The Tribune – Chinese troops in PoK [Azad Kashmir]

Army Chief; Says terror infrastructure across LoC intact, large number of militants trying to infiltrate

Ajay Banerjee, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 5. Echoing words that can spark a fresh round of discussion on China’s suspicious moves in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, especially in the strategically important Gilgit-Baltistan area, Army Chief General V K Singh today said that around 4,000 Chinese, including troops of the People’s Liberation Army of China, were in PoK.

“There are certain construction working teams (in PoK). Around 3,000 to 4,000 of these people are present, including certain people for security purposes. There are certain engineers troops. Now, our own engineers are combat engineers. So, in some way they are part of the PLA,” he told reporters here.

The Army Chief was responding to a query on the presence of Chinese Army troops in the PoK on the sidelines of the 16th Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lecture delivered by National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.

What General V K Singh said today is in line with the thinking of India’s leading strategic affairs think-tank, the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). An IDSA study in May this year had warned that if the current pace of Chinese penetration is sustained, then the Dragon may completely take over Gilgit-Baltistan by the year 2020.

New Delhi has already conveyed its concerns to China over the presence of its troops in PoK and its activities in that region. Last year, there were reports of presence of about 11,000 Chinese troops in Jammu and Kashmir’s Gilgit- Baltistan region held by Pakistan but Beijing said there was no wrong-doing.

Asked about the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, General Singh said the terrorist infrastructure across the LoC was intact and a large number of militants are trying to infiltrate.

“The terror infrastructure (across the LoC) is intact. A concentration of large number of terrorists on the other side exists and they are trying to infiltrate. We are making sure that their efforts fail,” the Army Chief said. General Singh said efforts were being made to step up infiltration from across the LoC but the Army was alert and ready to face any threat.

Persistent threat

Western security agencies have maintained that China had a huge presence in the PoK and was ‘well-entrenched’ in the Gilgit-Baltistan region that abuts the Drass-Kargil-Batalik-Siachen belt in India

China’s official line is that the Karokaram Highway connecting Pakistan with Xinjiang was damaged in January this year and now the road was being re-aligned with the help of Chinese engineers

IAF Chief NAK Browne has already made it clear that increasing presence of China in PoK warrants India’s “attention”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111006/main1.htm

The Asian Age – ‘Can’t put pistol over Lokpal’

Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, 6 October 2011. Mr Anna Hazare’s pressure tactics and threat to mobilise Opposition parties on the Lokpal issue is not going down well with the Congress. While a Union Congress minister disapproved of it, asking him to have faith in the democratic set-up of the country, Mr Hazare strongly defended his style of issuing ultimatums to the government.

He also justified his anti-Congress stand saying there is no “ideological confusion” in it.

The government said it is committed to bring a “strong and effective” Lokpal bill to deal with corruption but made it clear that this cannot be done by “putting a pistol to someone’s neck”.

“You cannot get something done by putting a pistol to someone’s neck,” said parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal, maintaining that the parliamentary standing committee was looking into it and collecting views of its members on it.

“It will be a sincere endeavour to see that the bill is taken up during the next Winter Session. But it depends upon the work the committee is able to do. The committee has members from all the parties and they are getting inputs from different people who want to come before it,” Mr Bansal said.

He said that there should not be any problem in taking up the bill in the next session if the committee is able to give its report in due time.

Asking Mr Hazare to have faith in the democratic set-up of the country, he said, “The bill has already gone to Parliament. Important thing is to make a good and effective law after consultation with everyone.”

Law minister Salman Khurshid said, “Our intention and endeavour is to try and bring it (Lokpal Bill) in the Winter Session… Bring a very effective and very powerful Lokpal with constitutional status.” Asked about the time line to pass the bill, he said, “I cannot fix the time line because it has to be fixed by the parliamentary affairs minister and the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee looking into it.”

http://www.asianage.com/india/can-t-put-pistol-over-lokpal-985  

My visit to Italy from 18 July till 5 August

All pictures are of the Gurmat Camp in the San Bonifacio Gurdwara, taken on 4 August  

San Bonifacio Gurmat Camp

San Bonifacio Gurmat Camp, Kashmir Singh

San Bonifacio Gurmat Camp, my favourite naughty kuri

San Bonifacio Gurmat Camp

Associazone Guru Nanak, Mission Seva Society
Via Ritonda 81b
37047 San Bonifacio
Verona province, Veneto region

More Italy pictures to follow !
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Poll turns preserve of the rich; Captain, Badal were among top 20 crorepatis during ’07 poll

Varinder Singh, Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 5. Politics is becoming an “exclusive game” of the rich and those with average means are being elbowed out. The rhetoric on women empowerment notwithstanding, only 56 women of a total of 1,055 candidates contested the 2007 assembly poll. This means that just 5 per cent women were given representation by the parties as compared to 8 per cent in the 2002 elections, says a report jointly prepared by the Punjab Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms.

The data presented by the two organsiations indicates that the election process has virtually been reduced to a “money game” with the assets of candidates of all major parties like the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and the BJP running into crores.

“In 2007, the assets of each of the 94 candidates of the SAD (Badal) and that of 117 of the Congress were worth Rs 4 crore and Rs 3 crore, respectively. Similarly, the assets of each of the 23 BJP and 13 CPI candidates was valued at Rs 1 crore,” said Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member of the Association for Democratic Reforms.

“Sixtyfive per cent candidates of the Congress as well as that of the SAD were crorepatis,” said Prof Chhokar. Also, 18 of the 34 Independents in the fray were crorepatis. Of the 23 Bharatiya Janata Party candidates, 14 were crorepatis.

Three BSP candidates were also crorepatis.

A total of 176 candidates of the 351 were crorepatis and 78 of them (44 per cent) won the elections.

The maximum number of crorepatis were from the Congress (33), followed by the SAD-Badal (31), the BJP (10) and Independents (4). Top leaders like Capt Amarinder Singh, Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet Badal and Bibi Jagir Kaur were among the top 20 crorepati politicians.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111006/punjab.htm#5

BBC News – Karzai reaches out to Pakistan over India pact

5 October 2011

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought to reassure Pakistan about a strategic partnership agreement he signed with India in Delhi on Tuesday.

“Pakistan is a twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement that we signed yesterday with our friend will not affect our brother,” he said.

India has promised to help Afghanistan when foreign forces withdraw in 2014.

Correspondents say the deal is viewed with suspicion in Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as its backyard.

Close relationship

“This strategic partnership… is not directed against any country… this strategic partnership is to support Afghanistan,” President Karzai said during a lecture organised by an Indian think-tank on Wednesday.

His two-day visit to India has been planned for months but it follows a series of attacks in recent weeks which have damaged ties between Kabul and India’s rival, Pakistan.

India is a major player in Afghanistan and has already pledged $2bn (£1.3bn) in assistance.

At Tuesday’s press conference in Delhi, Mr Singh said violence in Afghanistan was undermining security in South Asia.

He said that the strategic partnership between the two countries would create an “institutional framework” so that India could help in Afghan “capacity building” in the areas of education, development and people-to-people contacts.

The pact is believed to include an Indian commitment to increase its training of Afghan security forces, including the police, although Mr Singh made no reference to that in his press conference remarks.

The prime minister said that the two countries had also signed two agreements relating to Afghanistan’s energy requirements which represented “a new dimension in economic relations” to enable Kabul to integrate more effectively with the Indian economy and other economies in South Asia.

He said that the people of India sympathised with Afghanistan as it sought to cope with “acts of terrorism… particularly the assassination of [peace envoy] Burhanuddin Rabbani”.

“Rabbani was our guest in India in July and we were greatly encouraged by his vision,” Mr Singh said.

“His brutal assassination should… strengthen our resolve to jointly confront the menace of terrorism.”

President Karzai said that he was “grateful” for India’s help and reiterated that his government would work closely with the US, Europe and India to plan Afghanistan’s future.

Correspondents say Delhi is concerned about the security situation in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly as foreign troops begin to withdraw from the region.

India is one of Afghanistan’s biggest donors, having pledged money for projects ranging from road construction to the building of the Afghan parliament – and is keen to play a bigger role.

Delhi has often accused Islamabad of links to groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network that have carried out attacks in Afghanistan on Indian targets, including an assault on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008, in which 40 people were killed.

Last week, US officials demanded Pakistan stop supporting the Haqqani network, an allegation Islamabad rejects.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15181095