India to offer ALHs to Indonesia, this time with training, maintenance package

New Delhi, March 24: India is offering its indigenously-built Advanced Light Helicopters (ALHs) Dhruv to Indonesia but taking out a leaf from its experience in Latin America it will be clubbing maintenance and training in the package as well.

If Indian defence diplomacy gets through the deal the ALHs will be operating in China’s backyard and it would be nothing sort of a coup with the Indian-built helicopters operating from Chinese background.

A Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official told me, “We will be making our offer for ALHs to Indonesia and this time with training and maintenance package as our experience in Ecuador has taught us.” ALHs, made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and supplied to Ecuador, had crashed bringing a bad name to the home-built choppers.

India does not have a defence export policy but it does have a secret list of countries that it will not be selling the defence equipment to. Recently, India has been pushing its defence diplomacy to help the countries in the South-East Asian region – namely Indonesia and Vietnam – to develop potent armed forces. So far the defence element of cooperation between these countries have been largely focussed on training armed forces personnel and joint wargames.

Understanding Nehru’s vision of a just society

Nov 20, 2014: On the 125th birth anniversary of the first prime minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru have been kicked across the country and is celebrated as the Children’s Day. I have my differences with Pandit Nehru, as he was fondly called by the masses, but I want to express my gratitude for his conviction to the see the Hindu Code Bill through in Parliament.

But for his dedication the Hindu women would still be helpless without any legal resort. For those who are unaware I would like to refresh their memories. Only as recent as 60 years ago, the Hindu women did not have the right to divorce (Hindu Personal Law does not have a conception of divorce, you get married forever) or her husband can have as many marriages as he wants with Polygamy having the sanction of the ‘holy scriptures’.

It was the persistent efforts of PM Nehru that Hindu Marriage Act 1955 was passed granting the right to divorce to women, banning Polygamy and having provisions for inter-caste marriages was passed despite much opposition from the Hindu religious leaders, who saw it as an attack on the Hindu cultural freedom.

The Hindu Code Bill later paved way for granting women the share in the ancestral property and other such provisions which today we just take for granted. But what saddens me is that his vision of extending those rights to the Muslim women remains unfulfilled.

In 1955, Nehru said that the Muslim population, aggrieved from a brutal partition, was not mentally prepared for a Uniform Civil Code that will formulate socially acceptable codes for the purposes of marriages and successions. However, even as the UCC remains a name without a concept, its mere mention evokes a sense of hatred from the so called ‘custodians’ of the Muslim community.

I thought of doing a little survey of my own to find out the reasons driving the Muslim community’s opposition to the reformation in marriage laws. I spoke to many Muslim friends of mine who can be put in a highly educated class. Their main grievances ranged from that the reformation has to come from within the people, why you want to impose Hindu culture (read monogamy and easy divorce) on the Muslims; it will be an existential threat to Muslims and Hindus still have more polygamous marriages than Muslims.

The most hideous argument was that what if the wife was barren, at least second marriage should be allowed. The lone woman supporter of UCC among my friends said, ‘Given the fact that Muslim personal law has not been reformed since the early 20th century, I personally believe Uniform Civil Code is the right thing to have. The Muslim Personal Law Board of India supports archaic rules like unilateral divorce, Triple Talaq which are not even applicable today in Islamic countries.’ It is to dispel the various notions that made writing of this article imperative. First of all the provisions of UCC are still debatable and a consensus needs to be made on them according to the prevalent social value that the country as a whole wants to promote. Stress on monogamy and granting equal rights to women in matters of matrimony and divorce are certainly not Hindu values or traditions, rather they are the modern values that a society based on the premises of equality of man and woman has to promote.

 Family is a social institution backed by legal authority; it provides the nurturing ground for future citizens of the society. So it is in the interest of the State to intervene if the prevalent family values are promoting inequality and subordination instead of basic principles of justice. It was this logic that justified banning of ‘sati pratha’ (where women burned themselves alive at the husband’s pyre) and sanctioning of widows remarriage.

The practice of instant verbal divorce by man with merely uttering ‘Talaq’ (divorce) three times is cruel and places women at an awfully unequal footing vis-à-vis man. It has been banned in several Islamic countries such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen and Sudan; and even in Pakistan and Bangladesh. India, which grants the freedom to profess any religion to individuals and not to communities, is yet to stand up to the stiff opposition from the self-professed leaders of the community.

Polygamy in a highly patriarchal society of India often reduces the status of the women as one of producing a male heir to the family. Muslim leaders have contended that a ban on polygamy has not weeded out the practice from the Hindu society so it is not required for the Muslim community.

It is like arguing that a law against murder is not required because the crime has not stopped. Laws pertaining to social institutions are required to give a nudge to the society in the required direction.
The third issue is that of alimony. The denial of post-divorce alimony to a large section of Indian women in the name of religion is the violation of their fundamental right of equality. India had the chance to rectify this, but how Nehru’s grandson Rajiv Gandhi floundered this opportunity in 1984 Shah Bano case is well known.

The question now is which government would dare to put its hand in the hornet’s nest and implement the ambit of the Nehru’s vision to the whole country.

Putin, Modi make up with a bear hug

New Delhi, October 15: When India and Russia got together on Saturday before the BRICS Summit they were like long lost friends, who needed to spend some time together to accommodate each others concerns as evident in the joint statement. While Russia echoed India's sentiment of “zero tolerance” for terrorists and their abettors; New Delhi appreciated Moscow's efforts in Syria.

The Indo-Russian ties got a major shot in arm with the inking of 16 big ticket pacts ranging from defence to energy. The cementing of ties come at a crucial juncture as India saw Russia getting uncomfortably closer to Pakistan, and Moscow cringed at the tight embracing of Washington by New Delhi.

A stellar example of Indo-Russian cooperation - INS Chakra an Akula class submarine give on lease to India by Russia

Not taking each other for granted any more, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a Russian proverb to describe the bilateral ties spanning over seven decades. “One Old Friend is better than two new ones,” Prime Minister Modi said as Russian President Vladimir Putin could not suppress a smile.

It was clear that the two leaders have ironed out the irritants in the bilateral ties that were cropped up as New Delhi was caught in a diplomatic bind as its “all-weather” friend was gearing up for first military drill with Pakistan as its Army base in Uri was under attack by terrorists supported from across the border. Touching upon India’s concerns about cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Modi said: "Russia's clear stand on the need to combat terrorism mirrors our own. We deeply appreciate Russia's understanding and support of our actions to fight cross-border terrorism that threatens our entire region. We both affirmed the need for zero tolerance in dealing with terrorists and their supporters."

President Putin also said that the countries were working in tandem to counter terrorism.

The joint statement issued by the two countries after the completion of the 17th Indo-Russian Annual Summit is a testimony of the commitment of India and Russia to the relationship despite forging ties with other countries. The lengthy statement sought to accommodate issues important for both the countries – nuclear energy, defence, cross-border terrorism, India’s bid to become member of the UN Security Council and Nuclear Suppliers’ Group; and Russia’s concerns about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and cessation of hostilities in Syria.

On countering terrorism the two countries underlined the need to deny safe havens to terrorists and stressed “the need to have a strong international legal regime built on the principle of ‘zero tolerance for direct or indirect support of terrorism’”. India also took notice of the unconditional condemnation of the Uri terror attack by Russia. India also expressed satisfaction at Russia understanding its interests and reservations about holding exercises with Pakistan, which “sponsors and practices terrorism as a matter of State policy".

"We are satisfied that Russia understand India's interest and they will never do anything contrary to India's interest and I think there was a strong meeting of minds on this subject," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said addressing a press conference in Goa after the conclusion of the India-Russia bilateral Summit.

Ahead of proposing a reconstruction fund for Syria, India also found its views converging with Russia as far as the war-torn country was concerned. Both sides stressed for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country within the ambit of the UN Security Council’s resolutions. “Both Sides underlined the necessity of strengthening the cessation of hostilities, delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas, and the continuation of intra-Syrian dialogue under UN supervision. India recognized Russian Side's effort towards achieving a political and negotiated settlement of the situation in Syria,” the joint statement read.