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Showing posts with label GEN VK SINGH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GEN VK SINGH. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Why General Singh Needs Support, Not Silence FOR CONDUCTING OP RAHAT SUCCESSFULLY
Why General Singh Needs Support, Not Silence
To:
General Singh Needs Support, Not Silence
Author: Sagnik Chakraborty
Publication: Swarajyamag.com
Date: April 13, 2015
URL: http://swarajyamag.com/politics/general-singh-needs-support-not-silence/
The retired Army general has returned a people’s hero for his supervision of the rescue operations in Yemen. At the same time, his lack of political astuteness has made him an easy target for detractors and the electronic media. Not defending him at such a time can dent the government’s popularity among nationalists.
General VK Singh is not a seasoned politician. On the contrary, the MoS for External Affairs continues to be an army man at heart. Efficient and goal-oriented, but candid and blunt on occasions. In the TRP and circulation-driven mainstream electronic and print media, turning him into a target of criticism is easy. That is one important reason why his senior colleagues in the Narendra Modi cabinet must speak up and provide him cover whenever necessary. But the question is, are they doing it, or is Singh being left to fend for himself?
Operation Rahat, the rescue operation launched by Government of India to evacuate Indians trapped in war-torn Yemen, officially ended on Thursday, 9th April. It was a brilliantly executed endeavour in which more than 4,600 Indians and 960 foreign nationals of 26 countries, including the US, France, the UK, Sweden, Russia, Hungary, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Philippines, Lebanon, Kenya and Morocco, among others, were rescued and evacuated.
The crisis in Yemen had been brewing for quite some time. After a political coup by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in which the Iran-backed Shia Houthi faction had ousted President Abed Mansour Hadi, the situation had worsened dramatically. Saudi Arabia responded quickly to the situation with its so-called 10-nation Arab coalition bombing the Houthi encampments to restore the political power of Hadi.
This is where New Delhi had to step in. The Middle East harbours almost seven million expatriate Indians who are settled there with regular jobs. The number, in itself, speaks volumes of India’s stakes in the region. With the crisis having a full-fledged potential to spiral out of control, the country could well turn into the newest breeding ground of terrorist entities like the Islamic State or the al Qaeda.
At the time Operation Rahat was launched, the priorities were clear. The trapped Indians had to be rescued, and time was precious. The evacuation base was set up in Djibouti, situated on the African side of the Gulf of Aden, from where rescue operations were to be carried out in a joint endeavour by the Indian Air Force, the Indian Navy and Air India.
The entire operation was planned in a meticulous manner, and was carried out in tandem with the still-functional Indian High Commission in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. Throughout the operation, Singh was in the thick of the action, visiting both, the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and the Indian evacuation base at Djibouti.
Reacting to the excellent progress of Operation Rahat, Prime Minister Modi, had praised on Twitter the overall coordination among the civilian and defence agencies. Apart from that, he had reserved special praise for his colleagues Sushma Swaraj and General Singh.
Perhaps remembering how he was targeted by the media for his visit to Pakistan High Commission on 23rd March, at an event which was also attended by some Hurriyat Conference leaders, General Singh made a remark speaking to the Indian reporters in Djibouti that the evacuation exercise was “less exciting than going to the Pakistani embassy”. The sarcasm in the remark was more than obvious — something even a college student would appreciate. But the ‘seasoned’ reporters of the mainstream media chose to deliberately ignore it and the matter was blown out of proportions.
This is when the General’s lack of political astuteness came in view through his tweet which followed the comment, which said that he didn’t expect any better from “presstitutes”.
This set the cat among the pigeons, with major media houses going hyper and baying for the general’s blood and the Congress, quite expectedly, going for the jugular. In fact, they even went as far as to demand the removal of the MoS from his position.
Ironically, while all the good work of Operation Rahat is now being thrown out of the window, by the English language news channels and the principal opposition party, who are gearing up against Singh. At this juncture, it is surprising that his own party, the BJP, and most of his senior Cabinet colleagues are maintaining an almost deafening silence. Apart from a few leaders like Subramanian Swamy, only the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has found conviction enough to appreciate his good work - with a grand Salute.
However, the times are changing. With the evolution of the social media, the national socio-political discourse has been witnessing novel methods of expressing opinions, and newer platforms of discussions and debates. Despite many distancing themselves from him on this issue, the people, via social media, lapped him up as their hero — going as far as organising a grand reception of his arrival from Yemen at the T3 Terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
Two of the major English news channels that have been at the frontline of this sensationalist exercise of attacking the General have come under heavy flak on both Facebook and Twitter. Apparently, the mainstream media is yet to realise that, in this age of democratisation of thought, channels alone cannot form opinions for everybody else based on their cacophonic programmes; with hyper-ventilating and hyper-opinionated news anchors having their own axes to grind, which is exactly what the term 'presstitute' means, and so rightly used by the General in his tweet.
The word ‘presstitute,’ which had entered the journalistic jargon long ago, has been in usage as a portmanteau. It can already be found in online dictionaries and, in a few years, it might gain entry into the Oxford and Webster too. In countries like the United States, it is often used to describe mainstream media houses and journalists who compromise on journalistic proprieties to ‘sell a particular point of view’. Overall, this hue and cry over the General’s tweet can be considered at best a case of ‘much ado about nothing’ and, at worst, pure and downright yellow journalism.
As for the ruling party leaving their junior colleague (who is also a first-time MP from Ghaziabad) in the lurch, it is strongly felt in the nationalist circles on social media and elsewhere that it would be better for the BJP-led NDA, especially with the clear mandate that it has received from the people of India, to stop compromising on its core values and stand solidly behind their colleague, especially after the grand success of Operation Rahat, who is definitely one of the few and rare straightforward men left in public life. And that does not marry well with being politically correct
Monday, 23 March 2015
V K SINGH AT PAKISTAN DAY #MOS TWEETS DISGUST
Saturday, 9 November 2013
GEN VK SINGHS BOOK BARES IT ALL
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
China is opening its narrow border with Afghanistan with roads and probably a tunnel under the Pamir ranges
China is opening its narrow border with Afghanistan with roads and probably a tunnel under the Pamir ranges
New Delhi, June 4: China is opening its narrow border with Afghanistan with roads and probably a tunnel under the Pamir ranges skirting Jammu and Kashmir with strategic implications for India, former army chief Gen. V.K. Singh has told The Telegraph.
"It is an outflanking move," the general who retired last Thursday said. "India risks losing the influence it has in Afghanistan because of a China-Pakistan link that is getting stronger and is seen in evidence here," he said.Since retirement four days ago, the general has said he was giving top priority to writing his PhD thesis on "Fundamentalism in Afghanistan and the Geo Strategic Significance of the Wakhan Corridor".
Singh registered as a PhD candidate as army chief in 2010 with the department of defence and military sciences of Bhopal's Barkatullah University.
The Chinese connection to Afghanistan, he says, is through the Wakhan Corridor that skirts the northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir, territory that India claims but is under Pakistani occupation. But for PoK, India would have had direct access to Afghanistan through the Wakhan Corridor.
India does not have transit rights to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Most of its shipping to Afghanistan is done through the Iranian port of Chabahar.
"China's objective is to increase connectivity with Afghanistan where it already has considerable presence along with India in development and other projects," the general said.
"This connectivity would be physical. And it is interested in this comparatively quieter area (the Wakhan Corridor) through which it would facilitate the exploitation of natural resources in Afghanistan," he said.
As chief, the general red-flagged the presence of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers, mostly engineers, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The building of the Karakoram highway abutting the Siachen glacier to its northeast through Shaksgam valley in Aksai Chin ' India-claimed territory that Pakistan has ceded to China ' is also a strategic concern of the Indian Army.
A "panhandle" of territory in Afghanistan's extreme northeast, the Wakhan Corridor or Wakhan Tract is at most 220km long and 64km at its widest. It separates Tajikistan (to its north) with PoK (to its south). At its eastern extremity, it has only a 76km-long border (half the distance between Calcutta and Kharagpur) over high mountains at the top of which is the 16,100-feet Wakhjir pass that has no road through it.
Despite being adjoining countries, Afghanistan and China do not have a border crossing since the Wakhjir pass was shut after Mao Tse Tung's communist forces took over China in 1949.
The Wakhan with the headwaters of the Amu Darya (Oxus river) borders Xinjiang province's Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County that has a Muslim majority. This is the area popularly known as the "Pamir Knot".
Through the wars that have ravaged Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion (1979), the sparsely populated Wakhan has been largely peaceful.
To its west, the Wakhan emanates from the northern parts of Afghanistan where India has counted on a largely Afghan Tajik population whose leader was Ahmed Shah Masood before he was assassinated in 2001, two days before 9/11.
Singh said that in the course of his research, he has found evidence of military engineering activity on the Chinese side of the border. On the Afghan side, the nearest roadhead is close to 100km from the Wakhjir pass.
The former army chief was still researching his topic and did not want to go into the evidence behind his findings. It would be safe to assume, however, that he would utilise considerable technical, human and academic resources.
The Wakhan Corridor was a creation of "The Great Game" when Britain and Russia competed for strategic space. It roughly defined the border between British India and the Russian Empire in the late 19th century.
The Wakhjir pass itself remains closed for nearly half the year. A tunnel under the mountains would be an engineering feat ' rivalling the kind that China has demonstrated with its railway line through Tibet ' that would ensure all-weather access.
In December 2009, the US was reported in the Chinese media to have requested Beijing to allow access from its territory to the Wakhan Corridor (and Afghanistan). The US wanted to use the route as an alternative supply line for Nato forces because of an increase in attacks on the convoys in Pakistan. So far such access, if any, has not been visible.
Singh's suspicion that such a tunnel was being built by the Chinese boosts the "garland of pearls" strategy ' that China is surrounding India with bases and logistics centres ' stretching from naval outposts in littoral countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, to ports like Gwadar in Pakistan and Hangyyi in Myanmar to the high Himalayas north of Kashmir
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