, “The Indian soldiers of Zorawar Singh fought under very great disadvantages. The battle field was upwards of 15,000 feet above the sea and mid-winter when even the day temperature never rises above the freezing point. For several nights the Indian troops had been exposed to all the bitterness of the climate. Many had lost their fingers, toes and all were more or less frostbitten. On the last fatal day not one half of men could handle arms.” According to A.H. Francke, “We cannot help admiring the greatness in this man. In the beginning of his conquests he was extremely cautious in his movements. As he had a keen eye for the defeats of his enemy, and was a great strategist, all other difficulties were overcome.” In the words of historian and diplomat K. M. Panikkar, he was indeed “a soldier whose achievements India could justly be proud of.” Zorawar Singh has left a permanent mark in history. His greatest contribution was the conquest and consolidation of Ladakh, Baltistan and the surrounding area which now constitute the northern frontier of India. His greatness will shine through the passages of Indian history as that of a great noble warrior. (The author is Assistant Professor, Department of History, General Zorawar Singh College, Hamirpur, HP)

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‘India has a greater responsibility in the war against terrorism for two reasons. One, having suffered from the malaise for decades, India is the prime victim of terror. Two, India’s Muslim population is more than the total population of Pakistan from where terrorism continues to flow in. Therefore, it is India’s right as well as responsibility to assume a bigger and more direct role in the global effort against terrorism.’

War on Terrorism Key Role for ‘Modi-fied’ India

• Col (Retd) Karan Kharb

he worsening security scenario of the world warrants a review of the terror climate so that pragmatic strategic options can be explored and found not only to chase and kill terrorists but also to address the problem in a holistic manner. It

is not enough to locate and destroy the frontline pawns of terror. Roots of terror have not yet been touched. The strategy must encompass ways and means that would discourage, suppress and finally reverse the trend of violence through multipronged intervention including the roots.

West Asia – the Cradle of Terrorism It is now clear to everyone in the world how mass uprisings against the autocratic regimes in West Asia and North Africa in the recent years have only precipitated the inevitable. The cascading course of these

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uprisings had markings of a revolution, people’s quest for liberty and democratic and people-powered regimes. The tumultuous movement, however, has gone awry giving way to forces of anarchy and ultra-violent extremism in the name of Islam. Whereas people had aspired for peace and prosperity and looked for freedom from self-serving despotic rulers, they found themselves in utter chaos and bedlam. It is a case of the proverbial fall from the frying pan into the fire – and the fire has continued to rage from Libya to Syria, Afghanistan to Ukraine and beyond. While most of the Arab world continues to squirm under turmoil, organisations like Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab and Boko Haram have already established their physical control over territories in Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria respectively. The ISIS has grown rather fast and even more menacingly seizing territories and publicly executing innocent civilians en-masse. They have not shied from posting on the social media horrific video clips of hapless journalists and social workers being savagely beheaded by masked killers. Display of gore, gloom and horror seems to be a design to induce shock and panic in the public, horrify media viewers and kill resistance achieving thereby instant and absolute surrender of the terrified masses. Significantly, ISIS already has raised an ‘army’ of its own from the remnants of Saddam Hussein loyalists. It also has some armoured and artillery units of the previous Iraqi regime. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the ISIS chief and self-appointed Caliph, has under his control large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory as his Caliphate - an Islamic State (IS). His express dreams are “to capture and convert the entire world into an Islamic State.” The end result of the air strikes being currently undertaken by the coalition forces will be known only after the operations are over. Nevertheless, going by the precedents it would be reasonable to

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Further, even in the face of clinching evidence, Qazis and Imams have been unwilling to come together jointly to denounce and condemn violence and killings. Political parties also have been selective and subjective in their response. Positions thus adopted by vote-bank hungry politicians and community chieftains portend more serious challenges ahead.

The Looming Nuclear Arm of Terror

assume that the ISIS will regroup and re-emerge in a refurbished form here or elsewhere in due course.

India – the Next Chapter of Jihad! India figures among the top priority targets of most of these outfits. Charge sheets filed by NIA in New Delhi against five jihadis captured recently reveal existence of an AfPak based outfit called ‘Ansarul Tawhid fi Bilad al Hind’ (AuT). AuT has been hobnobbing with ISIS and planning to unleash an Iraq-Syria like jihad in India, a threat that draws credence from ISIS Chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s video call for jihad in India. Obviously, India is the designated next chapter of jihad. Socio-political environment within the country provides inherent protection for incubating and raising dedicated terrorists. The recent spurt in Hindu girls being induced or blackmailed to marry Muslim boys and reports of their forced conversions reveal how campaigns like ‘Love Jihad’ are being pursued in an organised way. Whenever terrorists are arrested or killed in encounter, politicians waste no time in raising an accusing finger at the police and security forces rather than appreciating their efficiency in pre-empting and defusing what could be devastating terror attacks.

The Information Age technology has made it affordable even for the not-so-advanced states and terrorist outfits to steal, smuggle or devise material that can be put to devastating use. There are many non-nuclear states that have chemical weapon facilities of their own. Investigations carried out by the UN Mission in Syria confirmed that the rebels had used chemical weapons against soldiers and civilians in Syria in August 2013. Already there is enough evidence of illegal and covert transfer of nuclear technology and weapon grade fuels among nations. Incidents of smuggling weapon grade enriched uranium have often surfaced in the media. The name of Pakistani scientist AQ Khan was linked with covert and illegal transfer of centrifuge enrichment designs and components including some carbon-fiber rotors to Iraq and Libya. Concerns have also been expressed in the recent past about North Korea’s undue interest in extending ‘military co-operation’ to Myanmar. It is well known that terror groups have been using communication networks including satellite communication to their advantage for quite some time. What is not so well-known is their enhanced capability and potential in cyberspace. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have their threshold domains that would enable them to maximise use and misuse of cyberspace ranging from spying, hacking and hijacking communication and guidance systems of satellites, missiles and drones. This capability ren-

ders nuke safeguards even more vulnerable.

Need for New Vision, New Strategy Military operations by coalition forces led by the US against rogue states and terrorist strongholds in the past have been vigorously conducted in different areas during the last two decades. Unfriendly regimes were wiped out and friendlier governments were installed. However, in all cases the new regimes have proved to be even more unstable and chaotic. Iraq, Afghanistan. Libya, etc. are live examples. More terrorist outfits, each stronger than its earlier siblings, have mushroomed after each phase of assumed victories over rogue terror states and organisations. Terrorism is no longer faceless or invisible today. The new phase of Islamic terror now stares and dares the world frontally from physically held territories. This phenomenon should convince strategists and planners of counterterrorist operations that military ac-

tion alone cannot be the final solution to the world’s most vexing problem. Military operations are only one among the potent tools to discourage and suppress violence in a limited area for a limited time. Thankfully more and more Muslim leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs and people are getting averse to militancy growing at the behest of a few in Islam. Therefore, any strategy that ignores Islamic role in combating terrorism will remain inadequate in the war against terrorism. Ideally, the onslaught against fundamentalist violence and terror must be led by the forces of modern, awakened Islam rather than powers that are spitefully projected by the perpetrators as un-Islamic and anti-Islamic. India has a greater responsibility in the war against terrorism for two reasons. One, having suffered from the malaise for decades, India is the prime victim of terror. Two, India’s Muslim population is more than the total population of Pakistan from where terrorism continues to flow in. Therefore, it is India’s right as well as

responsibility to assume a bigger and more direct role in the global effort against terrorism. Prime Minister NarendraModi has shown early signs of a statesman who has vision and resolve. Also, his team of advisors has some of India’s outstanding brains with rich experience and proven abilities to devise and implement strategic options of far-reaching consequences that could catapult India to its aspired high position in the comity of nations. Enjoying the backing of a clear and thumping mandate of the people, the Modi Government can do it. In his address to the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister actually sought to introduce a paradigm shift when he exhorted nations to shun fragmentary tendencies – “G-7, G-20….” – and called for “G-All” – a unity of all nations to serve all humanity under the aegis of the United Nations. It is time to translate this call into an action plan: “GAll – Be all together to rid the world terror and save human civilization.” (The writer is a military veteran, author and social activist)

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A Visionary Par Excellence Nation Remembers Eknath Ranade • Raju Shanbhag

he nation celebrates the birth centenary of the great leader and thinker Eknath Ranade this November. This is the right time to remember the great deeds of this visionary and follow in his footsteps in building a better society. Eknath Ranade was born on November 19, 1914. He was the youngest of eight siblings (four brothers and four sisters). His family hailed from Vilhe village in Rajapur Taluk of Ratnagiri District in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, and father Shri Ramakrishnarao Vinayak Ranade served in the Great Indian Peninsular Railways in Vidarbha. Eknath Ranade’s mother was Ramabai of Barve family from Pune. Eknath was naughty like every other child in his childhood. He was playful, mischievous and loved to take up challenges. Once, when Mahatma Gandhi was visiting Nagpur, Eknath Ranade was challenged by his friends to touch Gandhiji’s bald head in a crowded stadium. Young Eknath took up the challenge and carried out his plot on the pretext of adorning Mahatma with a garland! But Eknath did much more than mere mischief as he grew up. In Nagpur, his brother in law Sohoni was an activist of the RSS and was a close aide of Dr. Keshav Hedgewar (Doctorji), founder of Rashtriya Swayam Sevaka Sangha. That’s how a very fulfilling journey of his life began as an activist of the RSS. Soon, Eknath Ranade came in very close contact with Doctorji and embodied his philosophies and thought process to become an able representative of his ideologies.

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Eknath Ranade, the visionary who initiated the task of establishing the Swami Vivekananda Memorial, is revered and remembered with love by his admirers for his broad outlook and deep understanding of the Hindu religion. What makes him unique is his tolerant approach to other religions and his astute organisational skill. The RSS constitution was drawn up under the able guidance and leadership of Eknath Ranade. The ban on RSS was lifted by the Government of India after it approved this constitution.

One of the visionaries of modern India - Eknath Ranade The RSS was banned following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Many of its senior leaders faced arrest. Ranade went underground during this time to lead organisational efforts, earning the moniker

of the Underground Sarsanghchalak. At the same time, a Satyagraha was launched by the RSS under the direction of its leader M. S. Golwalkar to lift the ban. With Golwalkar arrested on November 15, Ranade led the saty-

agraha and participated in secret negotiations with Home Minister Sardar Patel. As a condition for lifting the RSS ban, Patel insisted that the RSS should be organised with a written constitution. Accordingly, a constitution was drawn up by Ranade in association with P. B. Dani and Balasaeb Deoras, but it fell short of expectations of the government and as a result it was redrafted to include clauses such as allegiance to the Indian Constitution and the National Flag, shunning violence, enrolling under-aged to the movement only with the permission of their parents, setting procedures for election of “sarsanghchalak” and so forth. With these modifications, which were accepted in by the government June 1949, the ban imposed on the RSS was revoked on July 11, 1949. Ranade was deeply influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. 1963 was the centenary year of Swami Vivekananda’s birth. On this occasion, he published a selection of Vivekananda’s writing under the title, ‘Rousing Call to Hindu Nation’, as a personal tribute. The same year, Ranade conceived the idea of building a monument to Vivekananda at the mid-sea rock location near Kanyakumari. It was at this place Vivekananda had meditated for three days in December 1892. Ranade received enthusiastic responses from the RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar and others, which encouraged him to establish the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Organising Committee. Later, he became its Organising Secretary. Numerous branches of the committee were established all over the country to build up support, and later raise funds, for the memorial. But this idea was initially rejected by the Minister of Education and Culture Humayun Kabir. Ranade managed to get support from over 300 members of the Indian Parliament. This led to the project receiving approval from Prime Minister Indira

Presenting One’s Case F

rom his early adulthood, Eknath Ranade had a very deep respect for religions and their teachings. He could not tolerate any religion being abused by anyone. He had joined Hislpo College, a college run by Christian missionaries. An English professor named Prof. Phillips constantly ridiculed Hinduism and Hindu gods in his classes. Eknath did not like this one bit. But he did not want to stir up an argument just for the sake of it. So, young Eknath studied Swami Vivekananda’s books and speeches deeply to get a better understanding of Hinduism. Once he was prepared, he started providing his counter-arguments to Prof. Phillips, gently but firmly. Prof. Phillips was flabbergasted, and suggested that he need not attend English classes and he would still give him the required attendance. But Eknath refused, stating that he had a lot to learn about the Bible! Needless to say, Hindu religion and gods were never abused again by Prof. Phillips in his classes.

Gandhi. He also managed to get endorsement for the project from a diverse section of the political and spiritual community. This included sections traditionally opposed to the RSS. After the project was approved, Ranade led a cadre of volunteers to raise funds for construction from donors across the country; state governments and the Central Government also contributed towards the Rs.12.5 million fund. The Rock Memorial was completed in 1970, and inaugurated by the President of India, V. V. Giri, on September 2. Two years later, Ranade founded the Vivekananda Kendra at Kanyakumari with branches elsewhere. The Kendra is a “lay service organisation” without a guru or propagation of a “guru culture” though it was influenced by the teachings of Vivekananda. It is affiliated to the RSS which has 206 branches in various parts of the country. He did not endorse the status of an “avatar-hood” (God incarnate) to the Kendra. He, therefore, did not promote himself or Vivekananda to the status of worship at the centre, but promoted the use of Omkar as its guiding principle. It was his view that by adopting Omkara as guru the entire class of gurus of the country is honoured. He became the President of the Vivekananda Kendra in 1978, after serving as its general secretary. Ranade died in Madras (now Chennai) on August 22, 1982. On August 23, 1982, he was cremated at Vivekanandapuram, Kanyakumari. He is remembered as a master organiser, powerful speaker, thinker, writer and a devoted nationalist with a sense of spiritualism. Today, Ranade’s ideologies and his commitment to the cause of nation have been an ideal for the youth to follow. The Swami Vivekananda Memorial he established still serves as an abode for people who have a spiritual and philosophical inclination.

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Pakistan’s Self-destruction Talibanisation Gaining Momentum

Islamabad Mariot Hotel Bombing

• Narayan Ammachchi

hen the Americans searching for Bin Laden bombed Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan, Pakistan secretly airlifted to safety about 5,000 top leaders of the Taliban. This event, known as the ‘Kunduz airlift’, which is also popularly called the “Airlift of Evil”, involved several Pakistani Air Force transport planes flying multiple sorties over a number of days. Pakistan denies that it gave birth to Taliban. Frankly, not only did it train and arm the Taliban but also protected them from Americans. The result is that today Pakistan has turned out to be the battleground for American drones and Taliban fighters. Over the years, Pakistan has repeatedly accused the United States of violating its sovereignty. But the US replied it has little or no option but to hunt for terrorists in Pakistan’s

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hinterlands, especially the lawless region of Waziristan. After the US commandos raided Bin Laden’s hideout at Abbottabad, Pervez Musharraf, the then Pakistani dictator who was in London, criticised the Americans for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty. Drone attacks are a politically sensitive subject in Pakistan, with several leaders, including former cricketer Imran Khan, holding protest rallies in the tribal areas. Pakistan cannot blame anyone for its current state of affairs. Its madarsas, or Islamic religious schools, have more or less become terrorism training camps, generating a large army of radicals who hate everyone who is not a Muslim. Pakistan knows it but does nothing. The architects of 2008 Mumbai attacks are still walking freely in Pakistan, yet the authorities there never attempted to imprison them. The chief culprit is ISI, the intelli-

Pakistan is paying the price for aiding and arming terrorist orgnisations like the Taliban and Jaishe-Mohammed. Several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility told the US interrogators that they were aided by the ISI for attacks in Kashmir. A total of 35,000 Pakistanis have been killed between September 11, 2001, and May 2011 owing to terrorist attacks. Apart from human casualties of this massive scale, the economic cost of terrorism from 2000– 2010 is estimated at $68 billion. This sum alone is enough to feed the Pakistanis for one whole year. gence agency that does not appear to listen to political leaders. The United States has said it has direct evidence that the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, knew of Bin Laden’s presence at Abbottabad. Worse still, some Americans are of the opinion that the large compound at Abbottabad was built specially for Bin Laden. It is an open secret that the ISI supports the terrorist groups that are active in Kashmir, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed. Following the Mumbai attacks, India said that the perpetrators were in touch with a Pakistani colonel and other handlers in Pakistan. This led to a UN ban on one such organisation, the Jama’at-ud-Da’wah, which

Drone

the Pakistani government is yet to enforce. In today’s Pakistan, everyone is paying the price for ISI’s misdeeds. An estimated 286 to 890 civilians have been killed by the US drone attacks, including 168 to 197 children. A court in Peshawar has ruled that the attacks are illegal and inhuman. Yet the US has gone on attacking the terrorists by surprise. It is also alleged that the Pakistani government allowed the drones to operate from Shamsi airfield in Pakistan until April 21, 2011. According to secret diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks, Pakistan’s Army Chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani not only tacitly agreed to the drone flights, but in 2008 requested that Americans escalate them. In November 2011, one of the drone attacks killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. This angered Pakistan which evacuated Americans from the Shamsi airfield. The incident prompted an approximately two-month stop to

When the Americans searching for Bin Laden bombed Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan, Pakistan secretly airlifted to safety about 5000 top leaders of the Taliban. Now they have turned against the Pakistani authorities themselves. The result is that today bomb blasts have become the order of the day in major Pakistani cities like Karachi.

the drone strikes, which resumed on January 10, 2012. On March 25, 2010, US State Department legal advisor Harold Koh stated that the drone strikes were legal and it is the US right to selfdefense. According to Koh, the US is involved in an armed conflict with al-

Qaeda, the Taliban and their affiliates and, therefore, may use force consistent with self-defense under international law. Two years later in 2013, a drone strike killed Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud. This again angered the Pakistanis. A political party insisted that the CIA’s station chief in Islamabad should be tried for killing the Taliban chief. The problem is that the Taliban kill more Pakistanis in bomb attacks every time their fighters are killed in drone attacks. That means that the US drone attacks lead to more bloodshed in Pakistan. Today, a large contingent of Pakistani army is massed across its border with Afghanistan to shoot and kill the Taliban fighters. It has sealed and cancelled several peace deals with the Taliban. There is no other example of a sovereign country seeking to make peace with terrorists.

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Cost of Terrorism The lesson Pakistan has to learn is that it is easy to give birth to terrorists, but hard to douse the fire they have bit. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed by Taliban since 2001. The annual death toll from terrorist attacks rose from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009, with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between September 11, 2001 and May 2011. According to the government of Pakistan, the direct and indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000– 2010 total $68 billion, a sum enough to feed Pakistanis a year-long. From the summer of 2007 until late 2009, more than 1,500 people were killed in suicide and other attacks on civilians. More than drone attacks, Pakistan is slowly turning into a Talibanised country. This has made way for easy access to guns and ammunition.

ISI and Kashmir At the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, between 1990 and 1996, the Pakistani establishment continued to organise, support and nurture Mujahedeen groups on the promise

that they could be used for proxy warfare in Jammu and Kashmir. Satellite images from the FBI suggest the existence of several terrorist camps in Pakistan, with at least one militant admitting to being trained in the country as part of fighting in Kashmir. In October 2010, Pervez Musharraf revealed that Pakistani armed forces had trained militant groups to fight the Indian forces in Kashmir. Many Kashmiri militant groups designated as terrorist organisations by the US still maintain their headquarters in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Many of them have been banned by the UN, too, but they continue to operate under different names. Even the normally reticent United Nations Organisation (UNO) has publicly criticised Pakistan for its inability to control its Afghanistan border and for not restricting the activities of the Taliban leaders who have been declared as terrorists. Even the noted Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid has accused Pakistan’s ISI of providing help to the Taliban. Several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility told US interrogators that they were aided by the ISI for attacks in Kashmir.

BRINGING NATIONAL RESURGANCE TO THE FORE, SINCE 1999

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The ISIS seems to be in an exhilarating mood, as its propaganda in social networking is yielding wonderful results. Many educated youths are drawn into their “net’’ through the net, one of them being a former Google employee in Hyderabad, who was trying to join the militant group in Syria by going to Saudi Arabia. The Hyderabad Police caught him in the nick of time while trying to procure a visa for Saudi Arabia. Police fear that more may be on the point of joining the militant outfit. Unless the authorities exert extreme vigil, chances are that many youngsters may be lured sooner or later into the ISIS fold.

t’s a discovery Google will not be particularly proud of. It’s a shocking statement on the state of our society where even the highly educated and tech savvy youth fall prey to obsolete, destructive propaganda. And yes, it’s something that the world needs to sit and take notice. 30-year-old former Google employee, Software engineer Munawad Salman, was pinned down by Hyderabad police when he was attempting to leave the country to join ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an Islamic fundamentalist group). He was arrested on October 28 when the police learnt that he was making efforts to procure a visa to Saudi Arabia, from where he allegedly planned to flee to Iraq. Police got a whiff of his activities as he was highly active with ISIS activities on the internet and their propaganda and their moves on social media platforms for the past six months. The Hyderabad police were on red alert since they had already uncovered similar plans of three youths who were dreaming of joining their supposed ‘holy war.’ The Hyderabad police are also trying to work with national security agencies to keep a tab on social networking sites which have been the breeding ground of new

recruits like Munawad Salman. With misguided youths from all over the world flocking to ISIS ideologies and its outfit, it’s clear that ISIS is using the internet to its advantage. New recruits like Munawad Salman are lured by the outfit, thanks its violent videos and no holds barred messages filled with unbridled hatred towards Kafirs. ISIS is successfully using internet hashtags and forums to secure the widest distribution of their videos. Although the outfit has extremely fundamentalist views, it has some cunning minds who know how to escape modern day cyber policing, and how to be active on the big bad world of internet. The world is aware of these issues, and they are working to eradicate it. Law enforcement agencies are working with the tech and social media giants like Google to try to win the propaganda war against the terror outfits like ISIS. A specialist British police team is working alongside internet bigwigs like Twitter and YouTube to block and delete about 1,100 pieces of terror propaganda every week. According to the police, these videos contravene UK terror laws. The vast majority of the material – 800 items a week – relate to Syria and Iraq.

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But winning a war against a faceless enemy is easier said than done. Every single week, UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) alone takes down countless Twitter accounts and pulls off videos of murder, torture, combat scenes, sniper attacks and suicide missions, all related to terror. But countering cyber terrorism is fast proving to be a game of who knows the technology better. While the government agencies are employing all their digital forces to prevent the spread of terror on the net, the terrorists are using little-known content uploading services, anonymous text-pasting sites and multiple backup Twitter accounts to get through all the security filters. In an online battle of wits, CTIRU is actively seeking out extremist material and also asking members of the public to refer any material that concerns them. Last year, the unit instigated the removal of more than 45,000 pieces of such extremist material.

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Islamic fundamentalism is rising all over the world YouTube, which is owned by Google, has given a number of government agencies “Trusted Flagger” status to prioritise their reporting of dangerous or illegal material. Twitter is not believed to have developed any official fast-track process but reporting from recognised law enforcement accounts in being dealt with more seriously. During a Lords’ committee hearing in July, Twitter’s Sinéad McSweeney said it had “in excess of 100 people” working 24/7 to examine reports across a range of issues. During the same hearing, Facebook’s Simon Milner said the company’s safety team in Dublin was “consumed” by dealing with content emanating from the Syrian civil war. Apart from the technological niceties employed by ISIS to spread its messages, the kind of content it posts online too deserves special attention. ISIS posts the most violent videos, highly instigating speeches and other forms of extreme content on the internet to attract its potential recruits. Not only is the organisation active on the internet, but it also calls upon ‘true believers,’ of Allah to spread the message across the world. Despite of ISIS’ intense efforts to recruit people to its group, it’s hard to understand why educated youths like Munawad Salman find the path of violence so irresistible.

Disillusioned with violence N

ot every Muslim teen is hung-ho with ISIS. Many who left their families and loved ones behind to join the holy war are now regretting their decisions. Samra Kesinovic and her friend, Sabina Selimovic, children of Bosnian migrants, had run away to Syria to join the Islamic State fighters. They had left behind a note, telling their parents: “Don’t look for us. We will serve Allah – and we will die for him.” But very soon, this fundamentalist fervour turned to moment of repentance. These girls somehow managed to contact their families and told them that they wanted to return. Since their departure, pictures have emerged online of the pair brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and wearing the full niqab. Both are currently believed to be in Rakka, in northern Syria. According to Vienna-based newspaper “Österreich, Samra” they want to return home as the horrors of Syria “have become too much.” The newspaper, which is known for its close links both to the security services and the children’s families, says that death is a “constant companion” for the girls. There is some hope for women wishing to flee ISIS, however. In recent days, a Syrian woman fled from ISIS to Turkey.

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Munawad Salman is not an isolated case, and neither will it be the last. Throughout the world, even in developed countries like the US and the UK, many youths are leaving behind their loving families and comfortable lifestyles to join these jihadist groups. They may think that they are answering the call of “Allah” by joining these fundamentalist groups. Throughout human history, confused youths have often joined violent and seemingly risky outfits. The examples include Children’s Crusade of 1212, to the Hitler Youth movement and countless other cults and underworld gangs. But that does not mean that the governments can take them lightly. With a confused mind and a host of weapons under their disposal, these youths are dangerous to mankind. The authorities need to deal with them as they would with hardened terrorists. While fighting ISIS on the battlefield is going on with full vigor countries have to be alert about the proxy war that is going on in the internet. The UK and the US gov-

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Girl’s Game Too I

t’s not only men who are lured by the violent ways of ISIS. Even teenage girls are being attracted to ISIS through their online campaigns. What should be the worrying factor for the whole world is that this is happening even in developed countries like the US. Recently, the teenage daughter of Assad Ibrahim, who lived in Denver, US, and her two friends who tried to join ISIS were nabbed by the police. The fathers of these girls were alarmed when their passports were missing from their houses. Sure enough, they were gone, along with $2,000 in cash. The two families called the FBI. They said they thought the girls were on their way to Turkey. German authorities intercepted the trio, aged 15, 15 and 17, at Frankfurt airport and put them on a plane back to the United States, where they were greeted by FBI agents. Their disappearance hit them out of the blue. Other ISIS-related incidents are popping up in the Western world. Two more turned up in tandem with the girls’ runaway attempt.

ernments seem to have woken up to the dangers of ISIS propaganda on the net, but the Indian government still needs to take concrete steps to hold back ISIS on the net. They need to actively start countering ISIS propaganda with their own messages on the net to stop the

youth from getting lured by ISIS. It will take more work than merely releasing customary messages on official Facebook pages. The government will have to take an active interest in rooting out this rot that has slowly begun to eat into the secular structure of our society.

Gurudwara Attacked Intolerance on the rise in Australia

A Sikh Gurudwara in Perth

Australia, claimed to be one of the best places in the world to live, is facing increasing racial and religious intolerance. It seems that xenophobia has creeped into the Australian psyche. There were a number of assaults on Indian students. The latest is an attack on a Gurudwara, which the miscreants thought was a mosque. Whatever be the reason, the fact remains that living down under is not going to be peaceful for many Asians. • Raju Shanbhag

eople of Indian origin in Australia have been living under the threat of racial attacks for years now. Since the fateful beginning of these racially motivated crimes against Indians in Melbourne in 2009, the lives of Indians down under have been anything but pleasant. Now, as if that’s not enough, the Sikhs are bearing the brunt of racial hatred. In October, a Sikh Gurudwara in eastern Perth was vandalised by miscreants. Apparently, they mistook the Gurudwara for a mosque and thought that they were teaching Muslims a ‘lesson.’ Paintings and writings of various

kinds had appeared on the walls of the Gurudwara, asking “Muslims” to go back. Phrases like “Aussie pride” and “Go home” were also written on these walls. Apart from the display of intolerance towards other religions, the perpetrators of this attack unwittingly displayed their lack of knowledge of major religions of the world. Incidents of communal hatred have been frequent in Australia for the last few years. These attacks have been mainly against Muslim women in hijab as well as against Sikh women since they also wear these types of clothes. Since the Muslim men and Sikh men also seemingly dress alike, it’s easy to get confused about who’s. Crimes against Indians also are

rising in Australia. Resulting in escalation of attacks and tensions There were 120,913 Indian students enrolled to undertake an Australian qualification in 2009. In 2007-2008, 1,447 Indians were victims of racial assaults and robberies in the state of Victoria. However, the statistics reportedly show that Indians were not over-represented in assaults. In either case, the Victorian police refused to release the data for public scrutiny, the stated reason being that it was “problematic” as well as “subjective” and so open to interpretation. In spite of the racial tension in Australia, Sikhs have been leading a peaceful life for most part of their

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Tr a n s c e n d i n g B o u n d a r i e s

Hate message by confused Australians on a Gurudwara

Culture under Attack R

acial attacks have sneaked into mainstream Australian culture long back and Asians, especially Hindus, have reasons to be peeved. In 2012, Coles, Australia’s second-biggest chain with over 13 million weekly customers and over 750 stores, advertised for workers but stated that ‘Store requires no Indians’. In 2011, alleged designers at a Sydney fashion show displayed an image of Hindu Goddess Lakshmi in swimwear. They also displayed Lord Ganesh, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu in “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich” play in Melbourne in an objectionable manner. A report by Australian Human Rights Commission, a statutory

organisation that reports to the federal Australian Parliament, had in its report highlighted “a lack of constitutional protection against racial discrimination in Australia” and talked about “absence of any entrenched guarantee against racial discrimination that would override the law of the Commonwealth.” Battle against racism will need effective solutions, amends, compensation, rights recognition, public education programmes, etc., at various levels besides developing a “bill of rights” as a high-priority. Interestingly, the Commonwealth of Australia ranks as one of the best places in the world to live.

documented existence in Australia. Sikhs migrated to Australia in 1830s and today they form one of the largest subgroups of Indian Australians with 72,000 adherents, according to the 2011 census. In 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a census which discovered that Punjabi is the fastest growing language in the country, Sikhism is among the top 20 religions practised and Hinduism is the fastest growing religion in the whole of Australia. But there is a growing discontent against immigrants, mainly Asians, in Australia. Many Australians would love to believe that their jobs and income opportunities are being snatched away by these immigrants. Hence, attacks on Indian students were a norm a few years ago. Interestingly, the Australian Government did not initiate any investigations into the matter and claimed that most of these attacks were not racially motivated; they were cases of mugging, it wanted us to believe. But Asians living in Australia, including Sikhs, have other stories to tell. They point out that 1,447 people of Indian nationality were victims of crime in Victoria in the 12 months to July 2008. If the Sikhs and other Asians are losing their lives and living in fear in Australia, the Australian Government has a lot to think about. Not only the image of the country stands maligned in the eyes of international community, but Australia will stand to lose a significant part of its revenue if these attacks continue. Education export is the third largest revenue generator in Australia and Asian students form a large part of the Australian student community. The attack on Sikh Gurudwara may be a case of confused identity. But there is no doubt that the Australian Government should take measures to educate its youth about cultural tolerance and respect for other cultures. Without it, neither the Asians nor the Australian government can make any progress.

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Govt. Without Shackles

Time to Build New Temples of Progressive India ‘When the first uneasy coalitions were formed in the states by breaking political parties through purchase, uncertainty crept in at political levels and corruption became a political imperative because money was needed to buy political power. Unfortunately even the single party governments of Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi were unable to stem the rot and uncertainty, indecisiveness and corruption became necessary concomitants of government.’

The Bhakranangal Dam

• Dr M N Buch

hen India became independent, the government led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took a deliberate decision to launch a massive programme of building infrastructure in India and for this purpose opted for a planned economy. Apart from Tata Steel, there was virtually no capital goods industry in India. We manufactured no aircraft, no ships, no motor vehicles; we did not produce aluminum or copper; our roads system was rudimentary and there was very little telecommunication connectivity. During the first 15 years of indepen-

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dence, great hydroelectric-cum-irrigation projects like Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud and Tungabhadra were built, huge thermal power stations such as those at Sarni in Madhya Pradesh and Bokaro in Bihar (now Jharkhand) were constructed, copper and bauxite mines were brought under production, mining for iron ore and coal was brought to a new high and huge steel plants such as those at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur were set up in record time. Chandigarh was built from scratch as the new capital of the Indian part of Punjab as a replacement for Lahore. The Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, the Indian School of

Mines at Dhanbad, the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh and Pondicherry and the magnificent agriculture universities at Ludhiana and Pant Nagar are some examples of world class educational institutions which were set up during this era. But from 1967 onwards the country seemed to lose the head of steam built up in the previous 20 years. This was the period of political uncertainty, of intrigue for power in which members of the legislature were suborned, subdued or purchased and

governments were changed not on the basis of the ballot but through the means of buying and selling. What is more, audit and vigilance functions suddenly became more important than project planning, technical design, systematic financing, adherence to schedule, maintenance of quality and delivery of the finished product. Together with this grew a lack of trust between ministers and officers, between political parties, between officers themselves, between civil servants and technology professionals and between project authorities, businessmen and contractors. Now everything was for sale, even human character. No one was prepared to take any decisions without, in the case of the corrupt, a price being extracted and by the honest because they know that a decision could create trouble for them on petty account and, therefore, it was better to play safe. The whole aim of governance is to take decisions. Decision-making is at various levels and in its own domain every decision is vitally important. At the level of national government, there has to be a long-term perspective about where the country should be heading; there should be a clear-cut vision of our priorities and selection of priorities, taking into account the financial and human resources available to us. There has also to be a vision and model of how plans prepared in accordance with these priorities will be implemented. The personnel to implement them have to be carefully selected; they have to be suitably empowered and then given a free hand to deliver results. There has to be a system of monitoring, evaluation and superintendence, but within given parameters audit and vigilance functions have to be rational, aimed at correcting the errors.

There was no hesitation to engage and this has further vitiated the enviforeign experts or to assign steel ronment. An improperly run coalition, plants such as Durgapur to a British like the Manmohan Singhâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UPA, canconsortium, Rourkela to the Germans not frame policy and it can only seek and Bhilai to the Russians. We did opportunities for promoting its own not feel slighted because we bor- benefits. This automatically creates rowed talent from abroad because a miasmic atmosphere in which there the objective was to build these is deep suspicion about the motives new temples and not to sit on petty of everyone and there is a complete issues of prestige. All this was pos- lack of trust. sible only because we had a climate of political certainty. When the first uneasy coalitions were formed Suddenly in the states by breaking there crept in political parties through an element of political purchase, uncertainty corruption which, in turn, crept in at political corrupted the Civil Service, levels and corrupwhose professional competence was tion became a political imperative eroded because of lack of political because money will and decision making and the was needed increasing preponderance of political to

manipulators, corrupt businessmen, abandonment of planning and its substitution by populism, inordinate delays and cost overruns in project implementation, accompanied by shoddy workmanship. Navi Mumbai International Airport.

buy political power. Unfortunately even the single party governments of Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi were unable to stem the rot and uncertainty, indecisiveness and corruption became necessary concomitants of government. This has been followed by 30 years of coalition rule at the Centre

Such a government is free to take decisions, including those which may be temporarily unpopular, and give clear-cut directives to its officials and create an environment of trust in which officials feel personally accountable for completion of given tasks. In such an environment, the policy is well defined and their directions for the implementation are also specific and unambiguous. An official can now proceed with implementation in the full confidence that provided he follows policy directions, he will be fully protected. The present government can certainly ensure the following: 1. Clarity in policy and firmness in the political will to implement it.

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Yamuna-Expressway-Cloverleaf 2. Carefully choosing the implementation teams. 3. Unambiguous policy directions on how a particular policy is to be translated into reality. 4. A clear statement to the team leaders and officers that government will support them to the hilt in their work. 5. Interlocking accountability in which superintendence, supervision and monitoring are paramount, but in which the superior officer is held accountable for the deeds of his subordinates. 6. Suitable empowerment of the official machinery so that it can perform its task. 7. Sensible audit whose function is not only to find fault but to help

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The present government is not a coalition because it enjoys absolute majority of a single party in the Lok Sabha. Whereas any democratic government is required to carry all parties, it is not required to pander to the baser instincts and demands of a coalition partner who is opportunistic.

the implementing authorities to perform the task better and maintain their accounts in a rational manner. 8. Answerability for oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions only to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administrative superior and not to an outside agency

like a vigilance organization, CBI, etc., unless there is an allegation of criminality. Let us not underestimate our government machinery because it is still capable of doing amazing work. What it needs is clarity in policy, directions which are unambiguous and full support for all bona fide actions. Having served in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Civil Service, one can state with confidence that our government machinery, despite years of abuse, can still deliver the moon on a platter. If government governs, there will be real governance and we shall build hundreds of new temples of a modern, progressive India. (The author is Dean, Centre for Governance and Political Studies, VIF)

Nehruvian Blunders India can neither correct nor forget them • Prashanth Vaidyaraj

andit Nehru once stated: “By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim, and a Hindu only by accident of birth.” Not only did he say so, but also acted so. In an interview given to one of the leading international magazines, he emphasized: “I will be the last Englishman to rule India.” The government under his control launched several large infrastructure projects, but the way in which those projects were implemented became the character of governance in the decades that followed. He ignored bolstering the army and investing in defence materials. That result was in 1962 the country

suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese. At a time when we had lost 72,000 sq kms of land to Chinese, he quipped: “Not a blade of grass grows in Aksai Chin; loss of Indian territory to China is a loss too little.” Though a Kashmiri Pandit by birth, Nehru never found slaughtering of cows inhuman. Once a massive uproar broke out in Parliament over banning cow slaughter. Everyone but seven parliamentarians favoured a ban. When the voting was about to begin, Nehru backed off. He threatened to resign if Parliament pressed ahead with a vote. Disliking personal animosity with Nehru, many members retreated, and finally the bill was placed off the menu. Even to this day, nobody knows why Nehru did so. Perhaps we will never know.

On October 26, 1947, Raja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession to legally accede Jammu and Kashmir to India. It was the responsibility of leaders like Nehru to defend Kashmir and Hari Singh. Soon, an army contingent was dispatched to the region to deal with a tribal army opposing accession. The Tribal army was no match for the professional soldiers. But, then Nehru made the greatest mistake of his life. He asked the UN to intervene and solve the issue. The UN enforced a ceasefire and ruled that the areas occupied by rivals would remain theirs. The Indian army hadn’t yet achieved its objective of driving out the intruders from occupied Kashmir. The ceasefire handed out a huge tract of land to the Pakistani tribal army and the Indian

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Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru being shown Zojila Pass by Lt Col Sukhdev Singh soldiers were herded back into their barracks. Today this chunk of land is called Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). India has since continued to pay the price for this Nehruvian blunder. The Instrument of Accession was the fundamental element of rule under which the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus. Later the United Nations washed its hands of declaring Kashmir a ‘disputed land’. This was the result of the overbearing attitude and a false notion of being the benefactor of the nation. Such fallacious thought process has been passed on to the Nehru family that ruled the nation for decades later on. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi mastered this art of hoodwinking. Today the dynasty’s incumbent ‘prince’, Rahul Gandhi, is also trying to use similar tactics to hoodwink the nation. Sample this quote from Rahul Gandhi. “This is the only country which won its war of independence with love. Today India is ruled by people who are angry. They say we have to promote Hindi, not English. The Congress is the only party that has the strength to fight this,” Rahul told Congress party workers. This is a small example of his lack

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As the first Prime Minister of independent India, Nehru committed far too many blunders, but the decision to approach the UN, when Kashmir was attacked by the Pak-sponsored militia, is considered to be his worst blunder. Our soldiers were about to reclaim the rest of the territory in Kashmir which was still in the hands of the militia, but since the UN enforced a ceasefire, they had to pull back, leaving that part of Kashmir for Pakistan. Nehru also ignored the need for effective defence, which resulted in India’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Chinese in 1962. of knowledge of history. Worse still, such statements belittle the sacrifices of the thousands like Subhash Chandra Bose and those killed in massacres like Jallianwala Bagh. Rahul Gandhi seems to have for-

gotten the fact that Nehru supported Sanskrit. Today Rahul decries the country’s ancient language just to gain a political capital. It is no secret that he is unaware of Indian culture and heritage. Asked by ‘Hindustan Times’ why the congress government did not open a single Sanskrit university in its 10-year rule, Rahul replied: “It will be a narrow viewpoint if we compartmentalised education in languages. I don’t agree with you that you need a dedicated university for the promotion of Sanskrit. Students should be taught all languages, say Hindi, Japanese or English, in all institutions.” Apart from such dreadful views, some of his statements have been downright detrimental to the security of the country. In 2009, while lunching with United States Ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi said that he believes Hindu extremists pose a greater threat to his country than Muslim militants, pointing at some senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He went on to compare Hindu nationalistic organisations to terrorist organisations like SIMI. At an election rally in Madhya Pradesh, soon after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Rahul Gandhi claimed that he heard a police officer saying that Pakistan’s ISI was trying to recruit disgruntled riot-affected youngsters in Uttar Pradesh. During a function in Allahabad, Gandhi termed poverty as a “state of mind” for which he drew sharp criticism from various sections. It is time that India says goodbye to dynastic politics that proved incompetent and inefficient to rule the nation. Rahul is a fine example of youths who, without experience and knowledge the country’s history, take up political offices just because they are the sons of ruling families. (Research inputs from ‘MediaSyndicate’)

Afghanistan Changing New govt. forging ahead with confidence

Afghanistan is changing its perception of terrorism and is trying to reach out to its neighbours, including China, in a positive way. The new government, led by Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, is all set to chart a new course in economic as well as political affairs, so that it can bid farewell once and for all to the topsy-turvy maladministration of the Taliban that was the bane of the country for decades. With unemployment at 35%, the country has a long way to go before it can ensure economic security to the majority of its citizens. Fortunately, positive changes are taking place in that strifetorn country and good days may not be far behind. Afghanistan opens up its borders for anti-terrorist strategies.

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errorism is a vicious octopus. Whatever one’s ideologies, whichever nations and notions of religions one supports, it always comes full circle to bite the very hand that fed it. Afghanistan, a country that was the breeding ground of some of the most notorious terrorists on the world map, has been learning this the hard way. Plagued by the never-ending wars between various groups of self-styled keepers of faith, the country has finally decided it had enough. While some might argue that decision-making authorities in Afghanistan are a contradiction of terms, the country has decided to enter into a pact with China to curtail terrorism. Both the countries entered into agreements to fight their common enemy, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an Uighur separatist group demanding the independence of Xinjiang. While ETIM has been tormenting the authorities in China with its brazen demands of separatism, Afghanistan too has been at the receiving end of the brutalities of this organisation, as the country shares a very critical border along Xinjiang. According to the agreement, Afghanistan will not allow any activities on its soil which threaten the sovereignty and safety of China. This raises some pertinent questions about the manner in which Afghanistan has been conducting itself in the past. There have been a number of terrorist training camps across Afghanistan, including the ones run by ETIM. Many would even argue that the country was even run by terrorists for a long time. A few years ago, analysts from Joint Task Force Guantanamo on counter-terrorism had pinpointed various places in Afghanistan where numerous ethnic Uighurs who were held in Guantanamo were being provided training. So why this change of heart for Afghanistan? Why is it changing its colour suddenly and muttering antiterrorist rhetoric? This is because in the past few years, Afghanistan has been ravaged by internal strife and

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President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai: Will he be able to bring peace in Afghanistan? never-ending conflicts. The economy of the country is in a shambles and unemployment stands at 35% of the total population. Expectedly, even tourism took a serious dent as terrorists continued their merry killings throughout the length and breadth of the country. After the fall of the Taliban government, there was a new government in place which looks educated. Led by economist Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, this government is serious in rebuilding the nation and its relationship with other countries. Ahmadzai does not speak the language of terrorists. His upbringing is different, and his thoughts do not border on edgy fundamentalism when he thinks of “development of the nation.” He is a former employee of the World Bank and is the co-founder of the Institute for State Effectiveness, an organisation set up in 2005 to improve the ability of states to serve their citizens. In 2005 he gave a TED talk, in which he discussed how to rebuild a broken state such as Afghanistan. Needless to say, the core of the Afghan administration has changed. So, a country that was for long closed for outsiders and was a haven for terrorists of all kinds, is showing signs

of change. Afghanistan is trying to talk to its neighbours, including India, about countering terrorism. This could be a significant step for the world to counter acts of terrorism, as Afghanistan was the stronghold of all kinds of antisocial elements for the last many years. But now, it seems there is hope for the Afghan people. The new interim government, headed by Ahmadzai, has not only been talking tough, but is also showing that it actually means business. The Taliban has been toppled and al-Qaida has lost its Afghan bases. About 4,000 Taliban troops have been killed, including 800 or so of al-Qaida’s “Afghan Arabs.” On the allied side, less than 600 northern alliance troops were killed and there were only a few US combat deaths. About 7,000 Taliban and foreign troops were taken prisoner, of whom 500 or so have been transferred to US for custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But, of three dozen Taliban and al-Qaida leaders on the Pentagon’s most wanted list, only 12 were killed, injured or defected. So helping other nations in their fight against terrorism is the only right course of action left for Afghanistan right now. Positivity breeds more

Supporters of East Turkistan Islamic Movement protesting against China in the US. positivity. As Afghanistan has been showing signs of joining the world in their battle against terrorism, aid has been pouring in from abroad. A preliminary needs assessment prepared by the World Bank, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank has identified possible high-priority areas. These include: a basic healthservices package to reduce child and maternal mortality; an education programme to enrol over a million girls and boys in schools; rapid increase in food production through irrigation and other programmes; increased access to safe water; shelter to facilitate resettlement and development of a national urban management capacity; emergency energy supply while restoring the existing power system; urban and rural employment generation; supporting local-level reconstruction; and creating a conducive socioeconomic environment for returning refugees. Obviously, the new Afghan government understands the importance of peaceful existence with other nations for its own rebuilding process to kick-

Afghan Relations with India A

s the US has withdrawn from Afghanistan, the country is looking for new partners to keep its internal enemies at bay. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was in touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even before he became the Prime Minister. While Afghanistan is singing the anti-terrorism songs along with India, experts point out that the real interest for the country is the possibility of getting the much-needed military assistance from India. Afghanistan is particularly

start. The country has been extending its helping hands to join other nations to fight terror. Knowing the fickle history of tenta-

interested in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advanced combat machinery, including Russian-origin fighter jets and tanks that New Delhi eventually wants to discard. These include MiG-21 fighters and T-72 tanks, apart from Bofors howitzers and equipment vital for command and control. And New Delhi is reacting positively too. The officials of the government recently held talks with China, Japan and Iran to find ways to fund Afghan security demands, with a price tag of around $4 billion a year.

tive governments in that country, one can only hope that this government stays for a long time to come.

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From 4 to 47…

How Did Amit Shah pull off this victory?

• Rampal

o election result was as surprising as Haryana’s, where BJP boosted its tally to 47 seats from a mere 4 five years ago. It was not only the former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s corruption scandals and Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s land deals but also the party president Amit Shah’s carefully-devised electoral strategy that the paved the way for BJP’s stunning victory. Unlike in Maharashtra, the BJP hardly had a presence in Haryana. In the earlier Assembly election, the majority of its candidates had got their deposits forfeited. For decades Haryana had been ruled by Jat leaders, an agricultural community whose members make up about 25 percent of the state population. Nobody thought the importance of non-Jat voters until Amit Shah did it. He sent the party’s Dalit MPs to spend days and nights in Dalit bastis eating and sleeping with the people of their community. There they held bhajans both morning and evening, which was followed by political discussions. Dalits account for 20 per cent of the

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A one-time stockbroker, Amit Shah has now become the master of electoral strategy. People were not fully convinced when BJP’s stunning success in UP was credited to his account. But the victory in Haryana tells the tale of his talent. He has for the first time proved that you can pull off any feat if you have a clear strategy in place.

state’s population and successive governments had neglected them. Dividing Jat votes was as important as luring a larger number of non-Jat votes. Therefore, the party fielded 25 candidates from Jats, launched a scathing attack on corruption and laid out its plan to punish the corrupt. Corruption is a hotly debated issue today in Haryana, with its former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala spending time in jail on graft charges. His son Ajay Chautala is also behind bars after being convicted of hijacking a teacher recruitment programme. Chautala’s INLD is in disarray with most of its top leaders serving jail sentences. Congress leaders were not behind bars but they too were caught in a many corruption cases, the most publicised one being Robert Vadra’s land deals. Under Bhupinder Singh Hooda, corruption cases had skyrocketed and there had been several complaints of rape on Dalit women. At election rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly attacked the ruling party for failing to protect women. Vadra’s land deals with DLF gave ammunition as to how the Congress sold the state’s values to please Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law. As a result, the upper castes and OBCs -- roughly 55% of state’s electorate – began to turn to BJP for cleaning up the mess created by the past govern-

Vadra on Watch B

arely a week after BJP took oath of office in Haryana, Robert Vadra shuttered all his offices and stayed away from limelight. But the government has asked deputy commissioners of districts – including Gurgaon, Mewat, Faridabad and Palwal – to verify how many acres of land Vadra has purchased and sold in the past few years. They are also told to figure out if his purchases exceeded the limit on the quantum of land an individual can buy in Haryana. Meanwhile, Ashok Khemka, the IAS officer who blew the whistle on Vadra’s land deals, has been transferred to Delhi to serve the Central Government. In his earlier letter, Khemka had pointed out how Vadra had exceeded this limit by purchasing hundreds of acres across the state. As per the state law, no individual can purchase more than 53 acres of land. It is believed that by 2009, Vadra had purchased 146.75 acres of land in Haryana.

When Khemka annulled the landsale deal Vadra had struck with real estate firm DLF, the government, then led by Congress, set up a three-member committee to investigate. Interestingly, the committee found fault with Khemka’s decision rather than Vadra’s deal. “In an unholy haste, an unprofessional and motivated report was submitted giving a clean chit to Vadra, for which the chairman and members were adequately rewarded,” Khemka later wrote in his open letter.

ments. Like in Maharashtra, in Haryana too the BJP chose to fight the election all alone. Of course, winning seven out of 10 seats in the previous Lok Sabha elections might have prompted Amit Shah to avoid alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC). HJC had not won a single seat in the earlier parliamentary elections. Soon after becoming party president, Amit Shah pretended to be negotiating with HJC chief Bishnoi over a seat-sharing pact. He offered him 20 seats instead of the 45 Bishnoi had asked for. He also offered the post of deputy chief minister if his party had performed well. Convinced that Kuldeep Bishnoi’s fledgling HJC has no sway over non-Jat voters, Amit Shah shrewdly used the wrangling over seat-sharing as a reason to break up the alliance. As expected, Bishnoi rejected the offer and the BJP decided to go it alone. But there was another trouble. The BJP did not have leaders and organisational backbone strong enough to contest all the 90 seats. Therefore, Amit Shah chose to drag in some of the disgruntled leaders of other parties like the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal. Out 47 BJP candidates who won the election, 17 had joined the party only months before of the poll. In constituencies dominated by non-Jat voters, Amit Shah asked party orators to describe how Hooda government had neglected them to favour a few. Clearly Amit Shah’s gamble has paid off and brought in crowning glory that the saffron party had never tasted before in the Jatland.

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BUSINESS SUTRA A Very Indian Approach to Management Author: Devdutt Pattanaik Language: English Length: 446 pages Publisher: Aleph Book Company

Business Sutra

Desi Sutras for Modern Business • Beluru Sudarshana

e is a leadership coach and mythologist. He is clearcut in his views. He is assertive in explanations. He will use only Indian words and phrases for puranic stories. He will illustrate all his theories himself in fine lines. He works for a major retail business company as Chief Belief Officer. Welcome Devdutt Pattanaik, the author of “Business Sutra”, a book for new-age business executives, which delivers the message that are formed out of Indian mythological stories and characters. He refers not just Hindu religious stories but Jain and Buddhist anecdotes with ease. This book has business solutions ranging from a successful tea stall to nurturing talent in a large multinational corporation. It is a timely publication in the era of globalisation and surge of Indian multinational companies. Being at the helm of such consumerist market buzz, Devdutt has created a massive storehouse of puranic knowledge, with a contemporary tinge. The main plank of Devdutt’s book is this: the Puranas, mythical stories, can be analysed, re-defined and put to use in modern times. While the present corporate culture

seems to be mostly unethical and anti-societal, Devdutt argues for a business ecosystem where all the activities, from the owner of a company to the sales executive to follow certain etiquettes based on puranic narratives. In all the chapters, he narrates the issue, followed by a contemporary story to support his line of argument. Concrete realities are deciphered and given solutions. The philosophical acuteness of his arguments is exemplary. The picturesque details of the arguments are put in stylish line art works, created by the author himself. This book is born out of his television chan-

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nel interviews aired by CNBC TV a couple of years back. Elegantly printed, this treatise provides an insight into the inner meanings of the puranic stories. Devdutt analyses the roles and responsibilities of every player in business effortlessly and enlists the arguments without any aberration. While the stories are taken from mythical works, he is cautious. He says the terminology used are his interpretations and has nothing to do with the puranic times. Thus, we can safely say this is a new-age interpretation of interpersonal relationships, in a business atmosphere. For example: 1) The workplace is full of Kubijas. In a world where only performance seems to matter, they are mediocre, at the wrong end of the bell-curve, people who can be justifiably kicked out. And this makes them insecure. The only way to secure their job is to have a relationship with people in power, display loyalty by poisoning their ears against others, making the “yajaman” feel there is someone looking out for them. (p-324). 2) In organisations, we expect a man in a particular position to behave in a particular manner. We assume that he has gained this position

because he has those qualities. But what comes first: gaining the qualities or acquiring the position? Can a king be royal before he has a kingdom, or does the possession of a kingdom make him royal? The topic of principles of management is now getting more attention than ever. Devdutt does not hesitate to bring in the contemporary management issues, conflict of interests, decision making, communication, teamwork, finances, fortunes, skills, performance and all such management terms and churns them through his world view of Business Sutra. Even the Western, Chinese and other thoughts have been dissected under his Sutra microscope. Thus he has given a set of around 150 Sutras with an Indian approach to management. Here are some examples of the Sutras he has derived in this book:

• Imagination expands human hunger. • Upstream forces need to be balanced by downstream forces. • We often forget that others see the world differently. • Growth happens when we include those whom we once excluded. • To provoke a thought, we have to learn patience. Adding to his Sutras, Devdutt has also provided the Business Sutra Vocabulary, where he has enlisted the old and new meanings for puranic words. Devdutt’s explanations are broad and deep. He delves upon all the angles. He raises the questions we often wish to ask. Simply put, this book is a brilliant display of ingenious, desi arguments.

About the author D

evdutt Pattanaik has written over 25 books and 400 articles on Indian mythology for everyone from adults to children. Since 2007, he has been explaining the relationship between mythology and management through his column in the Economic Times; the talk he gave at the TED India conference in 2009; and the show Business Sutra which ran successfully on CNBC-TV18 in 2010, besides numerous other lectures at Indian universities and management institutes. Trained to be a doctor, he spent 15 years in the healthcare (Apollo Health Street) and pharmaceutical (Sanofi Aventis) industries and worked briefly with Ernst & Young as business adviser before he turned his passion into a vocation and joined the think tank of the Future Group as its Chief Belief Officer.

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There are clear signs of the economy looking up. Inflation has come down drastically and industrial output has gone up. Foreign investors are once again looking at India with great expectations as the Modi Government readies itself to initiate drastic reforms. The Prime Minister’s “Make in India” call has been heard loud and clear by the business honchos abroad and they are waiting with bated breadth for the next crucial step that the government is going to take.

Signs of Upswing A

s per the latest data put out by the Central Statistics Office, the economy seems to be looking up. Industrial production, backed by the capital goods segment, rose in September by 2.5 % (year-on-year). This is considered the fastest in the last three months. At the same time, the consumer price index came down to 5.5 % in October, the lowest in the previous three months. The slide in inflation is attributed to a fall in food and fuel prices. All this has added to the expectations of investors that the RBI is likely to cut interest rates. Meanwhile, expectations of reforms and the overall good showing on the economic front have enthused the foreign investors too. Aided by strong foreign fund buying, the Sensex closed above the 28,000mark on Thursday, November 13, for the first time ever, adding Rs.30,000 crore to the investors’ wealth on a single day. BSE’s market capitalization is now put at a record high of Rs.98.3 lakh crore. A significant factor that has led to the record rise in index is the fall in crude prices. The fall in oil prices will boost for the economy as India is a big importer of energy. This will also help narrow down the current account deficit which has already declined from 5% of GDP in 2013 to 2% this year. But the investors are expecting radical reforms, especially in the banking sector. Years of mismanagement by government banks has left them with little capital to lend to large borrowers

FDI Flows on the Rise; Sensex at New Peak

although they dispense about 70% of bank loans. And the government lacks funds to recapitalise them. In order to sustain the enthusiasm and expectations of the investors and entrepreneurs, the Modi government should make full use of the current atmosphere of by bringing in reforms that will go a long way in stimulating the economy and generating employment. The foreign trade front, however, is not so rosy since exports fell by 5% in October, mainly due to a contraction in engineering goods exports, gems and jewellery and pharmaceuticals. At the same time, imports went up, widening the trade deficit to $13.4 billion. This will put pressure on the government and the RBI to restrict import of gold, since gold and crude oil are the main components of India’s imports. According to the commerce department data, imports rose by 3.6% to $39.4 billion with gold imports alone going up by four times in October and silver imports doubled. Economists fear that the rise in bullion imports might neutralise the positive impact of crude oil price decline. Traders say that the decline in exports was due to the weak sentiment in the US and Europe. In order to boost savings and encourage investment, the government has relaunched the Kisan Vikas Patra and offered to double the KVP holder’s investment in 100 months. The revamped Kisan Vikas Patras offer an annualized return of 8.7%, but interest accrued is taxable. This is consid-

ered a negative aspect of the scheme as the Public Provident Fund offers the same interest rate which is taxfree. KVP, however, will help the government garner substantial funds. On the corporate front, the big news is the buyout of Bangalore-based ING Vysya Bank by Kotak Mahindra Bank at a whopping price of Rs.1,04,734 crore. This is considered the biggest merger and acquisition in the banking sector. With this acquisition Kotak Mahindra has become the fourth largest private bank. There is concern over the slow pace of global economic growth. The justconcluded G20 meeting in Australia has addressed this problem and decided on some measures to stimulate growth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took an active interest in the deliberations. The Prime Ministers of both countries signed a long-term agreement on security co-operation and also decided to sign a long-pending free trade agreement. Both the countries will also sign a civilian nuclear agreement which will enable India to import uranium from Australia. At his round-table conference with Australian businessmen he identified green technology, LNG and tourism sector where they can invest without hassle. Other sectors where he sought investments from Australian industrialists included IT, education and banking.

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India ranked first in food sustainability in every Greendex

environment, indicated that they were open to altering their behavior in ways that would contribute to a more sustainable planet. The study observes that the developing world is more nimble, less entrenched than the developed world and hence easily consider the greener option.

India must strengthen soft power: G Parthasarathy

I T

he latest Greendex survey by the National Geographic Society and the research consulting firm GlobeScan measured consumption habits and attitudes in 18 countries. The Greendex is a quantitative study of 18,000 consumers in a total of 18 countries on energy consumption and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, relative use of green products versus packaged products, attitudes toward the environment and sustainability. India, which has ranked first in food sustainability in every Greendex, came out far ahead again, thanks to its culturally dictated eating habits. Most of them are vegetarians and those who don’t prefer beef, the most environmentally damaging meat. Indians have reduced the amount of imported food they eat and increased their consumption of locally produced, homegrown and organic foods. Consumers in every country are more concerned about food safety today than they were in 2012. Chinese worry most after a recent series of tainted food scare. Mexicans ranked last in the Greendex measure of food due to a diet heavy in beef and chicken. America’s junk food culture means its consumers eat the most processed and packaged foods and the fewest fruits and vegetables. Despite the industrial world’s relative resistance to change, the Greendex offers reason for hope. Consumers in five countries with a total of 1.8 billion people—Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China and India—all have a keen appetite and great potential for change. Many consumers in those countries, when given information about how their habits affect the

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ndia Policy Foundation recently organised a debate on ‘India-China border dispute and way forward’ in which former diplomat G Parthasarathy spoke in detail about the Chinese threat, reality and where India stands. He outlined the policy paralysis and leadership’s inability to understand the real threat. He even mentioned some historical blunders committed by the leaders of the country. Parthasarathy said that most of the policy makers in India are suffering from inferiority complex visa-vis China. If the country has to deal with China, it must shun this inferiority complex. He highlighted several other issues to counter China and said that India must develop indigenous industries, especially in defense sector. India has the advantage that the US and European Union would not supply arms to China but India can procure them. Besides this, defense expenditure of India has gone down to an all-time low whereas the Chinese defense expenditure is continuously increasing. There is no denying the fact that creation of Buddhist circuit is going to prove a dividend not only in terms of economy but strategically as well. It will prove to be very helpful for the country. However, he was very sad about tourism in India terming India as the most tourist unfriendly country with six million foreign tourists across the country while Paris alone receives 80 million every week.

Evangelist arrested for proselytisation atop Tirumala

video of Christian missionary allegedly converting people right outside the main complex of the

A report in the “Deccan Chronicle” said that “The pastor, Sudhir Mondithoka, who is responsible for the episode and who hails from Hyderabad, justified his acts and said he did nothing wrong. The pastor mentioned that ‘secular’ cops and the vigilance wing sleuths helped him reach Tirumala without any difficulty and also reiterated that none of the security officials told him his deeds were prohibited at Tirumala.

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple has generated debate after it surfaced on YouTube recently. The video shows a man, who introduces himself as Sudhir Mondithoka, as he videotapes his journey to the top of the hill on which the temple is located while he repeatedly makes some degrading remarks about the presiding deity Lord Venkateswara or Vishnu, one of the trinities in the Hindu pantheon, together with Brahma and Shiva. An internet search reveals that Sudhir Mondithoka is the director of Immanuel Baptist Ministries of India, Hyderabad, and he has produced this video on the Seven Hills to show to his American Missionaries who fund his lucrative missionary activities. According to a report in The Hindu, TTD Executive Officer M.G. Gopal said he would not tolerate any kind of activity which would undermine the religious dignity of the place. Instructions were issued to officials concerned to probe the issue. It may be recalled that a government Order (No.746) prohibits religious conversions and canvassing in favour of other religions atop the temple. The probe is ongoing to see if this video violates the GO. In 2007, the AP government had issued two ordinances: (1) prohibiting proselytisation on the TTD Hill and (2) declaring TTD and about 20 other religious places as Divya Kshetrams.

China successfully tests laser weapon to shoot down drones

hina recently claimed to have successfully tested a homemade laser defence system specially targeting small-scale drones flying at low altitude. The weapon is able to shoot down various small aircraft within a two-kilometre radius and can do so in five seconds after locating its target, said a statement released by the China Academy of Engineering Physics, one of the system’s co-developers. Characterised by its speed, precision and low

noise, the system is designed to destroy unmanned, small-scale drones flying within an altitude of 500 metres and at a speed below 50m/s, state-run Xin-

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hua news agency reported. Yi Jinsong, a manager with China Jiuyuan Hi-Tech Equipment Corp, a group under the academy spearheading the project, said that intercepting such drones is usually the work of snipers and helicopters, but their success rate is not as high and mistakes with accuracy can result in unwanted damage. According to Yi, small-scale, unmanned drones are relatively cheap and easy-to-use, which makes them a likely choice for terrorists. In addition, concerns have been raised over drones engaged in unlicensed mapping activities and the affect this could have on military and civil aerial activities. The new laser system, which will either be installed or transported in vehicles, is expected to play a key role in ensuring security during major events in urban areas, the statement said, adding that a recent test saw the machine successfully shoot down more than 30 drones -- a 100 per cent success rate. The academy said it was developing similar laser security systems with greater power and range. It is to be noted that the drone industry has been booming in recent years, with the challenge to build small, hard-to-track drones that are difficult shoot down.

relating to the financing or support of terrorist acts and foreign fighters. Other provisions were on improving cooperation among nations to take steps to stop the travel of foreign terrorists and to share information to identify them. India has stated that its concern is that the current working methods, which have been provisionally applied since the Council was established, have deviated from the clear provisions.

India to buy arms from Israel

ndia has decided to purchase Israel’s Spike anti-tank guided missile. In the process, the country has spurned a rival US offer of Javelin missiles. The US had tried its best to win this lucrative offer.

India urges Security council to Act

ndia has told the UN Security Council that condemning terrorism for political purposes is counterproductive. It has urged the world body to design its resolutions to fight global menace in the true sense. According to India, the working methods of the Security Council have some drawbacks in drawing up mandates of UN peacekeeping operations. Also, the impacts of its methods dilute the international effort against terrorism. India has stated that terrorism is fast emerging as the single-most important challenge to the maintenance of international peace and security. The country has called to have a report to the wider membership of the UN with respect to the latest resolution adopted by the Council last month. One of the provisions in the resolution calls on member states to assist in criminal investigations

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In a deal worth 32bn rupees ($525m), India will buy at least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers. According to experts, the Indian government is looking to clear the backlog of defence orders and enhance the country’s fire power. This decision has been made after the recent border tensions with China and heavy exchanges of fire with Pakistan across the Kashmiri frontier. Spike is a man-portable “fire and forget” anti-tank

missile that locks on to targets before shooting. It is produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems. It beat out the rival US Javelin weapons system, built by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co. Senior US officials had said they were still discussing the Javelin order as part of a broader push to deepen defence industry ties with India. Analysts estimate that India, the world’s largest arms buyer, will invest sizeable money in upgrading its Sovietera military hardware and close the gap on strategic rival China, which spends three times as much a year on defence.

India forms IP Think Tank

he Indian Government has finally constituted a much needed think tank to draft a national policy on the subject of intellectual property. This decision comes as the US trade representative has launched an additional review of India’s intellectual property

rights (IPR) regime. According to a statement issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the think tank will consist of six members. It will be headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, former chairperson of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board. She will identify areas in the IPR “where study needs to be conducted and furnish recommendations in this regard to the ministry.” The think tank is expected to offer views on the possible implications of demands placed by the negotiating partners. It is also expected to keep the government regularly informed about the developments taking place in IPR cases which have an impact upon India’s IPR policy. Last month, it was also announced that the country will have a policy on IPR to safeguard its interests in the field. India has been under pressure from the developed countries, mainly the US, regarding its IPR regime, especially in the pharma sector. Through the policy, India is aiming at branding itself as the pro-IP regime.

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