SEARCH OF HAPPINESS

Mankind from time immemorial has been searching for happiness, though the definition of happiness has been evolving along with the man's evolution. On the earliest times it was the quest to survival from the fears-- fear of the unknown and violent forces of natural calamities. Survival being the prime issue meant food as needed on daily basis and some hoarding for contingencies. From the nomadic days we have journed through various stages with needs up gradation. However the search for elusive happiness continues.

Happiness has its own perceived parameters-- basic needs of nomadic times to money and power of modern times. Money to meet the ever growing materialistic needs and power to meet the egoistic gratifications need to control others. The saints and other wise people claim materialistic needs give temporary solace.

Ancient religious wisdom advocates freedom from lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego and replacing these with compassion, love and charity. Good intentions; thoughts and deeds and power to forgive is another mantra propounded by moderate religious teachers. Radical teachers on the other hand religion is best served by forcing their thought and killing those not agreeing is in order.

Heaven and hell is another concept satisfying lots of believers about redemption of the deeds by the almighty.

It is also an experienced fact that almost ninety percent of human body is on auto pilot. Mundane activity like blinking of the eye to serious activity like functioning of mind appear to be “just happening”. Psychologists call it the sub/un/supra conscious; intuition, emotions parts of this mind and spiritual thinkers calling it the soul/deeds manifestation.

Science and spiritual thinkers slowly appear to be interlinking the auto emotion/thought origination with the soul/other mind states.

In this evolution, psychologists, spiritual thinkers and scientific experimentation what appear to be emerging is something like this-

*We have a peaceful soul, which is beyond the physical body

*Our mind has numerous parts and the crucial supra/sub conscious are perhaps on auto mode

*The emotions and thoughts emerge here.

Negative emotions like lust, greed, anger, attachment and ego agitate whereas love, compassion

* Auto generated emotions/thoughts are manifestation of pain/joy stored there.

* Fulfilment of external aggressive gratification of manifestations give happiness, however, the duration of this happiness depends till surfacing of the next.

The crucial aspect is to be aware of the source of emotion in the body/mind before it manifests into powerful desire demanding immediate fulfilment. This awareness enables analysis and response to the manifestation. Developing the capability of emotion awareness is a slow, difficult and tedious process requiring change of a well en grained habit.

The soul's state is peace and its comfort is with love, compassion and tranquil activities . One has to identify what gives prolonged activity happiness. This is one's joy foundation base.

Slow emotion management from painful to peaceful through awareness and response perhaps is the way to joy, that is, encompassing happiness always

NATION BUIDING AND DEFENCE FORCES

As of date Indian defence Forces are over a million plus serving and large number of retirees between the age of forty and above. Over a period of time the forces have built massive infrastructure in terms of facilities. Some of these are legacy of the colonial times and an undeveloped market. However like a good house wife it refuses to shed the colonial past and fully grabbing the future. This mindset is in its thought, traditions and culture. Staying aloof was a colonial requirement but not of free democratic nation.

Such a huge trained manpower is available for any contingency that may arise on our borders. With major wars being uncommon- last war was fought in 71 and there is no likelihood for any thing in the foreseeable future. Pakistan, one of the major irritant can not fight a conventional war and hope for a modicum of success. Therefore it will continue the proxy war. China, the other neighbour has established such a massive edge in-terms of conventional/nuclear capability that India can not win either of the wars. Deterrence is the aim and that should be doable.

Disaster management and CI/LWE has been given to central/state police forces and border management less Line of Control with Pakistan and some portion with China too has been given to force other than the army.

The CRPF/ITBP have raised forces for all the additional tasks of disaster and border management therefore corresponding decrease should have been done by the army, which apparently has not happened. Rashtriya Rifles raised for CI in J&K need to be reviewed.

With the reduced responsibility why should the defence forces not get involved in Nation Building?

What can be done without compromising the war preparedness

Component of the defence forces deployed in peace stations train for three months and three months go towards leave. Remainder time is available for activities of nation building.

To ensure that the nation is not caught off guard, the slack/spare time would need to be harmonised with likely operational season which depends on various factors well known to military.

Specific Activities

Talent hunt and train youth in sports

Make available sports infra to selected promising youth.

Skill building- army can facilitate building skills at par or superior to ITIs. Training cooks; mechanics; drivers; electricians; English speaking; computer learning and host of other vocational skills from its existing/augmented facilities.

Awareness of hygiene/sanitation; introducing solar; non conventional energy in remote areas

Training village youth in E monitoring of government schemes and other e-learning options.

Defence forces have a system of adopting villages in difficult areas in J&k and NE to aid those areas where reach of government is weak. This can be extended to areas in the mainland and help catch up on the last time thereby ensuring inclusive growth.

Defence forces can contribute in higher learning by opening more institutes of excellence in conjunction with HRD ministry.

Self Evolution

In the history of warfare the leader with best application of mind has been Krishna. His capability to influence the outcome by proper manoeuvring is well known. His name is “Ranchhor”- run away from battle are great traditions which unfortunately we do not follow. Its the Israeli army which believes in survive to fight another day rather than the colonial way of last man last round. Chankya too needs to be understood and incorporated in military thought.

Facilitate R&D in military fields. Web and hosts of others were developed by US for military use. There are many bright minds – MSc from IITs and some from foreign countries. These minds must facilitate research and design formulation in conjunction with other brains working in DRDOs/IITs/Pvt sect R&D.

Conclusion

Army has a bitter experience of pre 62 war when it got involved in residential accommodation building at the cost of operational preparedness. That must not come in the way of seeing afresh the need of the nation to develop and defence being big consumer of budget has a moral obligation to, pitch in towards this onerous task.

ANCIENT WISDOM AND MODERNITY: HOLY NEXUS

It is well known that the ancient Indian scriptures had lot of wisdom stored in them. However neglect of Sanskrit and failure of our masters, probably by design to belittle the mighty civilisation and subdue it has been an ongoing process till very recently. Indian had been ruled by foreigners or weak, fragmented rulers for almost ten centuries has also led to the decay in our thought process and civilisation, This needs to be rectified and earlier the better.

Indian weakness in poor documentation and less belief in scientific approach and research has been the second reason for the decline.

Course correction to overhaul the decay and neglect of thousands of years is a gigantic task and requires herculean effort. Cynicism by western educated experts and vested western industry would be the biggest obstacles in the way ahead.

The course correction should be undertaken in the following stages.

Stage 1.

Translate the scriptures into authentic versions in all Indian languages and have these uploaded in E-library. Plenty of retired people can help with minimal costs.

Patent all wisdom.

Stage 2

Discover new herbs and shrubs of medicinal values since lost and help cultivation of the same. In the hill regions of J&K, HP, UK and tribal have a good knowledge about herbs which is not known to mainstream intellectuals. Collecting these would give a huge repository and retrieval of wisdom passed down the ages.

Stage 3

Research and development followed by proper testing of Yoga benefits and Ayurved and other Indian systems of medicines. Lay down norms akin to ISO for testing the medications.

Put the tested practises/medicines through Indian formulated ISO norms.

Stage 4.

Introduction of the proven systems/items into the Indian way of life. Introduce with governmental organisations and then in the open market.

Benefits

 Planting medicinal, ornamental and commercial plants in the barren hills; foothills; wastelands, backwaters, astride roads/canals/railway lines, parks in the cities as part of jobs-growth-empowerment and dovetailing into the overall design of environments would create millions of jobs.

INDIAN DEFENCE FORCES:WAY AHEAD

Generals are known for preparing for the last war.

The future wars will not involve huge numbers of men or machines but rely on minimal force with maximal impact. This implies real time intelligence and capability to destroy the impact with minimal collateral damage along with shaping the perception of opinion makers. It may have number of small skirmishes culminating into decisive strike. Large manoeuvres are second world war type of war, the modern warfare is already shifting to drones and other smarter weapon systems. For insurgency type of warfare the nation needs feet on the ground to saturate the area, show presence, gain human intelligence and win battle of hearts and minds.

With Modi government taking over and everyone is expecting wonders to happen is a sign of optimism and the damage done by the previous government. Defence modernisation has been one big causality.

Modi government has taken over empty coffers and huge backlog and mega crying needs- from toilets to space. Finance Minister must be having sleepless nights and rightly so.

There are hardly any original strategic thinkers in India within or outside the uniformed services. Most of the so called thinkers have borrowed ideas from the west and parrot them with minor modifications. That is the impression one gets on reading the papers and TV debates.

The nation has created huge white elephants like organisations commencing from DRDO to think tanks with very limited quality input. One of the major drawback in addition to quality thinkers is everyone is working in his small little well without trying to connect and expanding wisdom/experience.

The wisdom/knowledge lies all over. Defence forces are the initiators and end users of needs. There wish list is generally based on what is available in the world market and what the adversary has/likely to procure.

The DRDO/IITs/Private Sector and PSU with their in-house capabilities have some wisdom but not good enough to produce to match the best in the world market. The defence forces have enough wisdom among officers of technical arms who are as well qualified as scientist in the civil market. Large number of them have done their Master from IITs and foreign universities of renown.

Scattered but non focused wisdom is available within the country in abundance.

To add to the misery the Ministry of Defence or the Defence Minster has little knowledge of professional matters.

Huge problem but energised approach with Modi government talking of change may just be the right opportunity to make a beginning.

As one makes out US/China and other military powers are looking at intelligence, alliances, control of critical resources, R&D, jointmanship, space, robotics, artificial intelligence, perception management, economic development; populace happiness as some of the things of critical importance for staying ahead in the future.

What needs to be done

To expect automatic happening of empire crashing by organisation used to mega budgets with no accountability is a challenging assignment.

The US has a Blue Ribbon Commission concept. This compromises of wise people but not stake holders. They interact with all stake holder as well as the best brains within the country and study the best practises followed by other advanced nations.

The second methodology is to undertake a study by one/two professionals who interact with all leaders of society in their designated fields impacting the future. This gives a view of shape of things to unfold as perceived by all the thinkers. Messing them together gives an idea for planners to peep and plan where and how the defence forces role/fighting fits into that future.

Any of the above approach will enable a clear vision and then comes up the way ahead. There would be a need to build total smart power rather than trying to attempt every thing but poor quality outcomes.

Form a committee akin to Blue Ribbon Commission with the task of way ahead for force development and fusing/importing technology.

Since India is one of the biggest importer of weapon systems insist on hundred percent technology transfer within five year or less of import of major system

Accountability of DRDO/PSU- perform or perish. Incorporate IITs/private sector at R&D stage

Defence forces more so the army being manpower intensive needs major review in its approach. Move from man-machine mix to smart/remote systems of intelligence gathering and its destruction with minimal force and maximal impact. Emphasise on special forces with strategic mobility and cut down on numbers of men in uniform.

Harmonise functioning of army with PMF/CPO. Reinforce police forces for counter insurgency operations and be prepared to absorb them for rear area duties during war.

Have regular army down to 40% and complement by 60% of territorial army. This means professional/others contributing to nation building during normal times; do military training for about a month every year and join during war. Alternatively army must release 60% of its strength of peace stations for eight months a year for nation building projects. With no major war since 71 and none in the offing and internal security being taken over by CPOs in Kashmir and Central India and border management by ITBP and others after Subramaniun Kargil review committee. Huge amount of Rashtriya Rifles raised for Kashmir now freed as responsibility taken over by CPOs.

These measures will release huge manpower/financial resources for modernisation and nation building simultaneously.

Who Bells the Cat

 Too many vested interests will fight for status quo. With limited professional competence at top level who forces? Answer lies in Blue Ribbon commission equivalent to transform the defence force into a modern smart war fighting. Focussing on smart power being applied through deterrence cum quick minimal force maximal result and simultaneously contributing towards nation building.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

With new government right sizing the mammoth government size to increase efficiency, this is the right time to review all organisations with have added flab at the cost of efficiency whilst trying to enhance own turfs. Need to break the tired structure into flat ones is an option due to better communications.

Some of the cup ideas to cut down flab; save resources by harmonising the market forces; technology and speed of communications.

Minimum government and maximum governance is possible only with an aware citizenary

Replace Early Retirement with graduated in house lateral moment

A soldier is forced to retire early on the pretext that the organisation needs younger profile. This is a legacy good old days when the soldiers had to be rough and tough to fight in the rugged areas of Afghanistan with minimal logistic support. The average age of the male used to be around 30 plus minus five years, some one who joined the services it was enhanced by ten years or so. This was due to better medic-care and quality of food intake. Thus he retired in thirties and survived for about ten years.

These days he retires at forty but lives till seventy and works till sixty on some job and if he is a farmer he continues to work till later.

Is there a justification in releasing a soldier at such a young age? He burdens the forces with pension for almost fifty years for a service of twenty years. The service, to a retired, extends medical and other perks to his dependants (wife; old parents; children till specified age), this averages at the peak to about 7 people for 10 to 30 years. No organisation can sustain such burden, if one was to call that. Its self created and needs to be addressed.

What must be done? Increase the retirement age of defence personnel to fifty five. Have a system where in soldier moves from a physically demanding to mentally demanding as he ages and keep using his strengths of expertise in assignments which demand such skills. Soldier in infantry must move towards softer services through supporting arms and serve till fifty five. Why should a young man/officer join services when he is best utilised for more demanding assignments.

This will lead to savings; optimal resource utilisation and add to opportunities for youth in DSC/other jobs reserved for ex servicemen.

New government must force implementation. Automatically huge job opportunities get created and win-win for everyone

Ruthlessly destroy tiers and paper work

Tiers in functioning was the norm and necessity during the good old days. However the IT enabling has made this redundant. 1+1 that is one HOD and his number 2 should be good enough with minimal secretarial staff since everything is on mail- one does not need peons and clerks to type and move files. For cup of tea/coffee have vending machines.

Doable? Of course, its a big Yes. Problem would be from the old organisational system which has got use to Darbari system of function g. Other is a genuine concern- about the career progression? This can be overcome with time cum efficiency linked promotion. How to implement?

Enhance IT connectivity simultaneously cutting down paper supply by 30% per annum and in five years it should be down to minimal essential.

Procedural vs Output Culture

The babudom focuses on procedures because that’s their accountability system. Playing safe, the culture prevents him from decision making causing time delay and cost over runs.

What needs to be done is the focus on results and not procedure. The babudom must become facilitator in speedy approvals rather than procedural focus.

There is a scope of abuse/misuse of discretionary power sin bypassing the procedures. This can be overcome by announcing the waiver given as an acceptable new norm. This will encourage the decision making support system to be more enterprising resulting into win-win.

Cultural Change

From colonial masters to independent India facilitators. Easily implementable provided the system takes a feedback from those whom service is being provided and taking action against defaulters. This is easily implementable provided there in an honest intent and leadership non-corrupt.

Priority of Resource Allocation

There are never enough resources to do on all the tasks for any organisation anywhere.

The only way being followed world wide is keep re posturing the resources to meet the peak needs as various things peak up at different times. Some of the malls in India too are following this model which is quite the norm in the west.

Cleanliness at Public Places.

This seems to be a mega problem in all our cities – clean homes/ working/religious places but surrounded by filth. Morning dog walkers

walk the dogs on the roads and take great pride and pleasure in pee/shit on the road.

Paan- spitting; wrappers in parks even where bins are kept; urinating in public/ car parking and vendors on the road are some of the ills which if addressed can make a huge difference.

It dies not cost much but a little bit of self discipline or may be fine for perpetual defaulters but needs to be addressed by the aware citizens and police/ city municipality. Photo from the mobile camera loaded on the respective departmental site and may be those who have dogs/cars without garages are registered and pay a fee for misusing/abusing public services. Problem of stray dogs/cattle/monkey nuisance need to be addressed.

This will be great for the common man and the system can expect an interactive citizenry helping it improve. Genuine swaraj for a common man is the quality of interaction with the cutting edge of the governments face, viz., police, health worker, patwari; bijli wala; school teacher etc. Once there is genuine trust in the good intent of these service providers/governmental interface, its true freedom.

Hope the top leadership realises how little a common man aspires and how easy it is deliverable, but a cultural change from occupation ruler to benevolent ruler is required amongst those supervising the organs of the state.

Finally

Solution to most of the routine irritants and larger problems is with the people and they can offer simple but practical solution. Interactive and trusting government – people relationship is the key to the cherished idea of PM Modi less government but more governance

REBOOTING THE DEFENCE MINISTRY

The MOD is sick and needs shock therapy to move from paralysis; distrust; impediment; procedure bound to a benevolent and in-sync ministry.

Army has very serious problems on modernisation front and huge hollowness in existing crucial war winning equipment.

There is absence of strategic thinkers within the army or the nation.

Army is carrying on with British dresses/traditions/customs/battle honours/ history/messes/sahayak/language/other systems. This is in harmony with a colonial power where army was aloof in the cantonments to be used against the foreign/natives should the police be found wanting. The life was so organised that it was cocooned from civil society for fear of turbulence by civil leadership against the foreign powers. Thus the army was a stets within a state, having its own law/hospitals/transport/police/logistics. Some of it was necessary to maintain forces in the far flung underdeveloped frontiers in Afghanistan and other places of deployment.

There is a need for taking a deep holistic look at all facets of the Indian Defence Forces and making them truly in harmony with the national ethos and contributing positively towards nation building. There are three ways to usher in this change.

First is the incremental reforms which is an ongoing process but is extremely slow because of organisational inertia. Just to quote one example its taken the Army almost sixty years to switch over to the Indian salutations of Jai hind amongst officers. It was being followed far officers-men salutations and navy had switched much earlier.

The second is periodical review committees, we had Subramanium kargil review and Naresh chandra review committee. Both have been partially /hardly implemented depending on its acceptance to the MOD.

Third way is what the US calls a Blue Ribbon Commission. In this a commission of people with known integrity with no direct interest in the outcome is constituted. They are in turn free to solicit views/advise/opinions of best brains within /out and recommend the best practises. This is very efficiency way and one can see a commission headed by Ratan tata and Narayan Murty and few others s members doing this assignment. Radical for the Indian status quo mindset but has a great potential for deliverance rising above the narrow turfs.

The Indian Blue Ribbon Commission should focus at the following

Revamping the MOD/Service HQ. Overlaps to be cut-down by harmonising function. Scope of disbanding about ten percent flab. Ensure MOD and service HQ work in harmony rather than adversaries.

Move from procedures to output. Babudom is always weighted down by procedural requirements and not the outcome. Once accountability is properly laid down results will improve.

Ensuring experts manning the MOD- dedicated cadre/technocrats and ten, twenty and thirty percent from Navy/Air force/Army respectively. Remainder by experts/technocrats- some of the best brains may be inducted from universities/civil strata on tenure hired basis.

Indignation of newer equipment by enhancing R and D. Civil and IIT and DRDOs all work in harmony.

Enhancing the strategic thought and ideas for combating the future. Toffels book on this issue is an eye opener and the way they have gone about forecasting is simply superb. Analysing the past and talking to best minds from all fields in the international market, they have produced a superb way ahead. Our defence forces/R&D heads could take a leaf from that and it would be possible to be more realistic in our expectations.

Better financial management by reducing non plan expenditure.

CPOs retire at sixty, defence personnel at forty. Defence forces are burdened with heavy pension/health liabilities(one soldier has parents/wife and children till a certain age). The army can look at enhancing the age w/o compromising efficiency. The sedentary duties of services and some supporting arms can very well serve till sixty provided some one does the pushing. Lateral movement within the army from tougher arms to supporting arms to services with the increasing age is an option pretty well implementable.

In-house commission under CDS/service chiefs must look at the following

Stop abuse/misuse of perks and manpower.

Minimise financial wastages

Cultural/values/history being reviewed and in harmony with out glorious past rather than British victories.

Move from Clauswitz/Sun Zsu to Chankya/Krishna for quotes.

Restore empowerment in our culture/ethos

Contribute towards nation building. This could be done by releasing massive dormant resources for social good. Education and medical staff must spend two months in far flung frontiers where reach of the government is still not there. Forces stationed in peace stations must devote two months for nation building. The task could be identified by the army in conjunction with local authorities. Adopting villages/open spaces for afforestation would go along way.

Open sports facilities for outstanding sports person.

Aim for excellence in international sports and other activities

Encourage thinking rather than status quo.

Change is the talk of the nation and everyone is expecting things to improve post Narinder Modi's rise as the new Prime Minster of India. People, in/out of uniform must cease the opportunity and force a change which is good for the defence forces

IMPROVING GOVERNANCE- MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The craze for a governmental job in India is well known. In fact its become an industry to make money by everyone who can play around with the fear of unemployed youth. Poor man is willing to mortgage his ancestral property/take loan just to get into the privileged group of employees. It offers perks, security and non- accountability which is perhaps non existent in any other job. Blackmailing the government for perks just prior to elections/other moments of vulnerability has been the most potent tool of this group. This leads to release of perks even if economically extremely difficult to implement and misuse/abuse of power is of course rampant. Postings- place and appointment are available at the cost depending on the loot potential of the appointment. The system is very well geared enabling everyone up the chain to get the proportional share of the loot.

The abuse/misuse takes place through the tools of delay and discretionary powers of appointments and profit sharing by the chain of authority.

Its not possible for CBI/Police/vigilance or other state machinery tasked to enforce law to be everywhere all the time at the crime venue. This results in great honest intentions but poorly implemented- feed back is concocted resulting in a win-win for the government and poor governance continues.

Solution to this cancerous disease lies in three fundamental basics working in harmony.

First is reporting of the crime. This is best done by aware citizenry. People are everywhere and effected party and they witness the defaulters. Citizens are thus the most potent first pillar of effective governance. With mobile and cameras available with almost everyone, this massive force can lead to first crucial and paramount importance step of good governance. The fear is of retribution which many would like to avoid. Answer may lie in vigilance/police having web sites where inputs are uploaded with the proviso that the identity of the uploaded will be protected. This would be a wonderful idea and greatly assist the police/enforcement agencies in nabbing culprits/eradicating crimes and ensuring efficient performance by the governmental eyes and ears cum service providers or what one may call the interface between the people and the government.

Second step is speedy reaction by police or other supervisory agency. Its unbelievable that most citizens see the poor quality of hygiene of the thelawala giving fast foods but the inspector responsible refuses to act. Getting his hafta probably is the new charter of duty defined by himself. Any supervisor/superior who fails to enforce the laid down charter must be taken to task.(inputs from citizens basic for sack with investigation by the higher in authority) should ensure proper justice.

Third of course is the speedy punishment to the defaulter. First stage is of course is departmental procedure followed by judicial process which is extremely time consuming. This of course is being addressed by the powers that be.

What the superiors must do to curb the nepotism/hafta or whatever one calls it.

Frugal and honest living. The misuse/abuse of governmental resources for unauthorised purposes is the starting point of the organisational corruption guised as perks of service.

At the state and national level the way to qualitatively improve services is by enforcing all government employees to use the public services. Public transport/health and education will improve the day this is enforces across the board. No one goes abroad on government expense for treatment. Period. Everyone uses government transport thrice a week to come to office. Children go to governmental schools only. Impound government transport in markets during working hours.

Finally whenever a new perk is announced by any government department including pay commission, methodology to shield the common man against the juggernaut of inflation must be addressed. Let government employees not be the favoured citizens ruling over the masses, the ethos must change to WE SERVE THE MASSES AND PAID BY THE TAX PAYERS MONEY.

SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH RELIGION

With Narinder Modi successfully shifting the national agenda from religion/caste/communal/narrow divisive loyalties to development and Nation first, things should be looking up for good.

Religion in India has massive control over all Indians daily lives, thought process, leanings and outlook towards life. The religious teachers in Sikh and Islam have a greater hold than the others and most would agree with this statement.

The other day I was privy to a very tragic but interesting real life incident. A young charming MBA girl from upper middle class back ground working abroad in a MNC and earning good money found a her prince charming. The boy from with in the community matching status and salary and pleasing personality. Typical son in law any father would wish. This person had everything and abundance of it. They got married and the tragedy struck. The prince was suffering from very serious medical problems and he should have not got married till the problems were sorted out, however the society’s taunts forced this alliance. Unfortunately in spite of the fact that the match maker was extremely well known to both sides this problem had not been shared. Two years of married life was marred with mental torture and abuse of the charming princess. Since she was posted abroad she was unwilling to share the agony with the parents for obvious reasons. It was by default that the girl broke down and confided and hell broke loose. Only child, simple God fearing and this is what destiny had in store. Parents went into deep depression for quite sometimes till the father took a stand of annulling the relationship much against the daughters wish(she thought she could probably mange).

The marriage was annulled without any acrimony and it was kind courtesy the local head priest of the sect before getting formal judicial stamp. It was amazingly clean, logical and extremely fair.

This set me thinking about the potential of this learned body to facilitate social transformation, since they are the custodians of faith notwithstanding some aberrations.

All religions have adverse traditions/rituals having creped in over a period of time. In fact older the religion more is the ritualism/tokenism/misrepresentation of the truth.

Hinduism leads with maximal possible cleansing potential. Caste based discrimination, widow remarriage, dirty mandirs. Illiterate and greedy pujaris; excessive ritualism, knowledge in a language not understood by most and absence of unifying common ground. The new age religious leaders being wealthy, educated, media friendly, learned and capable of harmonising the essence of science and religion have mass following cum belief which is reasonably strong. The other religions have a better control because there is little diversity of Hinduism in them. Thus less fragmentation and more cohesion.

The most difficult and challenging task would be for Hindus to come together and come to an acceptable common programme. This must be accomplished without tinkering with the basic fundamentals,

The issue like eradication of social evils could be the starting point. Dowry, female foeticide, duty, honesty, values, caste discrimination, intoxicant (gutka/paan/tobacco) drugs menace, helping the needy; women/girl safety; corruption, harmony, tolerance are some of the burning issues which can be tackled by the society and not legislature or police or the English electronic media.

For India to evolve as a progressive, tolerant, plural. multi religious society this may be a good starting point and one has never seen a national upsurge towards development amongst all that is India. Religious leaders taking lead would be transformation of great magnitude.

SUPREME COURT PERMITS SERVING SOLDIER TO VOTE

The defence forces have been apolitical since raising of the Indian Defence Forces in the present context. Religion, money making, politics wee some of the issues which were strictly forbidden for discussion amongst the uniformed fraternity. This was basically because this was the most powerful tool of the colonial masters to ensure fear of the Queen amongst the masses. Other taboos are in the process of dismantling albeit slowly but surely the fraternity is gradually in tune with the national aspiration. In fact credit must be given to the Defence Forces for changing the image from tool of government for use amongst the masses to perhaps the most confidence aspiring organisation of the Nation.

Till date there was a system of postal ballot, where one caste his vote and sent it to his place of posting and there was little collective discussion. With the new proviso, a soldier can vote at his place of posting if he has been there since Jan this year for Apr 14 parliamentary elections

The military leadership faces a huge challenge of transformation with the new diktat.

With military stations and cantonments having large eligible populace of voters, political parties would and should be interested in getting these people on board. The challenge for political leadership would be how do they get the soldier on board because the local station/place issues may be of hardly any consequence to the soldier. Soldier is cocooned from the local turbulence because of his cant life, what would be his concern, logic, motivation to choose a candidate.

Should he follow the US Presidential system where one votes for the policies as spelled out by the Prez and explained through media and other sources or work out a different methodology. Out there massive rallies akin to India where millions attend are irrelevant and do not take place.

Voting by locals follows diktats of religious heads/local Mafia or the perception based on the past experience. Cyber means have very little influence amongst huge chunks of populace who do not access/understand larger national issues- for them Roti, kapda, makan and security are the predominant rationale for choosing candidates. With uniformed community which is reasonably well informed/cares for larger issues, will this pose a dilemma? Probably yes.

Should the defence forces permit rallies for its soldiers by various parties to enable making informed choices? This would be precedent setting but perhaps a workable option. Political parties are likely to include cantt improvements and may force them to stay away from issues of caste, religion and force development agenda. Should this happen, then this would be great for the nation and defence forces would had major positive ramifications on the approach to elections by the political parties. In fact in due course it may narrow the gap between the desirability and do abilty and put the democracy on a stronger footing. Mafia/criminals/tainted candidates may have to give way to better candidates.

Will this exposure hammer the foundation of the force? The initial feel would be yes but detailed analysis and past experience may indicate positive response with caution. JP's movement of mid 70s; insurgencies in Panjab, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and ongoing LWE in Central India has had repercussions, some went beyond control but most were successfully. managed by the fraternity. Will this Mandalise? There were certain major challenges in some regiments during Mandal agitation because of cascading ramifications impacting the caste/groups back home (forces were not impacted) and this needed management by leadership. The new opportunity too will need to be debated and manges lest it has adverse ramifications.

The defence fraternity will need to decide as to how to mange the new challenge better for forcing the political parties to address the genuine sulks of the soldier and the forces at macro and micro level. However since men in uniform can not issue a whip for voting to a party/candidate, it may be desirable for a middle path. Using the Exsevicemen as the interface between the serving/retired soldiers and political parties to MOU/ agenda regarding forces wish list. Till now the babudom of the country have created a wall of distrust between the political decision makers and Services Chiefs. The tool that has been frequently been used is by invoking the boggy of coup de tat amongst the politicians- Gen VK and Anthony tiff was given a similar colour. Committees on pay commission anomalies and restructuring of Defence Ministry have been stonewalled by the babus. Large number of petitions by MOD against exservicemen are filed by MOD to deny/delay the emoluments. Some of these and many more issues are harming the defence forces which can hopefully be addressed now.

The right given by the Supreme Court has great potential to make a difference at all levels provided the forces can strategise their plan well and intelligently though its not their forte.

INDEGINISATION OF DEFENCE INDUSTRY

Indian defence forces keep suffering due to inability of existing indigenous production houses to cope up with the merging technologies. Not blaming anyone, aim is to generate an alternative option in harmony with the national competence and needs. In  fact the services have a very high degree of competence with significant number of officers having obtained technical qualifications from IIT and Universities in US. Unfortunately this resource is untapped and interaction with at the professional technical level severly lacking.

The existing system has three components, the service HQ project the need of equipment for next few years through documents laying down the long/mid/short term needs. The DRDO is expected then to produce/outsource/import this technology/ need as the case may be. As of today the private sector has not got involved seriously in defence equipment manufacture apart from vehicles etc, the PSU production houses have not been able to produce equipment desired by the defence forces. Arjun tank/INSAS are two equipments which do not need rocket science or extremely high end technology. There is a perception mismatch between the services and PSU and time delay ensures near obsolescence of technology offered. Time and financial penalty leads to defence forces getting left behind.

Today the defence export industry is one of the biggest and needs to be tapped. US, Russia, China and Israel lead the world arms trade but are unwillingly to share the cutting edge technology. It may not be distrust but its more to do with the fear of theft and illegal copying and there by posing a challenge to own industry. One therefore must be prepared for that.

In most of the arms producing exporting nations following stand out:

 Very intimate interaction between the end user and the designer/producer is of crucial importance. This starts from the initial stages when the need parameters are being spelt out. This is the most complex exercise involving the best brains trying to analyse what is available; what could be available and what needs to be made available. This implies the existing industry capability, the likely capability in that particular filed in the time frame that the equipment is required and the capability of the brains on the possibility to produce new technology and the effort required in terms of finances/brain power. In this the scan involves the best that is available and not confined to government officials. This gives the user, the designer and producer an idea about the complexity and the probability of success. This also ensures the commitment of resources, the task allotment to super specialists for research and development, additional infrastructure both soft and hard. The private sector is driven by profits and not there for charity or patriotism therefore expect an extremely high quality effort to meet the user expectations. In fact tying up with second rung industrial houses in US, who offer almost the same technology may be two tears old, can give a boost to own industry. And there are enough of such capabilities in the US. Once the basics capability/projected technology production feasibility identified, the basic prototype deal is sealed and the work commences. This is followed by regular interaction to view the slippages more focused on research side or any option which may be generated by any new technology that may have sprung up.

Joint ventures/hiring best brains from the world is an option which can better be exercised by the private sector. The Chinese are known for reverse engineering and stealing designs at early stages of conception and then researching further or making so called indigenous with such inputs. We have been absolutely passive in exploiting this avenue.

Way ahead

Basic need parameter must be jointly worked out amongst the best brains in the defence/civil, designers and producers. All must sit together and brain storm what is available/what is likely to be available and what component can be produced post research indigenously. And finally want technology needs to be imported.

Once the basic design is sealed and the responsibility assigned, regular interaction to monitor/slippages/design betterment due to some better technology available would be required. Research must focus on time spans of 5/10/20 years. If the user can identify his needs, there is no reason as to why the technology needs for ten/twenty years cannot be met through research or importing brains.

Once this is in place results will automatically follow in a smooth manner and without any blame game with least acrimony and maximum harmony by using the best brains delivering the best products at very reasonable rates.

Win Win – improve economy and influence and be counted. The defence expenditure would n ore be a burden to the economists talking of aircrafts vs schools or guns vs butter

MIRACLE

It was the 25 Dec last year when we were returning by road from Dehradun to Lucknow. We were two couples and were travelling in a chauffeur driven SUV. Having started from Dehradun around 0830am, we were in Haridwar in an hours’ time. We visited Har Ki Paidi and Chandi Mata before starting our journey to Lucknow by around 1230. It was a bright sunny day though partially windy and intermittent clouds enroute- it was a beautiful journey with great company that we were in.

It became rather dark by the time we reached Rampur, just short of Bareilly and the visibility too appeared to be decreasing rapidly. Around 8pm we crossed Bareilly and there was a traffic jam of heavy trucks and carriers. To our horror there appeared to be no one making an effort to move things, in fact, some truckers were resting with fire lit indicating of a long haul. Our driver made a mention that at the same very stretch he was stuck a few days back for about six hours and things appeared worse today. We kept moving slowly on the side berms and suddenly there was a dead stop. One tractor- trolley had managed to get struck perpendicularly chocking the complete National Highway. There seemed little hope out of this mess.

As we were mulling the options suddenly a police vehicle with sirens blooming emerged and forced the tractor trolley to make way and we were out of this scary situation in less than five minutes and to our happiness we had overtaken almost 8 kms of the jam. Since the clearance of tractor trolley just took place when we were there, we managed to overtake the jammed traffic in about 15 minutes—a line of jammed vehicles stretching another few miles.

Having crossed Shahjehanpur, suddenly the fog started to thicken may be due to plans and lots of water bodies. We managed to drive for about half an hour through patches of low to medium to dense fog. We were thanking our luck and suddenly we had a thick blanket of fog where even a trained driver was feeling not too comfortable. We were driving near blind with visibility restricted to a few feet. In fact we were driving with the help of the edge of the road alignment which was giving some sense of the left side of the road. Halting not being an option till we reached a city with hotel accommodation we were just chugging keeping our fingers crossed. After 15 minutes, suddenly a car with all fog lights and other lights blinking overtook us and almost escorted us through the patch for almost an hour before leaving the highway for its destination. We were pondering about our next move and there we had state transport bus ahead of us. We followed that and moment the fog-stretch was over, the bus turned probably towards the bus stand and we headed homewards.

We reached home safely at 0230 instead of our calculated time of 9 pm. One is not too sure whether it was set of coincidences or a series of miracles. Whatever the rationalists say, I am bewildered and tend to think it was a miracle as one has never encountered anything of this kind in the past fifty years.