geopolitics

D E F E N C E n D I P L O M A C Y n S E C U R I T Y

VOL II, ISSUE X, MARCH 2012 n `100

geopoliticsWHY AGNI MISSILES MATTER

n ARMY-AIR FORCE

TUSSLE OVER HELICOPTERSn CONFESSIONS

OF A PAK COMMANDO

PLUGGINGLOOPHOLES?PLUGGING

LOOPHOLES?Coastal defence is still in deep water because of

procurement delays and turf wars.

(4)March 2012www.geopolitics.in

COVERSTORY

(P40)

Although the Coast Guard’s fund-ing has been ramped up dramati-cally, the force is still not ready tothwart another 26/11-type attackfrom the seas.

VVUULLNNEERRAABBLLEECCOOAASSTTSS

PREEMPTIVE ATTACK

PANORAMA (P10)

Israel might finally exercise the option of taking out Iranian nuclear

facilities to snuff out any threat to its existence.

PERSPECTIVE (P19)

CYBER WARFARECyberspace is the latest battlefield inwhich the wars of supremacy will befought in the new millennium.

Beechcraft is offering India its top-of-the-line special mission aircraft for a range ofuses across the spectrum.

The Centre and State have been alarmedas candidates with Naxal links have wonseats in the recent state elections.

OREN

ROZ

EN D

ARGO

T

INTERNAL SECURITY (P60)TARGET ODISHA

Form IV (See Rule 8)GEOPOLITICS

1. Place of Publication : New Delhi2. Periodicity of Publication : Monthly3. Printer’s Name : K. Srinivasan

Whether Citizen of India? : Yes(If foreigner, state the : Not Applicablecountry of origin) Address : 4C Pocket-IV, Mayur

Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091

4. Publisher’s Name : K. SrinivasanWhether Citizen of India? : Yes(If foreigner, state the : Not Applicablecountry of origin)Address : 4C Pocket- IV,

Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091

5. Editor’s Name : K. SrinivasanWhether Citizen of India? : Yes(If foreigner, state the : Not Applicablecountry of origin)Address : 4C Pocket- IV,

Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091

6. Name, Address : 4C Pocket- IV, Mayur Vihar, of individuals who own the Phase-I, Delhi-91newspaper and the partners 1. Renu Mittalor shareholders holding more 2. K. Srinivasanthan one per cent of the total capital

I, K. Srinivasan, hereby declare that the particulars given are true to the bestof my knowledge and belief.Date: 1st March, 2012 sd/-

K. Srinivasan Publisher

DEF BIZ (P34)

SPECIAL MISSION EXPERT

(5)www.geopolitics.in March 2012

ENSURINGDETERRENCE

SPOTLIGHT (P22)

The new breed of Agni missiles givesIndia a credible second-strike optionwith the ability to hit targets deepinside China.

ROTOR WARS (P30)The Air Force is trying its best tothwart the Army’s efforts toacquire armed choppers to pro-tect its turf.

HARMONY INASSAM (P56)As militant groups surrenderin droves across Assam,questions are being askedabout their true motivation.

TURBULENT NEPAL(P64)New Delhi’s cartwheels instrategies in Kathmandu inthe recent past have notserved Indian interests.

ASSERTIVE NEWDELHI (P73)India is all set to protect itsnational interests at the forth-coming Nuclear Security Sum-mit in Seoul.

G E O P O L I T I C S

g ASEAN COUNTRIES ARE NOT

ONLY VIEWING INDIA AS A

REGIONAL FORCE BUT ALSO

FETING IT AS A GLOBAL ASSET.

PROMISE OF THE EASTDIPLOMACY (67)

D E F E N C E � D I P L O M A C Y � S E C U R I T Y

VOL II, ISSUE X, MARCH 2012 VOL II, ISSUE X, MARCH 2012 � `100

geopoliticsWHY AGNI MISSILES MATTER

� ARMY- AIR FORCE

TUSSLE OVER HELICOPTERS� CONFESSIONS

OF A PAK COMMANDO

PLUGGINGLOOPHOLES?PLUGGING

LOOPHOLES?Coastal defence is still in deep water because of

procurement delays and turf wars.

Cover Design:Ruchi Sinha

Photo:Coast Guard

The total number of pagesin this issue is 84 with cover

Conceptualised and designed by Newsline Publications Pvt. Ltd., from D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013, Tel: +91-11-41033381-82

for NEWSEYE MEDIA PVT. LTD.All information in GEOPOLITICS is derived from sources we consider reliable. It is passed on to our

readers without any responsibility on our part. Opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract orin interviews are not necessarily shared by us. Material appearing in the magazine cannot be

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at Nutech Photolithographers, B-240, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020.Readers are welcome to send their feedback at [email protected].

Editor Managing EditorPRAKASH NANDA TIRTHANKAR GHOSH

Consulting Editor Assistant Editor Senior Correspondent Copy EditorSAURAV JHA JUSTIN C MURIK ROHIT SRIVASTAVA ASHOK KUMAR

Senior Designer Designer Staff Photographer RUCHI SINHA MOHIT KANSAL HEMANT RAWAT

Editor-in-ChiefK SRINIVASAN

PIB

HEMA

NTRA

WAT

SINL

UNG.

COM

NPCI

L

NEPA

LITIM

ES .C

OM

Director (Marketing)RAKESH GERA

Director (Corporate Affairs)RAJIV SINGH

gG E O P O L I T I C S

gLETTERS


Panorama(Feb 2012)on Guan-

tanamo Bay wasan excellentread and waswell laid out. Ithad all the rele-vant informa-

tion for any inter-ested reader. The pictures tell thehuman story of the prison complexand the story was an eye opener tosay the least. Another good piece wasthe interview of AS Rao, CCR&D,Defence Research DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO).

I personally feel the DRDO-Snecmaengine deal is a complete nonsense.The interview clearly states that theSnecma is going to deliver everything.The contribution of DRDO, as perwhat Rao said, is very miniscule.DRDO has hit a wall and has not beenable to solve the issue and is thereforebuying proven technology of theshelf. It is a sorry state-of-affairs forthe nation.

The cover story (Flying into theground, Feb 2012) was a very bal-anced piece. Although a large numberof stories have been written on thesubject, the intricate details men-tioned in this article are one of a kind.The situation will improve is still notclear it will all depend upon the pro-curement of future trainers is a horri-fying thing. I hope the better plannedand synergised procurement willcome to Air Force’s rescue. I enjoyedyour this issue and is waiting for thenext.

Regards

Surjit SinghKarnal

The cover sto-ry (Flyinginto the

ground, Feb 2012)was a very educa-tive piece. Thefocus of the arti-cle was not onthe accident ratesbut the whole

process of training and the role thattrainers play in creating an air warrior.

The complex process of trainingpilots which is the back bo0ne of anyair force should have been the focus ofthe Indian Air Force and it seems thatdue importance was not given to train-ers during previous decades.

The importance which was given tobuilding the fighter squadron was notshown towards expanding the trainerfleet. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limit-ed (HAL) has played a significant rolein depletion of trainers and their inabil-ity to produce trainers of quality ontime is simply unforgiveable. Alas, theyalways escape the scrutiny!

The article onthe Chinese eco-nomic data,(Global watch,Feb 2012) provedvery well thetruth hiddenbehind the shin-ning Chinesefaçade. The Chi-

nese are growing but not as goodas they are suggesting. But the skepticsare probing into the Chinese economicgrowth. This a good sign. I am lookingforward to more such insightful articlesin the future.

RegardsDev Dutt

Sambhalpur

Tackling Insur-gency (Feb2012) by Uddi-

pan Mukherjee wasa novel attempt atdrawing inspirationfrom the interna-tional anti-terror/anti-insurgencyoperation for Indi-

an Army. But the article has fallenshort on the analysis part. Russiashould be the last nation to draw paral-lels for counter-terrorism, counter-in-surgency (CI/CT) operations. Theground realities of Russia are not verysimilar to that of India. Dagestan andChechnya were far-flung regions ofRussia. These regions do not have largebelligerent nations on their borders tolend moral support to the insurgency.

The cartoon of Chidambaram is sovery apt in your February 2012 issue.(Golden Eye column), Our esteemedminister does not consider other peo-ple’s time worth respecting. This is irre-sponsible behaviour and shows eitherhis inability at managing time or sheerlethargy across the system.

This a privilege India does not enjoywhen it comes to Kashmir or the North-East. The involvement of neighboursand nuclear enemies like China andPakistan in the insurgencies is India’smain obstacle. The political reality ofIndia is also very different from that ofRussia which has a history of brutalrepression.

RegardsRohan Misra

Hyderabad

All correspondence may be addressedto: Editor, Geopolitics, D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi-110013. OR mail to [email protected].

LETTERS TO EDITOR

{GOLDENEYE}

www.geopolitics.in

(8)March 2012

The Indian Army was recently inthe news for its succession

plans. One of the big obstacles wasthe Army chief’s age row that sawthe disruption of the set successionplan. If the ministry was soparticular about the successionplan, it should have cleared thepending board results of MajorGenerals. In fact, in October 2011,the Indian Army cleared the boardof the Major Generals and sent it tothe ministry for approval. Sincethen, the ministry has been sittingon the file and the Brigadiers havebeen awaiting their commands.The biggest irony is that there is apossibility that some of theBrigadiers who are on the wrongside — age-wise — are afraid thatthey might retire before theapprovals come in.

This Army generally sits for aday and clears all theappointments for every board. Butit is the MoD that takes time toclear the appointments. Inaddition, it creates a lot ofanomalies and confusion. Lastyear, for example, two officersretired as Major Generals in spiteof clearing the board. The manbehind all this and more is theRaksha Mantri’s confidant and ourvery own Defence Secretary ShashiKant Sharma. It’s a matter ofsurprise how easily and quickly hehas gained control over theministry and evaded mediacoverage even during the Armychief’s age row. So fast has Sharmabeen to gain the ear of the ministerthat even the veteran journoscovering South Block are fuddled!

AT CLOSE QUARTERSgg


www.geopolitics.in

{GOLDENEYE}

gg

(9)March 2012

NO MOUSTACHE, NO MARTIAL LAWA joke that is doing the rounds in Pakistan is that General Kiyani isafraid of imposing martial law in his country. The joke goes that the

chances of the General taking such an action is virtually unthinkablesince every army chief who has imposed Martial Law had a moustache.Poor General Kiyani! He is a clean-shaven guy with a clean image.

However, short of growing a moustache — and that could take quitesome time — he can arm-twist Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad

Choudhary. The CJ, any way, has been working at the behest ofthe army to bring down the government using the legal route

and to top it all, has a moustache. If the Zardari governmentdoes fall, till a new government is formed, the army willrule, courtesy the moustachioed Chief Justice.

SLUMBERING MHA The internal security situation in thecountry is acquiring new shapes every

day. The Indian security establishment ishuffing and puffing to come to a solution butvery few know that the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has been sleeping over aproposal for the establishment of a researchcentre in the defence studies department ofone of the top universities. The proposalhas been with the MHA for well over ayear now. In fact, the head of thedepartment of the defencedepartment is fed up andhas stopped shooting offletters to the MHA andis reportedlywaiting for theministry to takeaction on its own.

For theuninitiated in securitymatters, the armedforces have threeresearch institutes that dotheir research work. The sameis the case with the Ministry ofDefence and the Ministry of ExternalAffairs — both have their own thinktanks. The Home Secretary and the Secretary,Internal Security, Ajay Chadha has a long listof unfinished tasks in his hand and theresearch centre seems to be the last priority.Perhaps, Chadha Sahab is more occupiedwith the psychological warfare against theMaoists that has been going on for the lastfew months. We have witnessed the latest inthis line from him: the FAQ on Maoists thathe can claim as his first achievement. Let’ssee where the story goes from here.

TRANSPARENCY MATTERSToday, when everyone is demanding transparency, theUnion Government committed a mistake by keeping

the states unaware about the details of the NationalCounter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The move backfired ina big way with friendly and opposition Chief Ministersdeclining to toe the Centre’s line. The buzz is that theNCTC is supposed to be the expansion of the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), a nodal organisation of India’sintelligence agencies. Only time will tell whether theNCTC will end up as an efficient or an inefficient bodylike the MAC, that has lost all its credibility.

www.geopolitics.in

To make sure that the return tripgoes off without a glitch, Israel

would have to use airborne refuellingplanes or tankers. They have 8 KC-707American-made tankers. But it'scomplex. Tankers would need protection,meaning more fighter aircraft. Anotheroption: Fly the tankers at 50,000 feet,swoop down, refuel and fly high again.

ggPANORAMAG E O P O L I T I C S

COMPLEX AND

DEFIANT LEADER

ISRAEL

LEBANON

TURKEY

SYRIA

SOUTHERN ROUTE

JORDAN

There is no talk of Jericho seriesof missilesbeing used

It’s complicated, dangerous and doable with no margin forerror. At least Israel in itspresent avatar cannot do thisOsirak-type surgical strike onIranian nuclear facilities.

Assuming that Jordan tolerates theIsraeli overflight, the next problem

is distance The Israeli fleet consists ofAmerican-built F-15I and F-16I fighter jets that can carry therequisite arsenal. However, in terms ofrange, they come a-cropper. Either way— altitude, speed and payload — theyfall way short of the over-2000 mileback-and-forth roundtrip that theoperation requires. And, mind you“loiter time” — the time spent over atarget and getting your coordinates inorder and scoring a bull’s eye — isn’tincluded in all this.

CENTRAL ROUTE

The route over Iraq would be themost direct (and, perhaps, the

most likely in case of an attack) forthe simple reason that Iraq hasvirtually no air defence and the US —after its December withdrawal has noliability of defending Iraqi airspace.The only issue is that Jordan has toturn a blind eye and digest this air-space incursion.

A

A

B

C

FAS.

ORG

Iranian attempts to acquire nucleardevices have accelerated under theleadership of Ahmadinejad

March 2012

gPANORAMA

g

GRAPHIC: RUCHI SINHA

<<

<

INEFFECTIVE EMBARGO

Over the years, the UN has slappedwideranging sanctions on Iran

SAUDI ARABIA

IRAQ

IRAN

ARAKFORDO

NATANZ

ISFAHAN

BUSHEHR

TEHRAN

KUWAIT

NATANZIran is building a high-security uranium enrichmentfacility using gas centrifugesnear Natanz. This site is about150 kilometres north ofIsfahan. The IAEA hascharacterised the centrifugesat this site as sophisticatedand the culmination of alarge, expensive effort.

ISFAHANThe Nuclear TechnologyCentre of Isfahan is a nuclearresearch facility that currentlyoperates four small nuclearresearch reactors, all suppliedby China.

FORDOWAccording to Wikipedia, Fordownear the holy city of Qom is thesite of a previously undeclaredunderground uraniumenrichment facility at a formerIslamic Revolutionary GuardCorps base. After the existence ofFordow was publicly revealed byWestern powers in 2009, Iraninformed the Atomic EnergyAgency that it was constructingthe Fordow Fuel EnrichmentPlant (FFEP).

ARAKArak research reactor, located in thecentral Iranian city of Arak is likelyto be used, say Iranian officals, forresearch projects as well asproducing radiopharmaceuticals inits Tehran reactor. The 40-MegaWattArak research reactor is expected tobe launched in 2014.

NORTHERN ROUTE

Isfahan’s conversionfacility converts yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride

Map not to scale

B

C

Aerial refueling wouldbe essential to any

attempts by Israel to hitIranian nuclear facilitiesthat have been distributedacross the length andbreadth of the nation.

ANTIDICTATORSHIP.WORDPRESS.COM

www.geopolitics.in

STANDING NEXT to the famousHajipir Pass on the Indian side ofthe Line of Control (LoC), onerealises the complexities thatconfront us in Kashmir. At the

serpentine ridgeline that divides Indiaand Pakistan, it would be impossible tounderstand which part is with India andwhich is with Pakistan. The Hajipir bulgeis one of the two bulges in Kashmir whereeach side enjoys a ‘vantage’ advantage:Pakistan at Hajipir and India in Jammu atthe Akhnoor Dagger.

It’s ironic that the distance between Uriand Punch is around 45 km through theHajipir Pass, which is in Pakistani control,but to actually travel between the tworegions one has to traverse through Jam-mu, covering a distance of around 500 km!Hajipir has been won thrice by our sol-diers, only to be given away every time toPakistan in exchange of territory that Pak-istan won somewhere down the PirPanjalin Jammu — an area difficult to defend.

On our way to Army post Rustum, wecame across a small base at the rear of theridge near the trench line and thebunkers that were once used for defenceagainst Pakistan shells. On enquiringabout the use of the base, the 40-some-thing Subedar told us: “As the crow flies,the distance between Hajipir Pass andthis place is five km, and it is under directrange of medium mortars.” He showed ustrenches that were once used by even thelocal population for shelter against theshelling. History is full of ifs and buts ofwar and how India handed over Hajipurback to Pakistan, but we will reserve thatstory for some other time.

On the morning of my stay at 38 RR,the Company Commander explained thewhole geography of the region with asand model and it was amazing to knowtwo parts of the state which are so closebut far apart because Hajipir is in Pak-istani hands.

The Mughal rulers of old were lucky tobe able to enter the Kashmir Valley fromPunch Rajouri through the Thanamandiarea of Chandimarh in Pir Panjal. They

did not have to construct any roads.Ironically, the Mughal Road now underconstruction would be of great relief topeople living around the mighty Pir Pan-jal, who will get connectivity across themountains to both the Jammu and Kash-mir Valley. The military significance ofthe project cannot be underestimated.This road will provide better connectivityto forces deployed on both sides of Pir Panjal. The force mobilisation and

HEMA

NTRA

WAT

www.geopolitics.in

AT THE LINE OF CONTROL —ACROSS THE HAJIPIR PASS!

The Pakistani occupation of Hajipur Pass is a logistical nightmare for people travelling todifferent parts of Jammu and Kashmir. ROHIT SRIVASTAVA travelled from Bannihal Pass to

the Line of Control to find out the state of affairs


gGROUNDREPORT

(12)March 2012

FACELESS ENEMY: In the picture the Pakistani post and communication tower can beclearly seen

March 2012

reinforcement to the Punch Rajouri LoCfrom the Valley would become a realityand it will make military deploymentseamless.

For a layman, understanding forcedeployment is a very difficult thing, espe-cially when higher formations (from abattalion to a command — in betweenare Brigade-Division Corps) are involvedbut in Jammu & Kashmir this is not so.There are three corps in the NorthernCommand which is in charge of Jammu &Kashmir state, i.e. the 14th , 15th and 16thdeployed in the Himalaya, Kashmir Valleyand Jammu, respectively. These areas arewell divided by mountain ranges, whichare natural barriers between the regionsand obstacles towards the uniformdeployment of the Northern Command.

That is why the Hajipir Pass becomessignificant. This pass can provide theconnection between the Kashmir Valleyand Jammu. The Mughal Road would gothrough the Pir Panjal Pass, which isalmost at the same height as that of Ban-nihal in Qazikund, the gateway to the Val-ley from Jammu. This road will also helpachieve the same objective but Hajipir ismore significant as it is very close to Muz-zafarabad, the capital of PoK, which is asignificant military objective both inpolitical and in strategic terms.

The geography of the Valley is very dif-ferent from that of Jammu and so is thepolitical reality. The Valley has been the

epicentre of the militancy, which spiltover into Jammu as well. Local supportfor militancy never existed in Jammu andit is no wonder that peace arrived in Jam-mu much before the Valley. Once militan-cy lost active support in the Valley, theJammu region saw a sharp decline in mil-itancy. The border management in the 15Corp (Kashmir) area is very different fromthat of 16 Corps (Jammu). The latter ismarked by low mountains and the river-ine terrain with forests. The weather, themajor factor in the region, is much milderin Jammu, the 16 Corp region, than thatin Kashmir, a region where the 15 Corps isdeployed.

The positions occupied at the end ofthe Indo-Pak war in 1947 have been large-ly retained. No one is ready to move evenan inch and the Kargil War was testimonyto this reality. The essential feature of bor-der management remains the sameacross the J&K. The three-tier Anti-Infil-tration Obstruction System, i.e. the fence,forces deployed on the border andRashtriya Rifles at the rear remain thesame, the only difference is that of inten-sity of operation. The fence in the 15 Corpregion has been effective like that of 16Corps but the snow takes a toll on it.Around 40-50 per cent of the fence is

destroyed by snow every year.A very senior officer observed: “It’s a

race against time to erect it. It is vulnera-ble to infiltration at the time of construc-tion. Mountains are very high and con-structing the fence is a difficult challengefor engineers. Around 300 vehicle loads ofmaterial are required to construct everykilometre of the fence.” There are twomajor objectives of border managementon the LoC, first to stem infiltration ofmilitants, second to ensure that the sanc-tity of the LoC is not violated and statusquo is maintained. The day-to-day effortsgo towards checking infiltration. Thechances of any successful Pakistani effortto change the LoC are very little becauseof the internal structure of Pakistan. Avery senior commander told Geopolitics,“The LoC doesn’t run on a prominent fea-ture. Pakistani positions are at a higheraltitude and they are at a distance fromthe LoC because there is no threat fromus. Pakistan can vacate and move out.”

The area around the Rampur sectorcomes under the counter-infiltration grid.The grid is supposed to check infiltrationin its area of responsibility. The counter-infiltration grid works through surveil-lance and ambushes. During the day, it’sthe surveillance which works better and at

gGROUNDREPORT

g

(13)www.geopolitics.in

CIRCUMNAVIGATING KASHMIR: A 500 kilometer round-trip is required to reach Kotlifrom Rustom while the actual distance between the two is barely 50 kilometres

POK

Udhampur

Rajouri

Trip from Jammu to KotliTrip from Kotli to reach Rustom

BanihalPass

PunchKotli

BaramullaUri

Line of Control

KashmirValley

P i rP a n j a l R a n g e

RustomPostHaji Pir

Pass

16 Corps

Naushera

Srinagar14 Corps

NagrotaJammu

Map

not

to sc

ale

15 Corps

night it’s the large number of ambusheswhich work. The biggest challenge forsecurity personnel is patrolling at night.The combination of the chill at night andthe pine forests is not an easy obstacle toovercome. The terrain is so uneven that acomplete lockdown is simply not possi-ble. A Captain at the border explained,“There are so many areas from where theycan come. We keep changing strategy sothat there are always some surprises forthe terrorists. Our strategy changes withweather, snow and day and night.”

In the heights of the Pir Panjal rangethe snow is the biggest factor. Onmountain tops, the snow can vary from3 to 15 feet. In certain areas, it could goup to 20 feet. The posts are generallynot vacated though some are cut off forsix months. To keep the posts goingduring the time that they are isolated isa Herculean effort. The only way to dothis is through winter stocking, whichbegins well ahead of the onset of thecold and involves intense micro-man-agement. It takes 1320 tonnes of stockto keep a company post going for sixmonths. A huge amount of material hasto be transported to the heights, whichare usually only accessible by poniesalthough there are roads under con-struction. Perishable items like flourare the last to go to the post.

The snow is the biggest enemy of thefence. There are places where the snow-fall covers the whole of the fence and onecan easily walk over it. But the snowfall isnot without disadvantages. Brigadier

informed us, “The chance of infiltrationexists even in the peak of winter. Certainareas are very difficult to move, almostimpossible, but people trained in snow-mobile can easily move around.” Headded: “At the height of winter, anybodymoving in the snow will leave tracks andtrails. Choppers are employed for track-ing the infiltrators. We call it air surveil-lance. In clear weather, anyone who hasmoved can be tracked very easily. Butchoppers are scarce resources and cannotbe used extensively.”

The latest in the surveillance areunmanned aerial vehicles. We wereinformed that night surveillance withUAVs were in the offing. The efficacy ofnight vision, thermal imaging — bothactive and passive — is very high in thecold. The Army feels that its surveillancecapability at night is as good as it is dur-ing the day. We were informed that therehadn’t been any infiltration this year inthe Uri sector. The officers at the forwardposts pointed out that there had beenincidents when any infiltrator has comevery close to the fence and had then goneback. In one such incident, 14 infiltratorscame up to the fence and then retreated.The terrorist launch pads are alwaysunder surveillance and the intelligencekeeps the Army informed about themovement of the militants. There arearound 12 terrorist launch pads acrossthe LoC in the Haji Pir area.

But, this is just one aspect of the reali-ty of infiltration in Kashmir. The Gurezsector, part of the 15 Corp, saw a massive

infiltration by a large number of terror-ists just before the onset of the winter.The riverine terrain makes that sectorvery difficult to patrol. There are enoughriverine patches across the mountains,which cannot be totally secured. Fencingthe areas along with the thick vegetationis difficult. The only way left to the Armyis patrolling and ambushes. This iswhere the real encounters take place.Securing the border with the help of theAIOS is the easy job. Any breach of theAIOS can be checked and infiltrators canbe stopped by direct firing but when thesurveillance is simply not possible intel-ligence comes handy.

Throughout our journey we saw theseamless nature of the complete domi-nance of the armed forces in Kashmir.The Border Security Force is deployed allalong the LoC at the rear, filling in thegaps. One can easily see the tinshed com-pany bases of the BSF at the road heads.The lack of space on the high hill makesevery inch worth saving. The river valleysare the only place where one could seeenough space for a base. Every inch mat-ters. But all the efforts of the deployedforces would not be even half as effectiveif the infrastructure and telecommunica-tion had not come up in the last ten years.One can see that the military strategy isworking well behind the development,especially the frantic pace at which infra-structure, especially the roads andbridges, are being created. The Army ispreparing for two-front wars and it needsinfrastructure to add muscle to its efforts.

March 2012www.geopolitics.in


gGROUNDREPORT

g

GLIMPSES FROM THE VALLEY: The coat of arms of the Pir Panjal Brigade, which is responsible for the Uri region and (inset) a Shiahamlet on the way from Srinagar to Baramulla with a poster of Ayatollah Khomeini

ROHITSRIVASTAVA

ROHITSRIVASTAVA

www.geopolitics.in


gSPECIALREPORT

THIRTY-FOUR years ago, the829-page Jane’s Fighting Ships(1977-1978) covered the naviesof both China and India in 10pages each, as those were the

halcyon days of the four Western navieswhich mainly were represented by themaritime might of the USA (taking away138 pages of the voluminous naval biblewith the erstwhile USSR (70 pages), theUK (50 pages), and France (35 pages) fol-lowing suit.

It was still the post-Second World Warera of the established economic powersof the Anglo-US-French fleet. The risingflotilla of Moscow’s Red Navy in the sea,under virtually a single-window com-mand of the longest-serving AdmiralSergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov, however,was running fast and trying hard to closethe gap thereby making it one of the most

spectacular success stories in the historyof modern navy, especially in the subma-rine warfare and the submarine manu-facturing programme.

Amidst all this, the Chinese Navy alsogot a few favourable, yet contradictory,words scripted in the despatches thus: “Asthe counter-balance to Soviet influencein the North-West Pacific Ocean, Chinaherself still continues her defensive pos-ture. This is a fleet designed for homewaters — designed for local defence andnot for expansion into seas and oceans

where others are already fishing. All theinformation available suggests that theChinese Navy is well-found, well-trained,efficient and well-organised.”

The Indian Navy, on the other hand, gota short shrift, and was contemptuouslybrushed aside in less than two lines of the829-page naval magnum opus thus: “India


RISING TO THE OCCASION: The mightof the Chinese Navy has invited the wrathof the East Asian nations, with all of theminvesting heavily in submarines

At a time when South-East Asian nations are augmenting their arsenals of submarines to strengthen their “sea-denial” capabilities to counter the Chinese Navy’s “sea-control”

scheme, India’s underwater combat capability appears lopsided, writes ABHIJIT BHATTACHARYYA

VIJ

AYK

UM

AR

SUBMARINE PROLIFERATION INASIAN WATERS

SUBMARINE PROLIFERATION INASIAN WATERS

www.geopolitics.in


is receiving Nanuchkas from the USSRwhile completing British ‘Leanders’ atBombay” with no mention of the nascentsubmarine squadron thereof. Significant-ly, even the Sri Lankan Navy got the samespace of two lines like India: “Sri Lanka isreported to be seeking British craft to addto her Chinese and Soviet acquisitions”total non-existence of Colombo underwa-ter assets notwithstanding.

The world, however, was remindedand forewarned that not only did the Chi-nese have a steady shipbuilding pro-gramme of all classes in the modernisedvessel-building yards but they also havean advanced nuclear and missile capabil-ity. “This combination will make the Chi-nese Navy, already more than twice asstrong in manpower as the Royal Navy, animportant element in the future balanceof power East of Suez.” Along with it wasalso given the list of the submarine enter-prise of Beijing’s shipyards.

Almost a decade later, however, theEncyclopaedia of the World’s Fighting Shipsof 1986-1987 and 1987-1988 perceived a

much more elaborate scenario of theworld submarine enterprise while beingbitterly critical of, and castigating, thenaval build-up of New Delhi thus: “India’sneighbours, Pakistan and Bangladesh,have similar maritime problems — a shortcoastline with a single major mercantileport and seaboards which invite clandes-tine or covert landings. Neither countryhas the financial resources to provide fullyadequate security for their vital sea routesor defence against well planned incur-sions”, thereby implying the possibility ofaggressive posture and planning of some-one bigger, better and stronger nation. Thereference, though oblique, was towardsIndia as the Jane’ of yesteryears found it“hardly surprising that the rapid and var-ied growth of the Indian Navy is of con-cern”. The Indian “naval enigma has beenincreasing over the years and this fleetnow has the capability of disrupting thetrade and the affairs of any of the IndianOcean region’s littoral countries were thegovernment at New Delhi so disposed”.

The “grave concern” of the bookmak-ers about the boats virtually spread ven-om at the prospect of Indian flotilla’sexpansion. “India has built up an armsindustry of notable capabilities and

builds for her own navy, army and airforce. Her armed forces contain overthree times the manpower of those ofGreat Britain. The 47,000 naval personnel,despite the comparatively low budget,man 12 submarines, 2 aircraft carriers 5destroyers, 23 frigates, four corvettes, 14missile craft and 11 landing ships. Allthese figures are due to increase….This is,by any standards short of the super-pow-ers, a formidable force and the mainquery for an outside observer is ‘Why’?There has long been a tradition thatIndia’s future lay on the sea but this veryconsiderable fleet must cause apprehen-sion amongst the other littoral countriesof the Indian Ocean.”

Paradoxically, the phenomenal declineof the US Navy’s dominant position todayclearly reveals the fast-changing worldnaval order which is gravitating to Asia,owing to the growing monetary muscle ofthe Hans (the Chinese) and the equallyinsecure environment in the east of Suez.The Navy of People’s China wants toshowcase its military capability through“flag” visits to all corners such as Aus-tralia, France, Japan, Pakistan, Russia,Singapore, Spain and the UK. And to capits endeavour higher, China’s amazingenterprise on submarine-building is aneye-opener to the world.

Thus, the latest report on the BeijingNavy reveals an astounding array ofunder-water assets consisting of threenuclear-powered ballistic missiles, a bal-listic missile and 53 conventional sub-marines. While deploying, Beijing hasseven submarine flotillas among its threefleets (North, East and South Sea fleet).And the latest report indicates that theNavy of China is going to build three newsubmarine bases one of which will be anunderground base on Hainan islands fornuclear submarines.

In comparison with China, New Delhi’sunderwater combat capability appearslopsided at present as block-obsolescencehas caught up with the decommissioningof the last of the remaining Moscow-ori-

gSPECIALREPORT

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Thailand — Plans to buy 6 ex-German Navy Type 206

The East Asian Submarine Race

Philippines — Ordered a sub-marine to be inducted by 2020

Vietnam — Operates twoYugo-class ordered 6 Kilo-class

Indonesia — 2 Cakra-Class/U209 (at present,) plansto buy 3-6 more

Malaysia — Operates twoScorpene Class

Singapore — Operates fourSwedish Kockum submarines

gin Foxtrot-class submarine in December2010. This “force-deficiency” was pointedout by the office of the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG) of India as early asOctober 2008 thus: “In what could seri-ously impact on the operational pre-paredness of the Indian Navy, more than50 per cent of its submarines have com-pleted 75 per cent of their operational lifeand some have already outlived theirmaximum service life. If the constructionplan for new submarines is not expedited,63 per cent of the existing fleet wouldcomplete their prescribed life by 2012when the first new submarine will beinducted as per the present schedule.”Regretfully, no new submarine (as ondate) has joined the Indian Navy, theOctober 2008 prediction/assessment ofthe CAG notwithstanding.

The only silver lining amidst thisunder-water uncertainty is the Indianattempt to indigenise the submarineindustry. Thus, the development of a newnuclear-powered submarine (AdvancedTechnology Vessel) — INS Arihant — is a6000-tonne vessel, possibly a develop-ment of a Russian design, Victor/Akulaclass boat which could be commissionedany time during the latter part of 2012.The imminent induction of the RussianAkula class (Type 971) nuclear-poweredsubmarine into the Indian fleet tooaugurs well for the emaciated underwaterforce at present.

The most significant of all recentdevelopments in the east of Suez, howev-er, is the serial purchase of submarines inSoutheast Asia which empowers thenavies of the area a sea-denial capabilityinstead of trying to compete with thesuperior surface ship domination of thelikes of the Chinese armada, in the nar-

row and shallow water front infested withislands, atolls, straits and gulfs. It also sig-nifies and ignites continuing tensions ofthe navies in and around the disputedSpratly and Paracel islands.

The threat and tension to Asia, there-fore, principally arise out of “Sinophobia”of Southeast Asia. Thus in 2003, Malaysiaset the ball rolling with its submarineacquisition programme with an order fortwo French Scorpene-class boats. Singa-pore’s current submarine squadron con-sists of four Swedish Kockum under-water boats. Vietnam operates a pair ofvintage Yugo-class midget submarineswith six new Russian-built Kilo-classboats on order. Further south, Indonesiahas stepped up its sub-surface capabilitywith a choice between a South KoreanType-209 built by Daewoo and RussianKilo-class submarine from Moscow. Thenavy which does not have submarinetoday is that of Thailand, the reporteddecade-old Bangkok enterprise notwith-standing.

Clearly, these rapid and hectic scram-bles to purchase submarines by South-east Asian nations have changed the mar-itime scenario emanated from a com-mon-cause of a possible uniform andunited resistance to the mighty Chineseat the South China Sea and the variouswater heads of Asian soil. An additionalincentive, apart from China factor, couldbe, “to-be-seen and show the relevance”of the sea power of the state in the water.

Today, of the 160-odd navies in theworld, only a few (less than 12) could becounted upon as flotilla with blue watercapability, but the point indicatestowards a cheaper option to counter the“sea-control” blue water navies through“sea-denial” by the submarine

squadrons. Hence, this tendency to pro-liferate and profligate even by nationswith smaller coastlines and lesser accessto the open sea.

The rise of China’s sea-control surfacevessels along with the sea-denial sub-marines, form the core incentives toscramble for submarines by the Asians. Infact, at a rare news conference in Beijingon December 23, 2008, Rear Admiral XiaoXinnian announced the deployment ofanti-piracy Chinese flotilla to Gulf ofAden and the real possibility to add —showcasing and operating its submarineforce to deploy to the out-of-area opera-tions and readiness — and engage thetraditional naval players with blue watercapability should the need arise.

China’s recent brush with the US sub-marine in South China Sea and thealleged spooking of an Indian Navy sub-marine off the Gulf of Aden, however,have rung the alarm bell in some quarters.A “top American strategist Rick Fishergave a shocking detailed presentation onChina’s threat to the world and countriesaround it, particularly India”. True or not,there is no denying the rise and rise of theChinese Navy’s submarine arm. Itrequires time, patience, research anddevelopment to acquire blue water capa-bility. The British ruled the waves till themid-20th century. Washington DC tookup the mantle from London. The Kremlincompeted fiercely for close to half a cen-tury before the currency and financethereof failed along with the demise of theerstwhile Soviet Union. It is now the turnof Beijing which in turn has turned Asiainto an arena and area of submarine race.

(The author is an alumnus of the National Defence College of India)



gSPECIALREPORT

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ON THE PROWL: The phenomenal decline of the US Navy’s dominant position reveals the fast-changing world naval orderNAVY.MIL/DAVID C DUNCAN


IN TODAY’S age where informationreigns supreme, the increasing usageand reliance on cyber space has ren-dered issues pertaining to nationalsecurity ever more vulnerable. With

the power equilibrium of Asia oscillatingbriskly, the China factor seems to be mak-ing its presence felt in every single sub-regional domain. This includes the criticalrealm of cyber warfare in which the pri-mary idea is to strike in unexpected waysagainst specified targets. The recent pasthas witnessed virulent cyber attacks being

launched against India and many othernations including Japan and the UnitedStates with a purported aim of extractinginformation pertaining specifically to for-eign and defence planning and policies.The debate surrounding China’s cyberoffensive has gained momentum giventhat a sizeable number of these cyberattacks are being mounted and spear-headed from server computers basedwithin the People’s Republic of China. Theturmoil caused by mounting Chinesecyber attacks shall only intensify the

confrontation over global digital warfareas time goes by.

The canvas on which any/all futureconflicts of the 21st century shall be paint-ed will not simply be restricted to the tra-ditional military sphere. Proficiency inemploying asymmetric techniques shalldefine the trajectory of conflicts in thefuture and foremost among them comesusage of cyber-war techniques. Withnations progressively depending more oninformation technology, cyber attacksagainst directed data networks shall

OMNIPRESENT THREAT: Informationtechnology infrastructure remainsvulnerable to penetration across domains

CONTROL AND COMMAND CYBERSPACE

In the 21st century, there cannot be a sense of total security without managing cyberspace,argues MONIKA CHANSORIA


gPERSPECTIVE

predominate. In the current context, this isbeing carried out by means of inflictingcomputer virus and hacker detachment todisrupt and consequently paralysing thenetworks of civilian electricity, traffic dis-patch, financial transactions, telephonecommunications, as well as mass media.With New Delhi becoming increasinglydependent on automated data processingand widely spread computer networks, ithas surely rendered itself at risk and needsto press harder on issues relating to cybersecurity.

In the course of the present decade, Chi-na in all probability, is likely to developgreater depth and sophistication in itsunderstanding and handling of informa-tion warfare (IW) techniques as well asinformation operations. As computer tech-nology increasingly integrates itself intomodern military organisations, includingChina’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA),military planners shall assign it the twinrole of being both a target and a weapon.

Although the intrusions in question pri-marily focus on exfiltrating sensitive andclassified information, the access and skillrequired for these intrusions are similar tothose necessary to conduct computer net-work attacks. However, the starting pointcould be the low cost of entry, for example,a laptop connected to the Internet, andthe ability to operate anonymously.

As India plans a $9-billion package forits information technology roadmap, thecyber threat emanating primarily out ofChina, indubitably looms large. The pri-mary objectives for New Delhi to secure itscyber space significantly should includeprevention of cyber attacks against criticalinfrastructures, lessening vulnerability tosuch attacks and minimising damage andrecovery time from the said attack.

In May 2008, Chinese hackers allegedlybroke into the Indian Ministry of ExternalAffairs’ internal communication network.A year later in March 2009, the then For-eign Secretary and present NationalSecurity Advisor, Shivshankar Menonadmitted that there had been hackingattempts on computers of Indianembassies including those of the IndianEmbassy in Washington. Incidentally, inthat same month, Canadian researchersuncovered an electronic spy network,apparently based in China, which hadreportedly infiltrated Indian and othernations’ government offices around theworld. The revelation was more than aneye-opener with as many as 1,300 com-puters in 103 countries being identified.

As for Chinese involvement in this series,a US cyber security firm focussing on acentralised group of activity based fromChina stated, “… the attacks [from China]have almost tripled.” The New York Timesreported in December 2007 that a seriesof “sophisticated attempts” against theUS nuclear weapons lab at Oak Ridge,Tennessee, highlighted an alarming fact:China’s cyber spies were now a part ofAmerica’s computer networks, along withother countries, crucially including India.

Besides, in December 2009, there werereports in leading regional newspapers inIndia regarding attempts to gain access tosensitive documents from the CorpsHeadquarters of the Indian Army’s EasternSector formations. The computer net-works in these areas have often been sub-jected to Chinese Trojan attacks.

Uncovering what, perhaps, could betermed as the ‘biggest ever’ series of cyberattacks to date, security company McAfeeis said to have discovered the extent of thehacking campaign in March 2011 whilereviewing the contents of a command andcontrol server. Although McAfee declinedto name the “state actor” behind the entireplan, evidence increasingly pointedtowards China. Infiltration of the networksof 72 organisations including the UnitedNations, governments and companies in

the five-year campaign around the worldsignificantly included India as well. Theattacks were dubbed ‘Operation ShadyRAT’ (remote access tool) which is a typeof software used by hackers and securityexperts to access computer networks froma distance. According to McAfee’s VicePresident, Dmitri Alperovitch, “Compa-nies and government agencies are gettingpillaged every day by losing economicadvantage and national secrets tounscrupulous competitors… This is thebiggest transfer of wealth in terms of intel-lectual property in history.” The ominousquestion remains: Is Operation Shady RATjust the tip of the iceberg?

As India gets heavily conditioned to themedian of information technology, espe-cially in the decades since post-liberalisa-tion, its economic and security theatre hasbecome more susceptible to externalattacks. The use of electromagnetic pulseand radio-frequency weapons to desta-bilise electronic components comes in atthe foremost among these. Thereafter, fol-lows syntactic attack in which the comput-er infrastructure stands a chance of gettingdamaged by modifying the logic of the sys-tem in order to introduce a deliberatedelay or make the system unpredictable.Computer viruses and Trojans are pre-dominantly used in this sort of an attack.

March 2012

VIRTUAL FORTRESS: While being a major proponent of cyber warfare, the United Statesitself has been the target of a number of cyber attacks

www.geopolitics.in


gPERSPECTIVE

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On the other hand, semantic attack ismore underhanded in that, informationkeyed in while entering and exiting thesystem is modified without the knowledgeof the user aimed at injecting errors.

Indian Computer Emergency ResponseTeam (CERT-In) under the Department ofInformation Technology, Ministry of Com-munications and Information Technology,is the primary referral agency and focalpoint of India’s cyber response options.CERT-In has been operational since Janu-ary 2004 and caters to critical informationinfrastructure. However, it needs to beunderscored here that in line with thegrowing anticipation by the user-commu-nity and various stake-holders, the facili-ties at CERT-In in terms of manpower andcommunication systems are not state-of-the-art and need to be augmented further.This will be beneficial in terms of vulnera-bility prediction, analysis, mitigation,cyber forensics, monitoring of cyber spaceand interception capabilities. Therefore,creation of a sectoral CERT for an effectiveNational Cyber Security Alert System,which would then cater to specifieddomain needs in different sectors, is thecall of the hour. In the sphere of defence,sectoral CERTs have already been estab-lished by the Indian Army, Air Force andNavy. Nevertheless, the facilities providedby these sectoral CERTs continue toremain primitive; in turn, impacting upontheir performance levels with a pressing

need for improvement. A prime inadequacy is India’s deficient

focus towards disaster preparedness andrecovery vis-à-vis regulatory frameworks.Specifically, there is no single operatorwhich controls IT. Besides, lack of trainedand qualified manpower to implementcounter-measures adds as another imped-iment. With too many nodal informationsecurity organisations/centres, theprospect of them getting caught in turfwars heightens. Additionally, India lackscomprehensive and specific laws pertain-ing to privacy and data protection.

In the wake of the rising cyberonslaught, India urgently needs to put ineffect a full-fledged cyber command thatis designed to prevent hacking of comput-er networks and siphoning of strategicdata stored in information systems. In thisregard, India’s premier governmentalagency responsible for the development oftechnology for use by the military, DefenceResearch and Development Organisation(DRDO), has commenced a project oncyber security aiming to put in place aninfallible Computer Operating System(COS). While acknowledging setting-up of COS-related centres at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and New Delhi, VK Saraswat,

Director General, DRDO, has stressedupon the need for R&D specific to cybersecurity based on robust platforms, whichcan be trusted and more importantly,monitor the flow of cyber traffic and deci-pher means to encrypt and disrupt them.

International cooperation and informa-tion sharing is a critical area by means ofwhich nations that are confronting the illsof cyber war attacks could well find con-vergence and deal with it. Enhanced globalcooperation among law enforcement andsecurity agencies, with response teams tocomputer emergencies can effectively mit-igate threats emanating from cyber space.In this reference, the Indian Department of Information Technology under the

Ministry of Communications and Infor-mation Technology has prioritised the fol-lowing for future collaboration purposes:

Cyber Security and Information Assur-ance Technology to prevent, protectagainst, detecting, responding, andrecovering from cyber attacks in criticalinformation infrastructure that mayhave large-scale consequences;Joint Research and Development (R&D)projects in the area of steganography,water marking of documents, securityof next-generation networks and cyberforensics; Coordination in early warn-ing, threat and vulnerability analysisand incident-tracking; andCyber security drills/exercises to testthe vulnerability and preparedness ofcritical sectors.A case in point here could be potential

Indo-Japanese collaboration in jointlyundertaking R&D and other correctivetechnologies to counter the mountingcyber threat that both nations have beensubjected to. Joint exploration to counter-cyber offensives will further cement thestrategic and global partnership betweenIndia and Japan signed in December 2006.Incidentally, the most recent cyber attackon the lower house of the Japanese Parlia-ment (Diet) in October 2011 was spear-headed from a server computer in China.Leading Japanese daily, Yomiuri Shimbunreported in January 2012 that the JapaneseDefence Ministry’s Technical Research andDevelopment Institute has delegated athree-year project to technology makerFujitsu Ltd., worth approximately 179-mil-lion-yen ($2.27 million). The eventualobjective is to design a kind of softwareweapon programme that could trace thesource of a cyber attack and consequentlyneutralise it.

In order to notch up their capacity ofputting forth a formidable layer whichwould insulate them from a cyber offen-sive, both India and Japan ought to stressupon the importance of a coherentapproach, by improving comprehensionand capabilities to secure their respectivecyberspace and counter the overarchingreality of China developing its offensivecyber war capabilities. The battlefield wassecured through the seas in the 19th cen-tury, through the air in the 20th centuryand in the 21st century would surely comethrough cyberspace.

(The author is a Visiting Senior Fellow atthe Slavic Research Centre, Hokkaido

University, Japan)


AF.MIL

COMPUTERSSHALL BE

ASSIGNED THETWIN ROLE OFBEING BOTH ATARGET AND A

WEAPON

gPERSPECTIVE

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gSPOTLIGHT

THE SUCCESSFUL Agni-IV testin November last could beregarded as the coming outparty for DRDO’s next-genera-tion strategic missile technolo-

gy. While the Agni-I and II have servedthe Strategic Forces Command (SFC) wellin the first decade of the 21st century, andthe Agni-III has only recently gone intoproduction, the mainstays of India’sdeterrence posture are likely to be theAgni-IV and Agni-V heading into the2020s. Representing in some ways a newbreed, these missiles are optimised formobility, survivability and lethality in anera where space-based infrared-trackingsystems are coming into their own along-side Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems.

As a nation overtly committed to a no-first-use policy, India consciously soughtto develop a quick reaction mobile ballis-tic missile capability that would be able toescape a first strike while remainingcapable of inflicting unacceptable dam-age on any potential aggressor. In keepingwith this doctrine India’s Agni missilefamily developed by DRDO’s AdvancedSystem Laboratories (ASL) are all solidfueled and capable of being fired frommobile launchers. However, if we keepaside the Agni-I whose 700-900-km rangebasically serves to stare down Pakistan, it


Heralding a majortechnological leap for the

DRDO, the Agni-IV andAgni-V missiles will usher in

a new age for India’sdeterrent capacity by

consolidating a crediblesecond-strike option, writes

SAURAV JHA

PIB

STRATEGIC WEAPON: The Agni-IV andAgni-V missiles are likely to be themainstays of India’s deterrence postureheading into the 2020s

CALLING DOWN THEWRATH OF INDIACALLING DOWN THEWRATH OF INDIA

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is only with the Agni-IV as compared tothe Agni-II and III, that true road mobili-ty seems to have been achieved. WhileWalchandnagar Industries did fabricate asemi-trailer transporter-erector-cum-launcher (TEL) for the Agni-II which isoften seen on Republic Day parades, themissile is chiefly operated in rail-mobilemode (as will be the Agni-III) being car-ried by modified goods trains. The‘stealth’ in such a rail-mobile systemcomes from its ability to ‘hide’ in India’sdense railway network disguised as anordinary goods train.

The Agni-IV, however, is very much atruck-launched system which can appar-ently clock speeds of up to 60 km perhour on country roads. A road-mobilesystem of this kind instead relies on itsability to change position quickly. More-over, a road mobile system is naturallymore flexible than a rail mobile systemgiven that a truck theoretically can hideanywhere in India’s 3-million-km-plusroad network vis-a-vis the maximum80,000 kms or so available to a missiletrain. However, it must be said that stud-ies in the former Soviet Union which wasa pioneer in both road and rail mobileintermediate range ballistic missiles

(IRBMs) and inter-conti-nental ballistic missiles(ICBMs) indicated that theroad mobile versus railmobile debate isn’t as cutand dry as the above.

Nevertheless, the Agni-IVs road mobility stemsfrom the fact that at 17tonnes, it weighs less thanhalf of what the Agni-IIIdoes for comparable length(20 metres for the Agni-IVvis-a-vis 17 metres for theAgni-III). And yet the Agni-IV actually travels furtherwhile carrying a one-tonnepayload than an Agni-IIIconfigured for a throwweight of 1.5 tonnes. TheAgni III manages to travel3,500 km, whereas the Agni-IV can apparently traverseup to 3,700 km for a one-tonne payload. Of course,the Agni-IV absolutely out-classes the Agni-II which islimited to a range of around2000 km although it hasessentially the same dimen-sions as the Agni-IV. This

happy combination of lower weight andsimilar range has been achieved onaccount of the extensive use of carboncomposite materials in the structure ofthe Agni-IV missile which has reducedweight for a given volume thereby allow-ing the missile to carry higher amounts of

propellant. Almost two-third of the Agni-IV is made up of carbon compositesincluding the second-stage motor casingwhich is made of fibre-reinforced plastic.

In comparison, the Agni-III (and theAgni-II) during developmental trials used250 grade maraging steel for both itsstages and motor casings which provides

ultrahigh-strength coupled with high-frac-ture toughness but comes with a weightpenalty when compared with an all-com-posite frame. The Agni-III’s range capabili-ty instead comes from the fact that it has a2.0-metre diametre thereby being able toaccommodate a significant amount of fuelgiven the greater volume. Maraging steel isalso rather expensive compared to carboncomposites and is naturally subject to thevagaries of nature via corrosion that car-bon composites are not.

Indeed, it is precisely for these reasonsthat the 5000-km-plus Agni-V, whichshares the first stage with the Agni-III, isslated to have carbon composite motorcasings for its second and third stages.The Agni-V will, in a sense, see the unveil-ing of 2.0 m diametre composite casings— a global marker of sorts. Ultimately,ASL intends to move towards an all-com-posite missile while taking care of theissue of corrosion altogether and enhanc-ing overall structural integrity. The Agni-IV and the Agni-V also rely on digitallyconnected multi-channel communica-tions within their bodies for the controlsystem, thereby eliminating the miles ofcabling that would have otherwise goneinto these missiles. This serves to reducethe risk of failure in the missile systemand increases dependability.

The use of corrosion resistant compos-ites and the use of digital connectivitywithin the missile also make it easy toturn the Agni-V into the classic "woodenround" i.e a canisterised missile systemready for launch on demand. Indeed, theAgni-V will be India’s first canisterisedlong-range strike system and put thecountry well into the league of Russia andChina which operate similar road-mobilemissiles.

Now, while the Agni-IV and the Agni-Vclearly have enhanced mobility anddependability, they also boast state-of-the-art guidance packages. The Agni-IVhas seen the arrival of an indigenousstate-of-the-art Ring-Laser GyroscopeInertial Navigation System (RLG-INS)which is complemented by a Micro Iner-tial Navigation System or MINGS. Boththe RLG-INS and MINGS may be capableof receiving multi-constellation updatesfrom GPS, GLONASS and indeed GAGANto remove accumulated errors in theirmeasurements. However, in the Indianscenario, foreign Global Positioning Sys-tems cannot really be relied upon for tar-geting purposes and this feature of thenew navigation system will come into its

gSPOTLIGHT

gSpecifications of Agni missiles

Name Type Range

Agni-I MRBM 700 – 1,200 km

Agni-II IRBM 2,000 – 2,500 km

Agni-III IRBM 3,000 – 5,000 km

Agni-IV IRBM 3,200 – 3,700 km

Agni-V CBM5,000 – 6,000 km

(under development)

Agni-VI ICBM6,000 – 10,000 km (speculated to be

under development)

Missile Weight Length Diameter

Agni-I 12,000 kg 15 m 1.0 m

Agni-II 16,000 kg 21 m 1.0 m

Agni-III 48,000 kg 17 m 2.0 m

Agni-IV - 20 m -

Agni-V 49,000 kg 17.5 m -

A ROAD-MOBILESYSTEM RELIES

ON ITS ABILITY TOCHANGEPOSITION

QUICKLY AND ISMORE FLEXIBLE

own once India establishes its own satel-lite navigation system. In the interim itseems that some quarters in DRDO areconfident that a combination of RLG-INSand MINGS which is probably a MEMS-based miniaturised magnetometer iscapable of providing sub-300-metre Cir-cular Error Probable (CEP) at max rangefor the new crop of Agni missiles.

In any case, this guidance package rep-resents a generational jump over the pre-vious Agni missile types which essentiallyuse 1970s vintage INS coupled with a starsighting system for navigation. There haseven been speculation that the Agni-II iscapable of receiving updates from anearth station to remove accumulatederrors. However, such a set-up is natural-ly less accurate and prone to failurescompared to the new navigation systemsbeing used.

The lethality of the new players in theAgni stable is also enhanced by the factthat the upper stage of missiles like theAgni-IV have flex nozzles thereby allowingthem to evade mid-course interception.The increased penetrative capability ofthe Agni-IV and V will also arise from theirre-entry speeds being much greater thanthat of the previous types in the series.This, on account of the fact, that the Agni-IV and V both have an apogee muchgreater than that of the Agni-I, II or III.The Agni-IV, for instance, reaches anapogee of almost 900 km before re-entryas compared to the Agni-II and III whichdo so at around 350 km. The Agni-V willprobably reach even higher and its re-entry speed is likely to be in ICBM-class ofover five km. Of course, the higher re-entry speeds also mean that far higher

thermal stress has to be withstood by theAgni-IV and V’s missile nose cones on re-entry. The Agni-IV’s tip reaches 3000degrees during re-entry and the corre-sponding figure for the Agni-V is 4000degrees.

The superior performance of the newbreed of Agni missiles is ultimately man-aged by the incorporation of a muchmore powerful onboard computer. But,till recently, running such processorscame with weight and space penalties

given that the PCB-based hardwareenabling such processors consisted ofmyriad integrated circuits which resultedin the total weight of the onboard com-puter to reach almost five kilos. However,Indian missiles will now incorporate Sys-tem on Chip (SoC) based computers thatweigh just 200 grams and boast six-seventimes greater processor capability. Theembedded SoC concept requires very lit-tle power and gives far greater leeway inwarhead configuration, besides enhanc-ing efficiency.

As all the different elements get

proofed through iterative tests, ASL itseems has set its eyes on making theAgni-V Multiple Independently Tar-getable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRV) capa-ble. This MIRV-capable Agni-V may wellbe termed as an Agni-VI and could carrybetween 3 and10 warheads. A MIRVEDall-composite canisterised Agni-VI is cer-tainly not what India’s challengers wouldwant to see in their dreams at night.

However, beyond the system integra-tion there is the question of productionand it seems that progress has been madein this respect as well. For one, DRDO viaits government-owned company-operat-ed format has set up facilities that willnow directly produce various compo-nents for the Indian missile programmethat may not be available for import orbeyond the capabilities of the private sec-tor. Although the new Agni missile typesactually show that the Indian private sec-tor may now be coming into its own asevidenced by the fact that premier explo-sives based in Andhra Pradesh actuallyfabricated the composite casing for thesecond stage of the Agni-IV.

Technological progress in materials isalso expected to lower costs therebyensuring that even Agni-II and Agni-IIIproduction can be ramped up. Beyondcomposites, DRDO has also developed anew grade of low-alloy steel-designatedDMR 1700 which can effectively substi-tute 250-grade maraging steel in missileapplication ranging from the skeleton tothe 2.0 m diametre motor casing used inthe Agni-III. DMR 170 is significantlycheaper than maraging steel and mayensure that the production of strategicmissiles advances quickly.



A RAIL-MOBILESYSTEM

CAN ‘HIDE’ IN THE DENSE

RAILWAYNETWORK OF

INDIA

gSPOTLIGHT

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PRIDE OF THE ARMOURY: The flex nozzles of the new generation of Agni missiles allow them to evade mid-course interceptionPIB

geopolitics

DEF BIZ

ROTARY POWERThe procurement and operations of armed helicopters has been the sole

preserve of the Air Force so far. But the Indian Army wants a change.

BOEI

NG

ggDEF BIZ


THE US Marine Corps has taken delivery of thefirst MV-22 Osprey produced with the new BlockC suite of design upgrades. The latest Ospreyvariant features new weather radar, improvementsto electronic warfare systems, situational aware-ness and aircrew comfort.

“The on-time, on-budget delivery of our firstBlock C aircraft is the latest milestone in ourongoing quest to make the world’s most revolu-tionary aircraft even more advanced,” said JohnRader, Executive Director of the Bell Boeing V-22Program. “Block C Ospreys will meet our current

customers’ enduring need for the latest missioncapabilities, while presenting an even more com-pelling value proposition to future domestic andinternational customers.”

The V-22 Block C design upgrade includes anew weather radar system that improves naviga-tion in poor weather conditions, and a redesignedEnvironmental Conditioning System to enhanceaircrew and troop comfort. Expanded capacityand effectiveness built into the Electronic Warfaresystem — including additional chaff/flare dis-pensers — increases the Osprey’s ability todefeat air-to-air and ground-to-air threats. TheBlock C also provides greater situational aware-ness with enhanced cockpit and cabin displays.

“We continue to increase the capabilities ofthis first-of-type tiltrotor, and Block C is the latest,evolutionary step,” said Marine Corps ColonelGreg Masiello, Joint V-22 Program Manager,Naval Air Systems Command. “Whether it’s theaddition of weather radar, upgrades to the envi-ronmental control system, or improvements forsituational awareness, Block C brings enhancedcapability to V-22 pilots, maintainers, and crewmembers throughout the aircraft’s life cycle.”

LOCKHEED MARTIN unveiled anew version of the F-16, the F-16V,at the Singapore Air Show. The“V” in the name is derived fromViper, the name fighter pilots havebeen calling the F-16 for years.Feature enhancements in the newversion include Active Electroni-cally Scanned Array (AESA)radar, an upgraded mission com-puter and architecture, and im-provements to the cockpit — allcapabilities identified by the USAir Force and several internationalcustomers for future improve-ments.

“We believe this F-16V will sat-isfy our customers’ emerging re-quirements and prepare them tobetter interoperate with the fifth-generation fighters, the F-35 and F-22,” said George Standridge, Lock-heed Martin Aeronautics’ VicePresident, Business Development.AESA radars offer significant oper-ational capability improvements.Lockheed Martin has developed aninnovative solution to affordablyretrofit this key technology into ex-isting F-16s. The F-16V configura-tion is an option for new productionjets and elements of the upgrade areavailable to most earlier-model F-16s. With nearly 4,500 F-16s deliv-ered, this is a natural step in theevolution of the world’s most suc-cessful fourth-generation fighter.The Fighting Falcon programmehas continually evolved as it beganwith the F-16 A/B as the lightweightfighter then transitioned to F-16 C/Dand Block 60 versions as customers’requirements changed. The F-16 isin service with 26 nations.

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES Ltd (RIL) hassigned a memorandum of understanding(MoU) preliminary agreement with FrenchDassault Aviation SA to explore defence busi-ness opportunities jointly. “The objective of theMoU is to identify areas where both the compa-nies can work together in the defence sector,” aRIL spokesperson said. Dassault has won thebid to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian AirForce, defeating Eurofighter in the last leg ofthe bid competition. The RIL spokesperson saidthat there had been no commitment on anykind of investment or joint venture. The twofirms will chalk out details of the joint ventureafter the finalisation of the contract betweengovernment and Dassault. Reliance is the lat-est entrant into the defence business, followingthe other big business houses.

New Osprey for US Marine Corps

RIL, Dassault working towards JV

BOEING AND the US Air Force celebrated the rollout of the first re-winged A-10 Thunderbolt II. Boeingis under contract with the Air Force todeliver 233 wingsets through 2018.“This enhanced wing assembly willgive the A-10 new strength and a newfoundation for its continued serviceinto 2040,” said Mark Bass, Mainte-nance, Modifications & Upgrades VicePresident and General Manager forBoeing Defense, Space & Security.Boeing delivered the first A-10 wingset to the US Air Force in March 2011.After mating it to the aircraft and vali-dation and verification of the wing,US Air Force pilots flew the aircrafton its first flight in November, 2011.

First re-winged A-10 delivered

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IAF to get more C-17 transports?THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) has expressedinterest in acquiring six more C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft, in addition to a con-tract for 10, according to US defence giantBoeing.

“Indian Air Forcehas expressed inter-est for six more C-17s,”Paul Lewis,Director of Interna-tional Communica-tions for Defence,Space and Securitysaid. Five of the 10aircraft would bedelivered by nextyear and the otherfive in 2014, he said. The deal for supplyingten C-17 aircraft is worth $4.1 billion.

Boeing is also set to deliver first of the

maritime patrol airplane, Poseidon P8-I,early next year to the Indian Navy. The P8-1contract is worth $ 2.1 billion. The Navyalso has an option to order four more of the

P8-1 in addition tothe 8-unit contract.

Boeing is alsonegotiating to supply22 AH64 Apache heli-copters and 15 CH 47Chinook helicopters.Elaborating on Boe-ing’s interest in theIndian defence hard-ware investment, Kro-nenberg said hisgroup was exploring

all potential opportunities in the Indianmarket. This includes Sabre Warfare Sys-tem and maritime surveillance systems.

THE FIRST of APY-10 Radars from Raytheon has been deliv-ered to Boeing to be integrated on theIndian Navy’s first P-8I maritime recon-naissance aircraft, which is expected tobe delivered in January 2013. India hasordered 12 P8I from Boeing for its mar-itime security and anti-submarinerequirements. Tim Carey, Raytheon’sVice President for Intelligence, Surveil-lance and Reconnaissance Systems atthe company’s Space and Airborne Sys-tems Business has informed, “Our APY-10 Radar will provide the Indian Navywith proven, low-risk technology built on generations of suc-cessful Raytheon maritime radar systems.” The radar isundergoing test flights with the Boeing 737 platform. APY-10,

which is fitted at the nose of the aircraft, will provide 240-degree surveillance. “There is no sepa-rate type designation for India. It is thesame product which is sold to othergovernments. With reduced weight andpower consumption, the APY-10 radarhas improved the average mean timebetween failures by six times over earli-er generation radars. The design offerssignificant growth possibilities. Theradar has tremendous multi-missioncapabilities. It can be used for bordersecurity, disaster relief, maritime sur-

veillance, medical-evacuation and environmental monitor-ing. The region would be expected to place orders for 100 newmaritime patrol aircraft within the next three to five years.

UNION CABINET has approvedthe guidelines for joint venturebetween defence public sectorunits (DPSUs) and private com-panies. The government hasprepared the guidelines toensure there is “fairness andtransparency” in partner selec-tion. The offset obligation indefence deals has created ahuge market of around $30 bil-lion considering the defenceprocurement, which might touch$100 billion in a decade or so. Inthe recent past many of the pro-posals for joint ventures werekept on hold till the guidelineswere finalised. The new guide-lines have retained the DPSUs“affirmative rights” to choose itspartners. One of the first to ben-efit from the new rules will beBharat Electronic Limited(BEL), which has a pending pro-posal for a joint venture withFrench defence major Thales.The guidelines also have optionfor exit and the JV will reportregularly to the ministry on itsfunctioning. Mazagon DockLimited and Pipavav joint ven-ture were the biggest JV, whichwas stalled on the objection ofL&T, another shipyard major.

INDIA’S LEADING defence aeronauticalcompany, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s(HAL) helicopter division will be manufac-turing 159 Advanced Light Helicopters(ALHs) for the Indian Army. The company isworking towards delivering the Weapon Sys-tem Integrated (WSI) ALH for delivery tocommence from March this year. HAL is alsoworking on the different versions of the ALHsimultaneously. HAL has also sold sevenALHs to the Border Security Force (BSF).Till now the HAL has produced 100 ALHs,also known as Dhruvs. Indian armed forceshave received around 600 Cheetah andChetak helicopters produced at HAL. TheALH has also been exported to Ecuador,Mauritius and Maldives.

HAL making 159 Dhruvs for Army

Raytheon delivers first radar for Indian P-8I

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Indian lighthouses are now first line of defence

DEF BIZ

SAAB HASreceived an orderfrom the Direc-torate General of

Lighthouses andLightships (DGLL) for

the supply of Automatic Infor-mation System (AIS) for coastalsurveillance of the entire Indiancoast. Automatic InformationSystem (AIS) is the most impor-tant and well-spread identifica-tion system for ships today. Thesystem comprises sensors andequipment that were installedalong the Indian coast forregional andnational con-trol centers.Apart fromDGLL this sys-tem will beused by theIndian Navy,Coast Guardand DG Ship-ping. Saabwill executethis pro-gramme alongwith its Indianpartner,ElcomeMarine Ser-vices. Theproject wouldinclude instal-lation, com-missioning,training andsupport.

The coastalsurveillancesystem beingcreated forIndia encom-passes 74 sensor locations, sixregional control centres andthree national control centres,most of which will be connectedby broadband satellite links.

The contract includes options toadd another 12 sensor sites inthe future. “This is one of thelargest national AIS- basedcoastal surveillance systemsever to be deployed,” says Gun-nar Mangs, Vice-President,Sales and Marketing, SaabTransponder Tech. He adds fur-ther, “Winning this contract,which was competitively bid, isan important validation ofSaab’s position as the technolo-gy leader in AIS base stationsand networks worldwide.”

The sensor sites shall be

equipped with Saab AIS basestations that will identify andtrack the movements of shipssailing in India’s coastalwaters. Saab will also deliver

the network servers and CoastWatch operatorsoftware for thecontrol centres.The system willintegrate radarsbeing supplied byanother contrac-tor. Saab is theprime contractorfor the project,which includessupply, installa-tion, integrationand commission-ing, training andtechnical support.

In November2011, a FactoryAcceptance Testwas held for aPilot System atJamnagar, whichis on the priori-tised north-westcoast. The systempassed all systemfunctionality tests,including integra-tion of radarinformation. The

system will be up and runningin March-April 2012 and it willbe handed over to the DGLL inMay, in accordance with the settime table.

AIS base stations for communi-cation with AIS-equipped ves-sels.

AIS Network solution to handleall data processing in the systemmake all data available to clients.

Display solution, i.e. ElectronicChart Display functionality topresent the AIS data on charts tooperators of the system.

The AIS system includes:

Constituent elements of AIS

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DRDO pushes for indigenous AWACSENCOURAGED BY the suc-cessful test flight of itsadvanced Airborne Warning& Control System (AWACS)in December, the DefenceResearch & DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) hassought the nod for the“design and development ofthe AWACS for the IAF”. TheDRDO has sought `850crore from the Defence Ministry for the project and kept open the option of takingon consultants for the project as and when required. The aim of the project is todevelop long-range radars with onboard command, control and communications forboth tactical and air defence forces from higher altitudes. India has acquired threePhalcon AWACS from Israel’s Elta, the last of which was delivered in mid-2011.

INDIA’S DEFENCE scientists are contem-plating the development of hybrid vehiclesthat can use electricity as a source of fuel,according to an announcement from PSivakumar, director of the Combat VehiclesResearch and Development Establishment(CVRDE). Sivakumar also said that CVRDEwould launch a prototype ‘unmannedground vehicle’ with mine detection capa-bilities by next year. The use of hybrid tech-nologies can also be used to mask the heatsignatures of armoured vehicles. On thewarfront, battle tanks idle most of the timeand the fuel engines emit a lot of noise andheat, which can be used to detect theirposition. The secondary ‘twin engine’ canbe switched on whenever required as asource of backup power.

Interceptor missile test-fired INDIA ACCOMPLISHED another landmarkin its national security shield with the suc-cessful test flight of an interceptor missilefrom Wheeler Island in Odisha’s Bhadrakdistrict. Advanced Air Defence (AAD) inter-ceptor obliterated an incoming-target mis-sile during the test. AAD interceptor is a sin-gle-stage missile, powered by solid propel-lants. A modified Prithvi missile mimickingas the target missile was launched from

Chandipur while the Advanced Air Defencewas shot from Wheeler Island. According toa defence release, it was fourth successfultrial of AAD interceptor missile againstincoming-ballistic missile in endo-atmos-pheric regime at 15km altitude. The guid-ance computers continuously computed thetrajectory of the incoming-ballistic missileand launched AAD-05 interceptor missile ata precisely calculated time.

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PUNE-BASED Research and DevelopmentEstablishment (Engineers) laboratory of theDefence Research and Development Organi-sation (DRDO) and Ideaforge Technology PvtLtd have developed an Unmanned AerialVehicle (UAV) for use by the paramilitaryforces of the country. Ideaforge TechnologyPvt Ltd was started by the alumni of IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT)-Mumbai. TheNetra is the same UAV which was part of theBollywood hit 3 Idiots. The autonomous UAVcan be used for surveillance and reconnais-sance in Maoist-infested terrain in remoteregions. It can be used in hostage situations,border infiltration monitoring, local law-enforcement operations, search and rescueoperations, disaster management and aerialphotography.

Hybrid vehicles by DRDO

THE COUNTRY’S first human spacemission will use food and clothingdesigned by two life science laborato-ries of the Defence Research Develop-ment Organisation (DRDO). It is esti-mated to be a `10,000-crore missionand is awaiting the green signal fromthe Centre. The Vyomanauts, as theIndian astronauts will be called, willeat ready-to-eat food in space preparedby the Mysore-based Defence FoodResearch Laboratory (DFRL). Thespace suits will be designed by theDefence Bioengineering and Elec-tromedical Laboratory (Debel). DFRLalso provided food for the first Indianin space cosmonaut Wg Cdr RakeshSharma during his Indo-Sovietmanned space flight in 1984. Projectedto be launched in 2015-16, India’s firsthuman space mission envisions thedevelopment of a fully-autonomousorbital vehicle carrying two membersto about 300-km low earth orbit.

Desi astronauts in B’lore-made gear

Movie UAV to nab rebels

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gDEFBIZ

Chopper wars are brewingbetween the Air Force andthe Army. The bone ofcontention: who willcommand and fly attackhelicopters? This is becausethe Army is well on its way to setting up aviationbrigades in each of its corpswith the Air Force butting into say that skies are itsexclusive domain, reportsROHIT SRIVASTAVA

March 2012


BEHOLD, THE DESTROYER: The Rudra,which will give the Army Aviation Corpsconsiderable firepower, is an armed versionof the ALH Dhruv

THIS MARCH will see the IndianArmy taking a decisive steptowards gaining supremacy inthe air in a theatre of war whenit inducts the first of its 60 Dhruv

Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH). Chris-tened the Rudra, the weaponised Dhruvswill become the Army’s own close air

support element during war. This is a pre-cursor to the acquisition of 114 Light Com-bat Helicopters (LCH) under developmentat the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited(HAL), ordered by the Army. These induc-tions are a part of the rapid transformationthat the Army is undergoing to achievesuperior contact battle fire capability.

The trials for the 22 heavy attack helicopters for Indian Air Force havebeen done and the final nod from thegovernment is still awaited. Attack chop-pers are employed by the Army in close-support mode against the enemy’sarmour formations. These choppers pro-vide range, lethality, speed, accuracy and

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fire superiority at the forefront of theArmy’s own attacking formations, pro-viding an edge in a contact battle. InSudarshan Shakti, the Indian Army’srecently-concluded military exercise, theArmy Aviation Corps played a key role inimplementing the new mobilisation andassault concepts successfully.

Sources in the Army have suggestedthat with the ALH Dhruv, a 5.5 tonne-class helicopter, Army Aviation now hasthe capability to launch men and vehiclesinside enemy territory for strategic or tac-tical assaults. Therefore, the Army cannow function independently of the Indi-an Air Force’s airlift support. This wouldalso let Army commanders look forwardin a battlefield for any tactical airlift.

With the advent of the Rudra, Armycommanders would also become self-sufficient in aerial assault capability,therefore improving the quality of strikeand also saving much-needed time.

At present, the Army Aviation Corps,which was raised on November 1, 1986,with a mandate of providing reconnais-sance and surveillance to the troops, hasa fleet of over 250 helicopters, whichincludes Cheetah, Chetak, Dhruv heli-copters and their variants.

The Army Aviation Corps can trace itsorigins back to the Air Observation Post(AOP) of World War II. The main respon-sibility of the AOP was to observe anddirect artillery fire onto the enemy. Alongwith this, they also conducted recon-naissance for the formations beyondvisual range.

Like other modern armies of the world,the Indian Army has three dimensional‘Combined Arms Team’ concepts, wherethe Army directly commands all its assetsin its forward formations that can beemployed in any battle.

Army Aviation has mooted a plan tothe Ministry of Defence (MoD) to have

an Army Aviation brigade in each corps.This will create a formation that will beintegral to each of the Army Corps.According to reports, the Indian AirForce (IAF) is not happy with the propos-al and has opposed it.

The IAF is not in favour of the Armyinducting attack helicopters as it feelsthat the Army is interfering in its exclu-sive domain. Speaking to Geopolitics,sources in the Air Force said, “Air warfareis our domain and we are the experts in it.The Air Force does not have attack chop-pers under its command; it is directlyunder the command of the Army, there-fore, unlike transport aircraft, the timegap in employability does not exist. TheArmy is not trained in air warfare and itstactics are different.”

The Army has an altogether differenttake on the issue. Our sources pointedout: “The attack chopper will beemployed in the anti-armour role or tobreak the enemy defence line. This is aclose-combat situation which is theArmy’s domain. It is very different fromthe air warfare and the rules of the gameare that of a conventional land battle.”

It is important to mention that Armyaviators are drawn from different combatarms of the Army viz Infantry, Mecha-nised Infantry, Armoured Corps, Regi-ment of Artillery, Army Air Defence, etc.These aviators, then, are soldiers first.The pilots are selected after a few years ofexperience. The Army aviator goesthrough basic flying training with AirForce pilots and thereafter moves towardsadvanced training which is different fromthe Air Force pilots.

The Army and the Air Force both oper-ate the surveillance helicopters like theCheetah and the Chetak. The observationand surveillance is done by both the Ser-vices and at many places they work intandem, like Siachen where both Army

aviators and IAF fly for all operationalneeds.

Army aviation has gradually evolvedfrom operating observation choppers tomaintaining armed helicopters. The laststep in this evolution is maintaining itsown attack helicopters. Sources haveinformed Geopolitics that at present theArmy is not interested in acquiring medi-um and heavy helicopters.

There is, however, a section in theArmy that feels that Army Aviation unitsshould be completely independent of theAir Force in terms of helicopters. Accord-ing to them, since all the helicoptersflown by the IAF are only for the Army,the land force should fly them directly. Asenior MoD officer informed us on con-dition of anonymity that “giving upassets means giving a part of the organi-sation and losing a chunk of the budgetwhich no organisation would want. Theformation of Army Aviation Corps wasalso not a cake walk”.

The Army feels that today the Navy istotally independent of the Air Force forits aviation requirements. It even hasfighters which by the Air Force’s argu-ment should have been with the IAF. AirForce sources have a different argument.“The sea war is totally different. In an air-craft what a pilot sees is only the sea andhe gets disoriented. He doesn’t knowwhat is where. It is very difficult to adjustto the situation. Therefore, navies acrossthe world operate their own aircraft. Thisis not the case with close ground attack,which IAF does for the Army.” But theArmy believes that the attack choppers,when employed in the close attack role,become an extension of the ground bat-tle and, therefore, follow all the charac-teristics of land warfare. The IAF doesn’ttrain itself for this role. For them it’s justanother target.

During a war, helicopters are not sup-posed to fly above 100 metres. The air-space for all helicopter flights is restrictedto this level, whether for attack or com-munication.

The battle zone is a very chaotic airspace to operate in — full of missiles, airdefence assets, fighter aircraft, artilleryfires, mortars etc. Chances of getting hitboth by the enemy or by one’s own troopsare very high.

Army sources informed Geopoliticsthat the Air Force hardly trained withthem to gain experience about land war-fare, and even during the operationalexercises they sent a small contingent to

The Army’s Charge The Air Force’s Rebuttal

Head-to-head for the whirlybirds

Army Aviators are better suited todeal with contact battles as it is theirdomain.

The Army Aviators supplement oper-ations with additional battlefieldinformation.

Plans to set up one aviation brigadein each Corps.

Air Force trains its pilots by simulat-ing all possible battle scenarios.

We are equally committed to the bat-tlefield and will never ignore otherresponsibilities.

Aerial attack is a specialised job and itis the Air Force’s domain.

train, far less than invited. This doesn’tgo well with the Army.

The Army also alleges that duringoperations Air Force pilots require Armyofficers to guide them in identifying tar-gets. The problem with this arrangementis that the chances of an Army man get-ting disoriented in the air are very high. Ifthe officer is not an aviator he is as goodas anyone in the air. Air Force pilots aregenerally unable to differentiate betweenfriendly positions and enemy targets.

Sources revealed that even during theKargil War, Army aviators were on boardthe armed Mi-17 helicopters guidingthem to engage the enemy location onthe high ridges.

The Indian Army began using armedchoppers during the Sri Lanka campaignin 1987. It was at that time that the Armypushed the newly-named Ranjit andLancer choppers into the fray. While the

Ranjit, in fact, is a Cheetah armed with amedium machine gun (MMG), theLancer is a Cheetah armed with SS11B1rockets and MMG. The Ranjits performedexceptionally in Sri Lanka and wereinstrumental in many operations.

The Army argues that it has experiencewith armed choppers since the 1980s andcan employ attack choppers better thanthe Air Force because Army officers arebetter equipped to exploit the windows ofopportunity in any battle. Army sourceshave informed us that Lancers are nowflown effectively and are part of divisionaland corps operational plans. Lancers alsoperformed during Operation Sarp Vinashin Hill Kaka, in exactly the same rolewhich the Air Force claims is its opera-tional domain.

The Air Force has objected to theArmy’s demand for attack choppersbased on the Joint Army Air Force

Implementation Instruction (JAAII) 1986,which is the principle document for thedivision of assets between the Army andthe Air Force. As per the JAAII, the attackchopper pilots were supposed to undergojunior command and senior commandand were to have at least one tenure withthe tank unit. But as per Army sources,the Air Force has not stuck to the JAAIIand the pilots do not arrive for the com-mand courses or for the tenures with tankunit. Sources informed Geopolitics thatthese lapses by the IAF could lead to seri-ous inefficiency in the battlefield.

Highly-placed Army Aviators com-mented, “Army Aviators compliment theoperation as they are integral to theArmy. The Air Force pilots do a supple-mentary job. They perform what is askedof them and there is no extra effort. Anarmy officer can guide the commandersabout the conditions in the battlefieldand they can also deduce how the battlewill unfold. They are in a position tohave a bird’s-eye-view of the whole bat-tlefield and with their training ofartillery, armour or infantry, they are in aposition to understand the intricacies ofbattle, which Air Force pilots will not beable to do.”

Air Force sources rebut this: “This is anold-school argument. In today’s battle,anything can happen at any time. The AirForce has combat leaders and we simu-late all possible scenarios during theoperation squadron training. The attackchopper is also used in air warfare andrequires tactics of aerial combat.”

It is in the midst of this ongoing tusslebetween the two services, the Army willreceive the first of its Rudra choppers inMarch. The weapons onboard the Rudraare the same that will arm the Light Com-bat Helicopter (LCH). The final trial of theanti-tank missile is going on. The Rudrawill be armed with Mistral missiles forair-to-air target acquisition along withrockets and machine guns.

At present, the Indian and Israeliarmies are the only ones which do notoperate attack helicopters. It is worthmentioning that the Cabinet Committeeon Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) paper of1992 signed by the Defence Secretary andsent to both the Finance and Defenceministries, talks about inducting attackchoppers to the Indian Army. It is timethe Defence Ministry made a clear deci-sion and solved the issue or this tussle forrotary assets would turn into a wastefulexpenditure and operational blunders.

March 2012

TANK BUSTER: The AH-64 Apache gunship has devastating anti-armour capabilities

www.geopolitics.in


gDEFBIZ

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THE F-35

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gg geopolitics

Our readership is, to simply put it, Fortune 500;

DIPLOMATS

POLICY MAKERS

CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

WORLD BODIES

What has your company to offer Indiafor internal security?TH: Beechcraft basically has three air-craft to offer for this mission, namelyour King Air 350, King Air 250 and theHawker 900XP. We do have other aircraftdepending on the mission that could fitthese roles such as our C90 and Baronmodels but typically the requirementswill push the mission into the aircraft

mentioned above. For now the focus ison the King Air 350 platform with theextended range capability (350ER).These aircraft are in numerouscountries performing special mis-sion activities with the requisiterange, time on station, integrationflexibility to most missions and fea-tures a ceiling of 35,000 feet.

In the Extended Range (ER) con-figuration our aircraft can stay air-borne for seven-and-a-half hourswith six passengers plus therequired two crewmembers inIndia. It has an incredible rangeand can cover the entire coast ofIndia. At over 300 kts(648Kmph),it is one of the mostproductive turbo-prop aircraft interms of mission capability whenspeed is combined with useful

payloadsThe King Air 350i can do more than

one thing and it can do it well. It can beconfigured in a variety of ways so it cancarry stretchers in the air-ambulancemission while in another mission it canbe used for rescuing people with a res-cue package. It is a modular aircraftwhich can switch from a special missionto a VIP aircraft in minutes. You can pullthe medevac out in fifteen to twentyminutes and put the VIP seats in. It isoperated in 125 countries and over 1600special mission King Air are out there,ranging from models B200 to B300. Overforty years over 6000 units have beenmade. It’s a proven product and a verysafe bet.

Do you manufacture the complete spe-cial mission aircraft?TH: We can build the platform to meetthe special mission and generally wework with third parties to integrate themission systems with the aircraft. Wehave a close relationship with third-par-ty companies that do the actual integra-tion or take on the role of prime for thecontracts. Beechcraft facility in the USand our facility in the UK is also capableof such integration in most cases. We

March 2012

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: Beechcraft’s Todd Hattaway is optimistic about thecompany’s prospects in India

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gINTERVIEW

One of the first aircraft makers to enter the Indian market, Hawker Beechcraft has a range of products to serve the internal security and maritime reconnaissance needs of India.

ROHIT SRIVASTAVA spoke to TODD HATTAWAY, Regional Director, Sales, Hawker Beechcraft,to find out the company’s plans in India.

“WE ARE THE FRONTRUNNERSIN MOST SPECIAL-MISSION

AIRCRAFT”

March 2012


have decades of experience workingwith the vendors and we can integratethe specific components for a specialmission aircraft at very shortnotice.Examples of companies thatcould be a prime contractor in Indiawould be Punj Lloyd, Tata, M&M, etc.These companies have the ability tocoordinate the integrationusing theirown resources or sub-contracting totheir extensive vendor network. We canintegrate the aircraft both ways-through a prime contractor or at ourown facilities.

Our prospects look good in India aswe have the right platform, which is aproven platform and numerousBeechcraft products are flying with thevarious Indian government agenciesand State governments today and there-fore are familiar with the product. Indiahas one of the longest coastlines in theworld and we can help monitor andprotect it.

Tell us about your business in India.TH: Our relationship with the Indiangovernment goes back over sixty years.We have partnerships with some of thepioneers of Indian aviation such as AirWorks. Our product line has more quali-fied aircraft maintenance engineers andpilots available in country than any ofour other competitors.

We work to earn the confidence ofthe companies, individuals and agen-cies that our product line has beenplaced in. We still support state thesecustomers on products that have beenpurchased over 50 years ago. Businesswith us is not ‘buy and forget’ and wemake sure our clients know they arepart of the Hawker Beechcraft family

and I think this above all else is whatdifferentiates us from the rest withinIndia.

A number of foreign governments flyour products, for example, Japan had inexcess of 75 Beechcraft aircraft whichsome are used for coastal protection.There are lots of examples around theworld where Beechcraft products aresuccessfully employed in a variety ofroles. Recently a colleague of mine cameout of his hotel in Bhubaneswar and sawan antique Beechcraft model 18 aircraftin the display. It dated back to the 40’sand people mentioned that this aircrafthas been there for the last seventy years.People know our brand and it is respect-ed as a product that delivers.

How do you see the Indian market forspecial mission aircraft?TH: It is very difficult to project the stateof the special-mission aircraft industryfor India in the next five years. We haveto be very cautious. We are currently thefrontrunners in most mission require-ments due to our success in these cur-rent roles around the world.

As stated in the earlier Home LandSecurity briefing, India will require aminimum of 16 aircraft for the securityof its coastline in what is called “brown-water” or typically a coast guard mis-sion. The RFI for such a mission couldeasily change and drive in requirementsthat we would not be able to supportsuch as a “bluewater” or typical Navymission where even our long range air-craft would be tasked to meet this mis-sion. If the Coast Guard goes with thetypical “Brownwater” mission, then weare well positioned and while there isalways competition, we feel our product

stacks up well in the primary categoriesthat are measured thru-out the bidprocess.

There are numerous items that theIndian Coast Guard would need to workthru as with other countries that havesimilar coastal areas and I would imag-ine these items are security sensitiveand would be known only to those witha need to know. The basics of any coastalsurveillance plan would include a num-ber of bases strategically placed to light-en the load of the flight crews who areperforming the mission. I would imag-ine that in order to meet this missionthere would be a minimum of threebases required and of course theresources on the ground to support a24/7 mission such as this.

Are you working on the offset partnerfor future bids?TH: The offset program requirementsare changing but we would obviouslyneed a partner if things firm up. Thegovernment has a bigger aircraftrequirement for its Medium Range Mar-itime Reconnaissance Aircraft (MRMR)then our aircrafts fits the bill. Right nowit’s too big for our platform. We wouldlike to say that they are asking for morethan they require but there are parts ofthe mission that this may make sensefor that we are not privy to nor shouldwe be. We feel strong in our positionthat the Hawker Beechcraft aircraft cando what India needs. If there is not atrue requirement for the larger aircraftwhich have higher operating costs forthe same mission we perform with asmaller aircraft, then let’s hope the sys-tem catches it and we move toward get-ting this program in the air.

gINTERVIEW

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AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE: Beechcraftis offering the King Air 350i to India for itsspecial mission needs

HAW

KER

BEEC

HCRA

FT

March 2012

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(36)

Crore to defence for spectrum

THE JAWANS,serving in the

city of Pune, weredenied the right tovote in spite of a1995 Army orderbacked by both theElection Commis-sion and theSupreme Court.The matter was

highlighted on the eve of the civic elections in the city bythe organisations such as the Indian Ex-Servicemen Move-ment (IESM) and Justice For Jawan that have been fightingfor the army men’s right to vote. The 1995 order allows themembers of the armed forces to vote with the help of a spe-cific document signed by the local defence authority.

THELANGARHALL.COMW

HITEOAKSBLOG.COM

MILIT

ARYP

HOTO

S.NE

T

20,000

56BANGLADESHI HACKERSdefaced the websites to protest

the reported killing of Bangladeshicitizens on the border with Indiaby the members of the BorderSecurity Force (BSF). The groupthat called itself the “Bangladesh

Black Hat Hackers” changed thecontents of the homepage of thesites by bypassing their securitysystems. They put up anti-Indianslogans and pictures ofBangladeshis apparently killed bythe Border Security Force.

Indian websites hacked

5,000THE GOVERNMENT isexpected to sanction

`5,000 crore for the Army tovacate nearly 45 Mhz ofwireless spectrum currentlyused by the armed forces,according to a proposalmooted by the Bharat San-char Nigam Ltd (BSNL). Inreturn, the armed forces willget an exclusive secure opti-cal fibre network. The publicsale of just 50 per cent of theairwaves that the Defence

Ministry is expected to giveup will bring in nearly`85,850 crore to the coffersof the government, accord-ing to the estimates of theDepartment of Telecommu-nications (DoT). The pro-posal is still awaiting theapproval of the TelecomCommission although it hasthe consent of an inter-min-isterial group (IMG) and theministries of defence andfinance.

Soldiers denied right to vote

ACCORDING TOREPORTS, 73.5 PER CENT

INMATES OF TIHAR JAIL AREUNDERGOING TRIALS. THISIS WELL ABOVE THE NATION-AL AVERAGE OF 66.4 PERCENT UNDERTRIALS ININDIAN JAILS. THERE ARE 410WOMEN IN ASIA’S LARGESTJAIL OUT OF A TOTAL OF12,124 PRISONERS. THE JAILIS ALL SET TO GATHER THEDETAILS OF UNDERTRIALSGRANTED BAIL ON WEEKLYCRITERIA SO PRISONERSCAN BE RELEASED ON PER-SONAL BONDS PENDINGCOURT APPROVAL.

8,911 Undertrials at Tihar

TIME

SOFA

SSAM

.COM

ASSAM COP Abhijeet Baru-ah set a place for himself in

the Guinness Book of Records byrunning more than 150 kmbarefeet in 24 hours. After heachieved the feat in the city ofJorhat, the 22-year-old constableran upto a nearby temple andoffered his prayers before beingtaken to a hospital. A vehicleescorting Baruah played musicto encourage the cop and moti-vate him during the record-breaking run.

Km-distance coveredby record-breaking cop

150


TRAPPED PASSENGERS were evacu-ated in an Indian Air Force IL-76 car-

go aircraft. The passengers were stuck inKargil due to heavy snowfall. While 171were flown to Srinagar from Leh, 142 weresent from Srinagar to Leh. The authoritieshad approved special IAF sorties linkingJammu and Srinagar for people strandedin either cities owing to closure of the Sri-nagar-Jammu highway because of heavysnowfall.

gNUMBERSGAME

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5

THE Cen-tral Reserve

Police Force(CRPF) plans totrain importedBelgian shep-herd dogs tohelp anti-Maoist opera-

tions. A dog training centre would be establishedin Bengaluru to assist with the jungle waragainst the Naxals. The CRPF troops who takeon the left-wing extremists have to be taught thetactics of jungle warfare to beat the rebels and soplans are afoot to instruct 70,000 personnel inthe latest methods of jungle warfare.

March 2012

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ISPR

PEOPLE AIRLIFTED BY IAF

Kilos of RDX recovered

3,000DOGS FOR ANTI-NAXAL OPS

THE PAKISTANIS were arrested and twoof their boats seized from Kutch Creek

area in Gujarat’s Kutch district. The BSFcommando team called the Crocodilesapprehended the Pakistanis from the westcoast of the district. The intruders were tak-en for questioning by intelligence agenciesin Bhuj, the district headquarters.

Pakistanis arrested12THE MINISTRY ofExternal Affairs

expects the number ofIndian passport hold-ers to go up to 100 mil-lion in the next tenyears. In 2011, 58.69lakh passports wereissued by 37 PassportOffices, Headquartersand the Office of theChief Secretary ofAndaman and NicobarIslands. Another 10.27lakh passports wereissued last year by the178 Indian Missions/Posts and the MEA intotal issued 73.65 lakhpassports. DistrictPassport Cells andSpeed Post Centres,online receipt of appli-cation, centralisedprinting of passportfor non-computerisedMissions abroad, andPassport Adalats toaddress grievanceshave all contributed tothe large number ofpassports issued in2012.

50Million Indian

Passports Issued

SECURITY FORCES discovered the explosivesin a cave in the midst of the hilly Doda dis-

trict in Jammu and Kashmir. Also recovered werefive weapons, 1,500 rounds of ammunition and110 explosive devices. The weapons included arifle, a carbine, a self loading rifle (SLR), tworevolvers besides, one Under-Barrel GrenadeLauncher (UBGL). Eight RPGs, 23 detonators and40 gelatin sticks besides one battery of IED mech-anism, one binocular and four radio sets werealso recovered from the hideout. Conducted oninformation provided by the Rashtriya Rifles, theoperation was one of the biggest recoveries ofarms and ammunition caches in recent times.

NSG

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gPERISCOPE

Vigil in Uttarakhand Army HQ restructuring underway

IN WHAT is said to be a restructuring process at ArmyHeadquarters, a new transformation plan has quietly

begun to roll out under which the two Deputy Chiefs of ArmyStaff (DCOAS) have been given new and specific responsibil-ities to lessen the burden of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff(VCOAS), the General who virtually runs the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army on a day-to-day basis. To implement thefirst phase of this transformation, Lieutenant GeneralRamesh Halgali took over as the new Deputy Chief of theArmy Staff (Information Systems & Training) last month.The other Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Policy and Services),Lieutenant General Narinder Singh had taken over late lastyear. Although Army HQ has had two deputy chiefs lookingafter various functions for some years, this is the first timethat a new and clear demarcation of responsibilities hasbeen entrusted to them so as to streamline the functioningand speed up decision-making processes at the apex level.

Accordingly, Lieutenant General Halgali will be responsi-ble for Military Training, Signals (communication), Infor-mation Systems (automation), Staff duties (UN Missions etc),Rashtriya Rifles, Territorial Army and Defence ServiceCorps (the security guards at select military installationsand campuses). And Lieutenant General Narinder Singhwill look after Procurement, Financial Planning, PerspectivePlanning and various ‘line’ directorates such as ArmouredCorps, Artillery, Mechanised Infantry etc.

INDIA AND Saudi Arabia strengthened militaryties and developed understanding on areas of

mutual interest during Defence Minister AKAntony’s two-day visit to kingdom last month.This was the first time an Indian defence ministervisited Saudi Arabia. The two countries havedecided to set up a Joint Committee on DefenceCooperation to work out the contours of the rela-tionship. The proposed joint committee willevolve plans for cooperation in numerous areas,including defence cooperation, high-level recip-rocal visits at all levels — political, official and thethree armed forces, ship visits and conducting

passage exercises during such visits. The committee will also explore the possibility ofsigning a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in hydrography, increasedparticipation of both sides in training programmes, and examine the possibility of coop-eration in defence industries. India suggested that the navies of the two countries couldexplore practical cooperation in the fight against piracy and that the Royal Saudi Navyshould play an active role in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) construct.

INDIA HAS signed several pacts with Seychelles tocounter-piracy in the Indian Ocean during the recent

visit of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to theislands.

“During the talks, the Indian side reiterated its com-mitment to continue its support to Seychelles for its securi-ty, development, and in its capacity-building efforts,” theExternal Affairs Ministry said after the talks, adding,“Both sides emphasised the need to continue joint surveil-lance of the Exclusive Economic Zone of Seychelles andanti-piracy surveillance to ensure safety of the IndianOcean region.” The three agreements that were signedincluded the supply of a coastal surveillance radar system

worth $10 million and Dornier surveillance aircraft. It may be noted that India has alreadydonated a fast-attack vessel to the Seychelles and in February last year deployed a Dornier228 maritime patrol aircraft to Victoria, the nation’s capital.

India signs anti-piracy pacts with Seychelles

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India and Saudi Arabia come closer

THIS YEAR, the Indian Army isall set to hold between 15 and 20

bilateral war games with friendlynations like the US, Australia, Rus-sia, France and Britain, apart fromneighbours Bangladesh, Myanmarand Nepal and central Asiannations such as Mongolia.

It is said that these exercises willmostly focus on counter-insur-gency and anti-terrorism manoeu-vres, develop the skills of Indianand other friendly troops in differ-ent scenarios, and improve theirinteroperability, as required underUnited Nation’s multinational jointmilitary efforts for world peace.

Among the first exercises thisyear will be one with Singapore atBabina in Uttar Pradesh, close toJhansi. The exercise is likely to becalled “Bold Kurukshetra”, in whichboth sides will pit their mechanisedforces and tanks in battle againstterrorists in an urban scenario.

War games galore forIndian Army

WITH THE CHINA-FACTOR GETTINGINCREASED ATTENTION IN THE MILI-

TARY CIRCLES, THE INDIAN ARMY ISSTRENGTHENING ITS POSITION IN THESTRATEGICALLY-LOCATED NORTHERNSTATE OF UTTARAKHAND. IT HAS PUT UPA ROADMAP THAT INCLUDES CONSTRUCT-ING 13 NEW HELIPADS AND ACQUIRINGABOUT 24,000 ACRES OF LAND FROM THESTATE GOVERNMENT FOR MILITARY PUR-POSES. IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED TO TAKEUP NEW PROJECTS IN AREAS SUCH ASALMORA, BANBASA, DHARCHULA,DEHRADUN, DHARASU, CHARMAGAURD,CHHIYALEKH, GUNJI, GHATOLI, GHANSALI,AULI, HALDWANI, PANTNAGAR ANDPITHORAGARH.

MEA.

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IN



gg

WITH TERROR threats from unconventional warfareagents on the rise, the Central government is setting up an

emergency response centre at Panipatwithin the next two years to serve asthe hub for all activities dealing withnuclear, biological and chemical (NBC)warfare, according to Deccan Heraldnewspaper.

The `100 crore centre will also beused to train the military, para-militaryand police forces on how to tackleNBC attacks and handle the emergency situation.

“The defence research and development organisation hasacquired 15 acres of land in Panipat where the centre wouldcome up. The government has approved the budget. It wouldbe ready by 2014 end,” William Selvamurthy, DRDO chief

controller-in-charge of life sciences, told the newspaper. India, like many leading countries in the world, has been

preparing itself to deal with the use ofchemical, biological, radiological or nuclearweapons in future wars. In this endeavour, itis going for joint collaborations with friend-ly countries. It is believed that India wouldjoin hands with the United Kingdom forjoint development and collaborativeresearch on NBC technology as the UK hasan impressive suite of such technologies.

Rapid detection of disease outbreaks and development ofeffective medicines and vaccines is one of the potential areasof collaboration. Recently, a UK technical team visited vari-ous DRDO laboratories to identify the gap areas where bothsides can work together.

A PROFILING centre for defence personnel hasfinally been operationalised at Armed Forces

Medical College (AFMC), Pune. Manned by trainedexperts from forensic science department, the cen-tre will help in creating a DNA data bank of sol-diers and help in establishing identity of mutilatedbodies of jawans and officers who go missing inaction. It is expected to cover about 1.13 millionArmy personnel, besides Navy and Air Force offi-cers. According to Lt Gen H Kakaria, Director Gen-eral, AFMC, “At present, identity of dead Army per-sonnel is established by examining personal

belongings, studying identification marks or comparing photographs. But in certain situ-ations, bodies of jawans are mutilated beyond recognition or just a few body parts arefound. Identifying the dead becomes a problem in such situations which is not justimportant for armed forces but brings solace to families as well.”

DNA data bank for Army personnel

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IAF’s wargame deferred IAF gets Mi-17 V5 choppers

THE IAF is said to be plan-ning a separate cadre to

manage the increased use ofunmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), which it prefers todescribe as remotely pilotedvehicles (RPVs). A draft propos-al in this regards is being sent tothe Ministry of Defence forapproval.

“Just like the fighter pilots,transport pilots and so on, thiswill be a role-specific cadre, sothat the officers are trained fora specific role from the wordgo,” according to Air MarshalDhiraj Kukreja, Air Officer Com-manding-in-Chief, Headquar-ters Training Command, Ben-galuru. He told the Deccan Her-ald newspaper that this newcadre would its own squadrons,though their numbers mightnot be in the range of 12 to 15that a general squadron con-sists of. Here, there will be abalance between the manpowerand the role of such vehicles.

IAF plans separateUAV cadre

DRDO

THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) has deferred what wasbelieved to be its biggest-ever war-game codenamed ‘Opera-

tion Livewire’, which was scheduled to be held between March24 and April 15. It is understood that the reason for the post-ponement is the realisation that the IAF needs to integrate itsnew acquisitions into the service before holding the exercise.Though fresh dates and schedules for holding the exercise havenot been decided yet, as per IAF’s plans, the exercise wouldhave involved the assets of IAF’s main operational formationsincluding the Delhi-based Western Command and Gandhina-gar-based South Western Command.

INDIA HAS formally inducted its latest Mi-17 V5 armedhelicopters procured from Russia to enhance its operational

capabilities that would include carrying troops and cargo tohigh-altitude areas. The Mi-17 V5 is a medium-lift armed heli-copter with substantial and effective firepower. It has the latestand more powerful engines that will enhance its payload-car-rying capability at higher altitudes. It is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and on-board navigation systems. It has on-board weather radar, state-of-the-art autopilot and is compati-ble with the latest generation night-vision goggles. India hasplaced orders for 80 such choppers from Russia..

Emergency response centre at Panipat

www.geopolitics.in


gCOVERSTORY

India’s much-hypedmaritime defence planremains hurdled byprocurement delays and turfwars, four years after 10Pakistani terrorists sailedinto Mumbai undetected,exposing the holes in thecountry’s coastal security,writes AJIT KUMAR SINGH

March 2012


COST

GUAR

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A COASTAL WELCOMETO TERRORISTS

A COASTAL WELCOMETO TERRORISTS

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gCOVERSTORY

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FOR A long time, India’s focushad been towards securing onlyits land borders. India’s 7,516-kilometre-long coast, compris-ing 13 major and 185 minor

ports, and a huge 2.01 million-squarekilometre exclusive economic zone(EEZ), across nine states — Gujarat,Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala,Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha andWest Bengal — and four coastal UnionTerritories — Daman & Diu, Lakshad-weep, Pondicherry and Andaman &Nicobar Islands — is widely acknowl-edged to have remained vulnerable to

terrorist penetration as it has been leftinadequately attended. Attention waspaid towards securing the coasts for thefirst time in the aftermath of the 1993Mumbai attack that used the sea route.However, the lackadaisical approach ofthe government of India failed to min-imise the threat.

The government was once againforced to reorient its strategy to strength-en the security of its coasts soon after themayhem in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.Despite bringing some changes since2008, New Delhi has failed to neutralisethe vulnerability of the coasts. There is,evidently, reason to suspect the grandprojects and financial allocations that areoften shown by the authorities as evi-dence of the measure to ‘improve securi-ty’. More than three years after the 26/11attacks, there is little reason to believethat India now has the capacity to detectand prevent another comparable terroriststrike along its extended coastline.

There are reasons behind such fail-ures. Sufficient attention has not been

paid to provide the coastal policestations with essential require-

ments such as proper training totheir personnel for sea opera-tions, adequate fuel and fundsfor the running and mainte-

nance of the boats, buildingsfor police stations, etc. Fur-ther, the respective jurisdic-tions of the coastal police sta-

tions and normal police sta-tions located near the shores have

not been communicated clearly tothe personnel on the ground, leading

to widespread confusion. Even infor-mation sharing and coordination

between the Marine Police, Coast Guardand Navy remains a problem. At present,whatever coordination or informationsharing takes place between the threeagencies is largely based on personalrapport between the officers concerned.But this rapport has to be institution-alised. Most importantly, if India’s coastalsecurity has to become strong, it isessential for the police forces in thecoastal states to shed their land-centricoutlook and turn their attention tocoastal security duties as well.

The issue of coastal security hasbecome more urgent now. In 2011, threelarge vessels drifted into Mumbai, alto-gether undetected by the numerous seapatrols, Coastal Police Stations, check-posts, outposts and land patrols.

On June 12, 2011, a Singapore-flaggedcargo ship MV Wisdom, which was enroute to Alang in Gujarat, driftedtowards the Mumbai coast after break-ing its tug, to eventually run aground onthe busy Juhu Beach. Later, on July 30,2011, a Panama-flagged ship, MV Pavit,after having been abandoned by its crewa month earlier near Oman, drifted ontothe same Juhu Beach in Mumbai. Again,an oil tanker, MV Rak, again from Pana-ma, with 60,000 metric tonnes of coaland 340 tonnes of fuel oil on board, sankjust 20 nautical miles off the Mumbaicoast, causing a major oil spill on August4, 2011.

Meanwhile, amidst rising internation-al concerns of an organic link betweenthe activities of the Somali pirates andthe global terrorist jihad, the IntelligenceBureau (IB) suspects that the pirates arecollecting logistical data and funds forIslamist terrorists in their various opera-tions. Revealations made during theinterrogation of captured pirates indi-cate that al-Qaeda-associated andSomalia-based Al Shabaab was develop-ing close ties with the Pakistan-basedIslamist terrorist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).Significantly, the Director of the US Cen-tral Intelligence Agency (CIA), David HPetraeus, in a statement to Congress onthe ‘Terrorist Threat Ten Years After9/11’, noted on September 15, 2011, thatthe Al Shabaab suicide bombings inUganda in 2010 had demonstrated thegroup’s ability to operate beyond Soma-lia. According to the global maritimewatchdog, the International MaritimeBureau (IMB), at least 200 pirate attackshave occurred in and around Indianwaters since March 6, 2010.

Nevertheless, over time, numerous ini-tiatives have been launched to furtherstrengthen coastal security. In the after-math of the 1993 blasts, the Governmentof India had initiated Operation Swan,which was launched in August 1993 toprevent clandestine landings along the

PAPER TIGER: According to a CAG auditnewly-inducted Coast Guard vessels lackcritical equipment, including guns andidentification radar

Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts. This wasa three-layer security arrangementinvolving the Navy, the Coast Guard and ajoint patrolling team drawn from person-nel belonging to the Navy, Coast Guard,State Police and Customs. Prior to this,the coastal security had been the solepreserve of the Coast Guard, which wasestablished in 1978 to protect the mar-itime interests of the country as well as toassist in anti-smuggling operations.

Later, the government decided to initi-ate a Coastal Security Scheme (CCS)under the Ministry of Home Affairs. TheCCS works towards strengthening infra-structure for coastal patrolling and sur-veillance of country’s coastal areas, par-ticularly the shallow areas close to coastto check and counter illegal cross-borderactivities and criminal activities using thecoast or the sea.

Phase-I of the scheme, with anapproved outlay of approximately `4.95billion for non-recurring expenditure and`1.51 billion for recurring expenditure,was launched by the government in Janu-ary 2005. It was to be implemented over afive-year period, commencing in 2005-06.The scheme included the setting-up of 73Coastal Police Stations, 97 Coastal Policecheck-posts, 58 outposts and 30 opera-tional barracks. It included provisions for204 boats, 153 four wheelers and 312motorcycles. In June 2010, the schemewas extended by a year, up to March 31,2011, with an additional non-recurringoutlay of about `950 million.

On the implementation of CCS Phase-I,

the MHA claims 71 of 73 proposed CoastalPolice Stations have been operationalised,and that 48 of these are functioning fromnew buildings. The construction of 75check-posts, 54 outposts and 22 barrackshas also been completed. Of the approved204 boats, 200 have been delivered to thecoastal states/UTs. 10 Rigid InflatableBoats (RIBs) for Goa have also been pro-cured. 178 interceptor boats were sup-plied to the coastal states and UTs byDecember 2010. All the approved vehicles

(153 jeeps and 312 motorcycles) havebeen procured by states and UTs. Some2,000 personnel have been trained by theCoast Guard. A lump-sum assistance of `1million per police station is also given forequipment, computers and furniture. A‘National Committee for StrengtheningMaritime and Coastal Security againstthreats from the sea’ was constituted inAugust 2009 under the chairmanship ofthe Cabinet Secretary. The committee

comprises representatives of all the Min-istries/Departments/ Organisations in theGovernment of India as well as Chief Sec-retaries/ Administrators of the coastalstates/UTs.

The implementation of this scheme isbeing done by the concerned state gov-ernments/UT Administrations. A state-ment of physical and financial progressunder the scheme, as on November 30,2010, is in the table on the facing page.

In 2009, the CCS proposed the estab-lishment of the Control Communicationand Intelligence (C3I) systems as part ofan overall National Maritime DomainAwareness Project. 51 nodes in the Navyand the Coast Guard were to be linked inthis network, under a project to be com-pleted by 2012. As part of the project,India’s security agencies are now workingto set up a network of 46 radar stationsalong the country’s coast, which willinclude installation of 36 radars on themainland, six radars in Lakshadweep andMinicoy and four radars on the A&NIslands. Later, on September 2, 2011, itwas reported that in view of the threatalong the shores the Border Security Force(BSF) would deploy a newly raised MarineBattalion in the Arabian Sea, a proposalthat has now been approved by the CCS.

However, proposals such as installingcoastal radar surveillance network, achain of automatic identification system(AIS) stations, setting up a special securi-ty force Sagar Prahari Bal (SPB), issuingfishermen identity cards and creating the C3I are nowhere near becoming

March 2012

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: A Coast Guard vessel patrols the seas near an offshore oil platform

www.geopolitics.in


EVEN AFTER26/11, INDIA STILLCAN’T PREVENT

ANOTHERTERRORIST

STRIKE ALONGITS COAST

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COAST GUARD

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operational. The joint operation centres(JOC) of the Navy and the Coast Guard atMumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and PortBlair are also under-staffed. An unnamedofficial pointed out that inordinatedelays in execution was the reason whythere were incidents like “abandonedvessels or ghost ships” breaching thethree-tier security ring of the IndianNavy and almost reaching India’s shores.“Till everything is set in place, adequatemanpower, force-levels, equipment, wecannot claim to have a fully secure coast-line,” a senior Coast Guard official said.

Meanwhile, phase-II of the CCS was to

commence from April 2011 with a finan-cial outlay of `11.54 billion for non-recur-ring component and `4.25 billion forrecurring expenditure. This phase is,however, yet to be operationalised. Itssalient features include the setting-up ofanother 131 Coastal Police Stations,equipped with 180 boats, 60 jetties, 35rigid inflatable boats (12 for Lakshad-weep and 23 for A&N Islands), 10 largevessels (for the A&N Islands), 131 fourwheelers and 242 motorcycles.

Far from detecting and interdicting ter-rorist infiltration on small fishing vesselsor dinghies, the Coastal Security System

does not appear to have the capabilitieseven for the timely detection of majortransport vessels in distress till it actuallyruns aground. India’s coastal vulnerabili-ties are underlined further by a Comptrol-ler and Auditor General of India (CAG)report submitted to the Parliament onAugust 5, 2011. According to the report,nearly 50 per cent of offshore patrol ves-sels were already too old and needed to bedecommissioned. In the case of fast patrolcraft, this figure rose as high as 72 percent. The report noted, further, that evennewly-inducted vessels lacked criticalequipment, including guns and identifi-cation radar. Further, of the 14 newCoastal Police Stations sanctioned afterthe 26/11 attacks, only five were opera-tional. Some of these stations were oper-ating on temporarily leased land withoutadequate equipment or facilities. “Flawedplanning and deficient execution of planshas resulted in Coast Guard operating atvirtually half its required strength,” CAGsaid. The force has only 65 per cent of therequired force levels of ships and vessels,and 48 per cent in terms of aircraft andhelicopters. To top it, the Government hasfailed to establish the one federal apexbody — the Maritime Security AdvisoryBoard (MSAB) headed by a MaritimeSecurity Advisor (MSA) — which couldhave made a difference. The government“needs to urgently put in place an effec-tive mechanism for coordination amongdifferent ministries, departments andstates” to ensure the security of Indiancoasts from the “threat of maritime terror-ism, illegal arms trafficking and illegalinflow of both migrants and refugees fromthe neighbourhood”, CAG said.

The CAG report noted further thateven the 1999-2001 Group of Ministers(GoM) report had strongly recommend-ed the creation of “an apex body for man-agement of maritime affairs for institu-tionalised linkages among the Navy,Coast Guard and ministries of centraland state governments” but to no avail.Existing coordination on the groundbetween Coast Guard and other agencies“leaves much to be desired”, the CAGreport said. Coast Guard, for instance,“does not share data online” with Navyfor the latter’s “maritime domain aware-ness” project to get a comprehensive pic-ture of the maritime situation. The twoforces often do not share patrollingdetails, “resulting in duplication ofefforts” and sub-optimal utilization of

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State/ UT

Coastal Police Stations

SanctionedNos.

Made Operational

Construction complete

Construction in progress

Construction not yet started

Gujarat

Coastal PS 10 10 10 - -

Check-posts 25 25 25 - -

Out-posts 46 44 44 2 -

Maharashtra

Coastal PS 12 12 2 2 8

Check-posts 32 32 19 13

Barracks 24 24 18

Goa 3 3 - 2 1

Karnataka 5 5 5 - -

Kerala 8 6 6 2 -

Tamil Nadu

Coastal PS 12 12 12 - -

Check-posts 4 35 31 9 -

Out-posts 12 10 10 - 2

Andhra Pradesh

6 6 6 - -

Odisha 5 5 2 1 2

West BengalCoastal PS 6 6 3 1 2

Barracks 6 4 4 - 2

Puducherry 1 1 - 1 -

Lakshadweep 4 4 1 2 1

Daman & Diu 1 1 1 - -

A&N Islands - - - - -

Total

Coastal PS 73 78 48 11 14

Check-posts 97 92 75 9 13

Out-posts 58 54 54 2 2

Barracks 30 28 22 - 8

SECURING THE COASTS

Source: Ministry of Home Affairs outcome budget 2011-2012


LAST DECEMBER, the ParliamentaryStanding Committee on Defencetook “serious” note of “huge gaps”

between existing and required force-lev-els in the Indian Coast Guard(ICG) andrapped the government for ad hoc plan-ning, poor execution and tardy progressin strengthening the country’s coastalsecurity even three years after the 26/11terror strikes.

Noting that just two ships and sixboats had been added to Coast Guard inthe last four years, the Standing Commit-tee on Defence said the “upgradation” offorce-levels in the crucial maritime forcewas “very slow” despite the governmentgiving the “impression that a lot ofefforts” were underway.

Coast Guard is making do with only 45ships and 27 boats, while the require-ment is for at least 154 ships and 93boats. Similarly, the force only has 28Dornier surveillance aircraft and 20Chetak helicopters, out of which at leastone-fourth of the fleet is grounded forrepair and servicing at any given time.Besides, it has 1,714 officers, 9,196enrolled personnel and 1,553 civilians inits manpower.

Why is it that ICG , which has been inexistence for over three decades, contin-ues to suffer from shortages in the forcelevels and equipments? Geopolitics hasbeen trying over one year to talk to thesenior bosses of the ICG, but none ofthem has responded positively. Ournumerous requests for an interview tothe newly-appointed ICG chief, andbefore that to his immediate predeces-sor, have been turned down. Even othersenior officials have been instructed notto talk to the press. Why? After all, thereaders of this magazine are as con-cerned as ICG officials about India’scoastal security and they have every right

to know what is happening. That India’s coastal vulnerabilities are

a matter of serious concern has beenunderlined further by a Comptroller andAuditor General of India (CAG) reportsubmitted to the Parliament on August 5,2011, and nothing much has changedsince then. We are producing below someof CAG’s key findings and recommenda-tions:

KEY FINDINGS 1. Planning The Indian Coast Guard is still operatingwith the 15-year Perspective Plan for1985-2000 prepared in 1987 as subse-quent Perspective Plans, i.e. 2002-17 and2007-22, have not been approved by thegovernment and a Perspective Plan forthe period 2012-2027 is under formula-tion (as of December 2010). Finalisationof the Five-Year Coast Guard Develop-ment Plans (ICGDP) took an inordinateamount of time with the Plans beingapproved much after their expectedcommencement with the IXth and XthPlans being approved 19 and 33 monthsafter they were supposed to begin.

In general, the Five-Year Plans pro-posed by the ICG have been unrealistic

and unachievable. Despite the fact thatthe Ministry of Finance/Ministry of Defence has curtailed the financialoutlays of these plans, the Indian CoastGuard has been unable to spend theamounts approved. On the operationalside, the failure to utililise capital alloca-tions has resulted in the non-achieve-ment of procurement plans in terms ofships and aircrafts. ICG was able toachieve only about 50 per cent of the tar-geted acquisitions in the IXth Plan (1997 -2002) and only 43 per cent of the plannedacquisitions could be finalised in the XthPlan (2002-07). More importantly not asingle acquisition fructified in the Xthplan period, against the planned targets.

2. Infrastructure and Assets The Indian Coast Guard has been estab-lishing shore stations and aviation unitsas per its Perspective Plan and Develop-ment Plans. Additionally, Ministry ofHome Affairs has also sanctioned, in Jan-uary 2005, three Coast Guard Stations forstrengthening coastal security. However,only 30 out of 42 stations sanctionedhave been activated till date. Post-26/11incident, the government has sanctioned14 new stations, of which five have beenactivated till December 2010. However,even now, sanctioned/activated stationscontinue to function with infrastructur-al/fleet deficiencies. A test check withreference to availability of InterceptorBoats (IB)/Interceptor Crafts (IC) at sixstations revealed that in three stations asof December 2010, the stations did nothave the vessels in adequate strength. Atleast 16 Coast Guard stations did nothave basic facilities like jetties forberthing ships, fueling facilities etc. Inother cases, ICG stations do not havetheir own assets and are using hired ves-sels. Also, some ICG stations were forced

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REPLACEMENTFOR VESSELSSHOULD BETIMELY TO

ENSURE THEAVAILABILITY OF ARELIABLE FLEET

PRAKASH NANDA spells out the glaring inadequacies of the Coast Guard pointed out by theComptroller and Auditor General

WHAT AILS THE INDIANCOAST GUARD ?


to operate out of temporary structures asthe land was not owned by them.

Further, the ICG is functioning withships, which have outlived their pre-scribed life and were meant to be decom-missioned but which have not beenphased out as replacements, have notmaterialised. Almost half of theAdvanced Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs)and 72 per cent of the Fast Patrol Vessels(FPVs) are on extended life or are alreadydue for decommissioning. Besides, new-ly-inducted ships like the AOPVs are oper-ating with constraints or without requiredrole equipment such as Super Rapid GunMount, CRN 91 guns, Helo TraversingGear, Identification of Friend/Foe, GyroStabilised Horizontal Role Bar etc.

Flawed planning and deficient execu-tion of plans has resulted in the IndianCoast Guard operating at virtually half itsrequired strength. Compared to the forcelevels envisaged in the Perspective Planfor the period 1985-2000, the IndianCoast Guard, as on date (December 2010)possesses only 65 per cent of therequired force level in terms of ships andvessels. With respect to the aviation arm,the corresponding figure is 48 per cent.

Indian Coast Guard acquisitions havebeen dogged by time and cost over-runs.While the shortages have translated intocorresponding gaps in the operationalcapabilities of individual Indian CoastGuard stations, the abnormal delays inthe commissioning of new vessels haveseverely impacted the decommissioningschedule of the ICG.

3. Patrolling of Coastal/Exclusive Eco-nomic Zone (EEZ) Since the inception of the ICG in 1978,

various new threats have emerged on theIndian coasts making coastal security acritical responsibility in addition to themandated role of the ICG such as Searchand Rescue (SAR), pollution control etc.The Indian Coast Guard is limited in itscapabilities to effectively discharge itsduties in the entire EEZ waters (up to 200NM) on account of the deficiencies inICG assets and infrastructure and short-ages in manpower. Its operational effec-tiveness is also restricted on account ofgaps in role equipment, for instance,even after ten years a chain of static sen-sors in the form of shore radar stations inareas of high sensitivity and high trafficdensity to provide continuous, gap-free,automatic detection and tracking of tar-gets has not been set up. Besides, themultiple agencies with their variedresponsibilities with respect to coastalissues reduce the efficiency of the ICG’ssecurity-related operations.

The ICG fulfils its responsibilitiestowards coastal and EEZ security prima-rily by patrolling on-board investigationsand aerial surveillance. Operation SWAN,a joint operation of the Indian Navy andICG and International Maritime Bound-ary Line (IMBL)/EEZ patrolling by shipsare two vital activities for ensuring thesafety of the coasts. Audit found thatOperation Swan operations by the ICGsuffered from insufficient/inadequateassets and absence of vital communica-tion equipment.

Besides, night-patrolling capabilitieswere limited in view of non-availabilityof dedicated and navigational equip-ment. Patrolling of the IMBL/EEZincreased drastically (73 per cent) onlyafter 26/11 terrorist attacks. Indian

Coast Guard vessels on patrol duty didnot undertake the prescribed boardingoperations per quarter for identificationand investigation of fishing boats/ships.During the period January 2004 toDecember 2010, the shortfall in respectof some vessels ranged from nine to 100per cent. With respect to Maharashtraand Gujarat for the period leading up to26/11, not a single boarding operationwas conducted in 96 cases, i.e 64 percent of LOPs were checked. Poor inter-nal controls also lead audit to concludethat the actual number of boardingoperations carried out by these shipswas less than the figures furnished byICGHQ. Finally, it was observed that thenight flying task was never achieved byany of the aircraft squadrons during thelast six years. The average shortfall was32 per cent despite the fact that thenight-flying task was reduced.

Coordination on the ground levelbetween Indian Coast Guard and otheragencies leaves much to be desired, forinstance, ICG has not shared data onlinewith the Indian Navy for the MaritimeDomain Awareness (MDA) software,which is meant to collate informationfrom all available sources to present acomprehensive picture of the maritimesituation. Also, ICG did not share itsannual planning for deployment of shipswith the IN to enable optimal utilisationof available resources.

4. Post-26/11 security mechanism Although coastal maritime security is amajor concern, the government failed toissue clear-cut directions or enunciate apolicy for coastal security till recently.Post-26/11, the Indian Coast Guard was

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KEEPING A VIGIL: The Coast Guard has considerable aviation assets in it armoury for surveillance of the coastline

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initially designated as the agency forguarding the coastline with support ofNavy and then Navy was designated asthe overall authority responsible for mar-itime security including coastal securitywith the support of Indian Coast Guard.

5. Empowerment of Coast Guard The maritime zones of India are gov-erned under the Umbrella Act of Exclu-sive Economic Zone (EEZ), Other Mar-itime Zones Act 1976 (80 of 1976) and theMaritime Zones of India (Regulation ofFishing by Foreign Fishing Vessels) Act1981.

However, there are legal and opera-tional constraints in ICG activities. Forinstance, prosecution of offenders can belaunched only after obtaining the MEAapproval under the MZI Act, 1976. Also,there is much work to be done in termsof providing the Indian Coast Guard withenabling provisions to effectively per-form its role of monitoring deep-sea fish-ing vessels, environmental protection,pollution control, crossing InternationalMaritime Boundary Line by fishing ves-sels and impounding vessels with invalidsecurity clearances.

6. Operations Audit noted that the Indian Coast Guarddid not maintain a complete and com-prehensive database of its operations. Inall the Search and Rescue (SAR), pollu-tion control, anti-poaching operationsetc., ICG could not furnish informationabout the number of cases where themissions were not successful or couldnot be carried out due to inadequacy of

resources or other constraints. Further,ICGHQ has not fixed any parameters orperformance indicators for assessing theperformance of the ICG in respect of itscharter of duties.

7. Repair and Maintenance There was shortfall to the tune of 62 percent in carrying out Short Refit, NormalRefit and Medium Refit of various classesof ships against the number of refit due.There has been undue delay in comple-tion of refits also. Of a total number of 31refits undertaken for AOPV/OPVsbetween 2003 and 2010, the time takenwas 27 per cent more than the contract.In case of FPV/IPV/SDB, a total numberof 74 refits, the actual time taken was 51per cent more.

8. Manpower There was shortage of manpower to theextent of 57 and 43 per cent in the cadreof officers and enrolled personnel respec-tively against the manpower envisaged inCGPP 1985-2000. In the aviation wing,

there was shortage of 50 and 58 per centin the cadre of pilots and observersagainst the sanctioned strength respec-tively. For imparting training toofficers/EPs, the Indian Coast Guard isstill dependent on the Navy.

RECOMMENDATIONSThe 15-year Perspective Plans need tobe formulated by ICG and approved bythe government in time so as to giveclear direction towards achieving thedesired force levels. Indian Coast Guard should submitrealistic and achievable projections inAnnual and Five Year plans. Periodicalreview of the progress in achievementof Plans must be undertaken jointly bythe Ministry of Defence and ICG toensure time-bound acquisitions.Planning, sanction and establishmentof ICG stations and aviation unitsshould be viewed in a professionalmanner based on project mode. Itshould be ensured that stations areactivated with a full complement ofenvisaged manpower, land and otherinfrastructure, simultaneously, toensure that activated stations do notsuffer from limitations.Replacement procurements for ageingvessels should be timely to ensure thata reliable fleet is available to ICG.Planned coastal security measuressuch as coastal security operations, asapproved by the government, shouldnot be allowed to be diluted. An insti-tutionalised system needs to be put inplace within the Ministry of Defenceto monitor periodically the efficacyand continuity of coastal securitymeasures.There is an immediate need for ICG toevolve norms for patrolling in mar-itime/coastal zones, based on avail-able resources. The norms so evolvedshould be adhered to strictly. Annual/periodic achievements against thenorms should be reported to the Min-istry of Defence. Such norms shouldbe periodically reviewed. Government should address the con-cerns impacting coastal security, viz.need to remove legal constraints facedby ICG, the required empowerment ofICG, penal provisions for non-compli-ance to Pre-Arrival Notification ofSecurity (PANS) and Automatic Identi-fication System (AIS), crossing ofIMBL by Indian fishermen, in a time-bound manner.

SECURING SEA LANES: The Coast Guard has been instrumental in securing trade routesin the seas surrounding India

COASTGUARD

CAG NOTED THATCOAST GUARD

DOES NOTMAINTAIN A

COMPREHENSIVEDATABASE OFOPERATIONS


resources, apart from “command andcontrol issues” between them. “In an eraof heightened coastal security concerns,Coast Guard remains ill-equipped to dis-charge its enhanced role and meet thechallenges of today,” the CAG noted. Thereport observed that the Coast Guard’s15-year Perspective Plans, extending to2017 and 2022, remained unapproved bythe government. It also described theseplans as unrealistic and unachievable.

Anecdotal evidence suggests evengreater disarray. For instance, in the after-math of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, sev-en high-speed craft vehicles were pro-cured by the Maharashtra government to

protect the coastline along Thane district.These are still lying mostly unused; there isnot enough fuel to run them, nor a suffi-cient number of trained personnel tooperate them. Each of the vessels, whichrace at 35 nautical miles an hour, con-sumes about 100 litres of petrol per hour.The sanctioned quota of petrol for all sev-en boats together is just 600 litres a week.An unnamed police official disclosed, “Wehave to ration the petrol, so we operatejust one boat for an hour a day. For theremaining 23 hours, the entire coastline isleft unpatrolled.” Corroborating the fact,former Director General of MaharashtraPolice A N Roy admitted that coastal polic-

ing had remained somewhat neglected. Though it has been assessed that while

the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai werebecause of the existence of a single-coastsecuring force, the coast guard, that tooinadequately manned and ill-equipped, itwas argued that the 2008 attack hadresulted because of the lack of synergybetween the forces involved in coastalsecurity. It has been widely believed thatmany of coastal security proposals werehampered because of “bureaucratic hur-dles, procurement delays and turf warsbetween security agencies”, including theNavy and the Coast Guard.

Regrettably, the policy-makers havefailed to realise that the sea environmentis difficult to adjust to. An unnamed navalofficial noted, “It is very difficult to enforcethe rule of law over the sea. The law-breakers are a tough and desperate lot;they adjust to the sea environment betterthan most security personnel. Fishermenhave aspirations too — they go wellbeyond the licensed areas in the hope of agood catch and mingle with foreign fisher-men, thus complicating the scenario forCoast Guard personnel. The biggest prob-lem at sea is to distinguish between thefriend and the foe. The beat policeman iskey to the security of the neighbourhood.Feet on the ground are essential and thesame is true for the sea as well. Ships haveto spend more time at sea and planes haveto spend more time over the sea.”

Conspicuously, a ground-levelresearch needs to be carried out by theDRDO and other agencies concerned asthe sea environment is difficult to beassessed. Once the research is done, awell-thought-out-plan should be chalkedout and effort should be made to imple-ment it in a time-bound frame as longdelays make the plan futile.

(The author is a Research Fellow, Institutefor Conflict Management, New Delhi)

IB SUSPECTSTHAT PIRATES

ARE COLLECTINGLOGISTICAL DATAAND FUNDS FOR

ISLAMISTTERRORISTS

New Stations

Air Stations

Air Enclave

New Delhi

Bhubaneshwar Paradip

KolkataHaldia

Frezerguru

Gopalpur

Kakinada

NizampatnamKrishnapatnam

Chennai

KaraikalPuducherry

Tuticorin

Mandapam

Port Blair

Minicoy

Androth

Pipavav

DamanDahanu

Murud Janjira

RatnagiriGoa

Karwar

Coast Guard Headquarters

Regional Headquarters

District Headquarters

ICG Station

ICG Air Station

ICG Air Enclave

Air Sqn ICG

On the anvil

Map of Indian Coast Guard installations

MundraOkha

Gandhinagar

Viraval

Vizhinjam

Kavaratti

Mumbai

Kochi

New MangaloreBeypore

Vishakhapatnam

Diglipur

Mayabunder

Hutbay

Kamorta

Campbell Bay

Jakhau

VadinarPorbandar

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ALL-ROUND SURVEILLANCE: All information pertaining to vessel movements, details about crew and cargo will be gleaned from thenew National Maritime Domain Awareness programme

AFTER THE 26/11 Mumbai attacks,India’s understanding of its mar-itime domain changed forever.

This was a watershed event in the histo-ry of Indian maritime security. Like the1962 war with China when the mighty

Himalayas were violated, 2008 saw theviolation of the maritime frontiers ofIndia. The outrageous terror attackexposed the vulnerability of our coast-line.

The existing maritime security apparatus

consisting of the Navy and Indian CoastGuard, both of which are short of assets fortheir operational requirements, were not ina position to provide absolute security.

The review of the maritime security ap-paratus highlighted that what was missing

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SAFEGUARDING THE SEAS

The National Maritime Domain Awareness programme seeks to provide a comprehensivenetwork to protect the Indian coastline and its maritime assets. ROHIT SRIVASTAVA reports

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was not the operational or attack capabil-ity of the Indian Navy (IN) or the IndianCoast Guard (ICG) but the Maritime Do-main Awareness (MDA) capability. Thisprompted India to prepare an extensiveplan for improving MDA by bringing togeth-er all the agencies operating in the maritimedomain.

MDA is the mechanism for obtaining andintegrating information related to all activ-ities in the seas around the country tostrengthen the country’s maritime andcoastal security. To create a unified MDA, allinformation pertaining to vessel move-ments, details about crew and cargo as wellas the infrastructure on the coasts and the

seas, is required to find irregularities and tolaunch immediate counter-measures to

neutralise any threats. To achieve this ob-jective in February 2010, the Ministry of De-fence (MoD) in an “approach paper” ex-pressed its vision for National Maritime Do-main Awareness. A detailed report wasmade after consultations with the coastalstates and Union Territories and the agen-cies that operate in the maritime domain forvarious economic ventures.

The paper was circulated to all the cen-tral/state government ministries, agen-cies and Union Territories in February2010 for their comments and suggestions.Thereafter, the Chief of Naval Staff present-ed the concept paper to the National Com-mittee on Strengthening Maritime andCoastal Security (NCSMCS). The commit-tee gave an in-principle approval to theconcept and directed that a detailed proj-ect report be prepared by the Indian Navyby July 2010.

In its preamble, the report says: “Theevents of November 2008 at Mumbai,have demonstrated the risk to national se-curity by even small fishing craft. Similar-ly, infrastructure in the coastal and off-shore zones, such as critical installationsand oil exploration platforms, could alsobe targeted”.

Indian economic security is predomi-nantly dependent upon its sea lanes ofconnectivity. Therefore, complete knowl-edge about this domain is essential. Toachieve this, collating the informationabout all the activities on sea is essential.The information from both human andtechnical sources has to be analysed andinterpreted. The fusion of informationand analysis of this information provide acommon operational picture which isthen disseminated through a network forsuccessful exploitation.

The report defines the threats into pri-mary and secondary objects of interest. Thevessels at sea are the primary objects. What(identity), where (location), whither (inten-tion), and when (time of report) are themain aspects of a vessel about which the in-formation is required. The additional infor-mation about the crew and owner whencorrelated with intelligence inputs helps de-velop early warnings. The informationabout secondary objects such as ports,harbours and off-shore platforms helps inthe analysis of information about vessels.

According to the project report: “MDAmust also provide linkages for sharing dataand information between domestic infor-mation providers, decision-makers andend-users. Some maritime stakeholdershave already placed information collection

Location of JOCs/SMCs

NATIONAL MDA CENTRE

JOINT OPERATIONS CENTRE

STATE-MONITORING CENTRE

ChennaiKochi

Karwar

Goa

Mumbai

Porbandar

Visakhapatnam

Cuttack

Kolkata

Delhi

PortBlair

MDA INVOLVESOBTAINING AND

INTEGRATINGINFORMATION

ABOUTACTIVITIES ININDIAN SEAS

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(51)March 2012

and management mechanism specific totheir respective requirements. These indi-vidual mechanisms will function as infor-mation source of the national MDA.”

All these information-generating centreswill be linked to a nationwide network. Allnodes will have access to the larger as wellas an immediate network. The network willalso have the flexibility to absorb futurenetworks. As per the report, “The Nation-al Command Control Communication In-telligence Network (NC3IN) being set upby Indian Navy in consultation with theICG is designed around a tree topology andwill be for the network — a backbone fornational MDA.”

The national MDA centre would be thecore data and analysis centre for the wholenetwork which will be situated in Gur-gaon. The aim of the centre is to establisha Maritime Domain Awareness CommonIntegration Framework (MDA-CIF). Alltechnical information will be processedto give a real-time maritime situationalawareness for “quick, responsive action”. Itcan also share information with nationaland international organisations. The wholesystem is so designed that it can delivertimely and actionable information to theagency concerned.

The additional components of MDA arethe Joint Operation Centres (JOC) which will

be upgraded. At present, these JOCs aremanned by the IN and ICG and are requiredto coordinate with other maritime agenciessuch as port authority, state marine police,fisheries agency, etc. During a higher threatlevels in any area, the Commander-in-Chiefof Coastal Defence concerned orders en-hanced measures through JOCs. The oper-ational responsibility of the JOC West(Mumbai) is Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa,

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COMPREHENSIVEKNOWLEDGE

MATRIX

MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESS

NAVY

MARINE POLICE

COASTGUARD

COMMON OPERATIONALPICTURE

ALL MARITIME STAKEHOLDERS

The concept of National MDA

MARITIME DOMAIN

AWARENESS

The MDA Process

KNOWLEDGE

INFORMATION

Collect

Fuse

An

alyse

Disseminate

NC3IC will be under the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the request for proposalfor equipment was issued to Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in July 2010. Maritime ship information system will be integral to NMDAC under the MoD witha budget of `32 lakh.The upgradation of the existing four JOCs will be done with a budget of `128 croreunder the MoD.Six new SMCs will be established with `171 crore at Porbadar, Karwar, Chennai,Cuttack, Kolkata and Goa.Coastal surveillance network operated by ICG will integrate with the NMDAC,JOCs, SMCs of coastal states. The RFP for this has been issued to the BEL.LRIT will be integrated into NMDAC under the Ministry of Shipping with a budgetof `3.2 crore.VTMS for major ports will be integrated with JOCs and SMC through a software intwelve major ports of India. The software development will cost `36 crore.For the 37 non-major ports VTMS will be set up under Ministry of Shipping withexpense of `592 crore.For identification of fishermen and fishing vessels a Fishing Vessel RegistrationSystem and Fisherman’s ID database will be created, which will be integrated withNMDAC and will cost `64 crore.The total cost of the project will be `900 crore in capital expense and `5.01 crore inrevenue expenses. The financial implication for the project ministry-wise for the Indian Navy, Ministryof Agriculture, state governments, Ministry of Shipping, and Ministry of Home Af-fair is going to be `299 crore, `5 crore, `592 crore, `64 lakh, `3.5 crore, respectively.

SALIENT FEATURES OF MDA

(52)March 2012

Karnataka, Daman and Diu while the JOC(South) at Kochi covers Kerala, Mahe andLakshadweep. In the east, Vishakhapat-nam covers the whole of the east coast. TheAndaman and Nicobar Islands come underthe JOC at Port Blair. In order to dischargethis role, the JOC would require real-time in-tegrated common operating pictures of allmaritime activities at sea. The informationwill be gleaned from all major and non-ma-jor ports, fishing harbours, fishing vessel-monitoring systems, along with the techni-cal information from radars of Vessels andAir Traffic Management Systems (VATMS)and space-based Automatic IdentificationSystem (AIS).

The four JOCs will not be capable enoughin developing a comprehensive MDA of theentire coast. To have state-specific MDA,each coastal state will have one State Mon-itoring Centre (SMC) and Fisheries Moni-toring Centre (FMC) and a Joint OperatingCentre (JOC). There will be two VATMS, oneeach for the east and west coasts.

The project report on the developmentof a comprehensive national MDA pointsout: “The Detailed Project Reports have pro-vided technical specification for integratingexisting components of MDA over theNC3IN. These existing components in-clude the Coastal Surveillance Network(CSN) being set up by the Indian Coast

Guard, the national AIS network, LongRange Identification and Training (LRIT),Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS)in major ports, the VATMS setup for surveil-lance around the western Offshore Devel-opment Areas (ODAs), the fishing vessel reg-istration database and the fishermen bio-metric ID database.”

The NC3IN system will be the commu-nicational backbone for the whole sys-tem. The existing communication systemsof the agencies operating in the maritimedomain and the proposed system will beintegrated into the NC3IN. The system willhave its central hub at the InformationManagement and Analysis Centre (IMAC)at Gurgaon. IMAC will also function as National Maritime Domain Awareness

Centre (NMDAC). The paper proposes set-ting up of State Monitoring Centres in allstates and Union Territories for compre-hensive state-specific MDA. SMCs willalso upgrade the JOC — there are four —and all coastal security operations areconducted through them.

SMC will be the main MDA node for thecoastal states and the Union Territories. TheSMCs will be connected to the NMDACthrough the NC3IN. SMCs will have a Navalofficer-in-charge as its chief. All the fourJOCs will have additional manpower andwill undergo technical upgradation.

All the major ports are either equippedor being equipped with the VTMS system.This system provides information on thepresence of all type of vessels including mi-nor crafts within the port limits. The infor-mation is generated through integratedradar and AIS systems. The informationfrom the major ports will be integrated withthe shipping hubs situated at SC/JOCs.The report suggests: “India’s 200 non-ma-jor ports are not equipped with any iden-tification/surveillance system. Of these200 ports, only 56 ports handle internation-al traffic.” The upcoming AIS system willprovide a certain degree of surveillance inmost of the non-major ports. Many ofthese are required to be equipped withVTMS to enable improved identificationand surveillance and traffic management.

Further up the ladder in the system,each SMC will have one shipping hub tocollate and put together all informationfrom major and non-major ports. Similar-ly, each state will have one Fisheries Mon-itoring Centre (FMC), which will collate allinformation regarding vessels, fishermen,and vessel movement. The fishermen arebeing given biometric ID cards and eachfishing vessel is being registered. The reportsays, “Selection of a suitable vessel move-ment and position-monitoring system forsub-20 metre fishing vessels is being under-taken by the ICG. This monitoring system,once operationalised, would need to be in-tegrated with the vessel registration andfisherman ID database at the state fisheriesmonitoring centres.”

As the report says, when fully implement-ed this would provide a common opera-tional picture of all activities at the sea inreal time. This project would not only pro-vide national MDA but would also createstate-specific MDA at their JOC and SMC.When implemented, this project willstrengthen multi-agency integration andcoordination, thereby reducing risks andthreats from the sea.

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VESSELS

CARGO

OFF-SHORE ASSETS

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

PORTS

CREW

Sources of information for MDA

COLLATING THE INFORMATION

ABOUT ALL THE ACTIVITIES

IN THE SEA IS

ESSENTIAL

geopolitics

INTERNAL SECURITYgeopolitics

FAREWELLTO ARMS

Extremists are surrendering inAssam. But have they really

changed their thoughts?

SINL

UNG.

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Under the leadership of CommanderKaruna Rai, a contingent of Central

Reserve Police Force (CRPF), made up ofwomen, left for the UN Peace-Keepingmission in Liberia. The contingent, whichwill spend one year in Liberia, comprises124 women officers of the force. The CRPFDirector General K Vijay Kumarcomplimented them and wished them luckat a send-off ceremony. The members of thecontingent went through specialisedtraining for seven weeks and will guard thepremises of the President of Liberia andother VIPs, along with helping local policemaintain law and order.

Home Minister (HM) P Chidambaram hasacknowledged that the exchange between the

Maharashtra ATS and Delhi Police’s Special Cellshould have been much better. The two forces were ina see-saw battle over the arrest of Naquee Ahmed.The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) want-ed him in connection with the 13/7 blasts, while hewas wanted by the cops in connection with variousblasts across the country. The Home Ministerdescribed the case as “difficult”. Chidambaram saidthe two agencies were working in their jurisdictionsand were looking for the same person who had beenon the run for a while. The HM was quoted as saying:“These are difficult cases which are being investigat-ed under very difficult circumstances. I wish nabbinga person on the run is as easy as someone makes itout to be. It is not so easy. These are difficult casesand, therefore, there may have been inadequateexchange of information.”

On the advice ofintelligence agencies,

government is on the way tomaking the identification ofrecipients of funds fromabroad mandatory This isbecause ‘small money’transmission agents areusing this route to fundterror activities. TheReserve Bank of India(RBI) has advised that thedemand of Aadhar uniqueID numbers, once madeavailable, for recipient ofsums less than `50,000through Money TransferService Scheme (MTSS) bemade mandatory.

The MTSS has seen asharp rise in the filling of“suspicious transactionreports (STRs)” by banksand financial institutionsfrom over 10,000 in 2009-10to over 29,000 in 2010-11.The MTSS system allows amoney changer, non-banking financialcompanies or even anauthorised travel operatorto work as an agent. Theannual report of theintelligence unit of theFinance Ministry has listedthousands of doubtfulremittances. Thegovernment authorities,including intelligenceagencies, tax authoritiesand regulators areinvestigating the end usersof the transactions. Many ofthese dubious transactionshave been invested in stockmarkets, real estate deals,insurance premiums orterrorist financing.

India is planning to build an Under-ground Research Laboratory (URL)

inside a uranium mine for its nuclearwaste. This is because thedeep geological repositoryisolates high-level radioac-tive waste from the bios-phere, for several hundredsof years.

Presently, radioactivewaste is stored in a tough-ened glass matrix at SolidStorage and Surveillance Fa-cility in Tarapur, Maharashtra, which isone quarter the size of a football field ina deep, underground vault. The amountof nuclear waste in India is so small thatshifting out to a new location will not berequired for another 20 years.

Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman of the

Atomic Energy Commission, was quotedas saying: “We still have time — less thanone-sixth of the holes in the (Tarapur)

facility are filled up.” An-other such storage facilitywill be established atKalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.

The proposed URL willaccelerate India’s geologicalrepository which started in1980s at Kolar Gold Mines inKarnataka. The laboratorystudied the thermal and me-

chanical properties of rocks. RattanSinha, Director of the Bhabha AtomicResearch Centre, Mumbai informed,“We’ve begun efforts to develop thecomponents of a technology called Ac-celerator Driven Systems (ADS) whichwill incinerate nuclear waste.”

Site hunt for nuclear graveyardSteps to stallterror finance

Gap in 13/7 probe CRPF women contingentleaves for Liberia

(54)

B R I E F S

March 2012

ISINTERNAL SECURITY

gg

www.geopolitics.in

CRPF

PIB

Rajiv — a 1975-batch Uttar

Pradesh cadre IndianPolice Service (IPS)officer serving as theDirector General ofNational DisasterResponse Force andCivil Defence — hastaken over as theDirector General of

the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) .Rajiv took over from outgoing Director Gener-al N R Das at the CISF Headquarters in Delhi.Rajiv served as SP and SSP in various UP dis-tricts from 1983 to 1991. In 1997, Rajiv wasappointed as DIG/Intelligence, UP. From 1997to 2004, he was IG at Gorakhpur, BareillyZones, PTC Moradabad and IG/Vigilance,Uttar Pradesh. He later came on central depu-tation as the Central Vigilance Officer at theFood Corporation of India and he wasappointed as DG, NDRF, on May 14, 2010.

Director General Rajiv has taken over at atime when the force is facing a scarcity of

jawans. According to the CISF Director Gener-al, “CISF is facing shortage of 10,000 person-nel across the country, of which about 10 percent are in officer rank. To overcome dearth ofmanpower in the force, it will soon startrecruitment drive.” According to the DG,industrial units like Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL)are dealing with a severe manpower crisis anddemanding an increase in its strength to 1,800personnel from a sanctioned strength of 1,419security men at present. Of the 16000 CISFpersonnel in the eastern sector (Bihar, Jhark-hand and Odisha), 9000 are in Jharkhand.

Time iscritical and

essential andin order toreduce thestrike time ofcommandosduring count-

er-terror operations, the NatinalSecurity Guard (NSG) is looking ata variety of options to ensurespeed. This includes state-of-the-art digital communication andlightning-quick logistics for the‘Black Cats’.

Learning from the fiasco of 2008Mumbai terror attack, the NSG hasnow got a state-of-the-art “radiogateway”— a gadget that can bringboth mobile phones and wirelesssets of police forces and the NSGon one frequency — making forcontinuous information flowbetween them. “You will see a vastchange in the way NSG works inthe coming years. We have cutdown all the extraneous proce-dures (during operations) and thewhole idea is to have a lean andmean fighting commando,” NSGchief Rajan K Medhekar told theagency PTI at the forces’ garrisonin Manesar, Haryana.

“NSG is quite capable of lookingafter itself for the first 48 hours atleast, if not more. But there has tobe replenishment if engagementextends. We have worked out themodalities with regard to food,water, medical aid (to comman-dos),” he said. Talking about quickmobility for the commandos,Medhekar said that they had got inplace similar arrangements forvehicles. “Although we carry somevehicles in the aircraft we travel in,we do not have every type of vehi-cle. We can now immediately getany kind of vehicle according toour requirement,” he said.

NSG better geared forcounter-terror ops

B R I E F S ISINTERNAL SECURITY

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(55)

Naxalites in Chhattis-garh can get married

but no kids please!Apparently the elders inthe movement force theyounger lot to undergovasectomy to make surethere are no pregnancies!Surrendering Naxalshave told the police thatthe leadership gets rudeand punishes them for thesimple folly of falling inlove! One of them went tothe extent of telling theinterrogators that he waspicked up from his villageat the age of 17 andforced to join the move-ment. He is now over 30and after falling in loveand getting married, he isone of the ‘nasbandi’ vic-tims who are now gradu-ally moving into main-stream society.

According to thesereforming Naxals, doctorswere ferried to the jungleto conduct these opera-tions. The idea was thatchildless couples wouldcontinue to be committedto the movement andtheir resolve would notweaken. According to oneof the women who sur-rendered, women Naxalsare often subjected toharassment and abuse byseniors in the movement.Most of those who arenow keen to get back withtheir lives want the gov-ernment to give them fullprotection.

Marry, but nokids!

CISF

.NIC

.IN

Recruitment drive by CISF soon

CISF gets new Director General

21STCENTURYSOCIALISM


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ON JANUARY 29, 2012, a vio-lent clash took place betweenthe Kuki outfits namely, Unit-ed Kukigram Defence Army(UKDA) and Kuki Revolution-

ary Army (KRA) at Bagmari locality ofDiphu town in Karbi Anglong District. Inthe clash, out of six KRA cadres campingin the village, four KRA militants includ-ing ‘General Secretary’, Zed Boy Kuki andthree other cadres identified as Chang-muthing Chongloi (24), Lengmoi Chon-gloi (22), and Lalmalon Kuki (32) wereinjured. According to Diphu police, agroup of UKDA cadres entered the villageand attacked the KRA militants. Injuredcadres told the local media: “Around 40UKDA cadres entered the village and bad-ly thrashed the KRA cadres” who alsowarned the KRA cadres to leave the villageimmediately. “They tried to shoot us buttheir gun did not work. Our general secre-tary along with few of his companionsmanaged to escape,” the cadres added.

Notably, both KRA and UKDA wereamong the 676 militants, belonging toseven militant formations who surren-dered at a function held at the indoor sta-dium, Sarusajai Sports Complex, inGuwahati on January 24, 2012. The sur-rendered militants were drawn from fiveother groups, namely the Adivasi People’sArmy (APA), All Adivasi National Libera-tion Army (AANLA), Santhal Tiger Force(STF), Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) andHmar Peoples Convention-Democratic(HPC-D), apart from the two feuding Kukioutfits. The militants deposited 202weapons during the ceremony.

Union Home Minister P Chi-dambaram, in whose presence the sur-render ceremony took place, said, “Notoften do we see so many groups return to

the path of peace, development andbrotherhood and join the process of rec-onciliation. This development means thatthe other groups will follow suit.” BothHome Minister Chidambaram and ChiefMinister (CM) Tarun Gogoi have termedthe surrender as historic.

Further, another two Adivasi (tribalgroups; however, in the Indian North-east, the term refers to tribal groups thatwere brought into the region, principallyas indentured labourers, from otherparts of the country) formations, the Bir-sa Commando Force (BCF) and the Adi-vasi Cobra Military of Assam (ACMA),instead of surrendering, submitted theircharter of demands to Tarun Gogoi andChidambaram. Birsingh Munda, ‘Com-mander-in-Chief’ of BCF, explained, “Wedecided to attend this event in ourcivvies since there is no question of lay-ing down arms in a ceremony until finalsettlement is reached. Mere surrenderingof arms doesn’t bring peace; Governmentalso has to respond by starting meaning-ful dialogue.”

A 16-page booklet, Farewell to Arms,Welcome to the Mainstream, circulated

during the ceremony, provided a briefprofile of the nine groups. It gave thecadre strength of these nine groups as:BCF — 557; ACMA — 453; KRA — 138;STF — 134; UKDA — 120; AANLA — 90;KLA — 83; APA (about) 70; and HPC(D) —50. All but nine of the total of 685 cadressurrendered. Worryingly, however, thetwo most prominent groups in terms ofcadre strength, BCF and ACMA, failed tolay down arms.

Significantly, four of the surrenderingoutfits, APA, AANLA, KLA and HPC-D,had declared a ceasefire in 2011; APA, onJuly 16; AANLA, on September 1; KLA, onNovember 5; and HPC-D, on December 2.The UKDA’s declaration of ceasefire came


Despite their recent laying-down of arms, the Adivasi-extremists in Assam are a divided lotwith conflicting and often violent demands, writes GIRIRAJ BHATTACHARJEE

March 2012

THE SURRENDER SAGA

SOME QUARTERSHAVE DESCRIBEDTHE LATEST MASS

SURRENDER INASSAM ASMERELY

SYMBOLIC

March 2012

on January 8, 2012, while the KRA leader-ship stated that they would be adheringto a ceasefire with effect from January 24,2012, the day of the surrender. ACMA andBCF, on the other hand, had signed a Sus-pension of Operations (SoOs) agreementin 2001 and 2004, respectively.

Buoyed by the development as it com-pounded the growing successes of thepast years, Additional Director General ofPolice — Special Branch Khagen Sarmaclaimed that with the surrender of sevenmilitant groups and two others [BCF andACMA] actively participating in the Janu-ary 24 function, there were “no militantgroups left in Assam” and that, “what isleft are splinter groups, deserters andbreakaway factions of groups in ceasefire.They have nothing but nuisance value.Our government will, therefore, try toreach a settlement with the ceasefiregroups as soon as possible by startingtalks in February. Today’s ceremony is thefirst of its kind. Never before have somany militants and so many groupsreturned to the mainstream in one go.”

Significantly, led by its ‘Chairman’Longsoder Senar, 568 United People’sDemocratic Solidarity (UPDS) militants,including 22 women cadres, had laiddown arms at a function organised atDiphu stadium in Karbi Anglong Districton December 14, 2011.

It is noteworthy that the surrender ofthe Adivasi groups — APA, AANLA andSTF — took place despite the fact thatneither of the two core demands of all thefive Adivasi militant groups, includingBCF and ACMA, has been met. These coredemands include the demand for Sched-uled Tribe (ST) status for the Adivasis andgrant of ex-gratia payment to riot victims.Reports suggest that the governmentmight offer ST status to select Adivasigroups, including the Oraon, Munda,Santhals and Birsa. These groups alreadyenjoy ST status in other states. Besides,the government is also considering aneconomic package for the community.

The Adivasi militancy started in thestate following the Bodo-Santhal riots in1996, and their recurrence in 1998. About80 persons were killed in the 1996 confla-gration and 50 in 1998. Adivasi groupshave projected an estimated 250,000 Adi-vasis living in camps in the Kokrajhar andDhubri Districts.

Media reports, meanwhile, claim thatthe latest surrender of Adivasi groups isthe result of widening of Communist Par-ty of Maoist (CPI-Maoist) operations inAssam, and the consequent apprehen-sions regarding the Adivasis joining thisLeft-Wing Extremist (LWE) formation.Reports suggest that AANLA, with logisti-cal support from some other unidentified

groups, has already started a trainingcamp for Maoists in the foothills betweenChandalashung ‘B’ and New Chan-dalashung, in Ralan under the WokhaDistrict in Nagaland, along the interstateborder with Assam. The training com-menced in October 2011, with an esti-mated 300 trainees attending the camp.The camp was dismantled by NagalandArmed Police on January 30, 2012.Indeed, Assam’s Chah Mazdoor Sangha[Assam Tea Labourers Association] dele-gation led by its general secretary B Tanti,on December 21, 2011, informed ChiefMinister Tarun Gogoi that manyinstances of CPI-Maoist cadres luringyouth belonging to the ‘tea tribes’ (theAdivasis) to join them had come to light.He warned that if this trend continued, itwould spell doom, not just for the teatribes, but also for entire Assam. On Janu-ary 28, 2012, security forces (SFs)launched the first operation against CPI-Maoist in several parts of the Dhemajidistrict in Upper Assam. The drive cameafter the police had a shootout with a sus-pected Maoist insurgent in the district afew days back. The person who fired atthe police, however, managed to escape.Elaborating on the incident, the policesaid that the shootout had taken placewhen a police party, acting on a tip-off,had cordoned off the residence of a sus-pected CPI-Maoist, Gajen Borpatrago-hain, in Silapathar area in the district.

Crucially, however, at least some mili-tant indigenous groups continue to holdout against the state, and Kuki or Hmarmilitants see little reason to surrender.Indeed, the government’s response to thedemands of Kuki and Hmar militants isstill awaited. The primary demand of theKuki groups — [United Kukigram DefenceArmy, Kuki Revolutionary Army and KukiLiberation Army] UKDA, KRA and KLA —is the formation of a regional council forthe Kuki tribes living in the Karbi AnglongDistrict. Hmar militants demand a sepa-rate district for their own tribe. While KRAwas involved in the Karbi-Kuki clashes in2005, HPC-D was involved in Hmar-Dimasa clashes in 2003. Over 100 peoplewere killed in the Karbi-Kuki clashes andanother 50 in the Hmar-Dimasa violence.Both Kuki and Hmar are minor tribes, liv-ing in the two hill districts of Karbi Ang-long and Dima Hasao [formerly NorthCachar (NC) Hills], respectively. The Janu-ary 24 surrender, consequently, leavesmany unanswered questions. Further, thestate government is also facing difficulties

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HOPE FOR HARMONY: Home Minister P Chidambaram with Assam Chief Minister TarunGogoi at the surrender ceremony of militant groups in Guwahati on January 24, 2012

regarding location of the designatedcamps for the surrendered militants. STFand AANLA have demanded camps inBodo Territorial Council (BTC) areas.While, AANLA has asked for locationswithin Tinsukia, Udalguri and either KarbiAnglong or Golaghat Districts, STF wantstwo of its camps to be set up in Kokrajhardistrict. Notably, both Kokrajhar and Udal-guri fall under BTC and pro-talks faction ofNational Democratic Front of Bodoland(NDFB-PTF) is opposed to any moves ofsetting designated camps in BTC area.

Crucially, there are several ethnicgroups in Assam who oppose both thedemand of ST status for Adivasi groupsand for a regional council for the Kukitribes. Led by the All Assam Tribal Sangha(AATS), which comprises various ‘local’tribal organisations, including Bodo, Kar-bi, Dimasa and Tiwa, student organisa-tions, oppose further ‘scheduling’ inAssam. In addition to the Adivasis, anoth-er five ethnic groups — the Morans, Mut-tocks, Tai Ahoms, Chutia and KochRajbongshis — are also demanding STstatus. Indeed, the Moran and Muttockshave threatened armed rebellion in casethey are not included in the list. Recently,Biswajit Ray, president of All Koch-Rajbanshi Students Union (AKRSU), hasalso threatened with a similar course ofaction regarding their demand of ST sta-tus and Kamatapur State for Koch-Rajbangshis. In the case of Kuki outfits,another vital issue could be the manage-ment of their internal rivalry, especiallybetween UKDA and KRA.

Moreover, while the two most promi-nent Adivasi groups, BCF and ACMA havefailed to surrender, surrendered groupslike AANLA have already started talkingtough. AANLA ‘deputy commander-in-chief’ Peter Dang, following the surrenderdeclared, “Our main demand is grantingST status to Adivasis and it should be ful-filled soon as it is a genuine demand. Thegovernment’s apathy towards Adivasis inAssam had led to AANLA’s birth. We havenot laid down all our arms. If talks withthe government are not successful, wemay go back to the jungle. Hence, theIndian government should fulfil ourdemands at the earliest.” APA and ACMAhave also expressed similar sentiments.

Moreover, none of the surrenderedgroups have been involved in major vio-lent incidents, barring some stray activi-ties, since the announcement of theirrespective ceasefires and SoO agree-ments. Only one incident of firing has

since been reported, involving thesegroups, when APA militants shot at andinjured All Assam Muslim Student Union(AAMSU, Kamandanga unit) assistantsecretary Zakir Hussain, at GrahampurBazar under Gossaigaon Police Station inKokrajhar district on November 16, 2011.Another, group, ACMA was behind tworeported cases of abduction in 2011. TheBCF was allegedly involved in one extor-tion case in 2010, besides setting ablaze abus in 2008. No activities of Kuki or Hmarmilitants have been recorded since thetime they declared a cease fire.

Nevertheless, taking into account thestalemate in peace talks with otherprominent groups such as the Nunisafaction of Dima Halim Daogah (DHD-N),NDFB-PTF and Karbi Longri NorthCachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF),and the residual potential of the remain-ing active groups such as the Karbi Peo-ple’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT), Hill TigersForce (HTF), United Democratic Libera-tion Army (UDLA) and Anti-Talks Factionof United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA-ATF) to create trouble in theAssam, some quarters have described thelatest mass surrender merely symbolic. Itis, however, premature to pronouncefinal judgment on this, and the continu-ous consolidation of the state against amultiplicity of armed factions certainlyopens out tremendous opportunities fora lasting peace in Assam.

(The author is a Researcher at the Insti-tute for Conflict Management, Delhi)



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SOPHISTICATED ARSENAL: The surrender ceremony bears testament to the increasing sophistication of rebel arms ARBINETWORK.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM

ADIVASIS CLAIMTHAT OFFICIALINDIFFERENCE

TOWARDS THEMIN ASSAM HADLED THEM TO

MILITANCY

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THE KILLING of the four officersof the Border Security Force(BSF) — Commandant JeevanRam Khaswan, Deputy Com-mandant Rajesh Saran, Assis-

tant Sub-Inspector Jitendra Sahu andSubedar Ashok Yadav — in an ambush byCommunist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres near Balimela in Malkan-giri district on February 10, 2012, wasseen as the first major assault on the BSFin Odisha. The BSF officers were going toChitrakonda from their camp at Balimelato assess security arrangements for thefirst phase of local bodies’ elections thenext day (February 11) when the SUV inwhich they were travelling was hit by alandmine. The Maoists who are believedto have meticulously planned the attackand were hiding nearby then opened fireindiscriminately, shooting the BSF menand injuring two troopers accompanyingthem. Two civilians were also injured,who were caught in the crossfire.

Earlier, on January 5, 2012, two policeconstables and a home guard, identifiedas Sunasir Mohanty, Umakant Jani andSangram Lenka, who were part of a teamfrom the Kotgarh Police Station, were ontheir way to investigate a landmine blastthat had taken place on January 4, on theKotgarh-Srirampur road, fell to a Maoisttrap near Badarpanga village in Kotagarharea in Kandhamal district. In addition,three other identified Padmanav Dehuri,Basant Behera and Noha Pradhan wereinjured in the blast. It is alleged that theSecurity Force (SF) personnel are fallingprey to booby traps set by Naxalites (LeftWing Extremists-LWE) due to non-adherence to Standard Operation Proce-dure (SOP) during anti-Maoist opera-tions. This was a major point of discus-sion at an emergency meeting convenedby Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inBhubaneswar on January 6, 2012, toreview the incident.

LWEs have targeted Odisha since

1951, and, for much of the initial period,their activities were confined to theundivided Koraput District. In 1962, LWEcadres from this area — prominentamong them being Bhuban Mohan Pat-naik, Nagabhusan Patnaik, Purna Chan-dra Gomang, Purshottam Pali, andJaganath Mishra — with the cooperationof their counterparts in Srikakulam(Andhra Pradesh), managed to start amovement called “food Liberation”, fromthe Gunpur area of the then undividedKoraput (now in the Rayagada District).

During the 1990s the Andhra Pradeshgovernment declared the Naxalite move-ment illegal, and this had far-reachingimpact on Odisha. Initially, the AndhraNaxalites began to use Odisha’s denseforests as their hideouts. It was duringthis phase that a base for the then Peo-ple’s War Group (PWG) was created inthe rural areas of Koraput. The Naxalitesattacked corrupt bureaucrats andexploitative contractors and money



gINTERNALSECURITY

The recent local elections in Odisha have turned out to be a nightmare for boththe Central government and the state governmentsince candidates with clearMaoist links have wonaround 30 blocks in eightdistricts. Now they willlegitimately use governmentfunds under various socialschemes to further expandtheir base, writes DEEPAKKUMAR NAYAK

ODISHA: POTENT THREAT

March 2012

lenders to win over the local tribals. Vio-lence intensified in Odisha after the PWGformed the Andhra-Odisha Border Spe-cial Zonal Committee (AOBSZC), control-ling the four north coastal Districts ofAndhra Pradesh — East Godavari,Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram andSrikakulam — and the five southernOdisha Districts — Malkangiri, Rayagada,Gajapati, Koraput and Nabarangpur.Gradually the Maoists have made theirpresence felt in the state, and 18 districtsout of 30 are affected.

According to partial data compiled bythe South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP),457 persons were killed in Maoist-relat-ed violence between January 1, 2006 andFebruary 20, 2012, comprising 178 civil-ians, 158 SF personnel and 121 LWEs/CPI-Maoists.

The Maoists have also been successfulin opening up new fronts in the state. Thehitherto unaffected or marginally affect-ed districts of Bolangir, Bargarh, Kalahan-di, Nuapada and Nabarangpur havecome under the increasing sway of theMaoists, creating a near uninterrupted

Maoist ‘corridor’ from Abujmaadh inChhattisgarh to the Saranda Forest inJharkhand. Further, the Maoists inOdisha operated through various divi-sions of the CPI-Maoist (see table).

The state recently witnessed the con-clusion of the five-phase local body elec-tions from February 11 to 19, 2012. Priorto the elections, Maoist groups hadissued a call to boycott these elections ineight districts including Malkangiri,Koraput, Kandhamal, Nuapada andNayagarh. This was followed by a morespecific threat against candidates whoattempted to file nominations withoutMaoist consent.

The five-phase polling began on Feb-ruary 11, 2012, and was completed onFebruary 19, 2012. In the first phase onFebruary 11, polling was held in 1,454gram panchayats (village-level local self-government institution), under 82 pan-chayat samitis (block-level local self-government institution) and in 194 zillaparishad (district-level local self-govern-ment institution) zones in 30 districts.68.13 per cent voters exercised franchisein first phase of panchayat polls.

The second phase of polling on Feb-ruary 13 was held for 197 zilla parishadsand 1,475 gram panchayats. An estimat-ed 70 per cent of the 56.54 lakh elec-torate voted in the second phase of pan-chayat elections held in 83 blocks spreadover 30 districts.

ORISSA.GOV.IN


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COUNCIL OF WAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik discusses a critical issue with his team

Fatalities in LWE/ CPI-Maoist Violence inOdisha: 2006-2012*

Years Civilians SF Personnel

LWE/ CPI-Maoist Total

2006 3 4 16 23

2007 13 2 8 23

2008 24 76 32 132

2009 36 32 13 81

2010 62 21 25 108

2011 36 16 23 75

2012* 4 7 4 18

Total 178 158 121 457

* Data till February 20, 2012 Source: SATP

The AOBSZC headed by Akkiraju Har-gopal alias Ramakrishna alias RK.Odisha Special Organising Commit-tee, headed by Sabyasachi Panda.Bansadhara Divisional Committee,headed by Nikhil alias Niranjan Routalias Nigam Rout.Kalinga Nagar Divisional Committeeheaded by Putpaka Kumaraswamyalias Ranjith alias Santosh. South Chhotanagpur Zonal Commit-tee, headed by Kundan Pahan aliasBikash Da.Dandakaranya Special Zonal Com-mittee , headed by Kadari SatyaNarayan alias Gopanna.Malkangiri Division headed byDamodar alias Azad alias BilleNarayan Swamy.Srikakulam-Koraput Divisional Com-mittee, headed by Daya aliasChamala Krishnamurthy.

ACTIVE MAOIST FACTIONS

The third phase of polling on Febru-ary 15 was held for 188 zilla parishadzones and 1,350 gram panchayats. Anestimated 69 per cent of the 53.88 lakhelectorate voted in the third phase ofpanchayat elections.

The fourth phase of polling on Febru-ary 17 was held for 174 zilla parishadzones and 1,151 gram panchayats. Anestimated 70.66 per cent of the 46.47lakh electorate voted in the fourth phaseof panchayat elections.

The fifth phase of polling on February19 was held for 111 zilla parishad zonesand 806 gram panchayats spread over 48blocks in 24 districts and an estimated69.41 per cent of the 311.85 lakh elec-torate voted in the final phase of pan-chayat elections.

Despite the boycott and attacks on SFpersonnel in the area, polling passed offby and large peacefully barring strayincidents of violence and attemptedbooth capturing in districts such asJajpur, Ganjam, Puri and Cuttack. In anattempt to disrupt the polls, around 20suspected Maoists snatched away ballotpapers and polling boxes from officialsat two booths in the Maoist-hitTrilochanpur village in Kalahandi Dis-trict on February 14 night. The rebelsalso took away mobile phones from thepolling personnel.

Unsurprisingly, the poll result hasturned out to be a nightmare for both

the Central government and the stategovernment. The poll verdict — candi-dates with Maoist links have wonaround 30 blocks in eight districts,including Malkangiri and Koraput.According to initial estimates of theMinistry for Home Affairs (MHA), at

least 14 or 15 of 33 sarpanchs (head ofvillage-level local self-Governmentinstitution) who have been elected,unopposed in Naxal-affected blocks,are the known supporters of Maoistgroups. Sarpanch and panchayat samiticandidates ‘backed’ by the CMAS havewon unopposed in Tentulipadar,Balipeta, Podapadar, Talagumandi, Bori-gi, Langalabeda, Kumbhari andNarayanpatna gram panchayats. Mediareports further stated that at least 32sarpanchs had known Maoist links. The

Maoist influence has been clear espe-cially in the Narayanpatna Block ofKoraput District, where most of the can-didates have already won uncontested.Narayanpatna had almost come undersiege in 2009 when the rebels proppedup the Maoist-backed Chasi Mulia Adi-vasi Sangh (CMAS) to take on the state.

In a clear indication of a rising Maoistthreat, the MHA has advised the stategovernment to explore the possibility ofcountermanding the election of thosewho have won unopposed by intimidat-ing other candidates. The main cause ofworry is that panchayats have access toconsiderable funds under various socialschemes including National RuralEmployment Guarantee Scheme(NREGS) project, besides what accruesfrom the devolution package. The victo-ry of the Maoist-backed candidatescould undermine anti-Naxal efforts byhelping them expand their base. Theprospect of Maoist groups controllingdevelopment funds and dispersing it asper their priorities will be a “very dis-turbing trend”, hence the state govern-ment has to take necessary preventionand immediately steps, for the course ofthe Maoist in the future seems to be dis-comforting, in the absence of an effec-tive state action.

(The author is a research scholar follow-ing Maoist activities)



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WAR PARTY: A BSF patrol on an area domination exercise in a Naxal-affected area BSF

MAOISTS HAVE ALSO

BEENSUCCESSFUL IN

OPENING UP NEW FRONTS IN

THE STATE

WILL THENEPALESEPRIME MINISTERBE ABLE TOKEEP HIS HOUSEIN ORDER?

HOW INDIA IS PREPARINGITSELF FOR THENUCLEAR SUMMIT INSEOULPI

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DIPLOMACY

The Indo-FFrench strategic partnership is turning out to be an enduring one

SPECIAL TOUCH

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BABURAM BHATTARAI — thepragmatic face of the Maoistsin Nepal, albeit being its intel-lectual and ideological power-house — became the Prime

Minister last year with the support of aMadhesi faction (representing Tarai peo-ple bordering India) which is trusted byIndia, and more importantly, the full sup-port of his Chairman, Pushpa KamalDahal or Prachanda. Although neither ofthe two political parties next in strengthin the Constituent Assembly (CA) to theMaoists — the Nepali Congress (NC) andthe Communist United Marxist-LeninistParty (CPN-UML) was part of the newcoalition government, there were hopesthat Bhattarai would be able to accom-plish what his predecessors comprehen-sively failed to do — the integration/rehabilitation of the 19,000 Maoist ex-fighters; consolidation of the peaceprocess; writing of a new Constitution onthe basis of cross-party consensus beforethe latest extension of deadline (May2012); and the formation of a nationalgovernment which would hold elections— heralding a successful end to thepainful transition of Nepal from a feudalstate to a peaceful, inclusive federal,democratic, republic.

Indeed, there was welcome progresswithin days of the new government takingoffice. A cross-party agreement on returnof Maoist weapons to the state and exer-cise of options by the ex-guerrillas (inte-gration with the Army, rehabilitation orgolden handshake) was announced, andis in fact in the process of being imple-mented, although the number of guerril-

las opting for integration is substantiallyhigher than the figure of 6,500 agreedbetween the Maoists and the parties.However, there has been no progress onother fronts, and in recent weeks, therehas been a return of pessimism, largelydue to hardening of Maoist positions on anumber of issues, such as insistence on aPresidential form of government andhigher ranks for its integrated ex-militia,backtracking on commitments (e.g. onfederalism, return of Maoist-seized landsto their original owners, setting up a Truthand Reconciliation Commission), and anear-total breakdown of trust between theMaoists and other political parties. All thisis compounded by an escalation in intra-Maoist disputes, including currently anopen challenge to Bhattarai’s leadership.There is a deepening uncertainty aboutviable political alternatives and prospectsfor the CA completing its task, if the pres-ent government falls.

Factionalism within the Maoist move-ment has become increasingly stridentand visible in recent years. The currentmanifestation is a concerted move byPrachanda and the other Vice Chairmanof the party, Mohan Baidya to force Bhat-tarai to resign because of his allegedinability to forge a broad-based govern-ment of national consensus and for hisbeing a “puppet of India” — a chargebeing repeatedly made by Baidya as wellas Prachanda. Baidya supports Prachan-da in calling for Bhattarai’s exit, whileinsisting that Prachanda too must resign.It was the same Baidya, incidentally whosome months ago, had backed Bhattaraiin a successful bid to embarrass and

weaken Prachanda, attacking him for hisauthoritarian style and unaccountablemanagement of party finances.

Bhattarai has been urging the need forconsolidating the peace process anddefending adherence to constitutionalmeans, and this is vigorously opposed byBaidya and the hardline group he leads.Prachanda is widely regarded as anopportunist who can be a moderate orhardliner depending on the situation. Hisimage has been dented within the partyas well as outside, but his ability to get theparty to follow him seems to be intact.Because of this three-way confrontationamong Bhattarai, Baidya and Prachanda,

NEPAL’S MAOISTS —RUMBLINGS FROM WITHIN

India’s flip-flops in its policies towards Nepal in recent years have not served nationalinterests, writes KV RAJAN

March 2012

the integration/rehabilitation agreementhas not been welcomed by all Maoist fac-tions, and this, in turn, has revived oldanimosities between Maoist leaderswhile contributing to unrest and uncer-tainty down the line.

The Maoist agenda until now has beento put the revolutionary proletariat agen-da on the backburner, concentrate onseizing and consolidating power, resort topolitical expediency without foreclosinglong-term ideological objectives. Part ofthis strategy was to postpone difficultissues such as integration and disbandingof their former fighters and discipliningtheir front organisations like the YouthCommunist League (YCL). Now these dif-ficult decisions can no longer be post-poned, and as a result the differencesbetween hardliners and pragmatists aredeepening. Both factions have to contendwith rising discontent and anger at lowerlevels, resulting from the perception thatthe party leadership is insensitive to thesacrifices made in the field, that compen-sations given to exiting fighters (betweenNRs 5 and 8 lakh depending on seniority)are paltry, and that the party actuallyexpects a slice of even those paymentsback into its own coffers. Recent reportsof YCL cadres attacking Maoist partyoffices and property point to unprece-dented defiance of the party line.

Adding to the Maoist frustration istheir eroding popularity particularly in

urban areas. Their socio-economic cre-dentials are also under stress, withacceptance of capitalism as an importantdriver for economic growth on the onehand, and much ambiguity on issues likefederalism and ethnic empowerment onthe other. In the past, high-level disso-nance within the Maoist leadership wasperceived to be a charade, intended toconfuse others and give greater leverageto the Maoists in negotiating key issueswith other parties. Ego and personalambition, rather than ideology, were tak-en as the real motivation for their fre-quent mutual recriminations. The con-tradictions in the professed ideologicalpurity of all the leaders also came under scrutiny. How could Bhattarai be amoderate or pragmatist when he was thesource of much of the Maoist ideologyand strategy, and had consistently

refused to distance himself from both, forall his opposition to hard-line theorists inparty meetings? How could Baidya beconsidered a rigid hard-line leader if heand his faction had gone along withmajor compromises by Prachanda as wellas Bhattarai, which had in effect lockedthe Maoists into the system of multipartydemocracy, reduced their room formanoeuvre, neutralised their army andended their ownership of weapons, andforced them to offer a relationship ofclose cooperation with their declaredworst enemy, India?

The confrontation between so-calledpragmatists (led by Bhattarai) and hard-liners (led by Baidya) is however of suchintensity today as to encourage the con-clusion that there is already a de factosplit in the movement in terms of theroad map for Maoists to attain theirstrategic objectives, and the extent towhich ideology should be compromisedeven for tactical reasons.

Despite their differences, all factionsrealise that the continued support of thecadres (soon to be ex-cadres) of the Peo-ples Liberation Army, Young CommunistLeague, Labour Unions in industrial andurban centres, and its active supporters inrural areas is vital for the future survival ofthe party and its prospects for being inpower. The danger is that even if a formalvertical split, whether due to ideologicalor personal factors, is avoided because ofthe cementing effect of the need for partydomination of the power structure, allleaders will find it easier to appease hard-line and lumpen elements in the hope offorcing through a Constitution that iscompatible with the Maoist social-eco-nomic agenda, ensure a strong showingin post-May elections whenever they areheld, and then focus on attaining long-term ideological objectives on whichthere appears to be no serious internaldifferences. It is most unfortunate that ata time when the Maoists are so divided,the other parties are in disarray. Withoutany coherent strategies of their own, lack-ing credible leaders, they can at best playthe role of spoilers, thereby squanderingaway valuable opportunities for moderat-ing the Maoists’ capacity to push throughtheir agenda. Thus, the already confusedand unstable political environment inNepal has been further complicated byintra-Maoist differences. The prospectsfor an early safe landing for the oft-post-poned exercise of writing the Constitutionhave become bleak. There are also impli-

CHINESE PLANSTO BUILD

INFRASTRUCTUREAND OTHER

PROJECTS HAVERAISED HACKLES

IN INDIA


STRIVING FOR NORMALCY: The number of guerrillas opting for integration issubstantially higher than the figure agreed between the Maoists and the parties

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cations for the two giant neighbours,India and China, who are keeping a closewatch on the unfolding situation.

Contrary to the conventional view, theprospect of unraveling peace in Nepalmight actually seem even more promis-ing from China’s point of view than thateven of a stable Nepal led by a friendlyMaoist government. This is because anygovernment in Kathmandu cannot riskignoring Indian security sensitivitiesbeyond a point and, because of its heavydependence on Western aid, has to beattentive to human rights concerns whendealing with Tibetan refugee-relatedissues under Chinese pressure. Therecent Chinese Prime Ministerial visit toKathmandu exposed China’s extremesense of insecurity and its poor confi-dence in the Maoist-led government’scapacity to ensure that embarrassment toChina due to agitations and demonstra-tions on the Tibetan issue would beavoided. The visit was shrouded inextraordinary secrecy until the lastmoment, and the Chinese paranoiaabout Tibet was palpable throughout.

In recent years, China’s contactswith Nepal have multiplied andattempts to build special ties with theMaoists have been all too appar-ent. Chinese plans to buildinfrastructure and otherprojects have raisedhackles in Indiaand China has goneto the extent of pro-posing a Friendship Treatywith Nepal similar to theone with India. One canexpect Chinese support to itsfriends in Nepal to expand sig-nificantly in view of currentpolitical trends, even as itmakes contingency plans inthe event of the Maoists notgetting their act together toprevent Nepal’s downhillslide.

In the Nepal-related con-ferences regularly held in NewDelhi, there is a standard divisionof views. Academic observers feelthat positive developments areassured: the Maoists will unite infavour of the Bhattarai strategy,Nepal will have a Constitution in

May, and an inclusive democratic order isaround the corner. Practitioners with anarmy, intelligence or diplomatic back-ground argue otherwise: the Maoists areunited on their core objective, which is totransform Nepal into a single party totali-tarian state through a mix of democraticand non-democratic means, and the restis tactical accommodation in pursuit ofthe objective. The truth perhaps lies mid-

way. What is clear is that thespectacular public displayof Maoist divisions at the

leadership level, combinedwith rising resentment and

indiscipline in the rank and fileand front organisations, will seri-

ously exacerbate the paralysis ofgovernance which has been

plaguing Nepal for so manyyears.

What may unfortu-nately turn out to beIndia’s migraine will not

be a new rogue state inthe hands of a radicalMaoist regime, but anunraveling state inwhich elements hos-tile to India, fromwithin and withoutNepal, will have afield day. A Nepalwhere the centredoes not holdwould be an unfor-

tunate developmentfrom India’s point of view.India might find it difficultto monitor, much less con-trol, anti-India activitiessponsored by Pakistan or

China. In retrospect, India’s man-

agement of challenges posedby the emergence of the Maoists

over the past decade has notserved its security interests. It was

a strategic miscalculation to have encour-aged the democratic parties and theMaoists together on what was in effect asingle point agenda — to end the monar-chy, without any road map of processesand structures in place, to ensure anorderly transition which would have dis-armed the Maoists before giving them theopportunity of getting into the driver’sseat in government. India compoundedthat error through regular flip-flops in itspolicies, which ranged from enthusiasticembrace of the Maoists to masterly inac-tivity and then to self-defeating proac-tivism. There has been a welcome coursecorrection in recent months after thearrival of Ambassador Jayant Prasad, butit may be too late. India’s capacity toinfluence events in the direction of stabil-ity may be limited. A discrete effort maybe needed, given the uncertainties of thepresent situation, to win over leaders ofthe different Maoist factions so that all ofthem have good reason to supportprocesses for peaceful and democraticchange and have a stake in better rela-tions with India. India is widely perceivedto have put all its eggs in the Bhattaraibasket. The perception may be exaggerat-ed, but needs to corrected even in orderto bolster Bhattarai’s credibility and polit-ical longevity.

Finally, India has paid a huge price bytaking its friends in the neighbourhoodfor granted, and occasionally dumpingthem when their political fortunes are onthe decline. The example of India’s flip-flops in alternately supporting the demo-cratic forces and Nepal’s monarchy, andlater vacillations during Nepal’s encoun-ters with democracy; the disinterest inSheikh Hasina of Bangladesh when shewas out of power; the U-turns in therecent Maldivian crisis are only a fewexamples of our exercises in self-destruc-tive diplomatic short-termism. Indiashould be seen by the people of Nepal asa strong supporter of democracy andinclusive development, and they under-stand that this is possible only when thegovernment of the day has normal rela-tions with India. Relations with Nepalneed to be conducted on a non-partisanbasis, and those who have always stoodfor democracy, development and goodrelations with India should never feelshort-changed because of expediency.

(A former secretary in the Ministry ofExternal Affairs, the author was India’s

Ambassador to Nepal)

March 2012www.geopolitics.inwww.geopolitics.in

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CRITICAL TIMES: Differencesbetween hardliners and pragmatistsare deepening in Nepal

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INDIA SHOULD BE SEEN BYNEPALESE

PEOPLE AS ASTRONG

SUPPORTER OFDEMOCRACY


www.geopolitics.in


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THE THEN Prime Minister ofSingapore, Goh Chok Tong,while commenting about theentry of India into the frame-work of the Association of

South East Nations (ASEAN), drew inter-esting parallels. “If ASEAN is the fuselageof an aircraft, and North-East Asianeconomies serve as one wing of the air-craft, then India’s engagement of South-east Asia is — and should be viewed as —the other wing which made the aircraftoperational and stable.”

Twenty years after the initiation of asectoral dialogue partnership and 10 yearsafter the first India-ASEAN Summit inPhnom Penh, Cambodia, it becomesimperative to determine whether theASEAN flight, with India on board, hasacquired operational efficiency and stabil-ity. Experts from India and the ASEANstates are justifiably exuberant about this wide-ranging partnership. With a

concrete, actionable agenda to deal withseveral traditional and non-traditionalstrategic challenges in place, this partner-ship can emerge as a formidable force inthe Asian century.

The India-ASEAN relationship hasalready been institutionalised with theconduct of the first ASEAN-India Summitin Cambodia in 2002. A year later, the sec-ond summit in Bali, Indonesia, paved theway for new channels of cooperation inthe form of the Treaty of Amity and Coop-eration in Southeast Asia (TAC) and theJoint Declaration for Cooperation in Com-bating International Terrorism. Both sidessigned a Partnership for Peace, Progressand Shared Prosperity at the third ASEAN-India Summit in Vientiane in 2004, whichestablished a roadmap for the future. APlan of Action (2000-2004) was alsoworked out in order to implement thepartnership. Most recently, the newASEAN-India Plan of Action for 2010-2015was developed and adopted by the leadersat the 8th ASEAN-India Summit in Hanoiin October 2010. The conduct of ministeri-al, senior official and expert-level meet-ings and regular interactions through

EAST ASIAN AMITY: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with East Asia Summit Heads of States at the 9th ASEAN-India Summit in 2011

Indo-ASEAN ties have come of age, thanks to India’s Look-East policy. Strategically speaking,the ASEAN countries are finding India not only as a regional but also as a global asset, writes

YAMINI CHOWDHURY

FROM THE GANGA TO MEKONGAND BEYOND

“If ASEAN is thefuselage of anaircraft, and North-East Asianeconomies serveas one wing of theaircraft, then

India's engagement of South-east Asia is — and should beviewed as — the other wingwhich made the aircraftoperational and stable.”

GOH CHOK TONGFormer Prime Minister of Singapore

PIB

ASEAN-initiated frameworks such asASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the PostMinisterial Conference (PMC) 10+1, theEast Asia Summit (EAS), Mekong-GangaCooperation and the Bay of Bengal Initia-tive for Multisectoral Technical and Eco-nomic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) haveadded vim and vigour to India’s relationswith the region regarded by former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as “one of thefocal points of India’s foreign policy, strate-gic concerns and economic interests”.

Finding strategic synergy Tan Sri Dato Seri Mohamed Jawhar Has-san, Chairman, Institute of Strategic andInternational Studies (ISIS), Malaysia,while assessing the present level of strate-gic cooperation between ASEAN andIndia, maintains that it has been mainlythrough the ARF and, to a lesser extent, theEAS. “Bilateral discussions at the govern-ment and Track 2 levels have also proveduseful in understanding and appreciatingeach other’s strategic perspectives andsecurity issues confronting the region.Track 2 dialogues that also engage govern-ment officials in their private capacity areparticularly useful because they enablefrank and candid exchange of views onsensitive matters that discussions at theofficial level cannot match. As with all dia-logues, the strategic engagement has to besustained to address developments thatoccur in a very dynamic situation,” hestates.

David Wee Hock Koh, Senior Fellow atthe Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,Singapore, suggests that India muststrengthen its strategic relationship withASEAN, including trade, investment anddefence diplomacy, to bring it up to a levelwhere it has comparative meanings toits strategic relationship with USand Chin. Improved physical con-nectivity can also assist in pro-pelling the strategic objective,particularly since India shares aland boundary with Myanmar,maritime frontiers with Thai-land and Indonesia and anexclusive economic zone(EEC) with Malaysia. “Pro-jects like the India-Myan-mar-Thailand Highway, its

extension to Laos and Cambodia and thedevelopment of a new highway linkingVietnam would serve both strategic andeconomic interests for the Mekong regionsince India and China are both rising starsin the world. The China-India relationshipis definitely going to be more significantfor regional peace, stability and develop-ment,” asserts Chheang Vannarith, Execu-tive Director, Cambodian Institute forCooperation and Peace (CICP).

Securing shipping lifeline Described by the United States govern-ment as the world’s second most impor-tant potential ‘chokepoint’ for global ener-gy supplies by sea after the Hormuz Strait,securing the Malacca Strait from the men-ace of piracy, narcotics and terrorism arean issue that features high on the list ofsecurity priorities of not just the ASEANstates, but also India.

According to K Kesavapany, Director,Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, “Since2004 the three littoral states — Singapore,Malaysia and Indonesia — have conduct-ed regular, coordinated naval patrols andcombined air patrols (the Malacca Straitspatrols) which have led to a considerable

improvement in the security environmentof the Straits, including a dramatic reduc-tion in piracy/sea robbery attacks. Thisstands in marked contrast to the situationoff the coast of Somalia. Further, the Unit-ed States has provided funding and equip-ment to improve the maritime interdictionand surveillance capabilities of Malaysiaand Indonesia. Japan has been an activeplayer in enhancing safety of navigation inthe Straits since the 1960s.”

India’s soaring trade relationship withASEAN states makes it imperative for it toassist in ensuring the safety of navigation.India’s contribution to security and mar-itime development in the region has beenvery limited. Believes Kesavapany: “WhileIndia has offered capacity-building sup-port to the littoral states, there has been avery little follow-through to date, for rea-sons which are unclear. As India’s mar-itime interests in Southeast Asia expand,this situation may change.”

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STRAIT TALK: Prime MinisterManmohan Singh at a bilateralmeeting with Singapore PrimeMinister Lee Hsien Loong PIB

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PIB

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The situation may already be changing.India has been conducting a multi-nation-al, naval exercise, MILAN, in the Bay ofBengal along with its counterparts fromthe Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia and IndianOcean Region for a while. MILAN 2012 sawparticipation from 14 countries, includingAustralia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia,Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand,Singapore and Sri Lanka. So would thismilitary exercise be tactically significant inpromoting the safety of sea lanes of com-munication (SLOC’S) from poaching, pira-cy and terrorist activities? Amar Nath Ram,former Secretary, Ministry of ExternalAffairs, maintains, “Since creating good-will and understanding among all partici-pants, and not strategic cooperation, is themain purpose of India’s naval diplomacy,MILAN is unlikely to institutionalise anysort of strategic alliance. Further, theestablishment of a multilateral securityorder or a military block aimed at a partic-ular country or a strategic issue in theAsia-Pacific has never formed part ofIndia’s foreign policy paradigm.”

Michael Richardson, Visiting SeniorResearch Fellow, Institute of South-EastAsian Studies, Singapore, offers valuablesuggestions with regard to India’s coop-eration: “India must continue to upgradeits naval and maritime air patrol pres-ence in the Andaman and NicobarIslands that form the western gateway tothe straits. The naval and maritime airpatrol components of MILAN could beextended to encompass safety and pro-tection of merchant shipping, includinganti-piracy operations, counter-terror-ism and search and rescue at sea. Thiswould send a signal to the internationalshipping community that the nucleus ofa regional maritime protection networkis in place and could be activated andextended, if needed.”

Terrorism and organised crime withinSoutheast Asia are very serious issues thathave no respect for borders. “Tacklingthem will require cooperation at differentlevels. Apart from cooperation at the exec-utive level, the presence of mutual legalassistance treaties will ensure the sharingof evidence and interrogation withoutextradition. Security cooperation andintelligence sharing are also very impor-tant instruments of cooperation. Butabove all, there needs to be a political will— governments must ensure that a terror-ist must have no place to hide,” observesLeela Ponappa, former Deputy NationalSecurity Adviser. India’s large strategic

capabilities, in addition to providing sta-bility and security to the region, are alsoinvaluable while dealing with a host ofnon-traditional security (NTS) threats andchallenges, including food and water secu-rity, climate change and disaster relief andmanagement. But will this strategic heft beable to deal with the new, emerging devel-opments in the Asia Pacific?

China is no threatChina has witnessed unbridled progressat an unheralded pace, and the formerPhilippines President Arroyo’s words onlyreinforce the pragmatism in engagingwith this global power. But China’s inex-orable rise has been accompanied by vir-ulent postures in the South China Sea.

Deepa Ollapally, Associate Director &Research Professor of InternationalAffairs, Sigur Center for Asian Studies,George Washington University, emphasis-es, “I think the Chinese overplayed theirhand in 2010-11, with a more unilateralistforeign policy, especially on the SouthChina Sea issue. This has made ASEANcountries more suspicious and vigilant.”

Providing an ASEAN perspective to theissue, Professor Tommy Koh, Ambas-sador-at-Large, Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Singapore, states, “Even thoughASEAN countries welcome China’s phe-nomenal rise, the way Beijing deals withthe dispute in the South China Sea willserve as a litmus test. Any use of force, oreven the threat of force to resolve this dis-pute, would sour China’s relations withSoutheast Asia. There is a lot at stake athow China handles this tricky issue.”

Rodolfo Severino, former ASEAN

Secretary General and Head, ASEANStudies Centre ISEAS, Singapore, suggestsconcrete confidence-building measuresthat extend beyond rhetorical statementsof assurance. “Greater transparency indefence matters and entering into morepersonal relationships with decision-makers would attenuate lingering suspi-cions, not just with China, but alsobetween India and China, Japan and Chi-na and Japan and Korea,” he affirms. “Inaddition to implementing the COC (Codeof Conduct in the South China Sea) withassistance from India, more dialogueswould precipitate a fall in tensions”,asserts Professor Nguyen Duy Dung,Director, Institute of Southeast AsianStudies, Hanoi, Vietnam.

However, there is a counterview. TanSri Mohamed Jawhar asserts, “The India-ASEAN strategic partnership should beseen from the perspective of the benefitsit provides in its own right rather than tosituate it in the context of competitionand rivalry between India and China,which compromises the integrity andusefulness of this vital relationship. Whileindividual members may tilt towards onecountry or other, ASEAN itself is notinclined towards any particular country,and is not under the influence or hege-mony of any power, least of all China. Atthe moment, China’s presence in South-east Asia is greater than that of India’sonly because India began to Look Eastlate. Now that India and ASEAN are forg-ing closer ties, India’s deficit in the regionwill begin to be remedied. If anything,ASEAN, through forums like the ARF,would like to moderate rivalry betweenChina and India as well as other powers,rather than become a party to it.”

All told, the ASEAN-India strategicpartnership is vital to ensuring lastingpeace, security and stability in SoutheastAsia. The intrinsic value of this relation-ship is summarised by ASEAN Secretary-General, Surin Pitsuwan. “India’s growinginfluence is a strategic regional and glob-al asset. Its commitment to peacefulengagement has helped shape and main-tain Southeast Asia’s security architec-ture. Through crisis and adversity, Indiashowed us how this great civilization hassurvived the countless tests that historyhad thrown in its path.” Clearly, thestrategic synergy between India andASEAN is immense and every effort mustbe made to tap its full potential.

(The author is a Delhi-based journalist)


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g“Projects like theIndia-Myanmar-Thailand Highway,its extension toLaos andCambodia and thedevelopment of a

new highway linking Vietnamwould serve both strategic andeconomic interests for theMekong region since India andChina are both rising stars inthe world.”

CHHEANG VANNARITHExecutive Director,

Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace


gAMBASSADOR’SJOURNAL

RELATIONS BETWEEN Indiaand France have grown steadi-ly since 1947, but it was only in1998 that both sides describedit as a ‘strategic partnership’. In

a post-Cold War world, a re-evaluationand recalibration had been underway inboth capitals, revealing a long-standingconvergence of principles which couldnow find expression.

If one were to define a singular attributecommon to both countries, it would be‘independence of thought’. Neither Indianor France had been comfortable with thebipolar order characterised by the ColdWar. India sought to establish its inde-pendence through the policy of non-align-ment, while France defined its autonomyby stepping outside NATO and building anindependent defence capability. In multi-lateral fora, India and France were often

AMB-

INDE

.FR

March 2012

INDIA & FRANCE — ANENDURING RELATIONSHIP


The ‘special relationship’between India and France

can well reveal the capacityto develop policies based on

principles of convergencewhich will ensure that the

‘strategic partnership’ is anenduring one, writes

RAKESH SOOD

Ambassador Rakesh Sood


ready to take up ‘alternate’ points of view.At a bilateral level, this convergence beganto be reflected in three areas — nuclear,space and defence — even though duringthe Cold War period, India’s major armssupplier was the former Soviet Union. Inthe post-Cold War period, it was duringPresident Chirac’s visit that the two coun-tries decided to consciously describe therelationship as a ‘strategic partnership’ tobuild upon this foundation. Incidentally, afew months later when India conducted aseries of nuclear tests in May 1998 anddeclared itself a nuclear-weapon-state,France, with its long-standing policy of an‘independent force de frappe’ was bestplaced to understand India’s security com-pulsions. The ‘strategic partnership’ facedits first test and has grown steadily since.

Co-operation in space technology isnot as well-known as it deserves to be; infact, it began nearly 50 years ago whenIndia set up the Thumba Equatorial Rock-et Launching Station for weather studiestogether and the French provided thetechnology to start producing the Cen-taure sounding rockets domestically. Thefirst Indian Satellite TelecommunicationExperimental Project (STEP), during the70s, was undertaken using the Frenchsatellite — Symphonie, followed by Ari-ane launching the first Indian satellite —APPLE.

All these initiatives have prepared theground for a robust relationship betweenthe space agencies in both countries. Ari-anespace has emerged as the preferredagency for launching large Indian satel-lites, particularly the INSAT and GSATseries. At the same time, as India hasdeveloped its independent launch capa-bilities, French organisations like EADSAstrium and the Indian commercial arm

Antrix have found it mutually beneficialto work to market PSLV capabilitiestogether in the West. Last year saw thelaunch of Megha Tropiques, the first ofthe Megha Tropiques satellites at Sriharikota. This project involveslaunching eight satellites for global precipitation measurements in order todevelop international capability to studydynamics of tropical climate systems.Another series of experiments involving anew satellite SARAL (Satellite for ARgosand ALtika) will commence in 2012, onceagain using the Indian PSLV launch vehi-

cle from Sriharikota. Incidentally, whilethese studies are being undertaken in abilateral framework, its results are regu-larly shared with the wider internationalcommunity through workshops and sem-inars that India and France co-host.

As in the space sector, cooperation inthe nuclear sector between India andFrance began during the 1950s under abroad framework of cooperation betweenthe newly-established Department ofAtomic Energy and the French CEA.These included cooperation in basic sci-ence, breeder reactors, nuclear safety etc.After 1974, when India undertook a PNE

leading to the establishment of exportcontrols in the nuclear sector through theNuclear Suppliers Group, such activitiesbecame more restricted; however, it wasFrance which supplied India with Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) fuel for Tarapurwhen the US stated its inability to do so inview of its new laws.

Now that the Nuclear Suppliers Group(NSG) has provided an exemption toIndia in the civilian nuclear sector, it hasopened prospects for accelerating andexpanding bilateral cooperation in thisarea. In fact, the first bilateral agreementsigned with a foreign country after theNSG waiver was with France in Septem-ber 2008, aimed at construction of sixEvolutionary Power Reactors (EPRs) of1600 MW each in India. Though theFukushima accident last year has sloweddown the process, the parties concerned(Areva and Alstom in France and NPCILin India) are working closely together tobring the negotiations to fruition. Equallyimportant, cooperation between the reg-ulatory agencies in both countries — theFrench ASN and the Indian Atomic Ener-gy Regulatory Board — has also beenstepped up.

Like India, France had long been inter-ested in the idea of a Fast Breeder Reac-tor but had to close down its project dueto domestic financial compulsions. Nowboth scientists work together atKalpakkam and share the knowledge inorder to work together on the new proto-type that India is planning to build.Another area of cooperation has been theinternational thermo nuclear experi-mental reactor (ITER) at Cadarachewhere a team of Indian scientists hasbeen present since 2007.

Nuclear and space sectors are not the

FRENCH SQUALL: The proposed sale of the Rafale fighter would be the latest in defence cooperation between India and France


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FRENCHCOMPANIES ARE

TAKING ANINCREASING

INTEREST IN THEINDIAN ECONOMICGROWTH STORY

HEMA

NTRA

WAT

only areas of bilateral cooperation; thereis a much wider bilateral agreementbetween the two sides for cooperation by undertaking joint research projects in fundamental sciences (primarilymathematics, physics, chemistry and lifesciences) and now also applied scienceswhich would have industry applications.The Indo-French Centre for Promotion ofAdvanced Research, the nodal agency forthis activity, set up as an autonomousbody is completing 25 years of its exis-tence this year. This collaboration hassuccessfully completed more than 300projects, organised nearly a 100 seminarsand workshops and provided for a largenumber of scientific exchanges. DuringPresident Sarkozy’s visit in 2010, the ideaof establishing an IIT in Rajasthan togeth-er was finalised. Planned to come up atJodhpur, the French authorities willcooperate by establishing a consortiumof their research centres and hi-techcompanies in order to develop five Cen-tres of Excellence in priority areas such asrenewable energy, systems engineering,heritage conservation etc., sectors inwhich French expertise is globallyacknowledged.

Though the defence relationshipbetween the two countries goes back to1950s and 60s, the decision to embark ona ‘strategic partnership’ in 1998 led to theestablishment of a High Committee onDefence Cooperation. This forum pro-motes political dialogue and high-levelmilitary consultations between officials,cooperation between armed forcesthrough exchanges and joint exercises,and long-term partnerships betweenIndian and French entities in the field ofthe armaments industry. Arising from itsdeliberations, a comprehensive defencecooperation agreement was signedbetween the two countries in 2006. Par-ticipation in joint exercises — Air Force,Navy and now Army — has become a reg-ular feature. More and more French mili-tary officials go for training to Indianestablishments and vice versa. Bothcountries have demonstrated their abili-ty to work together in tackling newlyemerging threats of piracy, particularlyoff the Somali coast. French participationin the DEFEXPO and the Aero India showand Indian participation in Eurosatoryand Euronaval have grown along withIndian interest in acquiring French tech-nology and weapons systems. The Navyis currently working on the project for sixScorpene submarines, being built at

Mazagon Docks with complete transferof technology.

A project for upgradation of Mirage2000 aircraft was concluded last year.Once again, the upgradation work willtake place in India with the French sideproviding research know-how for thenew avionics, weapons systems, etc. Inaddition, there are agreements pertain-ing to purchase of low-level trans-portable radars, fast interception craftsfor use by the Coast Guard, night visionequipment, MICA missiles, etc. Even

more important are the projects that arebeing jointly undertaken relating toKaveri aircraft engine for the indigenousLight Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, aswell as certain short-range missiles.France has developed a diversifieddefence industry. However, given shrink-ing defence budgets in the West, includ-ing France, the French defence industrywill have to rely on exports in order to

sustain itself. India is diversifying itssources of supply and with growingstrategic convergence, cooperation inthis sector can be expected to grow.

The common thread running throughthese three areas — space, nuclear anddefence — is that these are driven by astrong government-to-government rela-tionship. However, what really connectsthe two countries together are the people-to-people contacts and the value systemsthat the two civilisations represent.French companies are taking an increas-ing interest in the Indian economicgrowth story. In parallel, Indian corporatesare exploring opportunities for acquisi-tions that will enable them to establishtheir presence in Europe. Luxury fashiondesigner Hermes is trying to sell saris inIndia competing against the Kanjivaramsand Chanderis. Indian artists are nowexhibiting in France and translated ver-sions of new Indian fictions are quicklyavailable in niche book stores in Paris.

Partnership between India and Francehas matured. In a post-Cold War periodwhere uncertainties abound, India andFrance can well demonstrate the abilityto develop policies based on principles ofconvergence which will ensure that the‘strategic partnership’ is an enduring one.

(The author is Ambassador of India toFrance. The views expressed in this

article are of the author in his personalcapacity and not that of the Government

of India)



NEITHER INDIANOR FRANCE

WERECOMFORTABLEWITH THE COLDWAR’S BIPOLAR

ORDER


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ENDURING FRIENDSHIP: The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy with Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh during the joint press conference, in New Delhi on December 6, 2010

PIB

THE SECOND Nuclear SecuritySummit (NSS) is going to takeplace in Seoul from March 26-27, 2012. Several rounds ofpreparatory meetings have tak-

en place. These preparatory meetings arecalled Sherpa meetings. There are somemeetings which take place before Sherpameetings. Such meetings are called Sous-Sherpa meetings. It is conducted by rela-tively junior officials to Sherpas. So far,three Sherpa meetings, one Sous Sherpameeting, and one eminent person meet-ing have taken place.

The first Sherpa meeting was held inBuenos Aires on November 2-3, 2010.This was the first meeting after the firstsummit, which had been held in Wash-ington on April 13, 2010. The November2010 Sherpa meeting took stock of theApril 2010 Washington summit. Some

controversial issues like monitoringappeared ending the summit process.However, the participant countries sanktheir differences and resolved to moveforward to complete the task of 2010 NSS.

The objective of the summit was tosecure nuclear materials within fouryears. Though this objective was sharedby all the participants at the summit, aconscious attempt was made to avoidmentioning any country by name. Byand large, the summit succeeded in notofficially targeting any country, thoughthe communiqué issued during the sum-mit in its opening paragraph noted,“Nuclear terrorism is one of the mostchallenging threats to internationalsecurity, and strong nuclear securitymeasures are the most effective meansto prevent terrorists, criminals, or otherunauthorised actors from acquiring

nuclear materials.” It means that all theparticipating countries agreed thatnuclear terrorism was a major interna-tional security problem. However, it stat-ed that nuclear security practices shouldnot adversely affect the use of nuclearenergy for peaceful activities.

The communiqué stressed the promo-tion of a nuclear security culture. Theidea was to involve all the stakeholders inthe task. The involvement of the nuclearindustry was, of course, expected. Themanagement of nuclear security meansprotection of nuclear materials and facil-ities under national control, and is to bethe responsibility of the country possess-ing materials. The communiqué attachedgreat significance to the security ofradioactive substances as well. The com-muniqué also underlined the impor-tance of international and multilateral


gDIPLOMACY


TOUGH NEGOTIATIONS: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the sidelines of the Nuclear SecuritySummit, in Washington on April 13, 2010

A NEW DIRECTION?As India prepares for the forthcoming nuclear summit in Seoul, it is unlikely that in thename of transparency, the country will compromise on providing information that has

grave implications for national security, writes RAJIV NAYAN

PIB

cooperation in the realm of assistanceand capacity building. It emphasised theimportance of the UN and measuressuch as the Global Initiative to CombatNuclear Terrorism and the G8-led GlobalPartnership against the Spread ofWeapons and Materials of Mass Destruc-tion, but the IAEA was acknowledged asthe central multilateral institution for themanagement of nuclear security. Thecommuniqué highlighted that measuressuch as development of new technolo-gies for nuclear detection, forensics, law-enforcement and strong nuclear securitypractices were required for a new globalnuclear security regime. It has identifieddialogue and voluntarism as the guidingprinciples.

A work plan that is a voluntary ‘politi-cal commitment’ made by participatingcountries in support of the communiquéwas also issued. The participating coun-tries are expected to address the entirerange of nuclear security, including stor-age, use, transportation and disposal ofnuclear materials. The participatingcountries have accepted the importanceof the international conventions fornuclear security, namely, the Internation-al Convention for the Suppression of Actsof Nuclear Terrorism and the Conventionon the Physical Protection of NuclearMaterial and its 2005 amendment. Theselegally binding instruments are to be uni-versalised in accordance with the workplan released during the summit. Thework plan also underscores the impor-tance of effective implementation ofthese laws by the member countries.

The work plan supports the UN Securi-ty Council (SC) Resolution 1540 and itsproposed activities, especially for techni-cal assistance and the establishment of avoluntary fund. The same support hasbeen promised for the nuclear securityseries and the document for ‘PhysicalProtection of Nuclear Material andNuclear Facilities’ (INFCIRC/225) pub-lished by the IAEA. The work plan alsorecommends that the participating statesactively participate in the fifth revision ofthe INFCIRC/225.

The work plan has suggested the com-pletion of the technical guidance docu-ment on ‘Nuclear Material AccountancySystems at Facilities’, development ofnuclear security support plans, promo-tion of International Physical ProtectionAdvisory Service missions, special pre-cautions for highly-enriched uranium(HEU) and separated plutonium, use of

low enriched uranium (LEU), develop-ment and use of proliferation-resistanttechnology, helping other countries toconvert to LEU, development of robustand effective domestic nuclear security,legal, regulatory and enforcement frame-works, human resources development fornuclear security, creation of and network-ing among nuclear security support cen-tres to spread and share best practices,developing national capabilities fornuclear forensics and supporting theIAEA with funds.

On October 4-5, 2011, the second Sher-pa meeting took place in Helsinki, Fin-land. It seems that apart from consolidat-ing the Washington summit’s commit-ments and plans, the Helsinki meetingturned its attention towards the Seoulcommuniqué. South Korea has proposedfive principles to shape the communiqué.The official website of the 2012 NSS enu-merates the five principles. These are: “(1)Placing nuclear security at the centre of

the discussion; (2) Ensuring the continu-ity of the Washington Nuclear SecuritySummit, while at the same time, makingnew progress; (3) Ensuring the voluntarynature of national commitments and par-ticipation; (4) Opting against the creationof a new regime; and (5) Respecting Pres-ident Obama’s vision to secure all vulner-able nuclear material in a four-year lock-down.”

The Helsinki Sherpa meeting appar-ently discussed the conversion of HEU toLEU and securing it with plutonium. Themeeting also deliberated upon enhancingthe protection of nuclear facilities andfoiling any design for illicit trafficking ofnuclear materials as well as appealed tothe participating countries to fulfil theinternational legal treaties agreed uponin the Washington Summit in 2010. How-ever, the Helsinki meeting brought on theagenda two very important issues syner-gising nuclear safety and nuclear securityand improving the management ofradioactive materials which may con-tribute to dirty bomb. The Fukushimaincidents shadowed discussions on thenuclear security and safety interface.

The third meeting took place in NewDelhi this year from January 16-17. Thepress briefing after the Sherpas meetingindicated that in New Delhi, too, thesame items, which had been discussed inthe Helsinki meet, were repeated. In theDelhi Sherpa meeting, two of the threenew participants for the Seoul meetingcame. Three new participants are Den-mark, Lithuania and Azerbaijan. In the



MEA.

GOV.

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NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY: Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai at the Sherpa Meeting for theSeoul Nuclear Security Summit in New Delhi (January 16, 2012)

THE FUKUSHIMAINCIDENTS

STIMULATED THE WORLD TOPAY ATTENTIONTO NUCLEAR

SAFETY

www.geopolitics.in

Delhi meet, Denmark and Lithuania par-ticipated.

Earlier, South Korean organisers alsotook the help of Eminent Persons GroupMeeting held on November 29, 2012. Thisgroup gave “six items of advice” for thesummit. These were: “First, the SeoulSummit should demonstrate tangibleprogress in implementing the commit-ments made at the Washington Summit;second, the Seoul Summit should pro-pose a practical vision and new concretemeasures by setting them out in the‘Seoul Communiqué’; third, each partici-pating state undertakes to make signifi-cant contributions to the objective ofstrengthening nuclear security regime;fourth, the Seoul Summit should con-tribute to enhancing the public confi-dence in nuclear energy, which has beenundermined since the Fukushimanuclear accident, and actively seek waysto address the threat of radiological ter-rorism; fifth, the Seoul Summit shouldstrengthen international and regionalcooperation to prevent the illicit transferof nuclear materials; and sixth, the SeoulSummit should build upon the momen-tum generated by the WashingtonNuclear Security Summit by makingefforts to hold a third summit.”

Meanwhile, on January 11, 2012, theNuclear Threat Initiative released a reporton Security Index of Nuclear Materials.The objective of the project may be nobleas reshaping ‘international norms’ fornuclear security or ‘facilitating interna-tional dialogue on priorities’ for it. Butthe report has done more harm thangood for nuclear security. The project thatproduced the report has engaged some

credible scholars from the western uni-versities and elsewhere but the controland leadership of the project by knownnon-proliferation activists have sent awrong signal to the non-western world.

Transparency is a point on whichmany national governments as well as thereport find difficulties, especially vis-à-visnuclear security. The Government ofIndia and a former atomic energy chiefhave maintained that transparency andnuclear security are mutually contradic-tory. In fact, the report has found merit inthe argument that transparency may beparadoxical. It acknowledges: “This is nota call for states to reveal so much infor-mation that they compromise nationaland global security.” But at the same time,the report expects countries to: (i) pub-lish nuclear security regulations and oth-er ‘framework’ information that providegeneral descriptions of security arrange-ments; (ii) declare inventory quantitiesfor both highly enriched uranium (HEU)and plutonium; and (iii) make regular‘peer reviews’ the norm for sites holdingHEU and plutonium.

Basically, the task of the Seoul Summitis going to consolidate the initiatives tak-en in the 2010 Washington Summit. Thiswill include implementation of the com-mitments made by the participatingcountries of the 2010 NSS. Importantly, asthe philosophy of the NSS was voluntaryand political in nature, so the pressurewill be political, not legal in disposition. A

couple of new initiatives may be taken.These initiatives could not be highly con-tentious in nature because the decision istaken on the basis of a consensus.

The Fukushima incidents stimulatedthe world to pay more serious attentionto nuclear safety in the nuclear business.The global nuclear policy communityincluded it in its agenda. The synergybetween nuclear safety and nuclear secu-rity may find a somewhat detailed treat-

ment in the Seoul communiqué. This is apoint on which the participating coun-tries appear to have found some under-standing. For the developing world, itcould be a cost-effective mechanism.This theme received support among thenon-governmental community as well.

An indication is coming that radiologi-cal security may be discussed more seri-ously for the Seoul communiqué. It didnot find place in the Washington Com-muniqué or work plan. However, a sec-tion of the international community keptpressing for the inclusion of radiologicalsecurity. Its inclusion was opposed onpragmatic grounds by some key coun-tries. The countries from the developingworld generally did not have strong reser-vations on the inclusion, but have appre-hensions that the inclusion may affecttheir setting- up of cancer hospitals andother medical facilities. Once these par-ticipants gain confidence that the inclu-sion will not affect their medical facilities,the inclusion may find support fromthem.

As for the number of participants, thesignals from the official circles put itaround 50. Even if countries like Lithua-nia and Denmark participate in the 2012Seoul NSS, there are still several keycountries such as Iran and North Koreawhich are relevant for nuclear securitybut will not be participating in the sum-mit process. South Korea and its friendswant North Korea to denuclearise itselfand only then join the summit. For Iran,the leading countries find it difficult toshare the same table. For these countries,the integration with the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the bestoption. Even inside the summit process,the IAEA has emerged as the most pre-ferred institution.

The NSS has to confront the futurenuclear agenda. The linkage of nuclearsecurity with other nuclear securityissues may start surfacing. So far, thefocus has been countering nuclear terror-ism. The old non-proliferation divide,which was bridged with the NSS process,is surfacing again. Officials from the par-ticipant countries are explicitly mention-ing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)and proliferation in their speeches. How-ever, at least in the 2012 meet, the divi-sive non-proliferation issue is likely to bekept away. The developing world will notlike that restrictions for nuclear security,in any way, affect the pursuit of nuclearenergy.


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KEY COUNTRIESLIKE IRAN ANDNORTH KOREAWILL NOT BE

PARTICIPATING INTHE SUMMIT

PROCESS

DEEPA KANDASWAMY:Please introduce yourself.

AZAM GILL: I was born in Pakistan, in aChristian family that had been convertedfrom Sikhism. My father was a magistrate,and my mother a High School Principal.Our house was full of English books andmagazines, and we were encouraged toread, express our opinions and defendthem. Our British and Pakistani teachersin our English medium school with awell-stocked library had the same atti-tude to learning. At University, I was akeen and popular inter-varsity debaterand boxer. I was commissioned in a lightinfantry battalion of the Punjab Regimentof the Pakistan Army and spent severalyears on the Kashmir frontier. By ArmyOrder, I was nominated the youngestRegimental Adjutant after having servedas Intelligence Officer, Company Officerand Company Commander. My dutiesincluded training, operations and fieldintelligence. That meant I was responsi-

ble for patrolling on the Pakistani andIndian sides, which means raids andambushes. There were also reconnais-sance missions, the daily situation report(SitRep), which coordinated the sitreps ofall spotters in towers on the Pakistani sideand the debriefings of reconnaissancepatrols. Every month I sent the MSIR -Monthly Security and IntelligenceReport. When Pakistani Intelligenceneeded to infiltrate spies through my sec-tor, I was responsible. Most operationswere unacknowledged, and I myself tookthe initiative and made a certain numberof unauthorized sorties behind Indianlines, for which I got into trouble with thePakistan Army High Command. As pun-ishment, I was sent on a Physical TrainingCourse! My life was spent in an earthbunker linked with other bunkers bycrawl trenches filled with snakes andslush. Despite the brotherhood of certainofficers and the loyalty of my men, I suf-fered heartbreak at the discriminationpracticed against a Christian in Pakistan

The right to citizenship by blood or soilhad no de facto recognition. I was a mer-cenary in the Pakistan Army, driven mycircumstances to earn my living in thistime honored fashion.

After my departure from the PakistanArmy I wrote a pamphlet in Pakistancalled “Jail Reforms” about the draconianstate of human rights in prison. That wasfollowed by a book “Army Reforms”.

March 2012

Meet AZAM GILL — a formerPakistani army officer now a

French citizen and an author ongeopolitics, Pakistan and

terrorism — who used to providecover fire to help spies

infiltrate into India. DEEPA KANDASWAMY

interviewed Gill for GEOPOLITICS


gSPECIALINTERVIEW

“I MADEUNAUTHORISEDSORTIES BEHINDINDIAN LINES”

www.geopolitics.in


gSPECIALINTERVIEW

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Muhammad Ali Jinnah

When Pakistani Intelligenceneeded to infiltrate spies throughmy sector, I was responsible.Most operations wereunacknowledged, and I myselftook the initiative and made acertain number of unauthorizedsorties behind Indian lines

Pakistan is liable totragically muddle alonglike Albania, hoping forthe Big Break.

Basically, theentire ChristianCommunity ofPakistan hassufficient groundsfor mass politicalasylum. In my case,"Jail Reforms" and"Army Reforms"made me the targetof harassment andthreats.

After my departure from the Pakistan Army I wrote a pamphletin Pakistan called "Jail Reforms" about the draconian state ofhuman rights in prison. That was followed by a book "ArmyReforms", about the state of human rights in the Pakistan Armydue to the communication gap between officers and troops. ThePreface was written by General Bakhtiar Rana. Basically, bothwere a cry for secularism in a functional theocracy.

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Q:What were the circumstances thatmade you flee Pakistan and jointhe Legion?

A:Basically, the entire ChristianCommunity of Pakistan has suffi-cient grounds for mass political

asylum. In my case, "Jail Reforms" and"Army Reforms" made me the target ofharassment and threats. I was called toIslamabad by then General Zia-ul-Haq’spersonal secretary, who’d been one of myinstructors at the Pakistan Military Acad-emy. He advised me to leave the countryurgently within the forty days it took tocirculate the order banning me fromleaving the country. When I got back toLahore, the order was in the post box! Iwent back to Islamabad, and the Frenchwere kind enough to give me a visa forpolitical asylum. France has earned myeternal gratitude by this graceful gesture.My mother gave me a few thousand dol-lars and the Gospel of Saint John. Shetold me to spend that money seeing thesights of Paris, and agreed that joiningthe French Foreign Legion was the rightchoice. If France opened its doors to me,I should honor the gesture by offering mylife for five years. The Legion also offeredanonymity, and in my case, my familycould tell the government that there wasno risk of Azam Gill organizing anti-Pak-istan demonstrations in Paris, since he’dbe too busy lugging a rucksack in somegodforsaken part of Africa! She said, "IfGod brought you back alive through theKashmir trenches, fighting your bloodbrothers in Indian uniform, He’ll get youalive out of the Legion too. Don’t forget tosay your prayers!"

Can you tell us a little about the FrenchForeign Legion?The French Foreign Legion consists ofeighty to ninety per cent foreign nation-als under an initial five year contract.One in ten applicants is selected, and outof those, a large number never make itpast basic training. Physically, it’s noharder than any other professional army.Psychologically, you’re serving under aforeign flag, under an assumed identity,with no family, your past wiped out, anuncertain future, and a tenuous present,singing marching songs encouraging thedeath wish! And there are no French les-sons, you speak pidgin French, and oftencommunicate by grunts and gestures. Itworks to the advantage of France, sincethe intense ethnic competition leads to anatural synergy that keeps standards veryhigh and there is a constant search ofexcellence. Legion recruits bring differenttalents and experience to the Legion -beggars, doctors, army officers, racingcar drivers, princes, bandits, locksmiths

etc. When the Legion needs to put togeth-er a team for a special operation, all thisprior talent comes into play. It is SpecialForces capable, outperforms all FrenchArmy Units, and is the first to belaunched in a combat situation. So theLegion is a highly professional force ofvery tough soldiers. The Legion has neverclaimed to be the best, says it is amongthe best, probably the best, recognizesequals but knows of no superiors. It doesnot acknowledge all operations.

By the end of the cold war, are you sayingmilitants were actively sent into India byPakistan with the help of its army? Howdid Pakistan — when you were there —send extremists into India?Yes. Take the period of the most intensemilitant activity in Kashmir, then do a bitof reverse engineering asking yourself allthe while how long it would take toachieve such intensity. The intensity is aculmination of the preparatory phase.And in proportion to the intensity of theculminating phase, how long do youthink the preparatory phase was? Andwhat do you think its components were?Iwitnessed people crossing the LOC with-out visas or passports. In any case, eye-witnesses are important for police andnot necessarily military operations. Clan-destine operations are murky, and takeplace in a grey area. The western expecta-tion of police procedures to tackle clan-destine military operations is naive, andthis naiveté seems to be overwhelming aculture that gave birth to sophisticatedscholarly works such as the Arthashastra.

Can you describe in detail how terroristcells form and operate? How does it allbegin?It all begins with the choice of guerillaover conventional warfare. Sometimesthis choice is imposed by circumstances,but not always. Organization is in smallwatertight cells, and the level of motiva-tion is very high. Recruitment is by wordof mouth spread in the centers of ideolo-gy. Thinking is long-term, and the cult ofleadership is ever present, fuelled byvisionary theoreticians, mainly academ-ics. Like the GermanBaader Meinhof, theItalian Red Brigadesterrorist nuclei arecomposed of highlyintelligent people, often academics. Thesame is true of Islamic organizations,although there is a reluctance to concedeit. When they achieve a spectacular coup

in a western country, there is a rush toexplain how they couldn’t have outsmart-ed a western government without theactive or passive connivance of that west-ern government or its decision makingbodies. This gives rise to a plethora ofconspiracy theories. If it is accepted thatIslamic terrorists are as intelligent as theEuropean terrorist organizations, itwould lead to more accurate analyses. Bya process of reverse engineering, it is pos-sible to obtain a sharper picture.

Why is there so much Islamic terrorismand is Middle-East really the hub or is itsomewhere else? What is your opinion?A number of Muslims discount the effectsof the thirteenth century Mongol inva-sion of Iraq, which left the Caliphate inruins. Enough Muslims are convincedthat because their destiny was hijackedby the West as part of a concerted plan,their only resort to protect their way oflife and make it available to others is byterrorism. Western socialist discourseposits that terrorism is solely a result ofeconomic conditions, and that once theeconomic environment is improved; peo-ple will abandon terrorism as a means.This approach discounts ambition, senseof destiny and greed. Even this discourseadmits that it will not be the end of com-petition, but that the adversary will thenplay be more acceptable rules. That is nota given. The competitor might well set upother rules nobody’s prepared for!

The hub of Islamic terrorism is amobile base that changes location sub-ject to the level of security available in acountry and the willingness of its govern-ment or elements within, to provide it. Sothis hub has been moving from Syria,Iraq, Libya to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanonto Somalia to Afghanistan and Pakistan.Radical Islamic organizations reason interms of one Islamic space under differ-ent flags, and they are free of any dead-line to achieve the ultimate goal. In con-trast, Western Generals plan for opera-tions within deadlines, and each nationstate is assessed as a distinct sovereign

space. This hidebound view of warfareworks to the advantage of terrorist organ-izations.

How do you see the politics in Pakistanplay out now? The urban elite would like to see a strong,efficient and honest democracy, with themilitary under civilian control. Unfortu-nately, honest politicians are not alwaysvote pullers, and vote pullers not alwayshonest.

Pervez Musharraf did lay the ground-work for a free press, but the digestiveprocess of that liberty is still underway.That facilitates outside observers’ ten-dency to impose wishful thinking on theiranalyses retrieved from press reports andeditorials. Their ears are not at groundlevel, and they can only access the literateurban population through the press. Thepotential for violent instability comesfrom the urban illiterate / semi-literateand the rural masses. They comprise therank and file of militant groups, as insouthern Punjab.

Besides which, they operate in secrecy,as do their supporters. Even the passivesupport can only be assessed by an ear tothe ground. This lacuna is substituted bythe availability of strident tones of theurban elite through the press, leadinganalyses to a qualitative dead end.

Would China prefer the military or Pak-istan Prime Minster Yusuf Raza Gilani?China and Pakistan balance each other inrelation to the United States and India.Unlike the US, China does not help to payPakistan’s bills, but provides military andcivilian support. China is also worriedabout the spill-over of Islamic fundamen-talism from Pakistan within its own bor-ders. While China would like to see astrong military to balance India and stand

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ELITE UNIT: Foreign Legion is Special Forces capable, outperforms allFrench Army units, and is the first to belaunched in a combat situation

WIKIPEDIA/DAVRIC

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up to the US from time to time, it wouldnot like to see the secret services furtherstrengthened, which would be the caseunder military rule. In that scenario, thevilified elements of these secret servicesthat created and sustain fundamentalistgroups would feel more secure. If Gilaniplays his cards right, he might be able tomuster Chinese backing, but that by itselfwould not be enough. He also needsWashington’s gift packages. The icing onthe cake would be Indian support!

How do you see the increasing Chineseincursions into India?Signals of friendship to Pakistan, pre-empting the possibility of Indian gamesin Taiwan , and an exploitation of Indianlaxity and indecisiveness, in varying andoverlapping proportions.

With a deep-water port in SriLanka, Chi-na has completed the SAARC surround-ing of India! Do you think France, UK, USor Russia would be supportive of theIndian predicament?China’s deep-water port in Sri Lanka isIndia’s failure with Sri Lanka, and theisland’s own balance of power policy toobtain some strategic elbow room. AnIndian port in Taiwan would be a reactionin which case, the initiative would staywith China. China is purportedly a threatto American military satellites, or is tryingto be one. That’s an area where Indiashould take the initiative. The second

area is in cyber warfare. The third areashould be in detection and anti-detectionon land, air and sea. This way the Chinesewould have no excuse to step up theirincursions on the Indo-Chinese border.Furthermore, India needs to act in such away that the Chinese react as desired andpredicted to their own initiative.

With Kim Jong dead, North Korea is nowruled by the son of whom we know littleabout. Do you think the Korean situationwill keep China occupied enough to keepits eye off Kashmir and ArunachalPradesh?Perhaps, but it will not be a long-term win-dow of opportunity. Indian intelligenceand think tanks should estimate the dura-tion of this diversion and see how it can beused to their advantage to outpace Chinain space, in cyber warfare and detectionand anti-detection. Perhaps strengthen itsnorthern and north-eastern frontiers, andconcentrate on internal security.

The war on terrorism of the US hasproved to be a damp squib. Do you thinkwe will see a replay of the late 80s andearly 90s when Western nations encour-aged dictators as long as their corporateinterests were protected?This time it would appear to be a seman-tic reinterpretation of Islamic fundamen-talism to vindicate the results of the Arabspring in which they apparently hadsome part to play.

With Kashmir’s strategic importance inthe South Asian and Chinese equation inthe long term, do you see PoK beingoccupied by China as it already hasinstallations there?In case of fragmentation, perhaps, but Ithink the Indian Army might even beatthem to it!

Do you think Pakistan will ever become anation which is relatively stable? If yes,how?Yes, if it makes peace with India in a waythat allows average Pakistanis to main-tain their self-image. Peace with Indiameans radically reduced defence expen-diture that can be channelled into theeconomy and education. An educatedwork-force and Foreign Direct Invest-ment would reduce the misery of thepoor. Otherwise Pakistan is liable to tragi-cally muddle along like Albania, hopingfor the Big Break.

Kindly let us know your affiliations andcurrent position - do you work for theFrench Navy or have you retired?A teacher in France obtains tenure andgrade-A civil service status by passing anational competitive exam. After receiv-ing my PhD suma cum laude, that is whatI did, and was shortly afterwards second-ed to the French Navy. I am now a Lectur-er in English at one of the Toulouse Uni-versity colleges.


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The hub of Islamic terrorismis a mobile base that changeslocation subject to the level ofsecurity available in a countryand the willingness of itsgovernment or elementswithin, to provide it. So this hubhas been moving from Syria,Iraq, Libya to the Bekaa Valleyin Lebanon to Somalia toAfghanistan and Pakistan.

While China would like tosee a strong military tobalance India and stand up tothe US from time to time, itwould not like to see thesecret services furtherstrengthened, which would bethe case under military rule.

The Legion is a highlyprofessional force of verytough soldiers. TheLegion has neverclaimed to be the best,says it is among thebest, probably the best,recognizes equals butknows of no superiors. Itdoes not acknowledgeall operations.

China’s deep-water port in Sri Lanka is India’sfailure with Sri Lanka, and the island’s own balanceof power policy to obtain some strategic elbowroom. An Indian port in Taiwan would be a reaction inwhich case, the initiative would stay with China.

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www.cruisingheights.inSeptember 2011 � ` 90

IMPLEMENTATION OF GROUND HANDLING POLICY DELAYED — ONCE MORE

A STARIS NOTBORN

Air India’s Maharaja may be broken — the rejectionby Star Alliance of Air India’s membership and thewhimsical performance of its erstwhile CMD — but

he has not given up the fight

Jet joins lowfare battle...With IndiGo and SpiceJet takingaway passenger share at homeand abroad

MAKS putsRussia on topThis year’s Moscow Air Showfirmly put Russia on the map ofglobal aviation majors

The Praful PatelyearsPP established milestones that haveacted as catalysts for the Indianairline industry

CRUISING HEIGHTS

FIREWALKERS INCAs fuel prices touch the stratosphere, airlines owners get edgy. It’s like walking onhot coals: they are cutting costs, dropping routes and wondering what to do next

Rs 60June 2008www.cruisingheights.inJuly 2011 � ` 90

INDIAN SUMMER� GOAIR’S JEH WADIA � INDIGO’S RAHUL BHATIA � AIRASIA’S TONY FERNANDES

INDIAN CARRIERS, WITH A MASSIVE DOSE OF HELP FROM MALAYSIA CREATE, A “FRENZY” AT THE PARIS AIR SHOW BY ORDERING A WHOPPING 452 PLANES — ALL FROM AIRBUS.

IT IS TIME AERA NOTICED THE EXISTENCE OF AIR CARGO

January 2012 � `90

PRIME MINISTER’S THRUST AREAS FOR REVIVAL OF CIVIL AVIATION

2012AGENDA FOR A

NEWSTARTIN

STAKEHOLDERS LIST OUT THEIRIMMEDIATE PRIORITIES TO BOOSTTHE DIPPING AVIATION SECTORAND THEIR FORTUNES.

The initiative to usher in hi-techto make the whole experience offlying an enjoyable one is on

Vijay Mallya has to get hisact together if he wants hisairline to survive

Down: TheKF story

But infrastructure enhancementinitiatives will help revive aircargo in 2012

Time to movewith caution…

CRUISING HEIGHTS2011Was year of the

chopper


Airports forsmarter fliers


CRUISING HEIGHTSFebruary 2012 � ` 90

THE BATTLE FOR INDIAN SKIES HAVE BEGUN

Europe is no-entry zoneThe EU’s stand to penalisecarriers earns it worldwidecriticism.

OperationRevival Air IndiaMaharaja gets a booster evenas obstacles continue to stymiethe recovery process.

Gurudev effecton NetajiKolkata International airportterminal gets ready for anJune launch.

Directorate-General of Civil Aviation ticks off all carriers on safety parameters.

Plus: � Maha CM’s choppercall sign woes

� Mobiles torevolutionise air travel

� Panda pair to Parison a plane

Not


ONCE RESPECTED THE WORLD OVER, AIR INDIA’S MAHARAJA IS ALL BUT READY TO THROW IN THE TOWEL. AMIDSTREPORTS OF ITS DEMAND FOR MORE FUNDS, A LAST-DITCHEFFORT IS BEING MADE TO REVIVE THE AILING GIANT

CRUISING HEIGHTSAugust 2011 � ` 90

DOMESTIC CARRIERS MUST CORRECT COURSE TO WIPE OUT THE RED INK

Juhu refuses to take offEven with the green signal toexpand, Mumbai’s Juhu airportstill cannot accommodate traffic

Dreamlinershows its wingsBoeing’s 787 makes awhistlestop tour of India wowingthose invited to fly in it

Tough times forcargo carriersWhile multinationals TNT and FedExare expanding services, Indianstartups face financial obstacles

PLEASE, I WANTSOME MORE


(82)

AS I write this from Syrian capital Damascus,people are participating in what is called areferendum for approving a new constitu-tion that President Bashar al-Assad promis-es and his supporters say will be more “dem-

ocratic”. The new constitution will end the monopolyof the ruling Baath party as the only legitimate politicalparty in the country. That means that there will be amulti-party system. Secondly, the President will bedirectly elected by the people — not through the Baathparty as is the existing system. And he will have onlytwo consecutive terms of seven years each in office,though this feature will be effective withnext Presidential election, thus enablingAssad to have two full terms. Thirdly, elec-tions in Syria under the proposed constitu-tion will be held by the Supreme Constitu-tional Court, an independent body.

However, all these welcome changeswill not make Syria necessarily a demo-cratic country that we Indians believe in. Acountry which has been ruled over the last40 years by one family is not going to be an ideal dem-ocratic country all of a sudden in the absence of dem-ocratic institutions such as independent judiciary andmedia. Besides, Syria, like all other Arab countries,does not have a democratic culture as such. But, twoimportant features of the proposed new constitutionsthat are really contentious are that the President ofSyria must be a Muslim and that the country will beguided by “Islamic principles”. These two features arebackward-looking given the fact that despite being anarguable autocracy, Syria happens to be unarguablythe most secular Arab country. Sectarianism is just notthere in the DNA of an average Syrian. He or she is nodoubt is a proud Arab or a proud Muslim, but thatdoes not mean that Christians, the country’s largestminority, are in any way unequal. The women, unlikein fellow Arab countries, are liberal. In fact, Damascuslooks like a typical western city, going by the choice ofdress and social mores.

However, things may change now. The westerncountries, particularly the United States and France,along with Arab Sheikhdoms of Saudi Arabia and Qataron one hand and Turkey on the other, may have beenunable to dislodge Assad from power as yet, but theyhave scored a partial victory by forcing him to becomeat least a “good Muslim” as defined by the ArabSheikhs, Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida, all ofwhom are fighting together against him. The Islamicfeatures in Assad’s proposed new constitution aremeant clearly to appease sympathisers of the MuslimBrotherhood and al-Qaida within the Sunnis, the coun-try’s majority ethnic group. That it is a sad develop-ment is easily conceded even by the staunchest sup-porters of Assad that I interacted with. They say that it

is “a necessary evil” to restore pace in the country.In fact, anti-Assad movements in a few strategic

spots of Syria expose some paradoxes of the so-calledArab Spring that started in Tunisia in December 2010and engulfed Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Other Arabcountries such as Syria, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait,Bahrain and Morocco have also been affected, but theWest has adopted double standards on the develop-ment. It has justified changes in Egypt, Libya, Yemenand now Syria under the pretext of furthering democ-racy, which, in effect, has resulted in the legitimisationof rank sectarianism. It wants a change in Syria, which

is multi-ethnic and secular, and hand overpower to those who are openly talking of a“Khilafah state” to be managed by Sunnis.The West does not find it repugnant to sidewith the well-entrenched monarchies suchas Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are cer-tainly not citadels of democracy and havedirectly or indirectly furthered the cause ofWahabism or Islamic fundamentalism allover the world. For them, Iran and Iraq are

enemies essentially because they are Shia-dominated.They want to throw away Assad because he is a Shiaruling over a country where Sunnis constitute themajority. The West supports all these oil Sheikhdomsand closed its eyes when Saudi Arabia militarily inter-vened last year in Shia-majority Bahrain to defend itsSunni ruler.

Speaking geopolitically, what we are seeing inWest Asia these days is that the West is with those whoare trying to open the traditional fault lines along eth-nic and tribal divides. But this strategy is not exactlyworking in Syria, even though rebels in the countryare being financed openly by Qatar and armed clan-destinely by Turkey, all with the tacit Western support.It is to the credit of Assad that he draws support, atleast till now, from all sections in the country with apopulation of 22 million. It is natural for him to havethe full backing of his Shiite Alawite tribes (12 per centof the population) and Christians (10 per cent); buthis real strength flows from his overwhelming accept-ability among the Arab Sunnis, who account for near-ly 60 per cent of the country’s population. Kurds, alsoSunnis, add to another nine per cent. Under a Christ-ian defence minister, the Syrian armed forces, wellrepresented by the Sunnis, are deeply loyal to theAssad. And that explains why the West and Sunni Arabstates have failed to project an opposition leader as aneffective alternative to him. Assad may not be ademocrat, but he is certainly not a Saddam Hussein orColonel Gaddafi.

[email protected]

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