Woes of Paksitan - Militarisation, Radicalisation & Alienation

The problems underlying some conflicts are so simple that one tends to overlook them while laying out a resolution plan. It is the same with Pakistan authorities who have vowed to beat “terrorism” in a week, a problem that has been created over a period of nearly three decades. And instead of looking at the root causes of the present mess – militarisation, radicalisation and alienation; the whole of Pakistan is unanimously rallying around the Pakistan Army that has decided that fighter jets bombing a part of their country is the solution to resolve the problem.

Sprinting to give a knee-jerk reaction the Pakistan state, which has always been represented by the Pakistan Army, has completely sidelined the reason that the militants, who conducted the killings in a school in Peshawar. The militants did it in the name of avenging the deaths of their near and dear ones during the air strikes that the Pakistani forces have conducted in the region since June this year. The air strikes have apparently left 1700 ‘suspected militants’ dead and the figure of people dying as collateral damage has seldom come out. In the chest beating that followed, the issue of innocents, including women and children, has totally escaped being discussed in the public domain in Pakistan or elsewhere.

The collective public clamour for revenge reminded me of a conversation that I had with a friend from Pakistan. I told him that pounding your own population with fighter jets is not a good idea, in reference to the air strikes launched by Pakistani forces since June this year in their own country. My friend responded saying the operation is for snuffing out ‘terrorists’ inimical to Pakistan’s interests. And I asked him if he has ever heard any other country deploying fighter jets against its own people and what about the innocent killed in the strike as fighter jets are not precision weapons. Like a firm believer in the Pakistan Armed Forces he replied “our army knows how to handle the situation, the fighter jets are designed for precision bombing”.

For the starters, in the paucity of an apt analogy, the situation is akin to if India had deployed fighter jets in Kashmir at the peak of insurgency. Fighter jets are not meant to kill a person; they destroy neighborhoods and regions all together. But the blind faith of the Pakistan’s population in its Army and a consistent disdain towards its elected representatives is the symptom of the grave problem afflicting the country. The three main problems of Pakistan at the moment are militarisation, radicalization and alienation of its population. The future of Pakistan does not depend upon its Army, rather on sending the Army back to its barracks, institutionalising democracy, cessation of religious intolerance in all forms and giving more power to the federal structure to give representation to its diverse population groups.

Militarisation

Within first decade of its inception, Pakistan faced a military coup that saw General Ayub Khan taking over the power in 1958. Since then Pakistan has come a long way experiencing a slew of military coups and periods of martial law. The result has been the general militarisation of day to day life. Today, there are very few Pakistanis left who would raise an eyebrow when the all-powerful Pakistan Army would dictate terms to elected government and would meddle in all affairs – whether domestic or otherwise.

The level of militarisation can also be gauged from the fact that two Nobel Laureates from Pakistan – Abdus Salam and Malala Yusfazai – do not enjoy the status of hero in the society. 

The former, a physicist, belongs to Ahmadiyya community of Pakistan which was through a constitutional amendment in 1974 were declared non-Muslims and in 1984 under the rule of General Zia ul Haq further restrictions were placed on their religious freedom. Malala, who had been shot by the Taliban militants for championing the right of girl education, received ire of Pakistan masses for bringing ‘disrepute’ to her country in international arena.

At the same time Zia ul Haq, who took over Pakistan in 1977 and is one of the longest serving head of states of the country and has to his credit the ‘Islamisation’ of the society and its foreign policy, is revered as the country’s hero. He consolidated the strategy of supporting extremism as a tool of countering India is well known. His famous quote of “bleeding India by 1000 cuts” referring to the proxy war, has often been quoted by the proponents of the use of extremists against India. General Parvez Musharraf, who led Pakistan into the botched up military operation in Kargil against India in 1999, is also hailed as hero.

Militaries’ job is to secure the borders against external enemy and not to govern. But majority of Pakistanis continue to be oblivion to this truth. And there is no soul searching on how the decades of military rule has debilitated the social fabric of the country and the Army has also replied by pandering to the public’s emotions of revenge in response to the Peshawar Attack and presents itself as the savior of Pakistan as a nation.

Radicalisation

The education curriculum in Pakistan, which has been shaped by years of military rule, promotes a ‘muscular’ national identity through falsification of historical facts, political use of religion and encouraging xenophobia. The generation of Pakistanis born and raised since the rule of Zia ul Haq do not have any influence of liberal thoughts. The education system fosters religious intolerance through a distorted narrative, based on hatred of imagined enemies, local and foreign; and is unable to prepare youngsters for job market.

According to the latest report of International Crisis Group in 2014, Pakistan’s public education system “needs to foster a tolerant citizenry, capable of competing in the labour market and supportive of democratic norms within the country and peace with the outside world”. A decade prior, Crisis Group had come out with a report that had raised caution against the Pakistan education system radicalising young people. And since then little has changed and Pakistan continues to have lowest education expenditure in the region. According to the Crisis Group’s latest report the country has second highest number of out of school children in the world.

Here is an extract from the report, describing the radicalisation of Pakistan’s population through education – “An over-emphasis in textbooks on Islamic interpretations, not just in religion classes but also in history, literature and the sciences, has been used to create a discourse on national identity that validates the politically dominant military’s domestic and foreign policy agendas. Control over the curriculum by military and military-backed governments has been used, for instance, to galvanise popular opposition to their main adversary, India, and support for jihadi proxies in Indian-administered Kashmir and Afghanistan.” The Peshawar attack should have acted as a wake-up call for Pakistan if its decades-old strategy to counter the “Indian threat” has paid off or pushed into an abyss. The need of the hour is a proactive zero-tolerance against all forms of religious extremism.

Alienation

Since its origin the Pakistani state has laid a greater emphasis on national cohesion, crowding out religious, regional and linguistic minorities from the public sphere. The military operations can assuage the public anger in the wake of the Peshawar attack, but they cannot provide long term solution for this problem of alienation that population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan face due to the imposition of the culture of Urdu-speaking Punjabi community that dominates practically all spheres in Pakistan. 

Rising mob violence against minorities, that form 3.7 percent of Pakistan’s population, cases of alleged blasphemy, forced conversion of girls from minority community is a grim reality that has furthered the alienation of the minorities. The heightened sense of religious identity among the majority population is the challenge staring the Pakistan state in face. A briefing note presented by Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network to UN Special Procedures mandate holders summarized the situation like this : “The level of violence and the extent of threat to their identity, culture, religion, to their life and property have reached a point where the minorities are pushed to live a life in perpetual fear and anxiety of an impending disaster.”

The Shia-Sunni divide and cleavage between Muslims and non-Muslims has reached a critical level. All of these point towards institutional indifference or discrimination against certain regions or religions. The Pakistan political authority needs to take a call and have zero tolerance towards all forms of religious extremism – whether directed towards a sect, religion or a particular region.

 

(This opinion piece was published in Millenium Post )

A ‘Galle-ing’ experience

By Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Indian Navy

"Instead of merely moaning about China’s ‘string of pearls’ and ‘maritime silk route’ strategies, India needs to craft creative, dynamic and long-term maritime alternatives.”

December 26, 2004, Sunday morning, saw the calm in Naval Headquarters (NHQ) being shattered by ominous reports of powerful seismic shocks and giant tidal surges in our Bay of Bengal islands and coastal areas. As the first Indian Navy (IN) warships and aircraft were being despatched on relief missions, appeals for assistance started coming from Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Having assigned resources to cope with the domestic emergency, NHQ considered it equally imperative to rush aid to stricken neighbours.

Galle in the year 2014

Given the languid functioning of our bureaucracy, a proposal of this nature could have taken weeks or months to be processed by the ministries of defence, external affairs and finance. To one’s utter amazement, the national security adviser (NSA) accorded instant approval on the phone, with the words, “We will sort out the paperwork on Monday”. Eighteen hours later, citizens of Galle on the southern tip of Sri Lanka awoke to see Indian warships, laden with relief material, anchored off the devastated harbour.

Fast-forward to December 1, 2014 — a decade. I arrive in this picturesque port town for the Galle Dialogue, to be told by a Sri Lankan admiral, “People in Galle remember the tsunami. If you tell shopkeepers that you are from the IN (Indian Navy), they will not let you pay.”

Initiated by the Sri Lankan ministry of defence in 2010, the annual Galle Dialogue has gained in significance and momentum with 38 nations, spanning the full alphabet from Australia to Zambia, represented at its fifth edition. India was given due prominence and the printed programme showed Dr Ajit Doval, India’s NSA, as guest of honour and keynote speaker, with the first two sessions being chaired by Indians; one of them being the vice chief of naval staff (VCNS).

The NSA’s oration on regional maritime security issues was heard with rapt attention and drew applause as he, tactfully, mentioned the early contributions of Sri Lankan statesmen towards creating an Indian Ocean zone of peace. The anti-climax came when it was discovered that the Indian VCNS (Vice Chief of Naval Staff) had not arrived on the expected flight. The hosts, too polite to pose awkward questions, quietly found a substitute to chair the session. The Galle Dialogue 2014, thus, saw participation by the commander of the Pakistan Fleet, the deputy Chief of Staff of the PLA Navy (PLAN) and a dozen other flag officers, but the IN invitee was absent; leaving many questions hanging in the air.

The whispered explanation, when it came, was on entirely predictable lines; apparently, an MoD (Ministry of Defence) functionary had turned down, at the last minute and for reasons unknown, the participation of the VCNS. One felt a sense of déjà vu because the all-powerful and non-accountable MoD bureaucracy has a known penchant for sitting on files till the 11th hour, and then whimsically approving or, more often, rejecting the proposal. It is in the latter context that a recent Indo-Sri Lankan diplomatic spat assumes significance.

During September-October 2014, Chinese submarines, accompanied by support vessels, docked in Colombo Port on two occasions. This peacetime transit and replenishment of a submarine was described, both by the Chinese and the Sri Lankan governments, as “common practice”. According to media reports, India took umbrage and told Colombo that its actions were of “serious concern to India’s national security.”

However, a look at the past would show that the episode called for quiet diplomacy rather than public display of indignation. While Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE owes much to many nations, including India, it was China’s military support that stood out for scale and constancy. China maintained bonded warehouses in Galle which supplied arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan forces on demand. Beijing also provided heavy weaponry and fighters; either directly or through a willing Pakistan. 

In comparison, India’s military aid to Sri Lanka was slow and sporadic. South Block remained hostage, not only to blackmail by Chennai but also to its own timidity, myopic vision and inertia. A saving grace was the camaraderie, at senior levels, of the Indian and Sri Lankan navies, which enabled them to reach out across Palk Strait in times of need. The IN tsunami-relief operation helped strengthen bonds.

Today, China’s role in transforming this island nation, through massive loans and creation of impressive infrastructure is undeniable. India, on the other hand, has been laggard in assisting Sri Lanka’s development on a significant scale.

In the face of China’s advance into the Indian Ocean, all that India has had to offer, so far, is the vapid nostrum of ‘strategic restraint’. Moreover, the dissonance between MEA, MoD and NHQ has often thwarted the navy’s endeavours to create strong bonds with maritime neighbours. A peripatetic PM Modi is, now, giving strong indications that India’s foreign policy may be acquiring a badly needed grand-strategic underpinning. 

A practitioner of realpolitik, Sri Lanka is not above playing one neighbour against the other. But given its client status vis-à-vis China, it may not have had the option of denying entry to PLAN submarines. However, Sri Lanka must not allow itself to become China’s pawn, in total disregard of neighbouring India’s strategic interests. 

The nothern-most tip of Sri Lanka in Jaffna.India is saddled just across the narrow Palk Strait.

Countries in our immediate neighbourhood, many of them island nations, seek maritime security; sometimes through direct naval presence, but more often through urgent requests for material aid, training assistance and advice. In this context, rushing supplies of water to the Maldives was a fine gesture, but setting up a de-salination plant will win us far more goodwill. 

Instead of merely moaning about China’s “string of pearls” and “maritime silk route” strategies, India needs to craft creative, dynamic and long-term maritime alternatives, like employing its Navy as the potent “instrument of state policy” that it is meant to be.
(The writer is a former Chief of Naval Staff)

The Curious Case of New Angry Hindu (Part 1)

It has been a very recent phenomenon that religion as a conversation topic among an average Hindu as re-emerged. The average Hindu is filled with a rage accrued over a period of time caused by a perceived sense of injustice and non-granting of its due credits for a “glorious history” and so on. As is case with all the “organized religions” of the world where one has to forgo one’s reasoning faculties and submit oneself completely to the rules and regulations of that particular religion, the new age Hinduism is also no different. 

An image from the Kamakhya temple in Assam. The practices in Hinduism are as varied as the number of deities, if not more. In the state of Haryana while strict vegetarianism is the norm, in this temple animals are sacrificed during rituals. While the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh society forbids marriage alliance within same Gotras (sub-castes) leading to honour killing and social ostracisation, in Tamil Nadu a female can marry even her maternal uncle.

The precursor of my this two part series is a post on a  Friend’s social media profile that berated “Atheists” for criticizing religion and specifically Hinduism – that he said was “one of the most liberal and accommodating religion” – and in turn he gave various monikers to the non-believers like “pseudo-secularists” and “beneficiaries of western education”. I myself have been called many a times anti-national, radical, anti-Hinduism, anti-Islamic, stooge of western ideas (the fact that I ever stepped of my country only one and a half years ago is immaterial) so on and so forth depending on whose views I tried question.

This is a depiction form the epic Mahabhartha at Kurukshetra, the battlefield where Krishna has given the teachings of Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna during the 18-day long battle. I am personally a big fan of Krishna and Mahabhartha due to the sheer pragmatism of the text and the way it does not categorises things in strict categories of black and white. Krishna asked people to shun the path of ritualism and rather follow the path of knowledge and action towards salvation. But this message seemed to have been lost in the din of claiming the religion to be superior over others. I personally call Krishna as 'Devious God' (Before anybody raises issues of Blasphemy that how he has even been fondly termed as Makhan chore or Butter thief. I am in love with him).

As a matter of clarification I would like to say that I am critical (please pay attention to the word, as it is quite different from the word criticize) of certain religious practices and do not have any animosity to entire religion. Nonetheless, I decided to focus my two article series on Hinduism as my life has been affected by the dogmas of it and still continue to be so as I by some lottery of nature happened to be born in a Hindu household. While there is a lot of freedom in the world when it comes to deciding what you want to be professionally the leg room when it comes to religion is really closed.

Hinduism has always amazed me. On the one side it gives immense flexibility to the believers by not giving any fixed commandments, gospel truth or tenets, thus leaving each with his/her own conscience to follow the path to heaven. On the other hand it continues to be riddled with some abominable practices like Caste System. I have always tried to emulate the path of action or knowledge as espoused in Bhagavad Gita as my life’s philosophy. The Hindu society has long shunned the practice of didactic engagement with people. The moment one asks a question about the relevance or context of a particular ritual, you would just be put under one or the other above mentioned label. This series is dedicated to as I experienced Hinduism from my eyes.

QRs for Marriage

In a modern society that values equality, the primary quality in your life partner is his/her goodness. In the Hindu society one has to take care that he/she is not for a different religion, different caste, same Gotra (sub-caste prevalent in northern India) and same village. When you fulfill these criteria and your parents approve of the alliance you may marry peacefully or else “God be with you!”.

A child dressed as Lord Shiva - the destroyer. It is one of the few religions in the world where one does not only revers the deity but you rather have a personal love with him/her you. It is this adulation that allows a Hindu to refer Lord Shiva as 'bhola' (the Naive) one without actually offending any religious sentiments. The other thing about Hinduism that has impressed me has been the many discourses made possible in the religion. But the new age Hindus, in their bid to imitate the other religions, have been trying to homogenize it.

When I decided to marry, I did not know that I was ever going to see this ugly side of religious dogmas. But then a highly priest read my star signs and declared that my husband would die within one year of marrying me. This man has who predicted my future with such precision had never met me but managed to create a furore in my love life. I am happily married for over two and a half years now. 

Kanyadaan (literally translated as charity of the maiden)

I do not know about other Hindu women, but I found this practice to be personally very insulting. When a father performs Kanyadaan i.e. send his daughter in a charity, it is said to be one of the biggest credit earner in front of the god.  The father of the bride also needs to touch the feet of the both bride and the groom in this ritual. I felt outraged.

I know what many custodians of the traditions and ethos of Hinduism would say to this that it is my Western education speaking. My  answer to them is that I lived for 26 years in India and have only spent 1.3 years in total in Europe, and if this time is enough to shake the values imparted to me during two and half decades of my life, then they definitely had a shaky foundations. Moreover, my contact with outer world, further strengthened my belief that a world based on equality of all human beings is a reality and is worth striving for. 

Hinduism, which has a great tradition of discourses between opposing point of views, has been doing away the practice. It is becoming more difficult by the day to question the unjust practices or rituals. 

Son as the ladder to Paradise

Having a son is imperative if you want to have a space in paradise, as unless he lights your pyre your journey will not consummate. I do not even know how I would explain this in case I have a daughter.

Karvachauth

It is a Hindu festival whereby married women fast for the long lives of their husbands. I have never fasted in my entire life and in my 12 class when I declared I was an atheist I never had to. However, when Karvachauth came all hell broke loose. The peer pressure on me for observing this fast (which has now acquired huge commercial propositions) was akin to what my friends from Pakistan observe during Ramzaan. People, including family members, were pressurizing that people move mountains in love and why cannot I keep a fast!!!

I have two fundamental problems, first of all how my shunning food can increase somebody’s life and secondly, if it true what about the longevity of my life? Well I never got answers for these questions.

The ire of the new age Hindu

The other day I was just reflecting on some of the major reformations that have taken place in Hinduism and a question came to my mind that instead of using wood during the last rites can Hindus opt for electric cremation. I did not get any logical answer denouncing or accepting my suggestion, rather people just questioned me back I do not pose the same question to the Muslims or Christians? Yes I would ask the same question to people from other religions as well, but a little introspection would not hurt ‘one of the greatest religions all time’.

(The next part would talk about the still strong institution of caste system and the abhorrence of reservations among the upper caste Hindus.)

Glimpses of the Pearl in the Indian Ocean

It was not love at first sight, rather Sri Lanka grew on me slowly and then the love story began. 

As the Tata Nano budget taxi wheeled out of the airport, Sri Lanka dispelled all the preconceived opinion I have had about the 'Pearl Island' - a name that the country got owing to its shape. I was expecting a developing country left in shambles due to the nearly three decades-long protracted war. What I saw was sprawling highways and amazingly clean capital city, devoid of the garbage heaps that are generally associated with Delhi. I was expecting highly conservative society peculiar to the Indian subcontinent where wearing a skirt in public can be an invitation to “unfortunate” events. But I found that even though the society was conservative, it did not impose its values on tourists, so tourists were free to wear what they wanted.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a world heritage site.

Since 2009, when the last of the Liberation of Tamil Tigers Ealem’s (LTTE) bastion fell to the Sri Lankan security forces, the country has made huge progress. The monetary aid from China and India are also an important contributor to this. While China has been investing in developing ports in Colombo in the West and Hambantota in the South, India’s contribution helped in relinking the northern Jaffna by train after 24 long years. I could not see the landmark event. But had the chance to travel through the region that has been one of the major war theatres in 2009 and has seen sustained conflict for two and a half decades. This effectively means that a complete generation has been raised in an atmosphere of hatred where for a Tamil the only face to the Sinhalese community has been that of the armed forces and a Sinhalese identified only LTTE rebels with being Tamil.

The sun rise at Arugam Bay on the South East Coast of the Island nation

 Ideally after spending one a half months on the island, one would want to write about the mesmerizing sunrises and sunsets that all the coastal regions of the country offer or about the white sand beaches overlooking the Indian Ocean. But I think that no Sri Lankan story can even begin before talking about where the country stands vis-à-vis the bloody conflict that once crippled the normal life here. During my stay, I had the chance of interacting with people from all hues – different religions, races and linguistic communities. On the surface things seems to be limping back to normalcy in the last five years, but scratch the surface a bit and one can see the root causes of the conflict still intact. This raises question about how sustainable is the peace especially in the light of the rising religious nationalism in the majority Sinhalese community.

Jaffna-Mullaitivu

Do not let the development and glitter of Colombo deceive you. The North and north-eastern parts of Sri Lanka are still miles away from getting the fruits of development and human security. Freedom – both civil and political – remains an alien word. The political power remains centralized. The long pending demand of the Central government handing over the control of the police to the local government has been hanging fire and is far from being met. And to add to all this, the armed forces still have a strong control over these regions including those who are travelling to these places. When I was visited Jaffna, foreigners visiting North were required to register at Oamanthai Checkpoint. However, in October an indefinite ban on visits of foreign passport holder to the North was imposed owing to the threat that some of them pose to the “national security”.

The Jaffna Railway Station days before Yarl Devi chugged into Jaffna after 24 years.

The Sri Lankan government talks about the reconciliation among the community, but there seems to be a dichotomy between its actions and words. While visiting these regions, I came across stories where, the army has allegedly done things like building its unit infrastructure over Tamil graveyards. While the government’s refusal to launch a probe into the alleged Human Rights violation can be understood as the predicament of a government trying to stand behind its armed forces, the refusal to acknowledge the grievances of Tamils is unfathomable. Sinhalese continues to be the preferred language for imparting education. 

Jaffna Public Library was burnt down in 1981 as part of the structured marginalisation of the ethnic Tamils. At the time of destruction the library was one of the biggest in the Asia with 97,000 books and manuscripts. It was the pride of the rich intellectual history of Tamils and Biblioclasm was used as weapon to destroy that pride. It was rebuilt in 2002 by the Sri Lankan government.

In other words, Sri Lanka is a police state, and any move to criticize the government or make it accountable is dealt with heavy hands. I met one such journalist/activist who has been trying to evade arrest because of his vocal criticism of Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Foreigners working on these issues also need to be very discreet or you face deportation or entry into the infamous blacklist that would debar one from entering the country.

Rising Religious Nationalism

In India I was used to having seats reserved for women, senior citizens or pregnant mothers in the public transport. In Sri Lanka I was a bit surprised to see seats reserved for “Clergy”. After the initial shock, it was the turn of shattering of many other notions.

There has been a clamour from the right wing Buddhists to change the national flag to reflect only the Sinhalese Buddhist community, as Sri Lanka is their homeland. Presently, the flag consists of a golden Lion wielding a sword depicting the Sinhalese nationality, the four Bo leaves depict the communities of Metta, Karuna, Mudita and Upekkha. The orange stripe is representative of the Tamils and the green of Sri Lankan Moors.

For me Buddhism has always been synonymous with “non-violence”. However, in Sri Lankan the aggressive movement to make Sinhalese Buddhist as the national identity is presently underway creating schism in the already fragmented society along religious lines. The Sinhalese Buddhists, who form three quarter of the Sri Lankan population, have been claiming itself to be ‘minority in the world’, thus requiring the government’s protection. 

This the Buddhist temple in Nagadeepa. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's huge hoardings are ubiquitous in the whole Island. In this photograph his hoarding is seen next to the Buddha statue.

 A small issue like introduction of certification for Halal food in the market last year brought a furore in the national politics. Bodu Bal Sena (Buddhist Power Army), a hardline organization, has used it to create a fear psychosis in the country. The religious atmosphere in the country has been so vitiated that it has resulted into anti-Muslim violence in June this year. Many educated Sinhalese Buddhists reiterate the BBS claim the minority Muslim community is growing both exponentially and has been eating into the jobs and services that rightfully belong to the majority community.  

INS Vikramaditya dedicated to the nation

Reeling under a spate of unfortunate accidents, the Indian Navy had a positive development today as Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (rechristened as INS Vikramaditya ) to the nation.

Here is the Press Release issued by the Ministry of Defence.

Prime Minister Spends A Day Onboard INS Vikramaditya

New Delhi: 24 Jyaistha 1936

Saturday, 14 June 2014

        

"In his first visit to an operational military formation after assuming office, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi dedicated the country’s new aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya to the Nation. The Prime Minister embarked the aircraft carrier at sea off Goa, which was operating in the company of ten other frontline warships of the Indian Navy’s ‘Sword Arm’ – the Western Fleet.  The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Chief Minister of Goa Shri Manohar Parrikar, the Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh, the National Security Advisor Shri Ajit Doval, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan and the Defence Secretary Shri RK Mathus. He was received onboard INS Vikramaditya by the Commander-in-Chief, Western Naval Command  Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, and Fleet Commander, Western Fleet Rear Admiral AK Chawla,.

On arrival at the Naval Air Station INS Hansa earlier in the morning, the Prime Minister was received by Admiral RK Dhowan and accorded a ceremonial Guard of Honour. Thereafter, Shri Modi embarked the aircraft carrier at sea by helicopter.

During the day, the Prime Minister witnessed ‘Air Power Demonstration’ by various naval aircraft including MiG 29K, Sea Harriers, P 8 I Long Range Maritime Patrol Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft, TU 142M, IL 38 SD, Dorniers, Kamov and Sea King helicopters. He also witnessed high speed manoeuvres by Western Fleet ships including the other aircraft carrier INS Viraat, Delhi class destroyers Mysore and Mumbai, stealth frigates Tarkash, Talwar and Teg, guided missile frigates Betwa and Godavari and fleet tanker Deepak amongst others.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Cockpit of MiG-29K

Shri Modi also interacted with officers and sailors onboard and congratulated them on their hard work and dedication in fully operationalising the INS Vikramaditya in such a short period.  In his address to the personnel of the fleet, the Prime Minister stated that INS Vikramaditya will significantly enhance the ‘Blue Water’ capability of the Indian Navy.

The Western Fleet, also known as the Sword Arm of the Indian Navy consists of many frontline warships including the Aircraft Carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Viraat.  Commissioned on 16 Nov 2013 at Severodovinsk, Russia, the 44,500 tons displacement INS Vikramaditya marks the coming of age for the navy and its commitment to safeguard the maritime interests of the country.

A MiG-29 K approaching for landing on INS Vikramaditya

With an overall length of 284 meters and a width of 60 meters measuring over three football fields, this floating airfield is equipped to carry a maximum of 34 aircraft such as MIG 29 K fighters and Kamov 31 helicopters.  The ship is now fully operational with Indian pilots taking off and landing the MIG 29K naval combat aircraft.  Manned by a highly professional and competent crew of 110 officers and 1500 sailors, the ship can propel at speeds over 30 knots on the strength of her eight boilers producing a combined thrust of 1,80,000 Shaft Horse power.

MiG-29K landing on the aircraft carrier

Prime Minister Modi taking salute

For the first time, the Naval communication satellite, Rukmini, was used to telecast live the events on board INS Vikramaditya. It was significant that the live telecast took place from a moving platform." 

(Also read Realisation of a dream... A two aircraft carrier Navy )

Photo Credit: Ministry of Defence