Fate of the nation must not be allowed to hang by the horn of a cow

The lynchings then are explicitly the front line of forces seeking to retain power in 2019 - a campaign where the political is brutally intended to ride on a fake spiritual.

Latest News : There is the Brahminical belief that the surest way to cross the perilous Vaitarni river on the way to heaven is to hang by the tail of a cow.

Well, what do you know, this seems equally true of crossing the majority mark in the Lok Sabha.

Consider the statement by an RSS leader that cow-related lynching will stop only if people ceased to consume beef. Clearly, Indresh Kumar seems privy to things on the ground that we merely speculate about.

An even more explicit admonition has come from Vinay Katiyar: Muslims ought not to touch cows. What could be a more no-nonsense enunciation of the right-wing political bottom line.

Cow Lynching

Had the cow been wholly a subject of faith and not of politics, Kiren Rijiju, a cabinet minister at the Centre, could hardly be spared by the lynch mobs, having declared that he eats beef and will continue to do so. Or Manohar Parrikar, chief minister of Goa, for saying beef will be available in the state. Nor would the fortunes of beef-eating Meghalaya have remained unaffected had the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political stakes there not been so high.

The lynchings then are explicitly the front line of forces seeking to retain power in 2019 – a campaign where the political is brutally intended to ride on a fake spiritual.

You may shout hoarse that this cynical praxis not only conceals the failure of the Narendra Modi government on multiple fronts, but bids fair to cause a grievous long-festering wound to the body politic. For whom it is fatally important to hold on to the reins of state power – a well-defined and well-understood political-ideological legacy informing that imperative – anything is par for the course. Any new fake morality may be constructed to...continue reading

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News Source : BS

From surgical strike to 80 martyred personnel, 2016 a mixed year for Army

Biggest deal to be struck during 2016 was the one for 36 Rafale fighter jets for 7.8 billion Euros

Latest News - Signing of long-pending deals including one for Rafale fighters, a logistics agreement with the US, Surgical Strikes, new blacklisting and defence procurement policies besides induction of indigenous nuclear submarine were some of the achievements of the defence ministry in 2016, which was a mixed year for the armed forces.

The high point for the military was the daring surgical strike carried out by the special forces on terror launch pads across the LoC it lost a number of soldiers during the year.

Jammu and Kashmir alone saw over 80 security personnel being killed while countering Pakistan's proxy war. The army managed to eliminate about 160 militants in the state including the poster boy of militancy Burhan Wani.

Many security personnel were also killed fighting armed insurgency. Deadly attacks on the Pathankot air base, and army camps in Uri and Nagrota were a setback that led to the loss of several lives.

The armed forces also had a mixed year when it came to administration and compensation issues.

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17 soldiers killed, 23 injured in cross-LoC strike on Uri camp

In a jarring challenge to the army in Jammu & Kashmir(J&K), armed militants attacked a camp near the border town of Uri on Sunday morning, killing 17 soldiers and wounding another 23. This is the heaviest blow the army has suffered in a single attack since armed insurgency broke out in J&K in 1990.

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, the army’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), described the events in a media statement. He said a group of Pakistani terrorists attacked the camp at 5.30 am and four were killed by 8.30 am. It remains unclear whether there were more. Explaining the heavy army casualties, the DGMO said: “The terrorists fired incendiary ammunition, along with automatic fire of small arms that led to army tents [and] temporary shelters catching fire… There have been a total of 17 army fatal casualties. Of these, 13-14 casualties have been due to these tents/shelters having caught fire.”

The administrative echelons of two infantry battalions — 10 DOGRA and 6 BIHAR — were in the camp. Their combat echelons had deployed in forward posts along the line of control (LoC), leaving the camp lightly guarded.

Even so, the attack raises serious questions of operational culpability. An infantry battalion’s administrative echelons should also consist of armed and trained soldiers, who should not have been caught napping by a read full story

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Countering terrorism an important shared objective: Manohar Parrikar

Countering terrorism is an important objective shared by India and the United States, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here, while appreciating American support in India's efforts to eliminate extremism in its neighbourhood.

"We resolved to continue our cooperation on counter-terrorism. Our open and diverse societies are committed to peace. However, as the United States has shown, there can be no compromise when we are faced with terrorism," Parrikar said at a joint news conference with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter yesterday.

"The forces that seek to undermine our progress and our ways of life require our comprehensive and robust response. We appreciate the support from United States in our efforts to eliminate terrorism in India's neighbourhood," Parrikar said.

"Secretary Carter and I agreed that countering terrorism is an important shared objective. The partnership between India and the United States is driven by our shared values and interests. This was underlined by the enthusiasm of the US Congress with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in read more..