OROP or No OROP

The demand for one-rank-one-pension (OROP) is a demand of Indian military servicemen for over four decades now. Government had been playing dicks and drakes with demand which has been accepted all the political parties, parliamentary select committee and gone through the legal jungle as well. 

Recently a misleading announcement was made in media that OROP has been cleared by the government. But when the details came it was most disappointing; apparently the government was again using the selight of hand to sugar coat the bitter pill it was dishing out to servicemen. The announcement was universally condemned for misleading the public. I am reproducing a hard hitting editorial published in The Statesman on September 26, which lays bare the wheeler-dealer ways of government on this issue.

Advice to the Oracle of South Block

The Military Secretary’s Branch at the Army Headquarters deals with the career of army officers, somewhat like the human resources development department of a corporate house. But unlike the latter, it handled problems faced by officers in the most bureaucratic manner lacking the human touch. It used to behave like the proverbial three monkeys which never heard, saw or said anything; even where it could help out the officer it behaved like the oracle of South Block, where it is located.

In my own case, when it unilaterally extended my service for three more years when I was with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. I accepted it willingly as operations were on; I had only one request: please post me to Chennai before retirement so that I can sort out my outstanding personal problems before retirement. The MS Branch had agreed to this request, I was informed. 

But when I had barely one more year to serve, IPKF was pulled out MS Branch ordered my transfer to a Corps Headquarters in Chandigarh area. I was told there was no vacancy in Chennai. When I was travelling to Chandigarh, I met another Colonel in Delhi airport. He told me he wanted a posting to Chandigarh and unfortunately MS Branch insisted on his transfer to Chennai.  This is one small example of how the MS Branch used to behave; I am sure many others have even more unpleasant memories of how MS Branch behaved just like a bunch of paper pushers rather than serious professionals committed to leadership development in army.

‘Tamil separatism may resurface, but not the LTTE’

The issue of discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka has recently led to strong protests against Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as some pilgrims from the island nation.

India and Sri Lanka will be able to tide over the current wave of protests and manage to maintain their friendly ties, believes Colonel R Hariharan.

He is a former Military Intelligence officer and an expert on Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Colonel Hariharan has also been awarded the Visish Sewa Medal for his stint as the head of the intelligence unit of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990.

In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Colonel Hariharan talks about how Jayalalithaa is using anti-Lanka protests for political mileage and why the Rajapaksa government should immediately address the grievances of the nation's Tamil population

India will only alienate Lanka if it tries to coerce it'

Written by:  Shubham Ghosh 

The Tamil issue has resurfaced recently affecting both India's domestic politics and foreign policy priorities. While there are calls to boycott Sri Lanka for overlooking Tamil sentiments, other quarters believe such measures would only affect India's foreign relations with the island state ruled by a powerful President. OneIndia News speaks to retired Military Intelligence officer of the Indian Army, Col R Hariharan on the issue.

Here is the full interview:

OneIndia: We are seeing protest in the Indian media about the Sri Lankan government's atrocities against the Tamils there. Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa took a retaliatory stance against the island nation by driving out football teams and pilgrims.

There is a call for boycotting Sri Lanka from certain sections. India-Sri Lanka relations are not simplistic for besides the ethnic sentiments, a crucial strategic significance is also attached to them. Leaders like Jayalalithaa are actually endangering India's bilateral engagements with Sri Lanka in the name of 'shielding' ethnic nationalism.

If we turn belligerent towards them and do not show interest in a peace process, the Lankans can retaliate in their country against Indian sentiments as well. Do you think such coercive diplomacy will do India any favour? What is your takes on this?

Sri Lanka: Roadblocks to ethnic reconciliation

By Col R Hariharan

Post Conflict Sri Lanka: Rebuilding of the Society

Edited by VR Raghavan

Vij Books, New Delhi, 2012, pp 194, Rs 850

Sri Lanka army ended 25 years of Tamil separatist insurgency on May 19, 2009 when it defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But the victory in what the government called the Humanitarian War (an oxymoron as no war is humanitarian) came at a colossal cost. Three lakhs of people became destitute in the war torn Northern Province. Infrastructure and public services totally destroyed during the war are yet to be fully restored. The trauma of war is very much there in Northern Province putting strains on Sri Lankan society. And the political process to bring back the Tamils to national mainstream is not making much headway.

Use of social media for “war by other means”

By Col R Hariharan (Retd.)

Al Qaeda in Yemen has asked Muslims to step up their protests and kill more U.S. diplomats after the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed when violent anti-U.S. protestors attacked the U.S. embassy in Benghazi. In a significant statement, the Libyan Prime Minister has said the attack on the U.S. embassy was a preplanned one. Libya was one of the many countries across the world where anti-U.S. protests were triggered when a U.S. made film depicting Prophet Mohammed in a highly objectionable way was put on YouTube. 

Chinese defence minister’s visit to Sri Lanka: an Indian perspective

By Col R Hariharan

China’s Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie’s visited Sri Lanka for five days from August 29, 2012. The first-ever visit by a Chinese defence minister to Sri Lanka with an entourage of 23 members indicates the ever increasing Chinese interest in the island nation.

The defence minister called upon President Rajapaksa and met with the Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He also visited the Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) and and the Defence Service College (DSC) – a national school established for children of defence services and police personnel. Even there the defence minister’s visit was limited to interaction with military personnel only. There was no press meet organised for the visiting delegation. Evidently there was a conscious effort to keep the visit at a low key. It would be charitable to think that this was done as both sides were mindful of India’s sensitivities to Chinese overtures in Sri Lanka. But it would probably accurate to say that the Chinese defence minister did not want the Colombo visit to be overplayed as New Delhi was his next stop.     

While Building Economic Linkages, also Bridge the Ethnic Divide

R. Hariharan

Introduction

Sri Lanka is undergoing catharsis after a resurgent Sri Lankan army ended, on 19 May 2009, the twenty-five-year-long national ordeal at the hands of Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE. Since 1983 Sri Lanka had waged war against the LTTE in three spells that ended in a stalemate. The final victory came only in the fourth episode that started in mid-2006. The victory has come at a great cost – the lives of nearly 24,000 soldiers, over 27,000 LTTE cadres and about 80,000 civilians. Millions of rupees worth of infrastructure, material and habitations were destroyed.

At the macro level, Sri Lanka’s success has demonstrated how a determined national leadership can decisively defeat a strong, well-armed and globally networked insurgent group. A dynamic military leadership managed to turn a demoralised army into a winning force and regain control of over 16,000 sq km of territory in more than eight districts. The Sinhala community’s ethnic pride, hurt by the LTTE’s spectacular raid on Katunayake airbase in July 2001, destroying seventeen aircraft, has been regained. The victory has also given rise to triumphalism bordering on Sinhala chauvinism, and resurfacing of fundamentalist Buddhist elements in politics. This appears to be affecting the way Sri Lanka looks at the unresolved issues of ethnic minorities, and global prescriptions to resolve them.

Sri Lanka Perspectives - August 2012

  Highlights

• Security forces organised two international events to highlight their contribution to the nation’s effort in reconstruction and rehabilitation in war torn zone in North and East.
• The first-ever visit by the Chinese defence minister to Sri Lanka shows the increasing Chinese interest in the island nation.
• As provincial council elections approach, more reports of political violence had been reported. Widespread misuse of government resources by the candidates of ruling coalition has been reported. In Eastern Province, the stand-off between the two major Muslim parties – the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Muslim National Congress (MNC) turned violent.   
•  Tamil Eelam Supporters Conference in Chennai turns out to be a damp squib although it has rallied support for the Eelam Tamils. This triggered objection to training Sri Lanka army officers in military institutions in India has once again become a political issue in Tamil Nadu.   

China's world view in 21st century

Mr Shyam Saran, distinguished diplomat and former foreign secretary, delivering the Second Annual K Subrahmanyam Memorial lecture on August 29, 2012 presented an intersting analysis of what India should know about China's world view in the 21st century. Text of his speech is given below.    

China in the Twenty-First Century: 

What India Needs to Know About China’s World View

Shyam Saran

              

Respected Ambassador Rasgotra, respected Shrimati Subrahmanayam, Chairman, Global India Foundation, Vice-Admiral Jacob,Vice-Chairman, Ambassador Salman Haider, Member Secretary, Shri O.P. Mishra, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Ambassador Rasgotra for chairing this memorial lecture. I am honoured by the presence of one of my most respected peers.