Amid chill in relations, new PLA history returns spotlight to 1962 war
GS-2
Britain to widen sanctions on Russia to deter Ukraine invasion
North Korea test fires most powerful missile since 2017
GS-3
Migratory birds find winter home in Bengal
Show commitment to equity in the Budget
Another BrahMos deal in the pipeline
Mahatma Gandhi, the out-of-the-box thinker
The 74th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s death provides us an opportunity to think about his character and contributions as an important figure of world history. Usually, to praise a historical figure, one tries to enumerate on their qualities to show how marvellous they had been in all areas of life.
But Mahatma Gandhi was both an enigmatic and disturbing figure. He used to think out of the box. He was an open-minded soft reader of concepts and categories. In this regard, he saw his place among the weakest and the poorest. His notion of a just and truthful politics was that in such an environment, the weakest should have the same opportunities as the strongest. It would, therefore, be suspect to see Gandhi being celebrated by the powerful and the victors and not by the weak and the defeated.
If Gandhi continues to disturb the powerful and the victorious, it is because he does not fit in the victors’ histories and narratives.
Why do we continue to read Gandhi and to admire him? Not because he is the Father of the Indian Nation, but because he disturbs us. He was a chief doubter of oppressive systems and a rebel against all forms of hidden and open authority.
An example of simplicity
It is also because in an arrogant and unchecked civilisation like ours, Gandhi is a great example of simplicity and transparency. Gandhi’s simplicity was reflected in his deeds and acts, but mostly in his mode of life. Unlike most of us, not to say all of us, Gandhi had more joy and fulfilment in pursuing less in life than in pursuing more. The corporate mindset — that of being successful — which dominates all aspects of our lives, did not exist for him.
And maybe, it is because of his pure simplicity that we continue to have so much trouble in understanding Gandhi. Naturally, corporates, even when they use him as a logo or an emblem, fear him. Maybe because Gandhi, like Sisyphus, continues to roll the rock up to the top of the mountain. With Gandhi we are never confronted with absolute Truth. Gandhi is a perpetual truth seeker. In fact, Gandhi is victorious through his effortful trials. His position remains ambiguous and disturbing.
Assuredly, Gandhi was an ambiguous personality, but he never wore a mask. He neither masked himself nor put a mask on the face of Indian history.
Rather, he challenged Indian history by asking lucid and limpid questions from it. As such, in practically all of Gandhi’s historical actions, there was moral or spiritual interrogation. He, therefore, led Indians to a historical and civilizational awareness that went as far as a spiritual conversion to non-violence. That is to say, the Gandhian maieutic completely reversed the relationship between a leader and his people.
Like Socrates, Gandhi was a midwife of minds (Gandhi was very much influenced by Socrates and his method of thinking). He reversed the guiding values of Indian life. His philosophy was that of a spiritual exercise, accompanied by an active reflection on truth and a lively awareness of all walks of life. Gandhi believed that the true test of life for the individual can be summarised in two principles: self-discipline and self-restraint.
In this relation, he observed: “A self-indulgent man lives to eat; a self-restrained man eats to live.” His vision of community goes in the same direction and Gandhi gives ethical and political primacy to the two concepts of self-realisation and self-rule. For Gandhi, a self-realised and self-conscious community is a society of citizens who reconcile the self-determination of the individual with the recognition of the shared values in the community.
Point of self-transformation
Interestingly, in a very existential way, Gandhi believed in the interrelated nature of human existence. In the same manner, what interested him in a democracy was neither representation nor elections, but the self-transformative nature of the citizens.
But we can go even further and say that for Gandhi, this process of self-transformation should influence not only the inner life of the individual but also public life. So, what seems important is the upholding of the ethic of human action. And of course, solidarity is the advancement of that very ethic.
However, what Gandhi taught us is that solidarity is not just a promise of compassion; it is actually what we can call the wake of responsibility. Undoubtedly, Gandhi knew well that global responsibility is nothing but an overriding loyalty to mankind. It goes without saying that remembering Gandhi could be a way for us to be reminded of our global responsibilities and our loyalty to mankind. Without it there would be no solidarity and no universal harmony among the peoples of the world.
Need for moral leadership
The pandemic shows us clearly that our world is in lack of a moral leadership which can evolve through experiments of empathy and by redress of the sufferings and grievances of humanity.
Even if Gandhi is no more among us, his spirit has been with the great transformative leaders of the 20th and 21st centuries like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Václav Havel and Pope Francis. As a global thinker with a transhistorical and trans-geographical influence, Gandhi was a moral and political leader who stayed out of the box. We continue to wrestle with the radical parts of his vision.
Amid chill in relations, new PLA history returns spotlight to 1962 war
Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the 1962 India-China war which falls in October this year, official Chinese military researchers have compiled a new history of the war reassessing its significance and legacy, bringing the spotlight back to the war amid the current tensions in relations.
Previous anniversaries of the war received only modest attention in China — far less than in India — and some Chinese military scholars have in the past viewed the war with India as one of China’s forgotten wars. Unlike the Korean War or war with Japan, the India-China war hasn’t been covered as extensively in Chinese films, television dramas or in the media.
That is now changing. There has been renewed attention on 1962 following the Line of Actual Control (LAC) crisis which began in April 2020 and particularly after the June 15, 2020 clash in Galwan Valley. If the normalisation of ties with India was one reason for downplaying 1962 in the past, the recent plunge in relations has coincided with greater interest both in 1962 and on the boundary dispute.
To mark the 60th anniversary, Zhang Xiaokang, daughter of the former PLA General Zhang Guohua who headed the Tibet military region and planned the Chinese offensive in the eastern sector in October 1962, brought together Chinese military researchers to compile a new history of the war, titled One Hundred Questions on the China-India Border Self-Defence Counterattack. Extracts of the book were published this month in the popular Chinese website Guancha. The book is based on interviews with PLA veterans and focuses on Chinese military strategy as well as on the legacy of the war.
In China, high-profile books on military history, a sensitive topic, cannot be published without a green light from the PLA’s Central Military Commission, which is headed by President Xi Jinping. The extract said although it had been many years since the war “it has not been forgotten with the passage of time, and generations of soldiers and military fans have always been interested in this counterattack.”
One reason why the 1962 war hasn’t received wide attention is that unlike the war against Japanese occupation, China was the aggressor, despite the often-repeated claim by the Communist Party that China had never invaded or occupied any country.
‘Counterattack’
Officially, China still calls its massive attack on India as a “self-defence counterattack”. The book reveals that the CPC under Mao, very shortly after the offensive, decreed that all references to the war in China could only describe it as a “counterattack”, reflective of how the leadership looked to immediately turn on its head China’s act of aggression.
The extract notes that on December 3, 1962, less than two weeks after the unilateral ceasefire declared by China, the PLA’s General Staff department issued a telegram to all troops on “The Question of Naming the Operation Against the Invading Indian Army,” which stipulated that the war would only be referred to as the “China-India Border Self-Defence Counterattack”, a description that is still used today.
The book also looks at Mao’s decision to go to war and says he believed the offensive would, somewhat counterintuitively, “create conditions for a peaceful settlement of the Sino-Indian border issue” by bringing India to the negotiating table after Nehru’s “refusal” to acknowledge a dispute. That both sides subsequently began negotiating, the book argues, proved him right.
It also says Mao was initially concerned about the capabilities of the Indian Army but was reassured by his generals, including General Zhang. It quotes Mao as saying “if we don’t win, we won’t blame heaven and earth but our own incompetence”. He also told General Zhang that if China lost “sacred territory in Tibet” in the war that it would “take it back one day”.
The book focuses on the Eastern Sector, which General Zhang headed, and discusses the significance of the capture of Tawang in 1962, which it said was aimed to “demonstrate that China would not accept the McMahon Line” as well as its sovereignty over Tibet.
It attributes China’s military success in 1962 to the fighting experience gained by the military first in the war against Japan and subsequently in the war in Korea fighting U.S. troops. Those wars have occupied the spotlight in official Chinese military histories. But with the resurgence of tensions along the India-China border and ahead of the upcoming anniversary, the India-China war is now back in the spotlight.
Britain to widen sanctions on Russia to deter Ukraine invasion
Britain will unveil new sanctions legislation next week to hit “a much wider variety” of Russian economic targets as part of efforts to deter Moscow from invading Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday.
The U.K.’s top diplomat said the draft law would widen the country’s sanctions toolbox so “any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia” could be targeted.
“There will be nowhere to hide for Mr. Putin’s oligarchs,” Ms. Truss said.
“What I’ll be announcing later this week is improved legislation on sanctions so we can target more Russian interests that are of direct relevance to the Kremlin.
“What the legislation enables us to do is hit a much wider variety of targets, so there can be nobody who thinks that they will be immune to those sanctions.”
Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest point since the Cold War after Moscow deployed tens of thousands of troops on the border of Ukraine.
The military build-up has prompted fears it is planning an invasion, spooking NATO and its members and prompting the Western alliance to explore bolstering its own deployments there.
Britain is preparing to offer NATO a “major” deployment of troops, weapons, warships and jets in Europe as soon as next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced late on Saturday.
Additional Readings:
Important Excepts from this article:
Proximity
Ukraine is not far away. It is, after all, part of the European continent.
It may not be a member of the European Union or Nato, but it is an ally of European powers and has a pro-Western government.
Like most of the rest of Europe, it is a democracy. Most of its people do not want their country to become part of Russia.
And it has close links to the UK. After 2,000 anti-tank weapons were delivered last week and 30 British troops arrived to teach Ukrainian forces how to use them, the phrase God Save the Queen began trending on Twitter in Ukraine. Some bars and restaurants in Kyiv were offering free drinks to anyone who had a UK passport.
Legal obligations
The UK has a legal duty to defend Ukraines territorial integrity.
In 1994, the UK - along with the US - signed a memorandum at an international conference in Budapest promising to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine. They also promised to aid Ukraine if it should become a victim of an act of aggression.
This was in return for Ukraine giving up its massive arsenal of nuclear weapons, a legacy of its membership of the Soviet Union.
Its worth noting that the other signatory to the Budapest memorandum was, er, Russia.
The memorandum is not a treaty and lawyers dispute whether it is legally enforceable. But it is a formal, public and written commitment by the UK to support Ukraine.
European security
The UK opposes the redrawing of European borders by force.
A core principle of European security after World War Two was that sovereign nations have a right to make their own choices.
It is called self-determination, and perhaps the most important aspect of this principle is that borders cannot be changed by invading armies.
Russia did this in 2014 when it annexed part of Ukraine, the Crimean peninsula. Many Western policymakers regret the failure to stop this and want to make sure a similar incursion does not happen again.
In a speech last week, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: To allow Russia to violate those principles with impunity would drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time.
Opposition to Russias demands
Russias broader demands are unacceptable to the UK.
Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries.
But both of these demands would break key Nato principles, namely that the alliance should be open to any European country that wants to join and that all Nato members should be sovereign nations.
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs: We cannot bargain away the vision of a Europe whole and free that emerged in those amazing years from 1989 to 1991.
We will not reopen that divide by agreeing to overturn the European security order because Russia has placed a gun to Ukraines head.
Avoiding a broader war
Many analysts fear war in Ukraine could potentially spill over into other European countries.
Russia might use the crisis to launch cyber and other hybrid attacks on Nato countries. It could even send troops to the three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
Fighting could spread into Belarus where Russian forces are already stationed. Nato powers are already promising to build up their own forces in the alliances eastern flank.
As a member of Nato, Britain would be obliged in principle to come to the defence of another Nato ally. In December, the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said: The worst scenarios in terms of a full-scale invasion would be on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War.
...and a potential migration crisis
If war broke out in Ukraine and Russian forces occupied large swathes of the country, many civilians might flee.
Ukraines Defence Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, told BBC Hard Talk several million people could leave: It will be a disaster not only for Ukraine, it will be a disaster for Europe.
Some migrants might stay in neighbouring Poland and eastern European countries, but some might head further west and eventually end up in the UK.
Some autocratic leaders are looking to see how robustly the West resists attempts to undermine the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation.
Many analysts say Beijing in particular is looking on as it formulates its own plans to reunify Taiwan with mainland China. The fear is that if Russia is allowed to invade Ukraine unresisted, that might act as a signal to other leaders that the days of Western powers intervening in other conflicts are over.
Potential energy disruption
The UK gets hardly any gas from Russia. Most of it comes from the North Sea and Norway.
But any conflict with Ukraine could disrupt Europes gas supplies.
Pipelines that bring Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine could be damaged. Russia could also choose to withhold supplies to punish the West.
Europe itself could restrict future gas flows by abandoning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. That line is ready but awaiting regulatory approval.
All of this disruption could massively increase the price of gas in Europe and, consequently, the UK.
North Korea test fires most powerful missile since 2017
North Korea on Sunday tested its most powerful missile since 2017, ramping up the firepower for its record-breaking seventh launch this month as Seoul warned nuclear and long-range tests could be next.
Pyongyang has never test-fired this many missile in a calendar month before and last week threatened to abandon a nearly five-year-long self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range and nuclear weapons, blaming U.S. “hostile” policy for forcing its hand.
With peace talks with Washington stalled, North Korea has doubled down on leader Kim Jong-un’s vow to modernise the armed forces, flexing Pyongyang’s military muscles despite biting international sanctions.
South Korea said that North Korea could soon restart nuclear and intercontinental missile tests. North Korea “has come close to destroying the moratorium declaration”, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in a statement.
Migratory birds find winter home in Bengal
During the winter months, migratory birds from the Himalayan and central Asian highlands come to water bodies of south-central Bengal. The rivers of Sunderbans and the Santrgachi Jheel in Howrah and the Kulik Bird Sanctuary are few of the well-known spots where thousands of migratory birds visit every year in winter.
A survey by the West Bengal Forest Department has revealed that the water bodies of Bankura and adjoining areas, which are considered arid regions of the State, have emerged as new havens for migratory birds.
“Nearly 133 species of birds were spotted from 20 water bodies in these regions and many of them are migratory birds. We were spreading awareness against poaching of wild animals during Sikhar Utsav and decided to hold a survey on these water bodies,” S. Kulandaivel, Chief Conservator of Forests, West Bengal, told The Hindu.
He said some of the key water bodies of the region where different species of migratory and non-migratory birds had been spotted were Mukutmanipur Dam, Kadamdeuli Reservoir, Gangdua Dam and Lalbandh in Bankura district while Saheb Bandh and Futiyari Dam in Purulia district.
Variety of species
The species of migratory birds recorded in the region are lesser whistling duck, red-crested pochard, common pochard, tufted duck, northern pintail, great crested grebe along with different species of wagtails.
(Read these names once, UPSC is asking questions by giving these names and asking which of these are birds?)
Anirban Patra, secretary of Green Plateau, one of the organisations involved in the survey, said bird presence was an indicator of the health of the ecosystem of the region. He said some of the birds were so sensitive to the changes in the region that they could sense changes in the pollution and other external factors. “A bird called rufous tailed lark left Mukutmanipur due to construction work and use of a particular kind of paints in 2018. The bird returned in 2020 when the situation improved,” he said.
Show commitment to equity in the Budget
On January 17, 2022, Oxfam International presented its annual global “Inequality Report”. Titled Inequality Kills, the report calculated and presented the quantum growth in wealth of a minuscule few, and the simultaneous impoverishment of millions of working people.
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the report reveals, more than half the world’s new poor are from India; 84% Indian households have suffered a loss of income, with 4.6 crore people falling into extreme poverty. In this period, the richest 142 people have more than doubled their wealth to more than ?53 lakh-crore. This is clearly happening by design, and can only be corrected if our policymakers reverse their framework of paying lip service to the poor while making policies that support the rich. One of the most important places to show commitment to equity, is the Union Budget; and inequality should perhaps be discussed threadbare in India before, and after every Union and State Budget.
This is the guiding light
There is also a constitutional mandate to reduce inequality. In India today, some of the most basic human rights that allow people to stay alive are under threat. It is the sacred responsibility of the Government to follow the Constitution, and ensure delivery of these rights. The policymaking “duty” of all governments is to follow Part IV of the Constitution — the Directive Principles of State Policy.
The Budget is one of the most important annual exercises in state policy, and it is the Directive Principles that should be a guiding light. In terms of inequality, Articles 38 and 39 mandate a policy path. Among other important principles, Article 38(1) states: “The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.” Article 39 (c) states: The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing — (c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.
‘Duties’ talk
A rights-based policy framework, should, therefore, be followed by the Indian state to protect the poor and the marginalised. But the Prime Minister advocates that people concentrate on their duties and stop demanding their rights. On January 20, 2022, at the launch of the Brahma Kumaris’ year-long programme of events (as part of the Government’s celebration of 75 years of Independence) the Prime Minister declared, “In the last 75 years, we only kept talking about rights, fighting for rights and wasting our time. The talk of rights, to some extent, for some time, may be right in particular circumstances, but forgetting one’s duties completely has played a huge role in keeping India weak.” Ironically, the Prime Minister did not seem to be referring to his own duties.
In a country like India, reducing inequality should be a high priority. Today, this principle is being inverted. The Oxfam report does not exclusively examine the multiplying wealth of India’s billionaires. Let us look outside this 0.00001% of our population, and for the purposes of the Budget, look at their analysis of basic social services — particularly those that affect the survival of the poor.
India must be one of the only countries in the world where during the COVID-19 pandemic the health Budget has declined — and that too by a huge 10% in the last year. Social security expenditure has declined from an already pathetically low 1.5% in 2020-21 to 0.6% of the Union Budget in 2022.
It is at this end of Budget allocations where people are deprived of the most basic services and entitlements and are unable to survive. Social security pensions, for the elderly, for the disabled, and widows have been frozen at ?200-?300 a month for almost 15 years. The Government says there is not enough money to even index these to inflation. In contrast, policymakers have just in the last year increased their own salaries and pensions through a DA increase to 28%, and given themselves a bonus of 3% — with just the increase for one crore central government employees and pensioners costing the exchequer more than the total social security pension budget for 3.3 crore beneficiaries.
The Prime Minister’s outburst against “rights” perhaps explains his lack of support for the implementation of rights-based laws. Nevertheless, during the pandemic, even his government had to turn to the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to save millions of Indians from hunger and premature death. After increasing allocations in the first phase of the pandemic, allocations were frozen, and budgets were slashed in Budget 2021-22. The Government said it will supplement as and when needed. However, it is clear that supplements come in an extremely miserly fashion, causing extensive distress, and in MGNREGA, undermining the legal guarantee of work on demand.
During a recent 18-day “Accountability Yatra” in the State of Rajasthan, we came across thousands of cases of needy people not receiving ?2 per kilo wheat. The answer to grievances and appeals filed in writing is that the portal is closed and no more entries allowed. The priority list of households under the NFSA has been frozen in absolute numbers, based on a percentage determined from the 2011 Census. In the last 11 years, population increases amounting to approximately 10 crore eligible beneficiaries have been kept out. Therefore, approximately 12% legally entitled people — even children of existing “priority households” — cannot get subsidised foodgrain. To use digital codes to block even the appellate process mandated by law is a live example of callous multi-dimensional inequality, demonstrating why the “Inequality Kills” title of the Oxfam report is poignant and true.
Children and education
The pandemic has also produced a generation of children who have forgotten what formal education is. Many teenagers from poor households have already joined the workforce. In this period, there has been a 6% cut in the education Budget. Relying on online teaching, accompanied by Budget cuts, amounts to the institutionalisation of endemic multidimensional poverty.
The list can go on and on. As we await Union Budget 2022-23, will this trend be reversed? There will be much talk among affluent analysts cautioning against social sector expenditure, calling them “welfare and doles”. Programmes such as the food security Act will not receive the quantum of allocations needed, even though food grain stocks are more than 90 million tons. The People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) has estimated that approximately ?2,64,000 crore will be needed to guarantee 100 days work for currently active job cards. Even half that amount is unlikely to be allocated for MGNREGA. Social security pensioners will continue to face hunger, insult, sickness and death. One would expect that if nothing else, their millions of votes in crucial State elections would fetch these families some basic rights. But, in polarised elections, the basic needs of unorganised and voiceless people are easily ignored.
Time to generate data
Policymakers will tell us that resources are scarce. Oxfam says the combined wealth of India’s 142 billionaires has increased by a massive ?30 lakh-crore, in just the pandemic period. Jan Sarokar, a network of more than 30 social sector movements, has suggested that a 2% wealth tax, and a 33% inheritance tax on the top 1% of our population will fetch an estimated ?11 lakh crore per annum, to support basic social sector entitlements. Suggestions such as this are already being ridiculed by market fundamentalists. Which way will the Government go?
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s response to most international reports has been to claim flawed methodology and analysis. It is time to introspect, generate robust data, and face the truth. The Budget is a policy that matters to all. There is, unfortunately, little hope that this Government will stop this avalanching slide into a grossly divided society. It is perhaps up to society to stand up and make sure that we are true to our constitutional commitment of building a more just and equal society. That is our most fundamental duty.
Another BrahMos deal in the pipeline
While Philippines signed a $375 million deal for BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles last week to be operated by the Philippines Marines, there is another long pending deal under discussion for BrahMos missiles for the Philippines Army, which could see progress in the near future, according to defence and diplomatic sources.
In an ironic situation, while India has signed its biggest defence export contract with the Philippines, it does not have a full-fledged Defence Attaché (DA) at its Embassy in Manila. The proposal for increasing the number of DAs at several Indian missions abroad, including the Philippines, has been pending for sometime, at least two officials independently said.
“The Marines deal is done, next will be of the Philippines Army. The Philippines Army (PA) will push through with the project,” two diplomatic sources stated.
Acquisition of BrahMos by the PA is programmed in the Horizon 3 Modernization programme of Philippines (Year 2023-2027), one of the sources stated.
Defence Attaches
In the absence of a full-fledged DA at the Embassy in Manila, the DA at the Indian Mission in Singapore currently functions as a non-resident DA to Philippines. With India’s growing military diplomacy, the issue of increasing the number of DAs has been long raised but got caught in red tape, two officials said on condition of anonymity. “With the signing of BrahMos, maybe they will send a full-fledged DA to Manila,” one official remarked.
This is especially important as it is not just the BrahMos systems, but Philippines is looking at India for a whole range of military hardware as part of large scale of military modernisation. Indian company MKU which had supplied Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJ) to the PA in the past, is bidding for bigger contracts for BPJs and helmets.
In another instance, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has received interest from the Philippines Coast Guard for procurement of seven Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters and eight Do-228 aircraft under the $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) extended by India. Further discussions on this have been delayed due to the pandemic situation impacting travel, a defence official in the know said.
Indian shipyards had in the past competed to supply small frigates to Philippines Navy though they lost out to South Korea in the end. However, there are more emerging opportunities from Philippines in the maritime domain as well.
BrahMos is a joint venture between DRDO and Russia’sNPOMashinostroyeniya and the missile derives its name from Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. The missile is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets and has been long inducted by the Indian armed forces.
