THE TRIBUNE

08 OPINION CHANDIGARH | MONDAY | 2 OCTOBER 2017

THE TRIBUNE Made in India vs America First

established in 1881 Re-evaluating the dynamics of ties
MK Bhadrakumar a production line for fighter jets and oth-

Choices for Raj Bhavans er equipment on Indian soil and, sec-

T
HE visit by the US Defence ondly, that they do not want to be held
Secretary James Mattis to liable for any defects in equipment
Gravitas missing, mostly New Delhi last week provided jointly produced with Indian counter-
the opportunity for the first parts. Clearly, “Make in India” is fast

T
HE only thing that recommends itself about the Centre’s choice focused high-level interaction between
of six new gubernatorial faces is that the Home Ministry at last the two countries regarding President
could attend to this critical task of filling vacancies in various Trump’s announcement of the new
Raj Bhavans. It is, at best, a mixed bag. It is perhaps too late in the day policy outlining a new South Asia
to lament that every regime at the Centre ends up using the Raj Bha- strategy. Unsurprisingly, much specu-
vans and Raj Niwases as parking space for redundant political figures. lation preceded Mattis’ arrival in Del-
There is not much to write home about choices, belatedly, made. hi. Arms dealers and fat cats anticipat-
There is one significant omission in the Saturday’s announcement: ed defence deals and closer military
the Srinagar Raj Bhavan remains undisturbed. For too long there have ties — in particular, the US offer to
been unhealthy and unbecoming speculations – mostly emanating from relocate its factory for production of
the ruling party quarters in Delhi and Jammu—that a new Governor vintage F-16 fighter jets to India, which
would be arriving shortly in Srinagar. Jammu and Kashmir is too sensi- is being mothballed in America.
Western media reports even linked
tive a state to be subjected to such uncertainties and doubts. All said and
closer US-Indian military ties with
done, the Jammu and Kashmir Governor is the Centre’s emissary and
Trump’s Afghanistan strategy. Some
representative, as well as New Delhi’s eyes and ears besides being con- Indian reports blithely forecast a
stitutionally obliged to be a watchful guardian of the state’s well-being. deployment of Indian troops to
Given the state’s troubled circumstances, at no time there should be Afghanistan. But, in all fairness, Mattis
any doubt about the Centre’s confidence and trust in the Governor of himself was noticeably circumspect. En
the day. NN Vohra’s presence has had a stabilising and salutary effect route to Delhi, he told the Pentagon
in these times of considerable confusion atop the Raisina Hills. press party accompanying him that the
And, there is a significant inclusion—Brigadier (retd) BD Mishra Trump administration viewed India as a
as Governor for Arunachal Pradesh. While it has been customary for “natural strategic partner” and that he
some time now to trawl the retired armed forces leadership for poten- hoped to “set a refreshed partnership”.
tial gubernatorial choices in the North-East, it is the first time that a He said he was hoping to “basically put-
Brigadier-level official has been tapped on the shoulder. Arunachal ting meat on the structure… (and) pro-
mote pragmatic progress” in the
Pradesh is a state where the Army has considerable voice in guaran-
defence partnership, “delivering
teeing its security and stability. A retired Brigadier in the Itanagar
defence interoperability”. He saw the
Raj Bhavan would make a strange interlocutor for the Army brass, visit as an opportunity to speed up deci-
wedded as it is to the discipline of hierarchy and protocol. Brigadier sion-making by the bureaucracy at a
Mishra’s only claim to fame is that he has been associated with the “time of strategic convergence”
BJP’s ex-servicemen cell and was actively involved in mobilising the between Washington and Delhi. Plainly
fauji constituency during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This choice
is fraught with implications, mostly unhealthy.
put — and divested of the usual high-
flown rhetoric about “shared values”, et
al — Mattis hinted at his intent to give
ballast to the arms sales by American
vendors, project new arms deals and
becoming a nuisance.
Sitharaman also shrewdly distanced
India from Trump’s new Afghan strate-
gy. She made three key points: one,
India’s Afghan policies enjoy great con-
tinuity (by far predating Trump’s entry
into politics and diplomacy); two,
India’s focus will be on assisting
Afghanistan in its development, econo-
my, capacity-building — nothing more,
nothing less; and, most importantly,
India will not deploy troops to
Afghanistan. All in all, she factored in
NOT QUITE THERE: The US, in spite of Trump’s tirade, wants to take Pakistan along.
that in the prevailing international
appropriate to the relationship with In the circumstances, Defence Minis- milieu, the challenge for Indian diplo-
Afghanistan”. Curiously, Mattis ducked ter Nirmala Sitharaman did brilliantly macy lies in differentiating the impera-
a pointed question as to whether there well by underscoring in her joint press tive needs of India’s military moderni-
is any shift in the locus of US-Indian conference with Mattis that much as she sation (and the creation of a world-class
security partnership away from the appreciated his “willingness to share defence industry) from the geopolitics
Obama administration’s efforts “to get further cutting-edge platforms… we swirling around the region. After all,
India more involved in the South China need to expand on the progress already Asia-Pacific did not stand still because
Sea”, towards Afghanistan. made by encouraging co-production of Mattis’ visit. US Vice-President Mike
What sails into view is a complex par- and co-development efforts”. Sithara- Pence met Pakistani PM Shahid
adigm of US-Indian defence partner- man added candidly: “I reiterated Khaqan Abbasi on September 20 for an
ship in the Trump era. Quite obviously, India’s deep interest in enhancing important conversation about the Pres-
Mattis’ brief was to play on Indian van- defence manufacturing in India under ident’s South Asia strategy and high-
ities as a regional and global power and PM Modi’s Make-in-India initiative. I lighted ways that “Pakistan could work
establish a source of funding for “Amer- thank Secretary Mattis for his support- with the US and others to bolster stabil-
ica First” via lucrative arms deals. The ive position in this regard and look for- ity and prosperity for all in South Asia”
Afghan problem and China’s rise pro- ward to working closely with him to and reiterated President Trump’s belief
vide leitmotifs in the US-Indian strate- realise joint projects.” She stressed that that “Pakistan has much to gain from
gic partnership, but in reality, the rela- the US announcement last year recog- partnering with our effort in the region”.
Again, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
The US recognises India as a ‘major defence partner’, but the idea is arrived in Beijing on yet another visit “to
meet with senior Chinese leaders… (to)
to sell arms and not ‘co-develop’ weapons or transfer technology discuss a range of issues, including the
. President’s planned travel to the region,
tionship complicates the advancement nising India as a major defence partner the denuclearisation of the Korean

Massacre on the tracks urge the Indian defence establishment

to speed up decision-making on the
pending proposals.
Disconnect in strategy and reality Interestingly, however, Mattis was cir-
cumspect on Afghanistan. He never
of Sino-Indian and India-Pakistan ties,
which of course serves a useful purpose
both as a template of the US’ contain-
ment strategy against China as well as
to bring pressure to bear on Pakistan to
should go beyond optics and actually
“refocus and reenergise the defence
technology and trade initiative as a
mechanism to promote technology-
sharing as well as co-development and
Peninsula, and trade and investment.”
Washington flagged that Tillerson’s vis-
it “reaffirms the (Trump) administra-
tion’s commitment to further broaden
and enhance US economic and security

T
HE case for the prosecution is easily made. The footbridge at once voiced any criticism of Pakistan.
Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road station that shattered the dreams He insisted that the “relationship we
and aspirations of 22 families was waiting to be replaced. It is a are building with India is not to the
similar story with railway tracks, especially in the Indo-Gangetic exclusion of other countries”. Mattis
basin, where trains derail with familiar regularity during monsoons. was confident that “Pakistan will find
Reservations are still hard to get and safety of passengers and their nothing out of line with India and the
belongings is still not guaranteed. Neither is punctuality. Having US alignment in the same fight”. He
commended India’s role in
dialled up expectations to new levels, the Modi government is strug-
Afghanistan but “would see them
gling to deliver while the country is being entertained and wowed
(India) continuing along the lines they
with glossy power point slides of futuristic stations with escalators have already chosen, and looking for
aplenty and glittering shop fronts. The only missing component is the other areas that they may believe
passengers and the staff. And that perhaps characterises the govern-
ment’s strategy for the railways.
The staff is demoralised, unsure and wary of what the future holds for
them in face of the overwhelming itch to dismantle the existing systems
and processes while passengers suffer the indignities of stinking waiting
rooms, overcrowded trains and below-par food quality. The Planning
Commission’s watchful eye is out of the way and transparency curtailed
The password maze
after the scrapping of the Railway Budget. There is no independent over- Mina Surjit Singh
sight about where the funds are being frittered. Does the Chandigarh-
New Delhi route need thousands of crores to speed up a 195-minute jour-
ney? There is no expert oversight to calculate its rate of return; none
either to draw attention to the apparent contradiction of arm-twisting the
state-owned railways into shouldering a multibillion dollar project like
O UR daughter-in-law, who came
into the family some 20 years
ago, was a proficient
Microsoft-certified computer instruc-
tor and subsequently became the
the bullet train while its revenue earning trunk routes and heavily patro- prime motivator of my foray into the
nised railway stations are to be turned over to the private sector. technological wonderland of comput-
The blowback from a whimsical approach is on the expected lines. ers. Had she not insisted on me buy-
For the first time in 15 years, the railways is running in losses while ing a computer and exploring its myr-
the debt burden is mounting. Three ministers for the railways in as iad possibilities and had I not spent
many years reveal the Modi government’s inability to come to grips several triumphant hours poring over
with how the railways has kept going. Having dispensed with trans- the machine, I would have found
parency and oversight, the results are self-evident. myself struggling for space in the fas-
cinating web of the digitalised world.
With determination, I plodded along.
Not many middle-aged people were
Thought for the Day Internet-savvy then and I had reason to
show off my new skills. However, my
May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears. — Nelson Mandela enthusiasm soon gave way to the enor-
cooperate with the US strategy in
Afghanistan. India runs the risk of
entrapment if it chooses to view its all-
important ties with the US through the
prism of its problematic relationships
with Pakistan and China, instead of
attributing a raison d’etre for them in
intrinsic terms related to India’s devel-
opment and its needs and aspirations as
a regional power. Indeed, there is no cer-
tainty that the US concedes equal part-
nership to any interlocutor.
mous burden of creating a new pass-
word for every portal or service I wished
to avail of or register with. After consid-
erable juggling with the necessity of
having an email account with a
“strong” password, I decided to acquire
a spanking new ID with an email serv-
ice provider. The first one that came to
my mind was Yahoo. After trying sever-
al combinations, I settled for what I
thought was quite ingenious—
minsins24.7@yahoo.com! It was a judi-
cious mix of upper and lower case char-
acters, numbers and special characters.
However, as soon as I leaned back to
survey the originality of my handiwork,
I stared in disbelief at the monster my
imagination had conjured up! The very
mention of a Yahoo in my mailing
address along with its not so flattering
connotations triggered off a host of
co-production efforts.”
Of course, Sitharaman would know
that the US doesn’t “co-develop”
weapons or transfer military technology
developed at enormous cost. It prefers
to sell weapons and keep the end-users
on a tight leash. Reuters reported
recently that the US-India Business
Council in a letter to the Indian Defence
Ministry in August made it clear that US
firms want to retain control over tech-
nology even if they are allowed to set up
unsavory associations with Jonathan
Swift’s grovelling Yahoos wallowing in
their own carnal desires and grime!
Therefore Yahoo was promptly dropped
from my list of choices from among sev-
eral other webs hosting the service. So
“Google” it was this time. I started doo-
dling with passwords that I could easily
recall and decided on one that I pre-
sumed would ensure my invisibility to
voyeuristic vigilantism.
And thus began my tedious journey
through the maze of passwords. I
found myself sinking deeper and deep-
er into the quagmire of login PWs and
PIN codes. All passwords, from bank-
ing to bill payments, were perpetually
threatened by selective amnesia unless
one engaged in mental calisthenics. I
would scratch my head in exasperation
to recall if the correct PW was “tweedle-
interests in the Asia-Pacific region”.
Of course, just before emplaning for
Beijing, Tillerson also co-chaired with
the visiting Chinese vice-premier Liu
Landong the first China-US Social and
People-to-People Dialogue. And
Trump himself received Liu in the
White House on September 29 to con-
vey that his visit to China in November
is sure to be a “success”.
The writer is a former ambassador
foxeddum8.10deMo@aol.com or
TweEdleFeltdumb@hotmail.com. In
my zealousness to guard my privacy I
would often get locked out of my own
account and keep praying for some
sleight of hand that would grant me a
rite of passage to the never-never land
I had attempted to create for myself.
Nevertheless, I continue to bless my
daughter-in-law for her contribution to
make my life relatively easier, notwith-
standing the challenging rigmarole of
forgotten passwords and SOS calls for
frequent bailouts. As a result, I am
capable of not only coping with the real
and virtual world around me, but also
of pitching in to help others, despite
advancing age and creaking bones. My
journey into unfamiliar territory two
decades back has been a fulfilling one
of self-discovery, and self-worth.

letters to the editor

Silent on trollers
A seemingly frightened Ravish
Kumar’s loosely composed letter
does not make much sense (‘Is my
life in danger?’ Ravish Kumar asks
PM, September 30). His main stress
is on why Modi is following certain
venomous trollers. I am a strong
critic of some of Modi’s policies,
particularly the economic ones, still
I follow him on Twitter. That does
not make me a blind Modi follower.
Without following him how would
one know how much lies he states
every day? Ravish’s chief objection
should have been Modi’s deadly
silence on such vociferously con-
demnable trollers.
BALVINDER, CHANDIGARH
Dangerous times
Congratulations to The Tribune for
publishing Ravish Kumar’s letter. He
is continuously exposing Hindu fun-
damentalists and attempts of the
Modi government to parade its fail-
ures as successes. Such a person was
bound to be in the eye of the storm of
hypocritical people. But he is dear to
the general masses and intellectuals.
The fact that those who are abusing
and threatening him are also linked
on Whatsapp/Twitter to PM Modi
gives a clear warning to the people of
India that democracy and integration
is on the verge of subversion.
JAGTAR SINGH GILL, PATIALA
Brave act
Things have come to such a pass that
anchor-journalist Ravish Kumar has
to express his apprehension that he is
not safe and writing an open letter to
the Prime Minister. His letter is an
eye-opener and has created an
upheaval in social media. He deserves
a pat for his brave act. The only course
left with a journalist to remove his
fear in the present-day circumstances
is to seek intervention and protection
from an elected constitutional head.
SHADI LAL, BY MAIL
Media should unite
The article by Ravish Kumar is sensi-
tive and exposes the BJP govern-
ment’s intolerant attitude. If a person
holding the status of a reputed jour-
nalist feels suffocated and is afraid of
Modi bhakts, where will the common
man go? The article warns against
where our democracy is going.
Nobody is allowed to express one’s
views. The time is coming when the
tongue and the pen would be con-
trolled by powerful fanatic leaders. It
may turn out to be another Taliban
regime. Sometimes it appears that TV
channels are singing songs of praise
to please their masters and take max-
imum ads. It is the duty of all media-
persons to stand up and save the free-
dom of expression and democracy.
HARDIP SINGH BHENGURA, GURDASPUR
Ignoring real issues
Ravish Kumar is one of few anchor-
journalists who highlight the real
problems of India, while many others
divert the attention of people to other
less-important issues like beef, love
jihad and other communal topics. Our
country is poor. Every government
must think about the basic needs of its
people, but instead of working on it,
there is self-praise. The ‘crowd’ cre-
ated by politics on social media plat-
forms and society will become a
challenge for society, especially
women. Their language is crude and
anti-women. PM Modi is the protec-
tor of the Constitution, so he must
reflect on the letter and take suitable
action to enhance the dignity of his
post. All mediahouses should raise
their voice against this injustice.
VIJAY KARAN SINGH, MALERKOTLA
Be open to counterview
Apropos the editorial ‘Sinha versus Sin-
ha’ (September 29), it is unfair to pit a
subordinate minister against his father
for rebutting the latter’s views on the
downturn of the economy. Yashwant
Sinha is a veteran of financial matters
and a patriotic bureaucrat-turned-politi-
cian who walks and talks straight. It
would have been a fitting gesture on
Modi’s part to have heard out Sinha’s
views on various issues. Yashwant Sin-
ha is a senior BJP leader and deserves a
better deal from the Prime Minister. He
was right to air his concern before the
media after he was ignored by Modi to
share his experience and views with
him. Modi’s attitude of discouraging
others to express their views is detri-
mental to the functioning of our democ-
racy. When Modi met Manmohan Singh
to seek his views on economic issues, it
was hoped that he would also seek the
advice and guidance of senior states-
men and veteran politicians to avoid
blunders on policy parameters. But
Modi seems to be committed to ekla
chalo re. Good luck to Mr Modi, elec-
tions are round the corner.
RM RAMAUL, PAONTA SAHIB
Mumbai stampede
The human tragedy at Elphinstone
railway station is a grim example of
human failure (‘And just like that, 22
killed in Mumbai’, September 30).
Hardly any day passes when there is
no rail accident in India. The foot
overbridge had outlived its normal
span of life. Several times it was
brought to the notice of the railways
minister, to construct another over-
bridge. Even the provision for an over-
bridge made in the 2016 Budget bore
no result. It is pathetic to note that
human life has no value in our scheme
of safety and security. We wait for a
tragedy to happen and then react to
pay compensation for the loss of life
and take corrective measures. We do
not have any system to replace out-
lived machinery and equipment. We
believe in sab chalta hai. It is one
thing to order an inquiry and quite
another to take remedial measures.
COL ANGAD SINGH (RETD), MOHALI
No funds for overbridge?
The death of 22 persons in the Mumbai
stampede is tragic. There have been a
lot of casualties in the last few months.
It is unacceptable. Even after a new rail-
ways minister took over, nothing
changed, as many complaints had been
filed over this narrow foot overbridge.
But nothing came of it. Was the railways
department waiting for a tragedy like
this? On the other hand, huge amount
will be spent on the bullet train project,
but they lack funds for widening one of
the most busy bridges. Are these the
acche din the government promised?
NAMAN SEHGAL, AMRITSAR
Jaundiced view
S Nihal Singh’s piece ‘India’s Pak-
istan-bashing’ (September 30) is a
scathing criticism of Modi’s foreign
policy. The writer has conveniently
forgotten the steps taken by this gov-
ernment to mend fences with Pak-
istan. There are many power centres
in Pakistan. India has every right to
defend itself against wild and
unfounded allegations levelled by
Pakistan. A journalist of repute
should not take a jaundiced view.
ASHOK SHARMA, PANCHKULA

Letters to the Editor, typed in double space, should not exceed the 200-word limit. These should be cogently written and can be sent by e-mail to: Letters@tribuneindia.com