www.gfilesindia.com/: February 2013

February 10, 2013

ISRAEL’S TIP-TOE APPROACH

Israel is a tiny, largely unknown country most Indians don’t even know of. Israel is the genie at the service of the Indian defence industry. How long will this business of friendship last?

by Neeraj Mahajan with inputs from Anil Tyagi

‘What gives Israel bargaining power in the international arena is the support of the United States… If Israel were to stand alone, its enemies would swallow it up. Without US support… we would be like a lone tree in the desert’

– Israeli President Shimon Peres in New York Times (January 9, 2013)

The two most important lessons that you cannot ignore in international geopolitics are that there are no permanent friends or enemies and that when a country’s own strategic or economic interests are at stake, it can do an about-turn. Israel, till recently the US’s closest ally in Asia, today not only has to make do with waning US support but also finds itself isolated. President Barack Obama refused to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington when he threatened military action in Iran. The chemistry between Netanyahu and Obama, or more importantly between Israel and the US, has changed...Read More

The buzz is Missing

by Kalyani Datta

The ninth international aerospace exhibition, Aero India, begins in Bengaluru but the buzz associated with such an event is missing this time. The most probable reason for this is India selecting French-made Rafale fighter jet under its medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) mega deal worth over Rs 50,000 crore. The Government is now in advanced stage of price negotiations with Dassault, the manufacturer of Rafale, and the final contract is likely to be inked by the end of this fiscal or in the first quarter of the next financial year...Read More

‘IAF will be an instrument of choice in all future security challenges…’

‘IAF will be an instrument of choice in

all future security challenges…’

The IAF today is shedding its vintage fleet, updating its operational strategies as well as morphing itself into an ultra-modern integrated multi-tasking fighting force. With 42 years of service and close to 3100 hours of flying experience, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne is in the hot-seat as the 23rd Chief of Air Staff. For a person, who was the architect of IAF’s modernisation as the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, will he now be able to harness the strength of the men and women in blue and transform the IAF into a future ready war machine? Excerpts from an interview with Neeraj Mahajan

gfiles:What changes will you like to be remembered for bringing in as the 23^rd Chief of Air Staff?

Air Chief:IAF will be a fully networked, multi-spectrum strategic aerospace power and prime instrument of choice in all future national security challenges. Inductions like those of the C-130 J 30, Mi-17 V5 Heptrs and Su-30 aircraft are steps in that direction. Soon, we will be inducting AW-101 VVIP helicopters, Pilatus PC-7 basic trainers, C-17 Globemaster strategic lift aircraft and other weapon systems. I would like to be remembered for leading a professionally reputed Air Force during its defining phase...Read More

Plugging the weakness

An integrated approach to future wars and conflicts is inescapable. This is a weak area of our national security and needs to addressed urgently.

by NARAYAN MENON

THE mission of air defence is to sustain national will by preserving our military capability and preventing hostile air power from inflicting crippling damage to our war-waging apparatus. Pre-emptive offensive air action to destroy enemy war-waging capability is also considered a type of air defence, but traditionally air defence is understood to be the denial of one’s own airspace to any hostile activity while keeping it open for friendly operations. Air defence units are continuously on ‘alert’, both in peace and war. All air activity is monitored and deviations are dealt with as per laid down procedures. During war, air defence aims to safeguard strategic and military capability, and prevent enemy air power from inflicting damage to our war sustaining efforts. Such damage can result from attacks by manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), ballistic missiles, with conventional or nuclear warheads, or space-based weapon systems...Read More

Urea pricing: a hot potato no one wants to touch

Urea pricing: a hot potato no

one wants to touch

Despite loud thinking and numerous expert reports over the years, the UPA Government is yet to muster courage to decontrol urea. It has also dragged its feet over clearing the much-discussed 10 per cent hike in retail prices of urea.

by Naresh Minocha

‘Urea is the one fertiliser the pricing of which affects all sections of farmers, including marginal and small farmers’

– Joint Committee on Fertiliser Pricing in August 1992 seeking a 10 per cent cut in urea prices.

Urea has remained a hot political potato ever since the Government accepted the recommendations of the country’s first-ever Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on pricing of any product. Today, the political class ensures that its statutory price remains one of the lowest in the world. It thus retails at a price, which is not even half the price of branded table salt. Urea’s overuse and its diversion to chemical producers and smuggling to neighbouring countries is thus subsidy-driven...Read More

Entertaining paribartan

There is no denying the fact that for the last 20 months, governance in West Bengal has always been high on entertainment value

by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

Under Left rule, West Bengal appeared to have become a dangerous place, at least for a section of the populace. But when Mamata Di took over, people expected paribartan. And, paribartan has certainly taken place in the State, though the debate on exactly what changes the new Government has brought in is still on. Still there is no denying the fact that for the last 20 months, governance in West Bengal has always been high on entertainment value...Read More

Games Gaikwad plays

A master strategist, he has always known which strings to pull. But like an overconfident gambler, Ratnakar Gaikwad seems to walking on thin ice now.

by Ajit Ujjainkar

The higher you go, the harder you fall – this simple law of physics till now has not applied to Ratnakar Yashwant Gaikwad, the high-profile and well-connected 61-year-old Chief Information Officer. But, if the current situation is any indication, his days are numbered. The big question is: when and how will he have his great fall?...Read More

Rahul - the chintan of Congress

Though Congress leaders gushed about Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Obama moment’ in Jaipur, how the new party vice-president addresses the ills plaguing the party will be keenly observed

by Renu Mittal & Ajay N Jha from Jaipur

The young Obama had taken a cynical United States by storm when he said, “yes we can”. And he did, even winning a second term much to the surprise of some. Rahul Gandhi too had what his supporters call ‘his Obama moment’ in Jaipur when emotional and enthused Congressmen from across the country gave him a standing ovation inspired by his speech of hope and change...Read More

Gadh gela pan simha aalaa

(The Fort was won but we lost Lion)

The powerplay in BJP gets more exciting not due to Gadkari’s exit
but more because of Rajnath Singh’s entry.

by K Subramaniam

History is known to repeat but not in reverse. According to Maratha history, one of Shivaji’s Generals gave his life to win a fort in the battle with the Mughals, giving rise to the adage ‘gad aala pan simha gela’ (the fort was won but we lost the lion). Gadkari (one who holds fort) could not hold on to the BJP fort in the wake of a Purti full of allegations of financial irregularities. But he did not go down all alone. Like Humpty Dumpty, he brought down the reputation of the RSS, which had placed him on the high wall of 11 Ashoka Road. But first things first...Read More

Proxy rule syndrome

Public servants should be responsible for whatever they do in their official capacity and not act as rubber stamps for their superiors

Recently, I filed two writ petitions in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. Both were filed in matters with which I am personally related. But the purpose of filing them was as much to do with the larger cause of governance, which according to me is the cornerstone on which the entire system of governance should be based. What this means is that if we genuinely want the Indian system of governance to reach the levels we often feel like and state, the primary requirement is to have a system where public servants are accountable for whatever they do in their official capacity...Read More

Politics a la cricket

The entire nation has been mystified by the shenanigans of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His UPA-2 avatar does not appear to be even a distant cousin of the Manmohan Singh of UPA-1. Naturally, this has raised eyebrows...Read More

Is violence innately human?

People often want to know if violence is innately human. The answer is that you are capable of both violence and non-violence, but violence is not in you. It happens in reaction to something outside you. If you are aware, you just do what is needed at any given moment, that’s all...Read More

Look before you leap

Looking at the current momentum of the markets, various analysts and investment bankers have started giving rosy forecasts for the Sensex to test levels as high as 23000 by the end of 2013. I wonder whether investors should believe them or be more careful, especially if the recent track record of most of these analysts is considered, as was witnessed in the case of Infosys, when most of them were way off in their outlooks in predicting the quarterly earnings for such a highly tracked and researched stock...Read More

Plugging for power

Plugging for power
Bull run in the Congress

While there is near unanimity in AICC circles that Ahmed Patel will continue to be in power as long as Sonia Gandhi is the Congress President, a ticker has been installed at 24 Akbar Road, which details a daily bulletin of who is up and who is down in Rahul Gandhi’s Congress. It currently shows Ghulam Nabi Azad moving up, who had earlier been rather quiet and low key for some time. And, this becomes evident if one looks at the number of senior Congressmen who are now making a beeline for meeting the senior leader...Read More

Change of guard

Change of guard
Wasnik’s fate uncertain

The Congress simply does not learn from its mistakes. After having been thrashed in Bihar and getting much less in Rajasthan, thanks to a faulty ticket distribution system for which Mukul Wasnik has been blamed by party workers in both states, he has now been given temporary charge of States going to the ballots in the North-East. The North-Eastern States were earlier under the charge of Col Dhani Ram Shandil, who was the AICC state in-charge of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Shandil...Read More

Gadkari’s folly, Advani’s gain

Gadkari’s folly, Advani’s gain
Gadkari undone by palace politics

Businessman turned politician Nitin Gadkari never imagined that political wars can be so lethal that his whole persona would be erased in just a day. If reports about the BJP president issue are to be believed, it appears that patriarch LK Advani still rules the roost. Gadkari was certain that things were going his way, especially as the party had amended its constitution in September, enabling the president to enjoy a second consecutive term. But, Gadkari had himself sown the seeds of his removal when RSS pracharak Suresh Soni’s acolyte, Prabhat Jha, was denied a second term in MP at the instance of Chouhan. The latter wanted Jha to stop projecting himself as the next CM. Adding fuel to the fire was the Purti case expose, which...Read More

Rethinking in the Congress

Rethinking in the Congress
Forming strategy for 2014

Notwithstanding the recent brouhaha seen at the Congress ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Jaipur, with even Rahul Gandhi criticising the manner in which outsiders were being propped up in key and significant positions while loyal Congressmen were being ignored, party leaders appear to have side-stepped the issue for the moment. Thus, the party handpicked Madhusudan Mistry to look into reports submitted by 42 observers that it had selected to prepare candidate profiles, collect data and other relevant information right down to the block level for elections 2014. Mistry, who is from Gujarat, where he was known for his proximity to Shankersinh Vaghela, was clearly covering his back when he rejected a proposal from some leaders that those...Read More

Poetic justice

Those were the days when the bulls ran riot in Haryana, especially with Om Prakash Chautala, as Chief Minister, leading the herd. It is learnt that the atmosphere was literally suffocating for bureaucrats in the State. Like the proverbial tribal leader, Chautala only had to speak; it was for his officers to listen and act whether it came to appointments or recruitments, be it of policemen or of teachers. This is even though such verbal orders were void ab initio. For an honest and hardworking officer, it was difficult to follow such orders. It is learnt that Ms Rajni Sekhri Sibal, 1986 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre, was asked to change the appointment list of 3,200 Junior Basic Training Teachers by Sher Singh Badshami...Read More

Shiela plays the IAS fiddle

Delhi is in election mode this year. So, it is a year for appeasement of all, especially the transport lobby. The power that this lobby wields becomes evident if one looks at the speed (sic) with which it was able to trace the bus involved in the infamous Delhi gang rape case, where all it had to do was to scan the Delhi Police hafta (weekly) collection dairy. For any official applying the brakes to what this lobby does not like, a ‘free’ ride to another office is almost assured. Transport Commissioner Rajendra Kumar, 1989 batch AGMUT cadre...Read More

Skeletons in Cab Secy’s closet

Javid Chowdhury, a 1965 batch IAS officer, in his book ‘The Insider’s View- Memoirs of a Public Servant’ recounts how the then Cabinet Secretary sought to deny him promotion from Additional Secretary to Secretary by telling a lie to the then Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral that he should not be promoted because he was ‘terminally ill’!...Read More

SEBI loves Sahara!

North Block is silent and surprised. The issue is Sahara Group’s Rs 10,000 crore second instalment to be paid to SEBI under a Supreme Court order. As per the extended deadline provided by the apex court, Sahara companies were to pay up this installment on January 10. It is reported that till we went to press, Sahara had not paid up. Further, SEBI has not appointed an agency for authentication of Sahara’s three crore investors. Why SEBI Chairman UK Sinha (a 1976 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre), is silent on the Sahara issue has baffled everybody...Read More

gfiles magazine

February 10, 2013