Maritime History Society Mumbai- 40th year under Adm MP AWATI

MHS COMMEMORATIVE MARITIME SYMPOSIUM

“PROMOTING INDIAN MARITIME HERITAGE AND HISTORY

MARITIME HISTORY SOCIETY – A REPRISE”

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

BY VICE ADMIRAL SCS BANGARA (RETD) PVSM, AVSM

PATRON – MARITIME HISTORY SOCIETY

I consider it a great privilege to be standing here at the commencement of the 40th  year of Maritime History Society. That the Society has survived for so long is a tribute to the creator of this concept who has inspired so many. To tweak what Churchill said after the second world war, "Never in the history of this navy has one man contributed so much, with so little, to benefit so many."

In the course of my opening remarks, I have chosen to narrate two anecdotes on Admiral Awati so that the younger generation of officers get to know more facets of his overall personality. Therefore, I am going to talk off the cuff, impromptu or extempore, while narrating two true stories. The dramatis personae of these stories are here today – I suspect not by coincidence, but by serendipity or fate as you may call it.  

In 1977, when I was appointed as FTASO now called FASWO of the Western Fleet, I was a Lt Cdr with under a year of service in that rank. In June 1978, the Western Fleet with FOCWF was on a cruise to Seychelles, Mombasa and Dar-e-Salam.

 Having become independent just an year ago, and Seychelles being a strategically important port, the country celebrated  her National Day in the presence of ships from US Navy, the French and Russian Navies, all of whom had a permanent interest in the IOR. We too ensured that we were well represented for the occasion.

Soon after we anchored at Port Victoria, I was informed that I would be officiating as Flag Lt in addition to my duties as the incumbent had been transferred for watch keeping duties to one of the ships in harbour. During my tenure later that year, I was also asked to perform the duties of Secretary to FOCWF. I do not know of anyone else who has performed three-in-one  duties on the Fleet Staff. Suffice it to say that the Admiral thought well of me.

Now then, the dilemma faced by President Francis Rene was, which of the Admirals present in port should coordinate the ceremony. Being conscious of various interests and a vibrant Indian diaspora the wily President who finally handed over power only in 2004, casually asked the Admirals to sort it out among themselves.

The American Admiral was a tired listless officer with some Pollyanna notions about world affairs. He did not make any bid to lead the men of war in harbour.

The French invited us for lunch.  The French Admiral was rather dumb struck with the proficiency of the Indian Admiral in matters maritime, flora and fauna, maritime history and what have you. After a two-hour session he gracefully suggested that Admiral Awati could consider leading the Independence Day ceremony.

Admiral Yassakov, leading the Soviet contingent was tall, cocky and boastful. In order to establish his credentials, he invited the Indian Admiral for a discussion on his powerful destroyer at about 1030 hrs. I happened to be familiar with Russian customs and traditions having lived in Russia to acquire the Missile boats before the 1971 war. I briefed Adm Awati on what he could expect in terms of the proceedings at which copious quantities of Vodka would form an integral part. Being a teetotaller, he pondered over it and asked me to invite the former Flag Lt to also be present at this meeting.

Yassakov, as it turned out, went overboard with his hospitality. The table was lined up with bottles of Scotch and Vodka, packets of Dunhill and Rothman cigarettes, caviar, et al. As predicted, Yassakov made a long introductory speech, rather badly translated by a hastily selected interpreter. He then reached out to the bottle of Scotch and poured a very generous quantity of it in two glasses. That was meant to be gulped down by both Admirals at the end of a toast. Having made a politico-military speech, Yassakov stood up and suggested that bottoms up was the next move. All eyes were on Admiral Awati and there was just a fleeting moment of silence! He stood up, looked purposefully at the former Flag Lt who was blissfully unaware of his role, and in a gunnery voice said, "Flags, drink it up". The flamboyant, handsome Flag Lt who was as skilled in elbow bending as his handsome personality, displayed how down-the-hatch is exercised by seamen.

Quite naturally the Russians went into a huddle to decipher what this strange Indian tradition meant. Not to be caught unawares, Yassokov nonchalantly continued his second and third toasts. All three attempts were met with the same response and alacrity by our young Flag Lt. After a quick huddle in which the hosts came to the conclusion that they needed to have a greater understanding of Indian customs and perplexed with "the power of command" on display they wound up the discussions on a meek note.

Thus ended the last "battle" before the Indian ships were formally declared leaders of the ceremony-which of course was faultlessly executed.

2

The second story is when the Western Fleet entered Basra (Iraq) the same year after a very successful visit to Bandar Abbas (Iran). The ship secured at about 2100 hrs in a poorly lit harbour. The Admiral and I were walking on the Quarter deck of the Flag ship when he abruptly turned to me and said, "A white horse at 0600 hrs, Good Night."

We were trained never to argue with an Admiral. A foreign port with aliens and non English speaking interlocutors- a white horse? Serendipity some may say. Out of the darkness appears an Iraqi naval officer. "Sir," he says, "I am .... You were my training officer on INS Kirpan. What can I do for you, Sir?" I hugged him and said, "White horse at 0600 hrs. Good night."

So indeed was a white horse at the gangway at 0545 hrs. What next? At 0600 hrs the forward superstructure door opened and out came this grand person attired in full riding kit of ‘The Master of Fox Hounds'.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Defence Services Staff College at Connoor near Ooty, there exists even today a Hunt club.  Originally meant to hunt foxes which are now extinct, the club goes through the process of the hunt along with the hounds. The Master and the Committee members are normally attired in a special rig consisting of;

HUNT CAP WITH CHIN STRAPS, WHITE OR CREAM STOCK TIE SECURED WITH GOLD PIN, BLACK OR TAN GLOVES, CREAM OR WHITE VEST, CORUSCATING SCARLET LONG HUNTING JACKET WITH BRASS BUTTONS, WHITE OR TAN BREECHES AND BLACK DRESS RIDING BOOTS WITH GARTERS.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Admiral was immaculately turned out in that rig. He mounted the horse and rode into the port city of Basra. Soon curious onlookers started to line up on both sides of the road and either through curiosity or awe started to spread the word that a Prince had arrived on a visit to Basra. Not surprisingly, by the time the official engagements of calling on the local dignitaries commenced later in the day, the streets were full of cheering citizens and school children of Basra. The visit by the Western Fleet ships was termed as an outstanding success by the hosts.

If you are wondering what cemented this relationship between the Admiral and his three-in -one staff officer with an age gap of 20 years and  which continues to blossom, I can attribute it to a quote from Gen Pershing. He said, "In a social order in which one person is officially subordinate to another, the superior if he is a Gentleman never thinks of it and the subordinate if he is a Gentleman never forgets it."

Let me welcome the Admiral who taught me that pusillanimity, pussy footing and gerrymandering do not make a good leader....

Put your hands together to welcome Admiral Awati on stage. 

The Indian Submarine journey of 50 years-A ring side view

(Carried by The Quint on 16 Feb 17-link below)

Golden Jubilee and our Indian Submariners

A ring side view

The year 1969.The destination, a remote island in Vladivostok. The era was of the grand Soviet Union. A large contingent of Indian Naval officers and sailors, of which I was one, was conveyed by boat to our final destination. An unusually long journey- first by an Air India chartered flight from Mumbai to Moscow, followed by a long wait at the airport before embarking a large  turbo prop aircraft for an even longer flight to the far eastern coast of the Soviet Union.

A tired contingent of the would be Killer squadron of missile boats, was received by a cheerful lot of Indian submarine officers and sailors who had spent considerable time on the island. They were happy to embrace their brethren after a long absence from home. Letters from their dear ones which took over a month to reach via the Indian Embassy at Moscow were delivered along with goodies and eats from home. Thus started my association with the Indian Naval Submariners - a special category of pioneers of the newly born, long awaited, third dimension of the navy.

The Golden jubilee of the submarine arm scheduled in December 2017 is exactly an year after my commissioning date of December 1966. Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would, soon after the 1971 war, be sent to specialize in Anti Submarine Warfare.           .

 But then I was to work even closer with the submarine arm as we fed on each other's strengths and weaknesses to hone our respective combat skills. Tactics to encounter stealthy denizens of the deep  had to be evolved through numerous exercises at sea. Conversely, the submarine evolved its combat procedures by analyzing numerous encounters with her hunters from all three dimensions, i.e. surface, air and underwater.

And so it was that we graduated from the F Class submarines  to the Kilo Class from the Soviet Union and from the HDW-SSK bought and built in India  from Germany and finally to the Scorpene Class ex France now being built at the Mazagaon docks at Mumbai.

The journey as expected has been tenuous, rewarding , frustrating and exhilarating all rolled into one. It would be difficult to segregate the indigenous nuclear submarine from this saga. After all the foundation was laid from the experience gained by our intrepid submariners who trained and manned a soviet nuclear submarine on lease, as early as in 1988. The transition from the conventional to nuclear is by no means an easy one, as was the experience of a handful of proud owners of the nuclear submarines. That the Arihant our first nuclear propelled submarine was monitored and operationalised by the submarine arm is as vital as the participation of DRDO, BARC ,indigenous partners in production of the hull and numerous suppliers of various parts of the platform. Most of them would never know how the parts they manufactured fit into the complex platform. The combination of war ship building which commenced in the late 1960's and submarine building which commenced in 1987 and finally the nuclear submarine building has supported and nurtured a whole range of SME/MSME segments of industry in India. Some day this little known statistics will be compiled for us to really appreciate the laborious process.

Were there down sides to the saga? To start with our attempts to build two of the most advanced design of the German HDW submarines under the buy and make concept had to be prematurely abandoned after the two submarines supplied and two built were successfully inducted. This was triggered by the infamous HDW scandal which surfaced at a crucial period of our development. We now know that whenever the country is poised to acquire a state of art platforms or equipment, a scandal surfaces  when the process is completed. It has taken decades for the procurement procedures to be revised to address issues related to black listing and the role of agents.  Transfer of technology and involving indigenous private sector partners to pursue the "Make in India"  concept has just been reformulated; the success of which will be tested in due course of time.

Second, rapid modernization and acquisition has a telling effect on the manpower constraints related to sanctions and recruitment  followed by training which is a long term process that defies instant solutions. Decommissioning old platforms to compensate for the immediate requirement of new induction has its own predicament of force level imperatives.

A new platform demands not just trained manpower for operational needs but a host of administrative, logistics and repair support facilities which are manpower-critical. Short cuts may well result in unintended consequences of accidents and losses.

Wishing away mid- term implications to overcome mandatory sanctions from a not too responsive sanctioning authority, has attendant ramifications of a grave nature. Balancing the short and long term implications on man power may well turn out to be the biggest challenge for the navy.

https://www.thequint.com/opinion/2017/02/16/50-years-of-indian-submarines-the-journey-from-foxtrot-to-arihant

FLAWED POLICIES THAT LED TO CREATION OF ISIS

Session on Flawed policies that led to creation of ISIS    With Ambassador Hardeep Puri, Former Indian Permanent Representative to the UN  


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboXIDv6TqU

Flawed Policies that gave rise to ISIS

Hardeep Singh Puri retired in 2003 as our Permanent Rep at the UN. His book released in June this year has invited rave reviews ."Perilous Interventions-The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos" is claimed to be one of the best books on the decision making process of the security council. 

FICCI-FLO at their LITFEST event at Pune,on 14 Jan, invited him to talk about " Flawed Decisions which gave rise to ISIS". My introduction of Hardeep as the moderator of this session, is placed below. Link to the one hour session is still awaited.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for this session which discusses "Flawed policies that gave rise to ISIS" we have amidst us a diplomat, who after 39 years in the foreign service of India, to which you can add three more with the International Peace Institute, has in Jun 2016,authored a book titled "PERILOUS INTERVENTIONS-THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE POLITICS OF CHAOS" Why did this book become an instant success? Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri's last assignment was the permanent representative of India at the United nations in New York  from 2009 to 2013. This quintessential  second generation diplomat(son of an Indian Diplomat) had served as a young officer in Japan and Sri lanka,  as DCM at London,  in Geneva as a permanent rep of India and in  Brazil as our Ambassador.  Educated in Delhi, he taught at St Stephans before joining the foreign service.

I first heard of this dynamic young Puri,when he was at Colombo at a crucial period of the Indo-Sri Lankan  peace accord of 1987, when Mr  Mani Dixit was the High Commissioner and I was the Naval Advisor to  Mr SK Singh at Islamabad in 1985-88. There was much discussions on the LTTE and their possible linkages with the ISI of Pakistan. We exchanged some interesting  information without having met anywhere. No social media ,no Google, no pictures. We were faceless diplomats.

Fast forward and in 1995, Hardeep lands up as Joint sec at MOD when I was steering the naval plans and budget. We hit it off from day one. Being a quintessential diplomat he had mastered the art of occasionally  telling me to go to hell, so convincingly, that I had begun to look forward to that trip. But as a seasoned  sailor, I too had a few tricks up my sleeve, albeit shorn of all diplomacy, but filled with nautical gems. This then solidified our friendship.

More than a decade later, in 2011, we both met at Geneva at the annual conference of the International Institute for strategic studies He was by then our permanent rep at New York and I had superannuated .  He spoke at a plenary session on the future of UN and I, on Rising military powers in Asia. This  Indian pair had done it again. There were rumblings among the predominantly western experts in the audience. But, we celebrated the rumblings with a quick drink at a popular bar which was perhaps a wee bit cheaper that the Manhattan bars that is frequented by senior UN functionaries at New York. 

On a serious note, Hardeep's tenure at the UN, 2009-2013,  was eventful, as India returned to the famous horse shoe table of the security council as a non permanent member after a lapse of 17 years. That was a significant election. 187 of the 190 member countries voted in favour of India. Even Pakistan voted in our favour. That was Hardeep's moment to savour, for, India had lost the elections badly 17 years ago. 

 He then held the post of the President of the council twice and chairman of its counter terrorism committee for two years. That is when he saw the ugly under belly of  the decision making process of the Security council consisting of 5 permanent members, USA, UK,France,China and Russia and ten elected members . 

As Robert Bolono once said, "People see what they want to see and what people want to see never has anything to do with the truth."

To enlighten us this evening, Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together to welcome Ambassador Hardeep Puri .

Episodic brouhaha on the selection of the Chief of the Army Staff

POSTED IN THE QUINT(OPINION ) 24 DEC 16

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS OF HRD IN THE ARMED FORCES

The selection of the Army Chief Gen Rawat  has predictably generated much heat both in the print and electronic media. Social media too is full of malicious  gossip and ill informed expert opinions offered by veterans who have short memories. Nitin Gokhale who has had considerable experience on matters military ,has attempted a historic survey under a piece titled ,"A quiet peek in our history". 

Supersession and seniority are two buzz words used in most articles or discussions. Let me posit that super session is a regular feature in most Militaries of the world. For instance, all cadets joining a military academy may have the same basic date of entry but a few would pass out of the academy with a penalty ranging from six months to 18 months due to relegation as a result of failure in academics, injuries sustained during training, lowering of medical category and conduct unbecoming of an officer cadet -which includes moral turpitude. Such cadets are superseded by their term mates who joined on the same date.

Later during  career courses the performance of young officers is recognised and seniority of up to one year is awarded to those that excel(there are differing models among the three services) Here again among course mates of the same seniority, the new pecking order is revised and published as a gazette notification . The entire seniority profile of officers of the same course may undergo significant changes  which may later deprive or assist some who reach senior ranks. But then Military officers live by the credo that no one can be assured of guaranteed promotion and more importantly no one is guaranteed that he would be serving or alive in the decades to follow.

A beautiful poem  called "The laws of the navy" has a stanza which reads, "Count not upon certain promotion, but rather to gain it aspire, though the sight line may end on the target, there cometh perchance a misfire...."  Indeed misfires have not spared some outstanding officers who have chosen to fade away as suggested in the poem. I have known of Naval officers who did not make the cut for promotion along with their  course mates at promotion boards, but who made it right to the top by clearing the subsequent selection board a year later along with their juniors. The selection for promotion to senior ranks of Colonels and above provides three opportunities to be considered  before one is told that he will not be placed on the select list.  I am merely restating the fact that in a pyramidical structure which gets narrower at the top with each selection process, a large number of officers are passed over or superseded at every rank. In comparison the civil services have a cylindrical structure which assures promotion upto a senior rank, unless one is unlucky to be caught for activities of moral turpitude or sheer incompetence. Do remember that an incompetent senior civil servant may take no decision and survive without inflicting  or causing death of his colleagues while a less competent military leader would not only cause death of his men but more importantly lose the war . There are no runners up in war-you have to win.

To those who constantly carp on the morale of soldiers due to super session of an officer at the very pinnacle, it would be instructive to note that the soldier lives with the phenomenon of super session all his life. He looks up to his immediate superior and leader who leads him into battle , So long as he has a good leader he is ready to offer the supreme sacrifice. Although, some officers have challenged their super session in courts of law much against the service ethos, I cannot remember a single instance of their subordinates voicing their concern in an open show of grief! Yet we have had a Chief who challenged the accuracy of his date of birth in order to gain more time in the chair, only to be reprimanded by the highest court of law. That conduct would go down as unofficer-  like  in that he fought a case for himself and not for the service as a whole or for betterment of his soldiers. Such misdemeanor hurts the morale of a disciplined community which looks up to the leader to set an example. The question now arises on politicization of the Military.

Apropos the question of deciding on seniority cum merit and deep selection for the highest rank, the Military would certainly appreciate consideration of merit. Seniority perse is a lazy solution to the problem as mere date of birth would decide the line of succession  for years to come.  That is neither good for the service nor the individual who is well placed  on the list. But then creating a process which quantifies or at best identifies merit is a greater challenge. It cannot be subjective and yet it is difficult to rate human qualities so accurately. All things being equal, the Indian parliament has little or no experts on matters military to set up an institutional process like the Senate hearings consisting of members who have participated in Military training or service in the Armed forces. That is unlikely to happen in India in the near future.

The best that can be done is to generate a discussion among experts who have dealt with HRD issues of the Indian Armed forces and not on electronic or print media-that is, until a feasible and sensible process is identified by those who have managed the process and not by veterans who have never had to face the realities at Delhi.

INS ARIHANT OUR FIRST SSBN

(Carried by QUINT this afternoon)

SLAYER OF ENEMIES(INS ARIHANT)

The first indigenously built nuclear submarine Arihant has been commissioned without any fanfare. It was as silent as Arihant would be on her war patrol when she awaits the coded message received hundreds of feet beneath the sea, through a very low-frequency signal transmitted by a specially designed transmitting station. Very low-frequency signals are one of the primary modes of transmission  which penetrate the sea without attenuation to reach its recipient operating far away from the coast and deep down in the sea. This authorization to launch would be issued by the Nuclear Command Authority headed by the Prime Minister.

My mind races back to 1973, when a brilliant mathematician, Lt Cdr Subba Rao was the head of the electrical department of INS Kirpan, an anti-submarine Frigate. Her sister ship Khukri had been torpedoed and sunk off the Saurashtra coast in the 1971 war. I was freshly appointed as the Anti-Submarine Warfare officer after my course in 1972. In 1971, I was privileged to be on board INS Veer, one of the three Missile Boats which struck ships off Karachi in December. Subba Rao often talked about future wars and how a nuclear submarine would make the navy invincible in the IOR

A few years hence he volunteered to work with BARC to build a miniaturized nuclear reactor to be fitted in a submarine. Project 932 was its designation. That he was critical of the design and had to leave the DAE and later the navy was known to many. However, after his premature retirement, when he was detained at the airport before departing to the USA, ostensibly with classified documents, the story was extensively reported by the media. Not many followed the story of how he fought his own case until he was proved innocent and was later released after being locked up for years. The papers in his custody were found to be unclassified and from an open source. Collateral damages do occur in highly classified projects. But perhaps he contributed to remedying some inconsistencies in the design. This is the time to remember his courage of conviction against all odds.

A bit of historical background

Arihant would not have been built without the close and seamless interaction among the three key players; DAE, Indian Navy, and DRDO.

A timely agreement with the Soviets ensured that the design aspects were audited and a special facility at Kalpakkam was able to work on a downsized reactor. By the mid-1990s, DRDO was charged with the responsibilities of running this project. It was headed and steered by serving Naval officers assigned to the DRDO . The seamless integration was ably assisted by two critical factors. The knowledge shared by seasoned scientists from Russia and the foresight and perspicacity of the naval leadership which pursued the leasing of a nuclear submarine, later named INS Chakra.

Leasing of a nuclear submarine resulted in the transfer of expertise to man and run this complex machine, as also the creation of shore-based special safety teams and infrastructure which had to be created on the East coast. Currently, we have yet another nuclear submarines leased to us, a follow- on of the earlier Chakra . Yet another on lease is imminent. These could not have fructified without careful planning and the support of successive Governments.

Building a first of class warship or submarine is a lengthy process with institutional  checks and balances at each stage. The keel is laid and the hull built around with essential propulsion package and auxiliaries. She is  thereafter launched into the water as Arihant was in 2009.Essentially all the fitting out of weapons, sensors takes place after its launch . After installation of all equipment and machinery, they are independently tested before the process of Harbour Acceptance Trials (HATS)  commences. On successful completion ,the ship undergoes Sea Acceptance Trials which include all aspects of ship-borne systems including the live firing of weapons. This phase alone would typically take close to two years. Once the ship is commissioned, her work up is undertaken by the Flag Officer Sea Training and a similar set up for Submarines. It is only when the ship is certified fit for combat operation that she is deployed with operational commands.

The above is to clarify many doubts raised by ill-informed reportage on the state of a newly inducted unit of the Navy.

What can Arihant do?

Wars do not happen overnight. The period of tension prevailing between two belligerents often lead to preparation and deployment. Arihant can be deployed anywhere in the Indian ocean, Arabian Sea or in the Asia pacific region. Her endurance is limited not by logistics but by human endurance to remain submerged . Nuclear submarines neither surface nor enter harbour and can only be detected by advanced sensors deployed by ships, submarines and aircraft. Strategically placed  seabed sensors too play their part.

The existing combination of ship launched missiles, such as Brahmos, carrier-launched aircraft, surveillance and attack capability of the P8 Maritime patrol aircraft assisted by Satellite imagery and dedicated communication satellite for the navy is now augmented by a strategic asset which can remain over 3000 km from its intended target and complete her mission.

Would Aridhaman, the second of this class be followed by more? Indeed, published material also indicates that Attack submarines would also be built as part of our plans to secure our national interests.

Readers would do well not to fall prey to corybantic worshipers who sing paeans of all our adversaries and their 'infallible machines'. Just remember that we now build Fast attack craft, patrol vessels, landing craft, Minesweepers, Amphibious vessels, Frigates, Destroyers, submarines, nuclear submarines and  Aircraft Carriers . Look around, who else outside the Five members of the security council(the big boys) is capable of this?

URI to URAN-The unlearnt Lessons (Published by First Post.com on 23 Sep)

 Uran Alert: From Mumbai to Uri, India's Failure to Learn from the past is the only common thread.

The first televised live coverage brought to our drawing rooms was the real time events of the Kargil conflict of 1999. Daily military briefings by the DGMO was a much-viewed event . But they were Military operations, which according to the then Army Chief General VP Malik, were fought with 'what we have'. He was alluding to critical shortages of weapons and ammunition and unduly long processes to modernize our Armed Forces. 

But, yet again the Indian forces pulled it off with' what they had'.

The Government was quick to appoint a Committee of experts headed by the doyen of matters national security, K Subrahmanyam. Restructuring of the Armed Forces, revitalizing  border security and other critical matters were comprehensively addressed. The deputy Prime Minister as the head of a group of ministers reviewed all the recommendations including one on Defence Management submitted by  a task force headed by Arun Singh and constituted an implementation mechanism which functioned rather efficiently.  

Then, the  government changed and the remaining points for implementations was confined to the proverbial dust bin.

The Mumbai attack of 2008, forced the Government to once again review the existing weaknesses and take appropriate measures. Predictably, over time, they too were buried to be redusted during the next episode.

The point to note is that had the recommendations made post-Kargil been seriously and consistently addressed, perhaps the Mumbai attack may not have occurred. Extending the same logic, had we implemented many of the weaknesses rediscovered during the Mumbai attack along with the recommendations made by the group of interlocutors in 2011, we may not have had  the situations in the  valley, Pathankot or Uri to worry about.

Much of our problems are linked to the improper functioning of the parliament and consequently poor formulation of effective legislations and laws to tackle the entire spectrum of economic, social and security related issues that confront us. In many ways, they are all interlinked. While politicians bash up each other, at times physically too, we the citizens fret and frown without ever acknowledging, that we the people, put them into parliament in the first place; by casting our votes for the incompetent, ignoring elections or not participating in any process of cleaning up of dirty politics.  Electoral, police, judicial and administrative reforms are long overdue. Not much will change without these reforms.

Since the canvas of corrective measures is vast and long, let me focus on just one issue in this piece, viz,Police reforms.

An ungainly and shameful sight on television is an inadequately equipped, physically unfit and apparently ill led police force in any part of the country. Just compare these pictures with not only the more advanced nations but also with our immediate neighbours. Without exception, the first line of defence or assistance to the citizen,i.e,the policeman is the most unfortunate product of State politics. The very States who zealously protect their rights on law and order  and object to any intervention by the centre, are guilty of politicizing, under equipping , neglecting welfare of the policemen and his family and undermining the police leadership.

See the video clips of the Uran alert that happened on 22 Sep. When the first reports of suspicious armed personnel in the sensitive location of Uran reached the police, cameras captured policemen with neither bullet- proof jackets nor helmets, arriving in hoards with (mercifully) 7.62 rifles and not .303, on motorbikes and lining up on the streets. 

You would never, on such occasions, see an officer of the force with them . Any uninitiated citizen would wonder what this ill-equipped  band of rag tag policemen would have done if they were attacked by well trained AK 47 wielding terrorists. They would have been excellent cannon fodder, for, they neither had protection nor a clue on how to take offensive or defensive positions. After subjecting themselves to a photo opportunity, they climbed on their motorcycles and vanished. There were some who due to their over sized bellies could not even have dropped to the ground to take up firing position.

Yes we have the police commandos, yes we have a quick reaction force, but who would authorize the low-end baton or stick- wielding Cop to counter a terrorist threat. Do we have well trained adequately equipped rapid reaction capability to reach Uran at short notice? Perhaps not. Would it not have been the best option to seek the immediate assistance of the naval security force until the right fighting element arrived on the scene? This was only a random sighting reported by a shocked school girl and not a firefight with confirmed terrorists. 

What chance would these policemen have had to survive an attack? In the event, it may turn out to be Forest Guards who are also equipped with some firearms.

Even after repeated terrorist attacks, we are unable to provide the first sensible and rehearsed reaction as dictated by the threat. Is the police force equipped to tackle rampaging crowds at short notice? Do they even have basic attire and accessories for self-protection counter  disturbances and law and order problems? If not why not?

 Prakash Singh who fought for Police reforms ten years ago and more importantly based on which the Supreme Court gave clear directions in 2006 have both witnessed the tenth anniversary go by with little or no action to modernize the force.

Let us at least address the reforms required to provide security at the citizens level in the first instance. The Military would  be happy to address their primary task-external threat! 

http://www.firstpost.com/india/uran-alert-from-mumbai-to-uri-indias-failure-to-learn-from-past-is-the-only-common-thread-3017822.html