Arms dealer Abhishek Verma links Lt Gen in the Racket

Rajesh Ahuja of Indian Military news
27 Sep 2012
Controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma has told the CBI that a retired Lt-Gen, who has been under investigation in another bribery case, was on his payroll, sources disclosed.
The CBI had questioned Verma in connection with a case registered under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
The agency has alleged that more than half a dozen documents classified as secrets were found in Ganton Ltd employees’ possession. Ganton is allegedly a front company of Verma.
“Verma claimed that a senior retired army officer of the Lt-Gen rank became his consultant of sorts. The arms dealer was allegedly paying Rs. 2 lakh a month in cash to the officer. The officer was once posted in an intelligence agency of the defence ministry. We are checking whether he was on Verma’s payroll before he retired. He may have supplied classified documents to Verma or employees of his front company,” an official said.
According to sources, after Verma’s statement, the Lt-Gen in question was also grilled. The officer accepted that he got monthly cash payments from Verma for his ‘consultancy’ services.
Besides the OSA case, Verma is facing CBI probes in three new cases – for getting money from arms firm, for influencing public servants and for forging letters of sports minister Ajay Maken and a CBI official.
All these cases were filed against Verma in the last few months based on documents supplied by his US-based attorney C Edmond Allen. A CBI team will visit the US next month to record Allen’s statement in this regard.
Comments:

Prince (18:52:18) : Atleast in this case,Verma is probably telling the whole truth. Logical conclusion of this case would result in a generating fear in potential offenders of this category !

COL LAMBA (08:13:26) : MAKE NAME OF LT GEN[TRAITOR] PUBLIC & FIX HIM.RS 2 LAC PM IN CASH ,DISGRACEFUL GEN

chwanken (18:53:40) : Obviously Lt Gen is same who offered 14 crores!!!
Abhishek Verma claims retd Lt-Gen was on payroll
Connect with earlier post
Tejinder Singh suffers from Amnesia- Forgets all his Dealers

Indian Army’s unpaid spy dies in oblivion

SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 30, 2012, Chandigarh, India
British-born Sydney Wignall discovered the secrets of China’s expansion across Tibet to the borders of India and Nepal

Sadly, New Delhi has ignored the death of Cheshire-born Sydney Wignall who died a few weeks ago in the UK at the age of 89. A British-born hero and unpaid spy of the Indian Army, he used both brains and brawn to discover the secrets of China’s expansion across Tibet to the borders of India and Nepal.
Wignall suffered frost bite, dysentery and regular beatings at the hands of Chinese army guards during his two-month incarceration in a rat-infested prison in Tibet. After his release, he received profuse thanks from his Indian Army contacts for the valuable data he obtained. But the only ‘reward’ he claimed and obtained was a supply of cricket bats and balls for the children of a Nepalese village school that he visited on his way to Tibet.
In 1955, seven years before the Indian Army’s disastrous rout at the hands of Chinese forces, Cheshire-born Sydney Wignall was inspired to lead a Welsh Himalayan Expedition to try and climb the 25,355-foot-high Gurla Mandhata peak in Western Tibet.
Sponsored by the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper and Life magazine, the ostensible objective of the team was to place the flags of Wales and the Chinese Republic on the Gurla Mandhata summit.
Unbeknown to his fellow climbers, however, Wignall had also agreed to gather information for the Indian Army intelligence worried about China’s secret military build up in what was then the autonomous region of Tibet.
Although he and his fellow climber John Harrop, together with their Nepalese liaison officer Damodar Narayan Suwal, were captured soon after they crossed the ill-defined Nepalese border, the information that Wignall collected was the equivalent of intelligence gold dust.
It was gratefully received and analysed by his Indian Army contact, Lieut-Col ‘Baij’ Mehta, who was later killed during the Chinese invasion of Arunachel Pradesh in 1962. It was passed on to an equally grateful Gen KS Thimayya, who later became India’s Chief of Army Staff. He tried and failed to persuade Jawaharlal Nehru of China’s aggressive intentions.
Tellingly, Wignall subsequently had little time for Indian politicians, especially Krishna Menon, who allowed their communist sympathies to blind them to Beijing’s aim of dominating South Asia.
Wignall had met Menon many years earlier in London in 1940, seven years before Independence, when India’s future defence minister and other fellow left-wing activists toed the Soviet Union’s then policy of avoiding confrontation with Adolph Hitler. Menon called 18-year-old Wignall ‘impertinent’ and Wignall formed the impression that Menon was ‘vain, arrogant and conceited.” He called him ‘A thoroughly detestable man.’
Wignall’s Indian heroes were the likes of Gen Thimayya, Col Mehta and Brig John Dalvi, who, in 1962, had only 2,700 soldiers under his command to resist a Chinese division of 12,000 that swept down on him from the Thagla Ridge in what was then known as the North East Frontier Agency or NEFA.
Brigadier Dalvi’s 7th Brigade, which ran out of ammunition, suffered 90 per cent casualties. Those who survived the immediate onslaught died overnight because they had not been supplied with adequate tents, sleeping bags or warm winter clothing. Brigadier Dalvi himself was captured and tortured. A broken man when he was released, he died a few years later much before his time.
It was while he was preparing for his Himalayan expedition in 1955 that Wignall made contact with a retired Indian Army officer, one Lieut-Col Toby Tobin, who was then the vice-president of the Himalayan Club and editor of the Himalayan Journal. Tobin told him, “You might be able to do some friends a favour” before introducing him to a contact called ‘Singh’ at the Indian High Commission in London.
What followed thereafter was like something out of a John Buchan novel. Singh briefed Wignall about the bellicose statements that some Chinese generals had been making about territorial claims to large parts of Northern India, Nepal, Sikkim and Burma. For that reason the Indian military authorities were interested in rumours of China’s intention of building a military highway in west Tibet, close to the sacred lake of Mansarowar.
“You happen to be the only one visiting what to us is the most sensitive area in the whole border region,” Singh explained. “From a vantage point on the north-west ridge of Gurla Mandhata you would be able to see, with a telescope, any sign of a military encampment in that area, and you could look for evidence of the building of that military highway to west Tibet.”
Supplied with maps provided by the British War office, Wignall and his team soon embarked on their 6,500-mile trip from London to the borders of India, Nepal and Tibet. Within days of crossing into Tibet from the Khatang Pass, however, the three lead members of the team were arrested for illegally crossing into Chinese territory.
For the next two months they were held in freezing, rat-infested rooms and interrogated by a team led by Gen Chang Kuo-hua, the military commander of Tibet. These were hard-line party supporters, very different from the likes of 21st century Chinese communist VIPS like millionaire Bo Xilai who had his son Bo Guagua educated at Harrow, Oxford and Harvard.
General Chang was made of much sterner stuff. His minions beat up and abused the British mountaineers, subjecting them to mock executions and telling them, “You intended disguising your illegal armed invasion of China so that the Tibetans would not know you are agents of a foreign power, Western Fascist Lackey Imperial Running Dogs.”
Wignall himself was told, “Sign the confession that you are a Western Fascist Lackey Imperialist Running Dog of the American CIA and we will be very good to you. Otherwise you will be severely punished.”
Although they were under close surveillance during their captivity, Wignall and his friends were able to extract vital information, both from their interrogators and from some of the more friendly guards.
In what was then the pre-satellite age, Wignall managed to accurately estimate the strength of the secret Chinese army base at Jitkot, 17 miles from Tklakot close to the Nepal border. More importantly he was able to gauge that China’s strategic highway from Lhasa would reach Tklakot within the next two years. And from General Chang he heard how Beijing laid claim to India’s Aksai Chin and NEFA regions, as well as parts of Nepal, Kashmir, all of Sikkim, all of Bhutan and parts of northern Burma.
Much of what Wignall discovered was confirmed and reconfirmed before, during and after the 1962 Chinese invasion of India. He himself neither asked for, nor was given any form of compensation by the authorities in India.
Wignall did brief members of the British Foreign Office about his adventures when he returned to London, but his main satisfaction was extracted from the belief that he had taken high risks for the right reasons. In later years he became an underwater archaeologist, uncovering wrecks in British, Portugese and Panamanian waters. A handful of Indians may still remember both his affection for the country and his perilous exploits in the Himalayas. For them he remains a much-loved friend of Mother India.
Indian Army’s unpaid spy dies in oblivion

Babu shunted for leaking Army Chief's Top Secret Letter

Senior officer leaked army chief's letter to PM
May 13, 2012 21:58 IST
A joint secretary-rank officer in the Cabinet Secretariat has been found guilty of leaking Army Chief General V K Singh's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] about the poor state of preparedness of his force and has been shunted out.
A probe into the leakage by the Prime Minister's Office has also cleared General Singh of any wrongdoing in the episode, highly-placed sources said.
In his letter, the army chief had highlighted the critical shortage of equipment and ammunition in artillery and armoured regiments.
The female officer, belonging to the Indian Economic Service, was handling the charge of intelligence agencies under the Cabinet Secretariat and was nailed after interrogation of some suspected people.
The officer has now been repatriated to her parent cadre and further action can be taken against her for leaking such a sensitive document, sources said.
After the letter surfaced, both the Houses of Parliament were rocked over the issue and certain parties had demanded action against General Singh.
At that time, General Singh had said that incident should be treated as "high treason" and the source of leakage should be dealt with "ruthlessly."
"The leakage of the letter should be treated as high treason. Cynical approach to tarnish my reputation should stop. Sources of the leakage should be found and dealt with ruthlessly," General Singh had said in a statement issued by the army headquarters. Following the incident, the government had asked the Intelligence Bureau to investigate the matter and find out the person responsible for it.
The letter was leaked to the media after General Singh made a sensational disclosure in an interview that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by a retired lieutenant general for favouring a sub-standard defence deal regarding the purchase of army trucks.

Readers comments sample

apology by aam admi on May 14, 2012 12:15 AM those political leaders, who abused and blamed the General for leaking the letter to Media, should apologise to General VK Singh, if they have left any grace in their behaviour, they should not shout and abuse people of the society in Parliament as and when they wish.This is disgraceful on their part.

by Raghvendra Singhon May 13, 2012 10:37 PM
Time and again it has come to light that General VK Singh has been correct in all his statements and actions. Yet every time there has been biased reporting against him, asking for his head. He has not been allowed to serve for an additional year as is rightfully his due, history will forever remember this. It is a National loss, but he will do his bit for the country in whatever direction Destiny will take him.
Senior officer leaked army chief's letter to PM
Babu shunted for 'leaking' army chief's letter
Army chief letter leak: Cabinet Secretariat officer found guilty
Government's Denial Drama and Dilemma
It's very understandable why the Prime Minister's office and the government is hurriedly issuing a denial because it gives a clean chit to the Army Chief but raises some alarming questions on the government's role behind this Army Chief controversy, and with the Opposition bound to corner the government once again on this, one can understand why the Prime Minister's office wants to step in and issue a denial.
Read More: Click here for the original post
Comment: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is correct when he said "After 60 years we are not a perfect Democracy". What he missed out was that we are fast graduating into a Banana Republic. The treatment meted out to a Patriotic Gen VK Singh by the Government speaks volumes of its gradual graduation!

The bitter side of spying

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: April 17, 2011 11:10 IST
Gurdaspur (Punjab): The case of Indian spy Gopal Dass, who returned home last week after spending 27 years in prison in Pakistan, has sparked off renewed interest in what actually goes on in this shadowy world.
Once a master spy, Karamat Rahi is now tea stall owner. Six years ago, he returned to his village in Gurdaspur, Punjab, after spending 18 years in Pakistani jails.
After his return, Karamat sought compensation from the Indian intelligence agency he worked for, but was refused. He moved court but his plea was turned down so he now plans to move a higher court.
"We spend difficult times in those jails, we are half dead in those interrogations. Now when we can't do anything we should get something to do business. Also, what do I do without pension? I am 58 and worth nothing," says Karamat.
Fifty kilometre away, in village Daduwal that once had a dozen spies working for Indian agencies, Sunil was lured into spying by a fellow villager. But three years later, he was caught in Pakistan and jailed.
He returned home after seven years. Physically weak and depressed, he is now fully dependant on his wife who works as a domestic help.
"We worked for the country and what we got was tears of blood. We don't get anything," says Sunil.
Grefan tried his hands at spying but soon decided to quit. But his mentors just won't let him. He alleges that Indian agencies implicated him in three false cases.
He now works as a labourer and earns Rs. 3000 a month.
"I refused to work for these agencies since they did not care. When I stopped working, I was implicated in false cases - of bomb blast. But I was proved innocent; they slapped more cases," he says.
Along the border belt in Punjab, almost every third village has a spy who once worked for Indian agency. These spies say they never got a fair deal; they say the way they have been ignored they feel they are the children of lesser God.
The bitter side of spying

Impingement of Official Secrets Act investigated for quarter century!

A retired lieutenant general has been put on trial by a Delhi court for allegedly divulging sensitive secret information about the country's arms and ammunition system to an international arms dealing firm, impinging upon the nation's security.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja put Lieutenant General (retd) Nirmal Puri on trial along with M/s Concord International Pvt Ltd's official Vinod Khanna, whom the top army officer had allegedly supplied sensitive information in 1984-87.

The court put the duo on trial after framing charges under various provisions of the Official Secret Act and the India Penal Code against them.

"During the period 1984-87, both of you entered into criminal conspiracy in order to obtain, collect, communicate secret/ classified/ official information/ documents pertaining to the defence of the country with the purpose that same may be prejudicial to the safety or interest of the state," the court said.

Puri is alleged to have prepared two hand-written notes containing classified information regarding equipment like light tanks, radio sets for AFV, training simulators and others.

The notes were recovered during search conducted in the premises of M/s Concord International Pvt Ltd from its Golf Links office here on February 2, 1987.

"During the aforesaid period, you being Lieutenant General in the Indian Army and having access, owing to your position as a person who had held office under the Indian Army, wilfully communicated such note/ information to Khanna, a person who is other than to whom you were authorised to communicate it," the ASJ said.

Khanna was charged with obtaining the information which "might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy".

The court noted the disclosure of such information "is likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state or friendly relations with foreign state".

Puri had joined the Indian Army on December 11, 1949 and had retired on March 17, 1985.

The FIR was registered in January 1988 against Puri and Khanna following a complaint by D M L Malhotra, Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, and the charge sheet was filed in 1989.
Army's Ex-Lt Gen on Trial for Leaking Official Secrets

Newsletter from Veekay

Dear Friends,
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. My newsletter click here.
Vinay and Kumud Singh

Extracts from Veekay Newsletter 2010
The year is coming to an end and it is time for the annual ritual of connecting with friends, acquaintances, comrades and colleagues. I do not recall the last time I sent a New Year's card or a hand written letter. Ever since we started using e-mail, letters have become passé. Until a few years ago, very few people had a computer and one had to write a letter. The advent of mobile telephony has put paid to the art of letter writing altogether. What a pity. I have begun to relish the advantages of being a senior citizen. One can buy rail tickets at a 30% discount. (Women get 50%, but Kumud is still to qualify. Even when she does, I think she would rather pay the full fare than be classified as a senior citizen!). Youngsters, especially girls, sometimes offer you a seat in the Metro. Shopkeepers, parking attendants and handymen address you as uncle, though hardly anyone calls Kumud an auntie, and woe betide anybody who dares...

There is little change in our routine. I go to the gym in the DSOI, which is a stone’s throw from my house, at 0645, returning at 0745 or so. Kumud goes at 0830 and returns only when the gym closes at 1000. By this time I have gone through my newspapers, had my bath and my breakfast and am ready to leave for Signals Enclave, where the Corps History Cell is located. On the days I have a hearing in Tis Hazari or the High Court, I have to give the gym amiss. The Ansal Plaza is next door and Kumud does not miss a movie. She is usually accompanied by my daughter in law or one of her gym buddies. They go for the morning show, when the children are at school and the tickets are cheaper. Twice a week, I too get a chance to go to the mall – it has a Reliance Fresh outlet and buying vegetables is one of the chores entrusted to me.

Signal Officer battles corruption

I became victim of personal vendetta

Loud whistle: Major General (retd) V.K. Singh / Photo: Sanjay Ahlawat






INTERVIEW/MAJ. GEN. (RETD) V.K. SINGH, FORMER JOINT SECRETARY, R&AW
No government likes it when its spies talk about their jobs. In fact, under the Official Secrets Act, employees of security services are not allowed to disclose anything to anyone about any aspect of their work. Even after retirement, these officers are discouraged to write and speak on intelligence matters. When Major General (retd) V.K. Singh published his book, India’s External Intelligence—Secrets of the Research & Analysis Wing, he was charged with the crime of violating the OSA. His house was ransacked and his passport seized. In an interview with THE WEEK, he speaks about the legal struggle, holes in the case against him and how he became a victim of personal vendetta.

Had you ever thought that your book would bring you such trouble?
I had no idea that the book would invite such a reaction from the authorities. While I was in R&AW, I noticed several aberrations such as indiscipline, lack of accountability and corruption. The professionalism and pride that one associates with a premier organisation were absent. I felt that these anomalies should be corrected and this would only happen if they were brought to the notice of the public. In fact, the most important issue that I wanted to raise was corruption. During my stay, I noticed a few cases in R&AW as well as the SPG, where equipment appeared to have been procured from foreign vendors at exorbitant prices or without the mandatory security checks.

What are the charges that have been levelled against you?
The main charges against me are that I have given the charter of R&AW recommended by the Group of Ministers on National Security in 2001; that I revealed the names of officers and locations of R&AW stations; and that I gave details about certain projects in R&AW.
Firstly, the contents of the GoM report were the subject of several articles in 2001, some of which I have referred to in my book. At the time of its formal release on May 23, 2001, the chapter on intelligence was deleted. The report, minus the deleted portions, is still available on the web site of the ministry of defence. The names of all the officers are available on the Department of Personnel and Training web site. In August 2009, the CBI held its biennial conference at Vigyan Bhavan, in Delhi. The list of attendees was circulated to all departments of the government. It had the names and appointments of about 30 officers of R&AW. In a recent decision, the Central Information Commission has ordered the DoPT to give the names of all officers above the rank of joint secretary posted to R&AW from 2001 to 2008. So, the anonymity of R&AW officers is a myth.
It is common knowledge that R&AW officers are posted in foreign countries. The location of R&AW stations in India is also known to vendors who are given turn-key projects for installation of equipment, such as VSAT terminals.

Many say that if no action was taken against you, it would have encouraged other disaffected officers to write about intelligence agencies?
Not all officers who write books are disaffected. People like Sankaran Nair [former R&AW chief], T.S.R. Subramanian [former cabinet secretary] and General (retd) V.P. Malik [former Army chief] had reached the top of their professions. They can hardly be considered disaffected. Recently, an official history of MI-6, the British intelligence agency, was published. There are several books written by officers who have served in the CIA. Such books form a part of history. As you are aware, in 2008 a gag order was issued through a gazette, according to which all officers serving in such agencies will have to give an undertaking that they will not write anything after retirement. If they do, the officer will forfeit his pension. I believe the DoPT has asked the defence minister also to publish a similar gazette for armed forces personnel. If that happens, soon there will be no Indian military history.

There are a couple of books written by former intelligence officials, including one by B. Raman [former head of the counter-terrorism division of R&AW ] that accuses [former Prime Minister] Rajiv Gandhi of influencing the Bofors probe. The authors were never harassed.
The other authors, such as Raman, Sankaran Nair and [former IB joint director] Maloy Dhar, were insiders, who know much more than what they have written. If they are prosecuted, they will reveal many things which would be even more embarrassing. I was an outsider, and thus no threat to them. I became the victim of a personal vendetta. In my book, I had mentioned the names of many officers in R&AW who were inefficient and involved in corruption. I had also mentioned a senior officer who did not attend office for eight months after being overlooked for promotion. Though I have not mentioned his name in the book, it was common knowledge that the man was Ashok Chaturvedi, who later became the R&AW chief. I am told he was furious at the mention of this incident in the book. He and his number two, Sanjiv Tripathi, were instrumental in launching the case against me.

Are you saying that there were many attempts to harass and implicate you?
Yes, there were. While I was in R&AW, I had been given a Maruti car, without a driver, to commute. I was then staying at RK Puram. One night the car was stolen from outside my flat. I lodged an FIR next morning but the car was never found. A few months after the case against me was initiated, I came to know that some people in R&AW were trying to locate the person who had been my orderly at that time. They planned to pay him a large sum, and get him to state that the car was not stolen but had been sold by me.
They also tried to plant documents on me. I remember a few weeks before my home was raided on September 21, 2007, a person by the name of Shakti Prakash called me up. He said that he had read my book and that he was being harassed by R&AW as he was being forced to become an agent. I told him that I had retired and had nothing to do with R&AW now, but he pleaded for a meeting. I along with an Army colleague, who had also been with me in R&AW, met him at USI Library in Delhi. He handed over to me a bunch of papers and asked me to go through them and advise him what to do. The folder had letters addressed to the President, Prime Minister and many others, complaining of harassment by R&AW. I brought the folder home and forgot all about it. Later, when the CBI raided my house they took away the folder and produced it in court when they opposed my plea for anticipatory bail. I still don’t know whether Shakti Prakash was a plant, or a genuine sufferer at the hands of R&AW.

How easy is it for intelligence agencies to wrongly implicate a person?
Very easy. The Samba spy case is a ?perfect example. Innocent people spent 14 years in jail on charges trumped up by military intelligence. More recently, Captain B.K. Subbarao and Iftikar Geelani were similarly prosecuted and later acquitted. Unlike the famous Dreyfus case in France, where the persons who had falsely implicated him were punished, in India this never happens. On the other hand, they get out-of-turn promotions and monetary awards.
I became victim of personal vendetta: Maj Gen VK Singh
RAW: Controversies, Spies and Scandals- click here to read more

Indo China war: The shock and awe of 1962

Dear Veterans,
One wonders if the situation is any better now and with multiplied force levels of the Chinese. Are we not waiting for another humiliation? Who will be blamed politicians, bureaucracy or the armed forces? The special article by A Bhatacharayya of Statesman is a pointer to political indifference to National Security in connivance with Bureaucratic incompetence.
Warm regards,
Brigadier PTGangadharan,Guards,
Veteran

The Statesman, 21 October 2010- Shock and awe of ’62, A War That Was Lost Before It Began By Abhijit Bhattacharyya
After 37 years, precisely on 7 October 2010, Israel relived, as it were, the declassified documents of the Yom Kippur war. The confidential discussions of Israel’s top leaders in the first days of the Arab-Israeli war are now in the open. However, no such declassification has taken place in India even 48 years after the war with China. The most devastating setback was suffered by the army at the battle of Namka Chu (Kechilang to the Chinese) at 5 am on Saturday, 20 October 1962. Namka Chu was a national shame, an unprecedented battering for the military, an unparalleled command failure on the part of spineless, non-professional Generals, an ignominy for the over-rated and conspiratorial bureaucracy and a case of rare political irresponsibility and foolishness. It was not a military conflict fought on the ground, but the outcome of a myopic political process which was tantamount to self-inflicted humiliation in a potential conflict zone.
The Indian politicians in the fifties and sixties were so out-of-depth that the Government still does not feel confident enough to declassify the 48-year-old documents. This only encourages speculation.
Indeed, India was done-in much before the hostility in the Namka Chu valley. The die was actually cast on Sunday, 9 September 1962. With both Prime Minister Nehru and Finance Minister Morarji Desai out of the country, and Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri nowhere in the loop, Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon took upon himself the role and responsibility to hold a meeting in his South Block office on a holiday. With the army chief and two army commanders and presumably one or two ministry officials in attendance, Menon “unilaterally” gave the “marching order” to the army to go forward, according to Brigadier John P. Dalvi, the fall guy of the 1962 defeat, in his military classic, Himalayan Blunder. Neville Maxwell in his authentic India’s China War corroborates Dalvi’s version with a blow-by-blow account, which he reportedly “managed” to access from Lt. General Henderson Brooks’ enquiry report on the disaster.
The government decided to “go forward” and set up a post at the trijunction of India-Bhutan-China at Dhola on the Thagla ridge on the Namka Chu river. Dalvi’s description of the confusion, ignorance of Delhi-based military generals and civilian babus make ironic, yet comical and hilarious, reading. A sketch map was the “only map” available as there “were no accurate survey maps of this area. The ¼-inch editions were very old and vaguely based on the details provided by the British officer who was deputed to visit the area and align the McMahon Line, as agreed at the Simla Conference of 1913-14. It showed the Namka Chu flowing from north to south, whereas it actually flowed from west to east”.
It was another bigger river, named Nyamjang Chu, which flowed from north to south from the Thagla watershed. This appears to have led to the conclusion that the flow of Namka Chu too must be following the same north-south axis. Dalvi wrote: “I have often wondered if this map misled our planners into thinking that 9 Punjab were facing east instead of north”. The strategy, therefore, exposed a deficit in the planners’ knowledge of history and geography, ignorance of the terrain, non-application of mind and a political compulsion that was thrust upon the army’s field commanders. The end-result of India’s adventure in the face of the obdurate Chinese was a foregone conclusion.
The order issued by the Army chief’s office in mid-September 1962 stated: “9 Punjab will capture Thagla, contain Yumtsola and Karpola-II by September 19.” It was “issued while the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were abroad and the Defence Minister was having his western clothes dry-cleaned for New York. The Chief of General Staff of the Army was enjoying the salubrious climate of Kashmir. All the key desks in Delhi were empty”.
The Prime Minister made an uncharacteristically aggressive statement at Colombo airport on 12 October 1962: “The Army has been told to drive away the Chinese from our territory in NEFA”. This worsened the situation. It served as the clarion call for war by India’s Head of Government, and one that was made on foreign soil. It was a humiliating assault on the pride and ego of any nation, not to speak of China alone. It once again brought into sharp and contrasting focus the issue of war preparedness and the psyche thereof. The Indian military was simply in no position to fight because the 600 ragtag men had nothing to fight with and did not know where to fight and when and how to begin in the face of a mighty enemy of 40000 men coming from across the Namka Chu. The war was over in three hours, to be precise.
Nemesis caught up with Namka Chu because the operational “Brigade Headquarters was at Towang, some five days’ march from the intrusion at Thagla Ridge. Towang is a field posting and a hardship station. The Division was at Tezpur, 200 miles away. Although Tezpur is considered to be a field area, life is more or less normal, with planters’ clubs, golf courses and cinemas. Corps HQ was at Shillong, another 200 miles away. Shillong is a salubrious hill station and a ‘peace posting’. Command HQ was at Lucknow some 600 miles from Shillong ... The last tier is the holy of holies at Delhi where we have Army HQ and ‘Government’. Delhi is the most peaceful of the world’s capitals and so far removed from military realities that political factors perforce dominate the formulation of national strategy”.
This was the ground reality for the demoralized soldiers in the frontline during September-October 1962. It was a “lost war” even before the war had begun as the “peace stations” of Shillong (Corps HQ); Lucknow (Command HQ) and Delhi gave China a “head start” in the October 1962 war with India.
How were the Chinese placed in contrast to India’s plight at the Namka Chu/Thagla axis? How did they inflict one of the most spectacular and stunning defeats on an enemy in the field? The Chinese followed the doctrines of their ancient scholar-soldier Sun Tzu, enshrined in the Art of War. War, being a “matter of life and death for the state”, must not be neglected. “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”. This is the doctrine that was followed in Namka Chu.
The Indian resistance simply ended in three hours on Saturday, 20 October 1962 “without fighting”. The soldiers fought as hard as they could from 5 am to 8 am, thereby writing a fresh, humiliating chapter in the country’s history.
Let India not forget that 48-year-old chapter written with the blood, toil, tears and death of some of the crack units of her fighting machine. Let India not allow Sun Tzu’s success to be repeated at its expense in the Namka Chu valley. Let India declassify the official documents and the full text of Lt.- Gen Henderson Brooks if the government is inclined to “prove” that 1962 was actually “China’s India war” and not “India’s China war” as Neville Maxwell would have us believe.

The writer is an alumnus of the National Defence College of India and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London
Indo- China war: The shock and awe of 1962

National Security: Naval war room leak case accused Shankaran arrested in London

Thu May 20 2010, 20:00 hrs
New Delhi:
In a major breakthrough in the Naval war room leak case, one of the main accused Ravi Shankaran, a close relative of the then Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash, was arrested in London.
"He has been arrested by the police in London and is at present out on bail. We have moved papers for his extradition," CBI Director Ashwani Kumar said. 46-year old Shankaran, against whom an Interpol Red Corner notice was issued in 2006, is one of the main accused who had allegedly passed on vital information to certain arms dealers for procurement for Indian Navy.

He was declared a proclaimed offender in 2006 with the government revoking his passport and approaching a UK court for his arrest. However, he had managed to give a slip to London Police and was believed to have been roaming in countries like France, Italy and Denmark.
Naval war room leak case accused Shankeran arrested in London

India seeks Navy spy custody May 20th, 2010
DC Correspondent
The naval war room leak, uncovered in 2005, involved alleged illegal trade-off of classified documents relating to defence acquisitions by persons including former Navy and IAF officers for private firms dealing with defence supplies.

Five persons including Shankaran were initially charge-sheeted by the CBI in the case. Shankaran is a relative of the former naval chief, Admiral (Retd.) Arun Prakash. The CBI hailed Shankaran’s arrest as a major breakthrough. The CBI’s investigations a few years ago had showed that defence leaks had taken place including details of a top secret naval project titled the Network Centric Operation (NCO).

“This crucial information can give an enemy country an advantage of knowing what are the command networks, network topography, pattern of data flow from command centres (both onshore and offshore) to battleships and topography of the computer network on the battlefield itself. With this information, an enemy power can use information warfare to block data flow (flow of orders) from command centres to warships/submarines at crucial moments or cause wrong orders to be communicated, by interfering with the network data flow by way of launching hacking attacks ," the CBI had stated in its chargesheet submitted in 2006 before a special court.

The CBI had estimated that the information leaked could be worth billions of dollars in a commercial transaction
India seeks Navy spy custody

India's long history of spies: R&AW seeks OSA as undercover for corrupt activities

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
Please read the news Click here- Medicare denial to feted soldier opens up RAW wound by Deepak Kumar Jha, New Delhi: Agencies fail to gather evidence against ex-Brigadier charged with spying, say friends.

It is a pathetic story of injustice to a retired officer.

Let the Government conduct the trial and punish the officer if he is found guilty. But playing dirty tricks to delay the trial so that the misdeeds of the Government agency remain under cover- is a shameful act.

It is time that all of us start thinking as to how to force the shameless government agency to start the trial of the officer.

Please do give this problem a serious thought and do whatever best you can to help Brig Ujwal Dasgupta, who has been behind bars without any trial. It is a disgrace to system of justice in India and disgrace to the officer community if we do not force the Government to start and finish the trial without further delay.
In service of Indian Military Veterans
Veteran Chander Kamboj

Dasgupta along with three other accused was arrested in 2006. The co-accused Shiv Shankar Paul (38), a systems analyst at the National Security Council Secretariat, his superior officer Commander Mukesh Saini (58) who had retired on March 31, 2006, and Brigadier Ujjal Dasgupta (64), head of the computer section of Research & Analysis Wing, were also accused of espionage and booked under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly passing on information to Rosanna Minchew (31), an American diplomat. Dasgupta, while deputed in the R&AW, was arrested on July 19, while Paul was arrested on June 11 in 2006. Saini was also picked up by the investigators on July 6. Dasgupta was involved in project - Anveshak, a software developed for R&AW by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) as well as the Army. Army has since clarified that the software developed was not classified. The trial is yet to begin in the case.
20 days after SC order, ex-Brigadier gets medical aid
Related article
India's long history of spies in the establishment
The irony couldn't have been more apparent. The international media has reported the bickerings in RAW—a dubious honour for an intelligence agency.

The government has finally ordered an investigation into the allegations of corruption in RAW made by Major General V.K. Singh (retd), an army officer who served with India's external intelligence agency. Singh's book, India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), published last year, detailed the charges he was levelling. The book's publication led to its author being investigated by the CBI under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for "jeopardising national security". But even as the probe against Singh continues, the allegations he made are also being looked into (sources say they have been taken very seriously at the highest level). Thus, two investigations are now on simultaneously—one against the accuser (Singh) and the other against those accused by him!
EXCLUSIVE raw corruption probe: Double Checking- Finally, V.K. Singh's allegations prompt a probe of RAW by Saikat Datta
RAW Lapses
•Probe into the procurement of 27 antennas between 2000 and '02 from Germany's Rhodes & Schwarz at arbitrary rates
•Also investigate the purchase of communication equipment for the Special Protection Group, without proper checks or mandatory approvals
•Identity of the officers involved in these procurements is known
•The probe is being conducted by a former special secretary of RAW

Lesson learnt: Officers from the Armed Forces should not volunteer for service in RAW as corruption is veiled as undercover! The Home Minister P Chidambaram is sure to see through the corruption game played by RAW and resolve trial cases quickly as he is an eminent lawyer of repute.

China excels in Cyber Theft of Classified documents

Turning the tables on a China-based computer espionage gang, Canadian and United States computer security researchers have monitored a spying operation for the past eight months, observing while the intruders pilfered classified and restricted documents from the highest levels of the Indian Defence Ministry.

In a report issued Monday night, the researchers, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, provide a detailed account of how a spy operation it called the Shadow Network systematically hacked into personal computers in government offices on several continents.

The Toronto spy hunters not only learned what kinds of material had been stolen, but were able to see some of the actual documents, including classified assessments about security in several Indian states, and confidential embassy documents about India's relationships in West Africa, Russia and the Middle East. The intruders breached the systems of independent analysts, taking reports on several Indian missile systems. They also obtained a year's worth of the Dalai Lama's personal e-mail messages.
Read complete cyber espionage sequence
Researchers trace Indian Defence Ministry data theft to China

Comment: We need to subject Chinese to our "Official Secret Act", which will screw them beyond redemption.

Army Welfare Placement Organisation (AWPO)

The Army is an excellent source of skilled manpower, right across the board. Every year, thousands of highly trained Officers, including Short Service Commissioned Officers and Women Officers, Junior Commissioned Officers and Jawans leave the Service and are keen for a second career. Army Personnel guarantee all round high standards. They are reliable, self motivated and committed individuals with extensive specialist training and a ‘can do’ attitude.
The Army Placement Agency (APA) is a welfare organization of the Indian Army which is functioning under Adjutant General’s Branch of Integrated HQ of Ministry of Defence (Army). It was established in May 1999 to assist retiring/ retired Army personnel in seeking avenues for suitable jobs in civil as second career options. This establishment is in addition to, yet independent of, the Directorate General Resettlement (DGR).
Employment Opportunities for ESM
Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs)
•Middle Level Managers – Security Officer, Transport Fleet, Communications, Estate.
•Supervisor – Security, Communications, Workshop, Hostel, Estate.
•Store-in-Charge, Fire Fighting Officer, Computer Operator / Programmer
•Office–Supdt, Assistant, Clerk, PA, Steno
Sepoys and Non Commissioned Officers
Engineering Trades
•Draughtsman / Surveyor – Trigs, Field, Auto Carto, Topo.
•Overseer – Electrical, Mechanical, Buildings & Roads.
•Mechanic – Refrigerator, Motor Vehicles, Heavy Vehicles, Instruments, Engineering Equipment, Machinist.
•Electrician – Engineering Equipment, Motor Vehicles, Heavy Vehicles, Aviation Aero Engine / Avionics.
•Helio Worker, Photo Writer, Welder, Tin & Copper Smith, Brick Layer, Painter & Decorator, Limb Maker, Tool Maker, Armourer, Pattern Maker.
Telecommunication Trades
•Operator – Cipher, Radio, Line Equipment, EPABX, Generator, Line Test Recorder
•Mechanic – Telecom, Electronics Systems, Radio, Generator, Radar.
Medical
•Assistants – Nursing, Laboratory, Blood Transfusion, X-Ray, Health, Operating Room, Special Treatment, Psychiatry, Ambulance, Dental.
•Radiographer, Dental Hygienist, Pharmacist, Laboratory Technician, Nursing Technical.
Technical Trades
•Technician – Ammunition, Petroleum.
•Catering – Supervisor, Cooks, Waiters.
•Carpenter, Blacksmith, Painter, Tinsmith, Tailor, Washerman, Safaiwala, Saddler, Barber, Kennelman.
•Bandsman – Piper, Bugler, Drummer.
•Education – Teacher, Translator & Interpreter (Foreign Languages), Physical Training Instructor / Drill Instructor.
Common Trades
•Clerks - General Duties, Store – Control / Provisioning, Postal, PA / Steno.
•Security Guards, Peons, Drivers – Heavy / Light / Recovery Vehicles, Caretakers – Messes / Guest Houses.
•Store Keepers – Armoured Vehicles, Ammunition, General Stores, Clothing, Mechanical Transport, Signals.
Army Placement Organisation

Why conditions for employment of retired Military Personnel?
An Indian army soldier has right to work after retirement. A government official is expected to keep secrecy only while in office. He is not a slave of some arbitrary rules until his death. If our security can be threatened by retired army men, then that shows how weak our setup is, and this should be corrected. Working as a private citizen after retirement is not a right only for bureaucrats. Military personnel are also entitled to to work freely without any pre- conditions after retirement.

India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW: Outlook Scoop- 2007

Outlook scooped V.K. Singh's expose on RAW. Now, he's booked under the Official Secrets Act. Is this act meant for misuse? Saikat Datta: Draconian Law
What is wrong with the OSA?

Has several vague, "all-inclusive" provisions; anyone can be prosecuted for sharing even harmless information

What is "secret" has not been defined, leaving scope for misuse

Any document can be deemed secret on the opinion of an "expert"

Heavily loaded against the accused. Only Section 5 has a provision for bail which is rarely given.

Is used as a vendetta tool to book whistleblowers and unpliable officials.

Maj Gen V.K. Singh is the latest in the line of people to be targeted under the OSA. The law, which is heavily loaded against the accused, is usually invoked whenever the state wishes to settle scores or rein in whistleblowers. Here are some examples:

Capt B.K. Subbarao was hailed as one of the finest nuclear scientists in the country. He was seconded from the Indian navy to help with the nuclear submarine programme but ended up being branded as a spy
Reason: he detected serious flaws in the designs being drawn up for the prototype at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay. This upset the top brass in the nuclear establishment. Subbarao was hounded out of BARC and arrested under OSA at Mumbai airport in 1990 before he boarded a flight to the US. His repeated appeals to the judiciary fell on deaf ears till the prosecuting agency was directed to come up with the "evidence" it had to prove his guilt. It turned out to be Subbarao's doctoral thesis on nuclear science, submitted to IIT Powai! As the case began to crumble, Subbarao had to face 65 judges in the search for justice. Finally, two years after his arrest, Subbarao was acquitted.

Iftikar Gilani, a Delhi-based Kashmiri journalist, was picked up by the IB for allegedly accessing secrets "prejudicial to the safety and security of the nation". After several months in jail, it finally came to light that the case against Gilani was based on a book published by the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, 13 years ago.
Reason: The opinion of the director general of military intelligence (DGMI) stating that the material recovered from Gilani was not secret was kept away from the courts. Finally, after then defence minister George Fernandes directed the DGMI to personally appear in court with his revised opinion, it was taken into account. The case was dismissed.

Ajay Kumar, a low-level functionary in the Indian Parliament, was not so lucky with the OSA. The evidence against him: possession of parliamentary reports that had already been tabled. The prosecution chose to ignore the fact these were on sale in Parliament. His lawyer V.K. Ohri told Outlook: "They finally planted a hand-written map of a cantonment that even the army officers have said on record does not have any position authenticated. In fact, they don't even know whether the places marked in the crude map exist or not. Finally, in the age of Google Earth what is the relevance of a hand-drawn map?" asks Ohri.

Babulnath Maurya, a designer who served in naval headquarters, was also booked under OSA. Incredible as it may sound, the evidence submitted by the prosecution against Maurya were files which were on his desk. "Can you believe the absurdity of the case," asks Ohri, also Maurya's lawyer. "The papers which were supposed to be on his official desk were collected from his office drawer as proof that he was spying."
The OSA is a handy tool for the government because it is very vague on what is secret. A personal diary can be deemed "secret" if it is stamped by an official. Similarly, information passed on in the course of official work can become secret. And once anyone is arrested under OSA, there is little chance of bail.

With such blatant misuse, it was a welcome and overdue development when the Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC), in its first report a few months ago, targeted the OSA, saying it was "enacted in the colonial era". The ARC's chairman Veerappa Moily is unequivocal in his demand that the Act be repealed. "After the enactment of the RTI Act, the OSA, has no place to survive and even its relics may no longer remain," he says.

Echoing Moily is former member of the National Advisory Council and Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy. "The OSA should have been scrapped in 1947 when we gained independence," she says.

In fact, the scrapping of the OSA is a demand that has found support from across the political spectrum with former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, L.K Advani and Jaswant Singh stating that the OSA, at the very least, needs to be reviewed. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, in an article published in 2001, had pointed out that unlike the British OSA, the Indian Act continues to remain "unrevised despite decades of effort". Calling the OSA "anachronistic", Singhvi argued that to empower society, the government must "reduce the culture of secrecy and limit the power of service providers (bureaucrats) with the reforms of the OSA".

Not only does the OSA threaten individual freedom and liberties, it has also been used as a tool to deny information as Moushumi Basu, an associate professor at the centre for international politics, jnu, found out. During her doctoral research on the World Bank, she was shocked to learn that the loan agreements executed by India with the World Bank to bail itself out of its financial crisis in 1991 are state secrets. Recalls Basu: "When I asked Manmohan Singh, who was then only a Rajya Sabha member, he insisted that all these papers had been tabled in Parliament. But that is not the case and they continue to be a state secret. So not only is defence under OSA but even development programmes are under its ambit," says Basu.

Veteran journalist B.G. Verghese had a similar experience when he discovered that maps of Indian rivers, freely available on the internet and in shops, was actually covered under the OSA. Points out Verghese: "Information is power and that is why the bureaucrats want to deny citizens information. But in India instead of taking corrective measures we usually shoot the messenger." B. Raman, former additional secretary with RAW, says then prime minister V.P. Singh had set up two committees during his government. One was to examine whether the intelligence agencies could be brought under parliamentary oversight and the second to review the OSA. "There was unanimous opinion within the intelligence community that the British model of parliamentary oversight should be accepted."

But in the case of Major General V.K. Singh, the government seems to have let vendetta blind it from the fact that it has no shred of evidence against him. Little wonder then that his book has so far not been banned.
official secrets act: The Iron Fig Leaf

Army sacks 'harassed' lady officer

11 Jul 2009, 1924 hrs IST, Times Now
An Army court martial has ordered the dismissal of a woman officer from service, a first in almost two decades since women were recruited, after holding her guilty of falsely accusing her seniors of sexual harassment. The court martial, which had assembled in the Division Headquarters at Patiala in Punjab near Chandigarh, gave its orders yesterday (July 10) and ordered that Army Service Corps (ASC) officer Captain Poonam Kaur be sacked.

"The Court Martial has ordered her dismissal from service. Capt Kaur had been charged on 10 counts including disobedience, making false allegations against superior officers and addressing the media pertaining to service matters," Kaur's counsel and retired Colonel S K Aggarwal said. The army court's decision, which came after about five months of hearing, will now go to the Western Army Commander Lt Gen T K Sapru for confirmation.

Kaur is the second woman officer of the Army to be court martialled after Major Dimple Singla, an officer with the Judge Advocate General branch of the Army, was tried on corruption charges in 2006 at Chandigarh since Army began recruiting women as officers in the army in 1993. Singla's court martial was later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007. Capt Poonam Kaur had on July 15 last year alleged three officers of her unit, 5682 Battalion of the Army Supply Corps based in Kalka, Haryana, had mentally and sexually harassed her and confined her illegally when she resisted their advances.

A Court of Inquiry (COI) ordered to investigate the allegations levelled by Capt Kaur against her superior officers had held that there was no basis for these charges and later recommended a court martial against her for "false charges." She had accused three of her seniors, including her commanding officer, the unit's second-in-command and adjutant -- a Colonel, Lt Col and a Major rank officer respectively -- of harassing her for many months. These officers had denied the allegations during the COI.

However, Aggarwal claimed that "Her charges of sexual harassment against Col R K Sharma, Lt Col Chawla and Major Suraj Bhan were never investigated by the COI and the Army authorities never looked into them. Her allegations against these officers have been put under the carpet". He also maintained that Kaur never addressed the media pertaining to service matters. "Had the allegations of sexual harassment not come out in the media, then people would have never known what is happening in the Army and that the ladies are not safe," he alleged.
Army sacks 'harassed' lady officer

More Reading
CBI files case against army officers in wheat purchase scam
Another scandal mars Indian defense: Written by Siddharth Srivastava

RTI Vs OSA: People have right to know?

A Tribune Special
RTI underlines accountability, says Virendra Kumar

President Pratibha Patil, while addressing the joint session of Parliament on June 4, has laid down the road-map for the new UPA government. Noting that creativity, innovation and enterprise held the key to people and nations realising their potential, she observed that the “dreary desert sand of dead habit” must be left behind.

Pursuing the same strand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his communication to his Cabinet colleagues, gently reminded that “equity, innovation and public accountability must be the watchword of our government”.

One of the conspicuous and perhaps the most critical areas where the ‘dead habit continues to be the de-railing factor of democracy is the absence of accountability of public functionaries at different levels of governance. This bureaucratic culture of non-accountability is not only protected but also accentuated by the ‘dead habit’ of ‘secrecy’ which continues to derive its sustenance from the survival of the Official Secrets Act of 1923. This is so despite the neutralising effect of the Right to Information Act of 2005.
People have the right to know

Comment: Many innocent citizens and government servants have been framed by GOI and cases being dragged in the courts and pursued at Public Cost for several years for exposing bureaucratic corruption. There is a need to streamline and stop witch hunting and gross misuse of powers under the guise of "Official Secrecy act".

RTI violator to head State Information Commission

Alka Pande
Posted: Feb 23, 2009 at 0342 hrs IST
Lucknow The Mayawati government has finalised the appointment of a retired bureaucrat, Ram Kumar, as the State Information Commissioner and sent his name to the Governor for the final stamp. Kumar was issued notice for violating Section 20 of the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The government finalised the name of 1976 batch UP cadre IAS officer on Friday to take over. The post was lying vacant since last November after the Governor, on the recommendation of the state government, had suspended former Commissioner M A Khan.

Kumar retired as the Principal Secretary, Social Welfare and Social Welfare Commissioner last year. In 2006, in an application filed under RTI, a complainant had wished to know the details of an employee’s appointment. The case (no. 761/3/07) carried on for a year and eventually on July 26, 2007, the State Information Commission issued a notice to the Social Welfare Department — headed by Kumar — for not taking the desired action and imposed a daily penalty of Rs 250 which could have gone upto Rs 25,000.
Read full text:
RTI violator to head State Information Commission

Comment: Government defrauding its own citizens! Retired Corrupt IAS officers are invariably appointed as State Information Officers by politicians as reward for their nefarious activities.

Bureaucrats attempt to Muzzle Media draws a flak

Photo CreditIndia needs Free Press/ News Channel for enlightening its citizens
New Delhi, January 13: News channel editors Tuesday unanimously sought a withdrawal of the government's proposal to restrain the media from the coverage of incidents like the Mumbai terror strikes, and told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the decision would be against the principles of free media.

A meeting was held here by the editors to discuss the government's proposed move to amend the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act and form a Media Consultative Committee which would oversee and regulate the release of footage of emergency situations to all the channels.

All major media bodies, including the Editors Guild of India, came together to oppose the government's move and sought an appointment with the Prime Minister, who also holds charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
News channel editors resent Centre's move to muzzle media: Press Trust of India

Soft power that Indian armed forces lack

Photo credit SamacharSamaritans in Assam
Failure can be simply attributed to the obsolescent organisational culture and misplaced value system of the Indian armed forces. The defence services in India are in a time warp — colonial, feudal and fit for the society of an industrial era. The civil society has changed dramatically in last two decades towards an information age but the services have done nothing to change with the society. The disconnect between the services and the society grows wider with each passing day. In an era of transparency, the opacity of the organisational policies of the services creates embarrassing situations like the one recently created with the RTI on AWWA. The lack of an electronic copy of numerous journals produced the institutions of the three services on the world wide web is reflective of the outdated policies that the services and its top brass espouse.
Read Full Article: Soft power that Indian armed forces lack

Comment: The Armed forces need to be harbingers of change. It needs to sieze and overpower the Red Tape Bureaucracy, combat corruption and be in the forefront of Nation Building; other than its Primary Goal "Security of Nation". Each and every Armed Forces personal from a foot soldier to the chief need to be a proactive citizen while going about their daily routine.

Defence Forces need to harness the power of the Media

Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh, former Signal officer-in-chief, observed that since the media has a profound effect on the thinking of people and authorities, winning the media battle is as important as winning in the battlefield.

Talking of his experiences with the media during counter-insurgency operations, Lt Gen JS Dhillon(Retd) said had the Army’s media interface been good, they wouldn’t have got adverse coverage during Op Bluestar. He urged Army officers never to hide facts or shy away from the media.

Former vice-chief of Army Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi said archaic and cumbersome procurement procedures is the bane of our system. He added that structure of the armed forces should be capability- based. He, too, urged the Army officers to harness the power of the media and advised them against remaining cocooned and isolated. He harped on the need of the Army to allow access to more reporters to help expand the media’s knowledge of the military.
Barring foreign media in Kargil cost India dear

ESM: There is greater need for ESM organisations to expand the media's knowledge of the Military and the Defence Forces at large. The words of wisdom quoted from senior veterans also speaks of the importance of media to champion for our veterans cause.

An NRI Victory: Right to Information Act

Activists of Association for India’s Development U.S. demonstrating outside the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C., demanding that the Indian government withdraw its amendments to curtail the Right to Information Act.

After persistent efforts from volunteers of the Association for India’s Development, the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C., has implemented India’s landmark Right to Information Act, 2005, bringing its operations fully under the act’s purview.

However the path of getting RTI to the U.S was not all that rosy. Volunteers of AID have been campaigning since November of 2006 to get the Indian Embassy officials in Washington to implement the RTI act. A number of emails and phone calls were made. Later, realizing that the communication with the embassy officials was proving to be futile, a few volunteers started communicating directly with the Chief Information Commissioner in India, Wajahat Habibullah, seeking his intervention. The Central Information Commission issued an order around April 2007 bringing all the missions abroad under the purview of the RTI act. It took 90 days more of campaigning by AID volunteers to get the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. to accept its first RTI petition.
An NRI Victory: Right to Information Act