thecatapult.in

The good folks at Bharat-Rakshak are war gaming a war scenario with China on the Tibetan plateau. While a similar exercise is being done by some on the Chinese side too.

Andrei Chang writing in his column Military might on UPIAsiaOnline has this to say about a possible Indo-China conflict after the Beijing Olympics.

Should China-India relations deteriorate to the verge of military confrontation and the riots in Tibet spread extensively, the first combat units of the PLA to be called to action would be the No. 52 and No. 53 Mountain Brigades under the Tibet Military Region.

The No. 52 Brigade, stationed at Linzhi, is highly mechanized and armed with T-92 wheeled armored vehicles and HJ-8/9 anti-tank missiles. National highway 318 directly connects Linzhi and Lhasa; thus it is logical to conclude that the T-92 wheeled armored vehicles on the streets of Lhasa were from this brigade. The No. 52 Mountain Brigade is stationed at Milin and is also the PLA combat unit stationed closest to the city of Lhasa.

National highway 318 is in fact the southern route of the Sichuan-Tibet highway. In the event of war or future large-scale riots in Tibet, the highway will be the key passageway for combat troops from the Chengdu Military Region to enter Tibet.

However, this key highway runs across the Minjiang River and the Daduhe River in a region with an average altitude of 4,250 meters (around 14,000 feet) above sea level, and thus is very susceptible to attack by the Indian Air Force or assault by organized rioters. Most of the highways within the Tibet region will be within striking range of the Su-30MKI fighters soon to be deployed in the No. 30 Squadron of the Indian Air Force at Tezpur.

Read the rest…

it didn’t take very long for this to happen did it? barely has the ink dried on the post warning against Prachanda’s Charm offensive where this blogger contended that Maoist leader is merely trying to lull his enemies into complacency while aiming to seize absolute power for himself and his motley crew comes the news that the slimy snake that he is he has already began to hiss and bare his fangs.

Maoist chairman Prachanda, expected to lead the next government in Nepal, has warned the media against criticising his party, saying that “we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people”.

Addressing a rally to celebrate the declaration of republic in Kathmandu Prachanda said his CPN-Maoist will not tolerate further criticism by the media and warned of serious consequences if it continued to criticise the party.

Targeting the Kantipur publication that brings out the largest circulated dailies Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the former rebel leader said, “You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the constituent assembly polls, otherwise the election would not have taken place at all.”

“Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people,” he said, adding that the other newspapers criticising the Maoist will also meet the same fate.[link]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it didn’t take him long to start operationalising the standard operating procedures manual used by the communists worldwide to incrementally seize absolute power by first threatening the Free and thriving Nepali media. simply because a free media with its ability to scrutinise their working is what the Communists universally dislike. since it is a huge obstacle in executing the next step of their manual, viz blowing off the heads of all the opposition leaders and supporters, subverting the autonomous institutions of the state such as the Judiciary, the Election commission and the Nepali Army, and installing a banana republic in place where a small privileged elite called the politburo led by himself ofcourse get to dictate the lives of millions of Nepalis.

and all this While the left-liberal Indian and Western media go gaga over Prachanda’s charm offensive and give him and his band of thuggies a free pass and look the other way while they get down to the work of destroying Nepal and terrorising its people into submission.

It is therefore imperative on all free thinking people both in Nepal and the rest of the world to frustrate the dubious Maoist-Communist agenda in Nepal. The Nepali people unfortunately conceded far too easily on the Maoist demands to abolish the monarchy which was a very big mistake. I believe they should have instead replaced Gynanedra with a more acceptable individual and retained the institution as a constitutional monarchy which would have been a symbol of stability for Nepal.

But now that the deed has been done it is doubly important that they do not concede ground on the Right to freedom of speech and expression. Prachanda’s contention that the Media should not criticise him and his party because now they have been elected by the people is laughable. if that is the case then no one should criticise George bush or Gordon brown or Manmohan singh or any of the parties they belong to since even they were elected by the people.

The Nepali mediamen did the right thing by immediately condemning Prachanda’s statement and asking him and his party to demonstrate their commitment to the democratic process.

On India’s part it is absolutely imperative that the Indian government should openly come out in support of the Right to Freedom of Speech and association in Nepal and roundly condemn this statement by Prachanda and demand that he disarm his militia and submit to the democratic political process in Nepal.

Update: Nepal’s newly minted Propoganda minister seems to have disappeared and is suspected to have gone to China on an all expenses paid trip sponsored by the Chinese embassy ostensibly perhaps for some advanced training on the nuances of terrorising the Nepali media into toeing the party line. coincidentally at the same time as his boss Prachanda has begun to threaten the Nepali media of “serious consequences” if they continued to hold him and his motley crew accountable for their actions.

One another item to add to the long list of inglorious achievements of the UPA regime that will haunt India in the coming decades is helping establish a pro-China regime in neighbouring Nepal which effectively brings the communist sickle right upto India’s heartland endangering its security in ways that will only become apparent as time rolls by.

One of the first acts of the Maoists after seizing power in the recently held elections was to dictate the end of Nepal’s 240 year old monarchy thus removing a sizeable thorn in the way of their ultimate aim of seizing absolute power in Nepal in incremental steps. They haven’t yet disbanded their militia and reports are that they used them extensively to intimidate opposition party candidates and supporters in the recent elections.

In the meanwhile the Maoist leader is on a charm offensive. In an interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate he has laid out his vision for the future course of Indo-Nepal relations. It is a very charming interview where Prachanda or Pushpa Kumar Dhamal has tried to make all the right noises and lull his enemies into a false sense of security. In that he has learnt from the example of his predecessors from across the globe ranging from Stalin to Mao to Castro and others on how to charm the gullible left-liberals and use the enemy’s own free media against him. that in itself begs the need to keep an eye out for this hooded serpent.

Read the rest…

The situation today has many parallels to the situation just before 1962. We have a defence minister AK Antony in the mould of VK Menon, a foreign secretary Shivashankar Menon in the mould of KM Panikker, an Army General Gen Deepak Kapoor, an ignorant and pompous chief in the mould of BM Kaul, and ofcourse the most pusillanimous PM India has ever seen in the shape of Manmohan Singh, a Nehru wannabe to square it up and all this ofcourse in the backdrop of a rapid Chinese military buildup on the Tibetan plateau and increased incursions long the Indo-Tibetan border by Chinese occupation troops just like back in the late 1950s. History repeating itself again as a farce.

The only silver lining is that we have the option of kicking this crowd out anytime within the next one year unlike back in the 1950s when there was no credible opposition party to get rid of that romantic statesman and his rotten core of sycophants.hopefully we get to the polling booth sooner than later.

NEW DELHI: India’s defensive and ultra-cautious mindset towards China has now firmly made its way even to the normally hawkish environs of the Defence Ministry (MoD).

The latest MoD annual report makes it seems that all is hunky-dory as far as the Chinese military threat is concerned, with Beijing even coming in for some glowing mention as an ”important player in global affairs”, proceeding firmly ahead on its ”well chartered out goals”.

It’s not as if the extreme wariness of the armed forces towards China has suddenly vanished into thin air, but the MoD report is yet another indicator of India’s reluctance to say anything to ruffle a prickly Beijing.

China’s hugely aggressive border posture with India is evident from the fact that around 350 cases of intrusions by its troops have been recorded all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control - right from east Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to Joshimath in Uttarakhand and Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh - over the last three years.[link]

At the end of the 17th Chinese Communist party Congress Hu Jintao the current president has according to most observers secured his position and also managed to get most of what he wanted including the possibility of either of his favourite proteges Li Keqiang and Xi Jinping succeeding him when he steps down in 2012. something which his predecessor Jiang Zemin couldn’t manage partly because Hu was Deng Xiaoping’s pointman and destined to become President after Jiang. Hu gained favour with Deng because of his successful suppression of the Tibetan uprising in 1988-89 when he was the party chief in the Tibet.

This act of his impressed Deng so much that he immediately put Hu on the path to power by promptly including him as a member in the seven member politburo during the 14th party congresss held during 1992. The original plan was to elect a politburo to manage the transition from the so called second generation of party leadership led by Deng to the third generation of party leadership around Jiang zemin.But then Hu Jintao, the new blue eyed boy of Deng was included as the nucleus of a future fourth generation of party leadership. Effectively creating two factions within the Party. The Jiang and the Hu factions.

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The History of the Indian subcontinent is long, brimming with lessons for the diligent. Sifting through myth and legend, a military mind may note:

• The unending demonstration of a dynasty’s rise in the ability to govern, followed by degeneracy and decline.

• The inability (or reluctance) to convert excellent theoretical knowledge into usable military technology.

• Insularity from new means and methods of defence from abroad, while achieving great things in other spheres.

The Indus Valley civilization, it transpires from the main archaeological findings, boasted of civic amenities and social norms of a high order, and an enviable agricultural system. Yet that civilization huddled into isolated fortress communities, and that spelt its doom at the hands of Trans-Caucasian Aryan invaders.

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Pakistan as India’s “Buffer” state is the incredible theory dreamed up by yet another member of the current Indian “intellectual” elite. it seems to be the norm among them to make up their mind first on any given topic and then cherry pick only those facts that fit their theory. This op-ed titled “Let’s wish them well” by Jaithirth Rao over the weekend continues in that hallowed tradition.

He writes

“My support for partition and for the continuance of a strong Pakistan stems from what I would call a practical sense of realpolitik. Pakistan is the buffer state that India needs to protect us from the hot-spots of Afghanistan and Persia (aka Iran). Less than three hundred years ago, we were invaded by Persians (led by Nadir Shah) and Afghans (led by Ahmed Shah Abdali). Both of these were in the nature of predatory raids. They did not result in conquests. But they did succeed in finishing off the glorious Moghul Empire and in causing considerable human and economic damage. It has been noted that a substantial portion of Afghan GDP derived from raids on India! Now as then, raids, unrest and related tensions are real dangers to us.

But let us breathe a sigh of relief. If today a Nadir Shah or an Abdali were to try to invade us, he would have to first defeat the legions of General Musharraf. In effect, the Pakistani army will protect us from the assembled forces beyond the Khyber. This is the kind of “outsourcing of our defence” that should really warm our hearts. Herein lies the overriding need for us to support the continuance of a strong Pakistani state and an effective Pakistani army.”

Sounds incredible and to be fair he actually seems to believe it himself for some reason. Read the rest…

If there is one trait that sets apart a Briton from the rest of the human species then it must definitely be an head still frozen in the permafrost of that last ice age that might somehow explain their chilling insensitivity to appreciate and respect the point of view and sensibilities of others.

One hundred and fifty years after the Indian soldiers in their employ in the armies of the East India Company along with a large part of the Indian population revolted against them for precisely that reason the Brits seem to have not yet learnt their lesson and now their descendants have arrived in India to “commemorate” the “bravery” of their ancestors by being exactly just as haughty and insensitive as their forefathers had been.

That rebellion happened exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Plassey gave the British East India Company a foothold in the eastern region of India in what is now the country of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.From there over a period of several decades they steadily expanded their hold over the rest of the country on the backs of mostly Indian soldiers led by an exclusively White class of officers.

Denied promotions and avenues of career growth, routinely discriminated against, humiliated daily and forced to fight against and commit atrocities against their own people by the British over a period of a hundred years finally got too much to bear for the Indian soldiers and finally they had had enough. They raised the banner of revolt in the summer of 1857 when they felt that the Brits had gone too far this time and for six months fought valiantly and nearly brought an end to the British rule in India.

Read the rest…

Now that the ASI and the “eminent historians” brigade has declared that Lord Rama and all the characters in the Ramayana are but figment of some poet’s imagination. What about the other great epic Mahabharata and all the characters in them?

If the Ramayana is a chronicle of Lord Rama, then Mahabharata is a chronicle of Emperor Bharata and his successors.Now we can safely bet that the ASI and the “eminent historians” have a similar opinion about the other great Indian epic the Mahabharata- The chronicle of the saga of Emperor Bharata and his successors. Which means that according to them it could be just a figment of another poet’s imagination who even inserted himself into the middle of the whole plot !!??

But it is a fallacy to think that this is a mere religious matter concerning a particular religious flavor/ community and get into an irrelevant Myth vs Science debate. Even otherwise non-religious, and so called rational Indians have a huge stake in this issue as we shall now see.

The significance of Emperor Bharata is that it is from his name that the name of this country is derived. Deny him as fiction especially with zero research like the ASI and our “eminent historians” or even other supposedly rational Indians are wont to do and you have some serious issues at hand. Not the least about the very validity of this nation as a civilization construct. We need to keep in mind that since the time of Emperor Bharata the people of this country have regarded this inverted triangular piece of real estate bounded by the Himalayas and central Asian steppes to the north and the great seas to the south, the extent and bounds of his ancient empire as Bharatavarsha.

Read the rest…

Tarun Vijay’s recent alarming report on the problems in the North-East of the country is nothing new. There have been many, many such columns on a regular basis and even a high quality documentary by a TV channel about the problem. And they go along the same line- “The North-East is burning but the nabobs in Delhi couldn’t care less, All the money that is earmarked to go to the north-east for developmental purposes is diverted into the pockets of the corrupt netas, babus, contractors and assorted middlemen etc…”

And the Big one- “Bangladeshi illegal immigration is going on unchecked but the politicians are standing in the way of tackling this problem because of their perverted vote bank politics etc…”

But is it enough to just stop at blaming the government of the day? Or is it a much more deep rooted problem? Even the supposedly patriotic NDA govt which was in power for six years didn’t do anything much better than the current corrupt and anti-national dispensation.

Infact during the NDA rule the BDR even got away with the brutal murders of the BSF jawans in cold blood!

So what is it that keeps India from responding appropriately to the Bangladeshi problem? A peep into the thinking of the Indian establishment with regard to Bangladesh can be had in B.Raman’s recent book “The Kaoboys of R&AW” where the author laments about the Bangladesh issue thus.

“Bangladesh which brought glory to the R&AW in 1971, became an embarrassing millstone around its neck. It watched helplessly as there was one surprise after another and as Bangladesh once again became the hub of anti-Indian activities directed against India’s North-East.The spread of insurgency to Tripura and Assam in the 1980s from sanctuaries in Bangladesh and the seeming Indian helplessness in dealing with it strengthened India’s image as a soft state”.

“In India one doesn’t often realize the constraints imposed on Indian policy making in Bangladesh, the like of which one does not face in Pakistan. Bangladesh still has a large number of Hindus and has substantial pockets of friendly feelings for India. Any unwise and hasty use of the big stick against Bangladesh could have negative consequences for the Hindus and the pro-India sections of its population.The resulting Indian reluctance to use the big stick is exploited by the anti-Indian elements in the local administration and political class to further step up their anti-India activities. We have not yet found a way of breaking out of this vicious circle.”

It is said that for the Americans Iranian history doesn’t go before 1979. A similar mental block seems to afflict Indians in the case of Bangladesh who cannot see that country without the prism of 1971 not one year before not one year after.

We Indians seem to have collectively forgotten what pre-1971 Bangladesh was. We seem to have forgotten that before the events of 1971 today’s Bangladesh was East Pakistan and it chose to secede from its mother country and join Pakistan willingly with even a referendum to boot and also it did more than its share to make the Pakistani dream come true. Have we forgotten that some of the worst riots, massacres and cases of mass ethnic cleansing designed to make Pakistan a reality happened in the East? What about the Calcutta direct action day? Noakhali? etc… The slaughter in the East was just as worse as that in the West which gets much of the attention in the chronicles of the partition.

1971 therefore was just an internal problem between the two wings of Pakistan where we merely intervened to safeguard our own interests. As simple as that. But instead of seeing that reality in the right perspective the Indian side naively expected that East Pakistan will be replaced by a grateful and friendly Bangladesh. The disappointment and bewilderment that it did not happen is palpable in the above quoted paragraph written by one of the long time insiders of the Indian establishment.

Even the remote possibility that Bangladesh will somehow buck its own chosen destiny and evolve into a friendly state went bust in 1975 with the overthrow and execution of its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Since then Bangladesh has steadily reverted to the path that it had chosen for itself when it became East Pakistan in 1947 but had been temporarily forced to pause by the events of 1971.

The Bangladesh of today is therefore the heir of the East Pakistan of 1947 and not the Bangladesh we helped found in 1971. Hope we start admitting that to ourselves before we can begin to deal with the challenges posed by this rogue state in sheep’s clothing.