Wednesday, July 11, 2018

: RAKSHA MANTRI’S SOPHISTRY: OPENING OF CANTT ROADS; THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL!

SOURCE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lt-gen-p-g-kamath-91607499







RAKSHA MANTRI’S SOPHISTRY:

OPENING OF CANTT ROADS; THE 

UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL!

By

PG Kamath




09 Jul 2018


The Raksha Mantri (RM) in her own words had three

 meeting in April on 2nd, 17th and 26th.  In May, she had 

nine meetings on 4th, 9th, 15th,16th,17th,18th,19th, 22nd 

and 23rd.  Just look at her perseverance and her 

adherence to the Principle of War; Selection and 


Maintenance of Aim.  





You must all be thinking that she 


has gone on the war footing to improve the operational 


readiness of the Armed Forces to win the two and half


 front war under ‘Nuclear Biological and Chemical


 environment? Sadly, it was not to be! 







It was a well-planned a strategy with all the elements of

 deception, intrigue and subterfuge to achieve a victory

 of vested interests over the Indian Army.  

You should

 have seen the Victory Parade of her party goons, who

 mocked the sentries in Delhi Cantonment, when their

 leader, who also happens to be the ‘Raksha Mantri’ of

 our nation enabled it. Kudos to her sagacity; seldom

 you will find a Raksha Mantri, who can work so hard to

 compromise the security of families and children of the

 armed forces; including those, who are separated from

 their husbands and fathers, and deployed on the

 operational frontiers of the country. 



Why did she do it? 




She subjected the press to more than fifteen minutes of

 harangue trying to defend the indefensible.  One could

 see her nervousness while replying; trying her best to

 remain calm and composed belying her internal conflict;

 however, one could not fail to notice, that it was indeed 

a valiant but unsuccessful effort. 





The RM has been apparently professional in getting the

 roads opened in 62 cantonments; all need to take


 lessons as to how with single-minded devotion and


 resolve, the country’s security can be bartered to curry


 favour with local politicians; and, if that politician


 happens to be your spouse and pillow talks you into it: 


Then indeed; it has to be done with all the speed 


preferably under a veneer of pretentious


 professionalism, preceded by a charade of mock


 consultations.  Brilliantly adroit, stunningly clever with


 manipulative cunningness to back up one’s ulterior slick


 design under a façade of impassioned work ethos; the


 whole exercise was a mastery in deception with a


 mystery in intention, aimed to open the Cantt Roads in


 the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, that


 would facilitate schools run by local politicians.


  Incidentally ‘Pranav International School’, close to the


 Airforce Station is run by the spouse of RM.  He is the


 Chairman of the Parakala Seshavataram Memorial Trust,


 which runs the school.  The RM herself was also a


 Director in the Trust.  At one stroke, her spouse has


 become a darling of CM of Telangana and a host of


 brokers, landowners, realtors, businessmen,


 shopkeepers and school owners. All this, she could


 have done by just requesting the LMA to open a couple


 of roads in the twin cities.  The Chief would have


 willingly done it:  No, it should not appear so simple!


  Everyone should know that the RM means business and to cloak her vested interest in a garb of ‘Pan-India’ exercise involving 62 Cantonments was the central theme of the plot.  Trying her best to appear just and taking cudgels against the Indian Army; the final justice she delivers is to our enemies giving them ample soft targets in multiple cantonments, to perpetuate their terrorist activities.  







Now, let us look, who all have benefited from the move?

  First and foremost; it is a bonanza to the illegal


 encroachers as they have free access to their


 encroached settlements.  The next are those, who are


 staying illegally in huge Old Grant Bungalows and


 lapsed leased properties.  All, if not most of them are


 living illegally in collusion with the corrupt Defence


 Estate Officials with the backing of the Defence 


Ministry.  These illegal occupants would have free


 access to their illegally occupied properties


 perpetuating the unholy nexus.  The next beneficiary is


 the ‘Land Mafia’, who again in collusion with the


 Defence Estate Officials have raised the value of land


 within the Cantonments. All commercial establishments


 within the Cantonments would have additional footfalls


 and the rent and allied charges would increase steeply.


  Lastly, it is a windfall for the Director General of


 Defence Estates (DGDE) and all his officials, who would


 make money from all the above beneficiaries.  Next, it


 would also benefit all the lorries, buses, taxis,


 autorickshaws, tempos, and literally all and sundry to


 rush through the cantonment and despoil its sanctity


 and cleanliness.  It would also help private schools’


 buses to cut short the distance and make greater profits


 from the hapless parents.  One of the several


 beneficiaries is Pranav International School.    Look,


 how cleverly the plot has been hatched with detached


 attachment? Detached as others do not know; to whom


 the school belongs? Attached; as she knows that it


 belongs to her spouse and she was also a director in


 the Board of Trustees. 






Though I do not want to drag the spouse of the RM in the

 controversy, but the concatenation of circumstances


 shows, how he has benefited from the opening of the


 roads.  His parents were congress politicians of Andhra


 Pradesh and he was initially a congressman.  Later, he


 became the spokesperson of Andhra Pradesh unit o


BJP.  Then he hopped on to Praja Rajyam Party and


 became its General Secretary and spokesman.  Due to


 its poor performance, the party was subsumed into


 Congress. In May 2014, Ms Sitharaman was appointed


 as Commerce Minister in BJP government.  In just over


 a month Mr Prabhakar was appointed as


 Communication Adviser with Cabinet rank to Andhra


 Pradesh Government.  These were the heydays when


 TDP and BJP were in bear hugging, back-slapping


 bonhomie and allies.  Mr Naidu was sweating to get


 Andhra Pradesh ‘Special Category’ status from the


 Union Government? What better way, than to appoint


 the party hopping Prabhakar and give him a status of 


Cabinet rank.  In mid-2017, there were strong rumours to


 make Prabhakar a MLC under the Governor’s quota and


 appoint him as a Cabinet Minister.  This could not be 


done as there were many party seniors, aspiring for the 


post.  Thus, the CM of Andhra Pradesh managed to have


 a mole in the union government in Ms Sitharaman, who


 would bat for him to get his state the much-sought


 Special Category status.  As it did not come about in the


 budget of 2018-19, the TDP split from NDA and the CM


 became the arch critic of the Union Government.  Now,


 Prabhakar was actually redundant to TDP.  He had


 piggybacked on the meteoric rise of his spouse and


 would have continued to progress, in case the Andhra


 Pradesh was given the ‘Special Category Status; alas! It


 was not to be. 





Isn’t it the right time to sow his political roots in

 Telangana? The CM of Telangana has been highly

 critical of the Defence Ministry for the restrictions, on

 the use of roads and is also eyeing defence lands in

 Secunderabad Cantt.  Most politicians run their schools

 near about the Cantt.  There is also a school run by a

 Missionary, who have always complained about the

 restrictions on the use of roads in the Cantt.  To put the

 matters straight; the Cantonments have existed for ages

 when there was no civil population around it.  The

 growth of the settlements around the Cantts ought to

 have been regulated by the State Governments, keeping

 the security perspective in mind.  Isn’t it a joke that the

 local government make colonies and settlements

 around by taking bribes and indulge in unplanned

 growth and then blame the Cantts for restricting the

 entry? However, the RM does not think so.  Her chief

 adviser is DGDE.  One has to just read any 

‘Performance and Audit Report on Defence Estate

 Management’ by CAG or Public Accounts Committee to

 gauge the credibility of the organisation.  As in my

 earlier writings, the RM takes the opinion of Vice

 Presidents and not of the Local Military Authorities, who

 are presidents of the Cantonment Boards.  Just see the

 TOI; Hyderabad Edition dated 8 Jun 2018; the Vice

 President of Cantt Boards warns the army authorities

 i.e. his President, to open the roads.  One needs to read

 a brilliant article entitled

‘MOD has Politicised Securityfor Electoral Reasons: Opening of Cantonment Roads Show That’ by Lt Gen Prakash Menon and Ram Ganesh,

https://theprint.in/opinion/mod-has-politicised-security-for-electoral-reasons-opening-of-cantonment-roads-shows-that/73513/


where they aver the responsibility of defence of

 Cantonments is of the MOD.  The responsibility to

 provide civic facilities to the populace is the

 responsibility of the Ministry of Housing and Urban

 Affairs at the union level and Municipal Corporations at

 the state level. In Secunderabad, it is the responsibility

 of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to look into

 the problems faced by the residents. Even the Andhra

 Pradesh High Court on 26 Sep 2014 ruled in favour of

 Local Military Authorities, their right to impose

 restrictions on Cantt roads to meet the ends of security.

  However, the RM forgets for what she is paid for, and

 assumes the responsibility of Mayor of GHMC and

 incurs ‘contempt of court’. 






The TOI Hyderabad Edition of 18 Jun 2018, further cites

 more than 2000 new housing units would come up in


 areas close the Cantonment in the next one and half


 years.  Thanks to the RM and the local hero for


 facilitating it; her spouse.  It is just a matter to time that


 he would be politically rehabilitated by the KCR


 government for yeoman’s service rendered to all


 beneficiaries in the twin cities.  The path is also clear as


 he has resigned from the TDP government.  All the


 realtors, land mafias, encroachers, illegal occupants of


 Old Grant Bungalows and leased properties owe their


 largesse to him.  I leave the rest to your imagination.







Dear Raksha Mantri! 


It is high time you come out clean to the Prime Minister

 on the ‘Great Game’ you played.  You are relying on


 amnesia of the public psyche to forget your perfidy.  


You are also relying on the press, who are incapable of


 pursuing an event after the initial outcry. Once the


 brouhaha has died down, you will continue to harves


the goodies for despoiling the sanctity and security of 62


 cantonments.  If any untoward incident happens in any


 of the Cantonments, like Lady Macbeth; you would be 


trying to wash off your blood-stained hands for the rest


 of your life

































Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Geography's Curse: India's Vulnerable 'Chicken's Neck

SOURCE: 
 ( A )  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAVmF8BPjk

  ( B )  https://thediplomat.com/2013/11/geographys-curse-indias-vulnerable-chickens-neck/





                 Geography's Curse: 

     India's Vulnerable 'Chicken's Neck





Why Siliguri Corridor is very important to India? – India's Chicken's Neck




                                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAVmF8BPjk







                  




The Siliguri Corridor is a terrifyingly vulnerable artery in India’s geography.'










If you’ve been following The Pulse here at The Diplomat recently, you may have noted a few recent pieces (including one by yours truly) on India’s North-Eastern states. In any discussion of the governance problems or border issues in India’s North-East, a commonly mentioned word is “isolation.” The North-Eastern states are politically and geographically distant from New Delhi, and certain parts of the region share more in common culturally with Burma than they do with Punjab, or even West Bengal. A quirk of South Asian political geography has made it quite challenging for New Delhi to effectively integrate the North-Eastern states: the Siliguri Corridor.
Like most of the borders in South Asia, the Siliguri Corridor – known also as the “Chicken’s Neck”– is a cartographic relic of the British decolonization process. As the British Empire withdrew and partitioned British India along religious lines to create the modern states of India and Pakistan (which was then divided into East and West Pakistan), it drew the lines that lead to the Siliguri in an attempt to maintain contiguity between Bengal and Assam. The creation of East Pakistan (which became Bangladesh in 1971) along religious lines necessitated the awkward choke point in India’s contemporary geography. The Siliguri, at its slimmest point, puts less than a marathon’s distance between the Bangladeshi and Nepalese borders (14 miles). 
All land trade between North-East India’s 40 million denizens and the rest of the country traverses the Siliguri owing to the lack of a free-trade agreement between India and Bangladesh. In 2002, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh joined India in discussing a proposal to create a free-trade agreement that would have facilitated the movement of goods across the Siliguri corridor, but no such agreement has been established. Further reinforcing the strategic precariousness of the region is the fact that a single-line railway is all that carries rail-based freight across the Siliguri. The harsh topography of the region makes the railway and roads subject to damage from frequent landslides and natural disaster; India’s North-East is known for its record-breaking levels of rainfall. 



As if natural disasters were not enough to send the Siliguri to the top of the list of India’s strategic anxieties, the corridor has a complex and troubled political history. The situation has somewhat improved since the pre-1971 era, when icy relations with China in the north and East Pakistan meant that the region was a constant source of cross-border tension. Since the 1962 war with China, Indian strategists have envisioned a future scenario where "the Chinese may simply bypass and drop Special Forces to choke vulnerable Siliguri Corridor and cut off the Northeast.” China’s diplomacy with Bhutan gives reason to take this possibility seriously; in 1996, China began a concerted diplomatic effort to yield a border claim with Bhutan in exchange for the Doklam Plateau. The territorial swap with Bhutan would place in China’s hands the key to India’s choke point in the Siliguri.
India’s fortunes in the Siliguri were slightly ameliorated when the tiny monarchy of Sikkim – situated just north of the Siliguri, between Nepal, China, and Bhutan – merged with India in 1975 to become its second-smallest state. Sikkim had long been a subject of controversy between India and China. In the early 2000s, China refused to acknowledge Sikkim as part of India, maintaining that it was an independent state. The decision to do so was sparked by a controversy around the 17th Karmapa of the Black Hat branch of Tibetan Buddhism. Nevertheless, in 2003, China granted de facto recognition of Sikkim as a part of India by ceasing to list it as a separate state on its official documents and maps. 
In acknowledgement of its importance to India’s national security, the state maintains a heavy patrol presence in the Siliguri region. The Indian Army, the Assam Rifles, the Border Security Force, and the West Bengal Police all patrol the region. India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known to closely observe Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Bangladeshi activity in the region as well. Among other issues, the Siliguri has been vulnerable to illegal Bangladeshi immigration into India. Certain analysts have also speculated that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has attempted to exploit the Siliguri via Nepal-based insurgents.
The Siliguri Corridor is a terrifyingly vulnerable artery in India’s geography. For Indians in the North-East, every look at a map is a sobering reminder of just how fragile their physical and economic tether to the rest of the country remains. Unlike so many of the problems India faces, the Siliguri Corridor’s vulnerability is a cruel endowment of political geography and essentially one it is stuck with. On the bright side, the current level of strategic vulnerability is far lower than it was in the past and can be further moderated with the establishment of a free-trade agreement between the states bordering the Siliguri.




Read More: Behind China’s Sikkim aggression, a plan to isolate Northeast from the rest of India – The Economic Times https://goo.gl/1bk8yb China says area where Road being built does not belong to Bhutan – NDTV https://goo.gl/7dtP72s India ready, theoretically: ‘Threats’ to Siliguri Corridor war- gamed https://goo.gl/37miyE Illegal Bangladeshi Migration to India: Impact on Internal Security – Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis https://goo.gl/iwGXtu The Chicken’s Neck Conspiracy: An Analysis – Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) https://goo.gl/L2XPkc India China Stand-off shadow on the Chicken’s Neck – One India https://goo.gl/HNYQXZ




















Monday, July 2, 2018

CPEC STUD BULLS IN PAKISTAN - CHINA’S DEMOGRAPHIC ONSLAUGHT ON PAKISTAN

SOURCE:
http://money-wise.in/1969-2



CHINA’S DEMOGRAPHIC ONSLAUGHT ON PAKISTAN -IS THIS THE REAL REASON FOR CPEC


By

 Dr.Kartik Hegadekatti





The ongoing $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project has courted a lot of international attention. The minute details of the project have been kept tightly under wraps. Several observers are giving various reasons for China’s keen interest in the project. Pakistan today is a nation about which any investor would think several times before investing his money. With fundamentalism on the rise, being a hotbed of terror and with its economy and administration in shambles, Pakistan today is an investor’s nightmare. Yet, China has invested in Pakistan through CPEC, with all guns blazing.
It is estimated that the $62 billion that China is “investing” in CPEC is more than all the FDI that Pakistan has ever attracted, since 1970. Moreover, the CPEC “investment” alone is around 20% of Pakistan’s GDP.
Despite Pakistan being an investor’s nightmare, China has entered Pakistan in a big way. Why?
Several reasons have been cited by international experts. Some say China wants to encircle India. Some others opine that China wants to rapidly develop its ‘isolated’ western part. It is also thought that China wants to secure its energy and communications lines in the event of a lockdown of the Malacca Strait.
But amidst all this, one vital question lingers. Why Pakistan?
If we analyze closely, keeping in view China’s internal politics and history, a different picture emerges as to why Pakistan was chosen by China to be the “Fulcrum” of its One Belt One Road (OBOR) policy.
The answer for the above question simply put, is that China has chosen Pakistan for OBOR in order to “stabilize its demographic imbalance”. Confused? Let me elaborate.
Since the 1970s, China has aggressively implemented a “One Child Policy” (OCP). Because of OCP, married couples in China had to bring up only one child. They were provided incentives for that. In case of flouting the norm, they were punished. Not physically, but economically. The second child had to be brought up with the family’s own resources. And the government did not provide any subsidy for the “extra” child’s social costs. And Chinese society (like most Asian societies) is a male-offspring obsessed society. It is estimated that in the 35 years since its implementation, China prevented 400 million additional births. And most of the prevented births were that of female offsprings. Recently China relaxed its OCP. It did that for a reason. China now has 30 million men of marriageable age, who will never find a bride. And 30 million is a big number. 30 million is the population of many European/African nations. Imagine 30 million male youths; raging to release testosterone. They can cause unprecedented havoc, law and order problems and societal catastrophe.
How do you manage these 30 million men? The Chinese military is only 2.5 million strong. And it is not wise to use the military to police an internal demographic imbalance. Studies have also pointed out that most of these 30 million men who will not get a bride will belong to the lower economic classes i.e. those who cannot afford to sustain a family.
Now, what if you can employ that 30 million men and keep them busy in building a life? It will be even better if you can send them outside your borders. In this way, you will bring down the demographic pressure. Better still, if most of those 30 million men who go outside China, marry non–Chinese girls. Enter Pakistan. China’s problem solved.
A Chinese worker marrying Pakistani girl [SCREENSHOT FROM ‘THE NATION’]
A demographic analysis by this author shows that the number of Pakistani girls of reproductive age (15 – 39) is around 29 million (as per the latest publicly available census figures). And the numbers fit. Even if a few million Chinese men marry outside China, it will be to Pakistani girls. The demographic pressure in China will be that much reduced.
Several thousand Chinese workers are now in Pakistan as part of Phase I plan of the CPEC. Already, Chinese workers have begun to assert their alpha-male status in Pakistani society. It is evident from reports of a recent incident in Pakistan, where Chinese workers of CPEC beat up Pakistani police authorities when they were prevented from visiting nearby red-light districts.
Chinese workers beat up police officers because they were not allowed to visit a local ‘red light’ area. [SCREENSHOT
FROM ‘CLIPPER’]
Some other reports on social media have showed that Chinese men are already marrying young Pakistani (especially tribal) girls in large numbers. With one Chinese Yuan equaling 18 Pakistani Rupees, an average daily wage Chinese worker will have 18 times more purchasing power than an average Pakistani. And ‘Mahr’ (dowry paid by the groom to bride’s family) being practiced in Pakistan (as a Muslim society), Chinese workers will find it easier to marry Pakistani girls than Chinese ones. If this fact is analyzed along with recent news items where Uighur wives of Pakistani men disappeared, it appears that the Chinese government may indeed follow this strategy. China doesn’t want its women/girls to marry Pakistani men (evident by the ‘Uighur wives Disappearances’).
But it may be covertly encouraging its male workers to seek out and marry Pakistani women. All this, with the greater goal is stabilizing its demographically imbalanced society. Because, if stability is not maintained, it will be the undoing of the communist party rule in China. These 30 million men can cause so much chaos in Chinese society so as to instigate rebellion and cause insurrection against the all-powerful Chinese communist party. Probably that is the reason Xi Jinping was made ruler for life. Things inside China are perhaps so unstable that the Chinese powers that be are unsure that a peaceful transition of power will take place in the next term.
Now what will happen to the Pakistani men, whose women counterparts are poached away by Chinese men?
If a few million Chinese men marry Pakistani girls, will there not be an imbalance in Pakistani society?
Probably China has plans for that too. For this we should look at the Falun Gong sect in China. The Falun Gong sect was persecuted by the Chinese government. Falun Gong is a modern Chinese spiritual practice that combines meditation and exercises with a moral philosophy centered on truthfulness and compassion. There were forced disappearances of a large number of Falun Gong members. It is said that those disappeared members were harvested for their organs. The study was done by David Kilgour and David Matas and published as “An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China”
An estimated one hundred thousand organ transplants occur in China annually. But the sources of all those organs have not been explained by the Chinese Government. With recent reports that Pakistan’s former General-cum-President had sold 4,000 people to foreign nations, we can guess what might happen in the future. Corrupt Pakistani politicians and Army Generals will “sell” unmarried young men to the Chinese market for organ harvesting. Pakistani Punjabi youth ‘disappearing’ may soon be a new development (although Pashtuns, Minority and Balochi youth are already disappearing in the thousands).
A VERY BRILLIANT STRATEGY INDEED
China has, in the garb of OBOR, convinced Pakistan of CPEC (paid for by Pakistan in the long-term). The hundreds of projects that China has envisaged for CPEC will employ Chinese workers on a massive scale. And most of CPEC is construction work done by daily wage laborers of China who belong to the lower economic classes and are unmarried men. We now see that colonies of Chinese workers are coming up across the thousand odd Kilometers of CPEC by the dozen. Not only that; these China towns are catered to by Chinese businesses. These Chinese businesses import everything from alcohol to pork and automobiles to needle pins from China. Thus, it is ensured that CPEC will continue creating jobs for the Chinese youth. The Chinese workers who are now pouring into Pakistan in the hundreds of thousands are part of those 30 million men resulting from the demographic imbalance of the one child policy.
OBOR will make China not only a dominant world power but will also solve many of its internal problems. It will help China develop its impoverished western provinces. It will provide employment to a large Chinese workforce, mostly from its lower economic strata. At the same time, it will doubtless provide brides to the frustrated Chinese workers. Another added plus will be that a new market for ‘organ harvesting’ for China will possibly open up in Pakistan.
In the coming days, Pakistan may turn out to be a Brides and Organs providing ‘factory’ for the Chinese Behemoth. And the best bargain for China is that all of this will be at the Pakistanis’ cost. Paid for and bought by Pakistan. Hook, line and sinker.