salman nedian
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India started all that by attacking our areas (Kashmir and Hyderabad) in 1947-48 you are right its a tit-for tat, never ending game.
1971 facts from fiction
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India started all that by attacking our areas (Kashmir and Hyderabad) in 1947-48 you are right its a tit-for tat, never ending game.
The pain of losing a nation
By Sudheer Sharma
On the northern corner of West Bengal state of India , there is a hill station-- Kalimpong, which once hosted celebrities from all over the world. The hill town, where most of the settlers are of Nepali origin, no longer retains its old charm. But until a few weeks ago the last prime minister of a countrythat has lost its independenceused to live here. Kazi Lhendup Dorji, who died on 28 July this year at the ripe old age of 103, had played a pivotal role in the merger of Sikkim into India .
Dorji is seen as a 'traitor' in the contemporary history. He lived, and died, with the same ignominy. "Everybody accuses me of selling the country. Even if it is true, should I alone be blamed?" he asked me, when I met him in Kalimpong in November 1996. But the allegation of 'betrayal' towards one's own motherland was so powerful that Dorji could no more lead an active political life. He spent his solitary life at the 'Chakung House' in Kalimpong for several decades. Few people chose to remember Kazi when he passed away nor took pain to recall his life and times.
So much so that the Kazi was ignored even by Delhi . "I went out of my way to ensure the merger of Sikkim into India but after the work was done, the Indians just ignored me," Kazi told me during an interview for Jana Astha weekly, nearly 11 years ago. "Earlier, I used to be given a 'Red Carpet' welcome. Now I have to wait for weeks even to meet second grade leaders."
When I visited Kalimpong for the second time in 2000, Lhendup's anger towards Delhi had reached new heights. At one time, he was received warmly by Indian leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs Indira Gandhi. But later he became a political actor whose utility had been finished and thrown away into the dustbin.
The origin of crisis
After India got independence in 1947, the Sikkim State Congress, which was established as per the advice of Nehru, launched anti-King movement. Sikkim managed to overcome the crisis then but after Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India, the tiny Himalayan kingdom found itself in a crisis from which it could never escape. The anti-King movement, launched by the Sikkim National Congress (SNC) under the leadership of Lhendup Dorji in 1973, led to the demise of a sovereign nation.
India openly supported the movement against King (Chogyal) Palden Thondup Namgyal. The then ADC to the King, Captain Sonam Yongda, claimed that soldiers of Indian Army in civil dress used to take part in the protests. Some of the protesters were brought from Darjeeling and the surrounding areas. The number of Sikkimese who took part in the protest was quite small. But that was enough.
Lhendup's protest movement depended mainly on Indian financial assistance. The money was made available through Intelligence Bureau (IB). "The people from IB used to visit me twice or thrice a year. An IB agent, Tejpal Sen, used to handover money to me personally," Dorji had told me in a recorded interview.
In fact, the main actor behind the " Mission Sikkim " was India 's external intelligence agency, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Set up in 1968, RAW was able to disintegrate Pakistan (and form Bangladesh ) within three years. The annexation of Sikkim was their other 'historic' success. The strategists of RAW didn't want to repeat a Bhutan in Sikkim . Bhutan managed to acquire the membership of the United Nations in 1968. So, they launched a movement under the leadership of Lhendup, which is described at great length by Ashok Raina in his book Inside RAW: The Story of India's Secret Service.
Raina writes that New Delhi had taken the decision to annex Sikkim in 1971, and that the RAW used the next two years to create the right conditions within Sikkim to make that happen. The key here was to use the predominantly-Hindu Sikkimese of Nepali origin who complained of discrimination from the Buddhist king and the elite to rise up. "What we felt then was that the Chogyal was unjust to us," said CD Rai, editor of Gangtok Times and ex-minister. "We thought it may be better to be Indian than to be oppressed by the king."
Lhendupwho belonged to the Kazi familyhad a historic enmity with Sikkim 's ruling Chogyals. He said he wanted to pressurise the King through public protests but lamented that the King never came forward for reconciliation.
Under pressure from Delhi , the Sikkimese King was forced to hold tripartite talks with SNC and India . The talks not only curtailed royal powers, it also turned Sikkim into an Indian 'protectorate.' In the elections held in 1974, Lhendup's SNC got overwhelming majority in the parliament. The government and the king saw each other as enemies. Ultimately, the cabinet meeting, on 27th March 1975 , decided to abolish monarchy. The Sikkimese parliament endorsed it and decided to hold a referendum on the future of monarchy. Four days later, the outcome of the poll in 57 stations across the country was: 'Abolition of the monarchy.'
In an interview, then Agriculture Minister of Sikkim KC Pradhan recalled that the referendum was nothing but a charade. "Indian soldiers rigged the polls by pointing rifles at the hapless voters," he said. Immediately after the referendum, Kazi Lhendup moved a motion in the parliament proposing that Sikkim be annexed to India . The 32-member parliament, which had 31 members from Lhendup's SNCpassed the motion without a blink. Needless to say that the entire episode was being orchestrated by India . The then Indian envoy to Sikkim (known as 'political officer') BS Das wrote in his book The Sikkim Saga, Sikkim 's merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter, and played his cards better, it wouldn't have turned out the way it did."
But Chogyal didn't play his cards well. When Sikkim was undergoing turmoil, the Chogyal visited Kathmandu in 1974 to attend the coronation ceremony of King Birendra. According to insiders, King Birendra, Chinese deputy premier Chen Li Yan and Pakistan 's envoy advised Chogyal not to return to Sikkim . "They narrated a 'master plan' to save Sikkim from Indian hands but the King didn't accept," said Captain Yongda. "It was because the King couldn't think even in his dreams that India could use force to annex Sikkim ."
A 'double game'
In fact, India was playing a 'double game.' On one hand, it was supporting Lhendup in whatever way possible against the King. On the other hand, it was assuring the king that monarchy would survive in Sikkim . The Chogyal was also an honorary Major General of the Indian Army. He never thought that his 'own army' would act against him. It was only an illusion.
The Chogyal of Sikkim was in his palace on the morning of 6 April 1975 when the roar of army trucks climbing the steep streets of Gangtok brought him running to the window. There were Indian soldiers everywhere, they had surrounded the palace, and short rapid bursts of machine gun fire could be heard. Basanta Kumar Chhetri, a 19-year-old guard at the palace's main gate, was struck by a bullet and killedthe first casualty of the takeover. The 5,000-strong Indian force didn't take more than 30 minutes to subdue the palace guards who numbered only 243. By 12:45 pm it was all over, Sikkim ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.
The Chogyal also lost the second opportunity. The Sikkim Guards had the capacity to stop the Indian Army for two hours. If the Chogyal had informed Beijing and Islamabad about the Indian invasion from the transmitter set up at his palace, both the countries had assured himduring the Kathmandu meetingthat they would instruct their security forces to open fire along the borders with India . Chinese army could even travel to Gangtok to rescue the Chogyal.
Captured palace guards, hands raised high, were packed into trucks and taken away, singing: "Dela sil, li gi, gang changka chibso" (May my country keep blooming like a flower). But by then, the Indian tri-colour had replaced the Sikkimese flag at the palace where the 12th king of the Namgyal dynasty was held prisoner. "The Chogyal was a great believer in India . He had huge respect for Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Not in his wildest dreams did he think India would ever gobble up his kingdom," recalls Captain Sonam Yongda, the Chogyal's aide-de-camp. Nehru himself had told journalist Kuldip Nayar in 1960: "Taking a small country like Sikkim by force would be like shooting a fly with a rifle." Ironically it was Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi who cited "national interest" to make Sikkim the 22nd state of the Indian union.
During a meeting, former Chief Minister of Sikkim BB Gurung told me that the King and Lhendup were just fighting a proxy war. "The real battle was between an American and a Belgian lady." If that was true, the real victor was the third ladyIndian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Two Foreign Ladies
Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker, Hope Cook, in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangri-la. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thick and fast that she was a CIA agent. These were the coldest years of the Cold War, and there was a tendency in India to see a "foreign hand" behind everything so it was not unusual for the American queen to be labelled a CIA agent. However, as Hope Cook's relations with Delhi deteriorated, so did her marriage with the Chogyal. In 1973, she took her two children and went back to New York . She hasn't returned to Sikkim since.
Then there was Elisa-Maria, daughter of a Belgian father and German mother who left her Scottish husband in Burma and married Kazi Lhendup Dorji in Delhi in 1957. The two couldn't have been more different. Elisa-Maria wanted to be Sikkim 's First Lady, but Hope Cook stood in the way. "She didn't just want to be the wife of an Indian chief minister; she wanted to be the wife of the prime minister of an independent Sikkim ." With that kind of an ambition, it was not surprising that with annexation, neither Hope Cook nor Elisa-Maria got what they wanted.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi Indira Gandhi was going from strength to strength, and India was flexing its muscles. The 1971 Bangladesh war and the atomic test in 1974 gave Delhi the confidence to take care of Sikkim once and for all. Indira Gandhi was concerned that Sikkim may show independent tendencies and become a UN member like Bhutan did in 1971, and she also didn't take kindly to the three Himalayan kingdoms, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, getting too cosy with each other.
When the Indian troops moved in there was general jubilation on the streets of Gangtok. It was in fact in faraway Kathmandu that there were reverberations. Beijing expressed grave concern. But in the absence of popular protests against the Indian move, there was only muted reaction at the United Nations in New York . It was only later that there were contrary opinions within India (Former Indian Prime Minister) Morarji Desai said in 1978 that the merger was a mistake. Even Sikkimese political leaders who fought for the merger said it was a blunder and worked to roll it back. But by then, it was already too late.
Lhendup Dorji became the first chief minister of the Indian state of Sikkim and retained the post until 1979. The Indian government conferred on him 'Padma Bhusan' in 2002 and he was also awarded the 'Sikkim Ratna' by the state government in 2004.
Despite such "rewards," Lhendup and his wife Elisa spent their last years in Kalimpong repenting their past deeds. After the death of his wife in 1990, Lhendup was forced to lead a solitary life. He neither had any children nor relatives to take care of him. He cut himself off from his own people to avoid their wrath and hatred.
In the elections held in 1979, Lhendup's SNC failed to bag even a single seat in the Sikkim 's legislature. This effectively brought to an end to his political career. At one time, when he had gone to file his nomination, his name was missing from the electoral roll. In his resolve to dethrone the Chogyal dynasty that had 400-year-old history in Sikkim , Lhendup ended up delivering his motherland into the lap of India . In return, all he got was a life haunted from the shadow of the past and an ignominious death.
(Sharma is the editor of NEPAL weekly magazine and can be reached at sudheer@kantipur.com.np. This article has been adapted from his original article in the magazine and published here with the author's consent.Ed.)
Nepalnews.com Mercantile Connumications Pvt. Ltd.
By Sudheer Sharma
On the northern corner of West Bengal state of India , there is a hill station-- Kalimpong, which once hosted celebrities from all over the world. The hill town, where most of the settlers are of Nepali origin, no longer retains its old charm. But until a few weeks ago the last prime minister of a countrythat has lost its independenceused to live here. Kazi Lhendup Dorji, who died on 28 July this year at the ripe old age of 103, had played a pivotal role in the merger of Sikkim into India .
Dorji is seen as a 'traitor' in the contemporary history. He lived, and died, with the same ignominy. "Everybody accuses me of selling the country. Even if it is true, should I alone be blamed?" he asked me, when I met him in Kalimpong in November 1996. But the allegation of 'betrayal' towards one's own motherland was so powerful that Dorji could no more lead an active political life. He spent his solitary life at the 'Chakung House' in Kalimpong for several decades. Few people chose to remember Kazi when he passed away nor took pain to recall his life and times.
So much so that the Kazi was ignored even by Delhi . "I went out of my way to ensure the merger of Sikkim into India but after the work was done, the Indians just ignored me," Kazi told me during an interview for Jana Astha weekly, nearly 11 years ago. "Earlier, I used to be given a 'Red Carpet' welcome. Now I have to wait for weeks even to meet second grade leaders."
When I visited Kalimpong for the second time in 2000, Lhendup's anger towards Delhi had reached new heights. At one time, he was received warmly by Indian leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs Indira Gandhi. But later he became a political actor whose utility had been finished and thrown away into the dustbin.
The origin of crisis
After India got independence in 1947, the Sikkim State Congress, which was established as per the advice of Nehru, launched anti-King movement. Sikkim managed to overcome the crisis then but after Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India, the tiny Himalayan kingdom found itself in a crisis from which it could never escape. The anti-King movement, launched by the Sikkim National Congress (SNC) under the leadership of Lhendup Dorji in 1973, led to the demise of a sovereign nation.
India openly supported the movement against King (Chogyal) Palden Thondup Namgyal. The then ADC to the King, Captain Sonam Yongda, claimed that soldiers of Indian Army in civil dress used to take part in the protests. Some of the protesters were brought from Darjeeling and the surrounding areas. The number of Sikkimese who took part in the protest was quite small. But that was enough.
Lhendup's protest movement depended mainly on Indian financial assistance. The money was made available through Intelligence Bureau (IB). "The people from IB used to visit me twice or thrice a year. An IB agent, Tejpal Sen, used to handover money to me personally," Dorji had told me in a recorded interview.
In fact, the main actor behind the " Mission Sikkim " was India 's external intelligence agency, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Set up in 1968, RAW was able to disintegrate Pakistan (and form Bangladesh ) within three years. The annexation of Sikkim was their other 'historic' success. The strategists of RAW didn't want to repeat a Bhutan in Sikkim . Bhutan managed to acquire the membership of the United Nations in 1968. So, they launched a movement under the leadership of Lhendup, which is described at great length by Ashok Raina in his book Inside RAW: The Story of India's Secret Service.
Raina writes that New Delhi had taken the decision to annex Sikkim in 1971, and that the RAW used the next two years to create the right conditions within Sikkim to make that happen. The key here was to use the predominantly-Hindu Sikkimese of Nepali origin who complained of discrimination from the Buddhist king and the elite to rise up. "What we felt then was that the Chogyal was unjust to us," said CD Rai, editor of Gangtok Times and ex-minister. "We thought it may be better to be Indian than to be oppressed by the king."
Lhendupwho belonged to the Kazi familyhad a historic enmity with Sikkim 's ruling Chogyals. He said he wanted to pressurise the King through public protests but lamented that the King never came forward for reconciliation.
Under pressure from Delhi , the Sikkimese King was forced to hold tripartite talks with SNC and India . The talks not only curtailed royal powers, it also turned Sikkim into an Indian 'protectorate.' In the elections held in 1974, Lhendup's SNC got overwhelming majority in the parliament. The government and the king saw each other as enemies. Ultimately, the cabinet meeting, on 27th March 1975 , decided to abolish monarchy. The Sikkimese parliament endorsed it and decided to hold a referendum on the future of monarchy. Four days later, the outcome of the poll in 57 stations across the country was: 'Abolition of the monarchy.'
In an interview, then Agriculture Minister of Sikkim KC Pradhan recalled that the referendum was nothing but a charade. "Indian soldiers rigged the polls by pointing rifles at the hapless voters," he said. Immediately after the referendum, Kazi Lhendup moved a motion in the parliament proposing that Sikkim be annexed to India . The 32-member parliament, which had 31 members from Lhendup's SNCpassed the motion without a blink. Needless to say that the entire episode was being orchestrated by India . The then Indian envoy to Sikkim (known as 'political officer') BS Das wrote in his book The Sikkim Saga, Sikkim 's merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter, and played his cards better, it wouldn't have turned out the way it did."
But Chogyal didn't play his cards well. When Sikkim was undergoing turmoil, the Chogyal visited Kathmandu in 1974 to attend the coronation ceremony of King Birendra. According to insiders, King Birendra, Chinese deputy premier Chen Li Yan and Pakistan 's envoy advised Chogyal not to return to Sikkim . "They narrated a 'master plan' to save Sikkim from Indian hands but the King didn't accept," said Captain Yongda. "It was because the King couldn't think even in his dreams that India could use force to annex Sikkim ."
A 'double game'
In fact, India was playing a 'double game.' On one hand, it was supporting Lhendup in whatever way possible against the King. On the other hand, it was assuring the king that monarchy would survive in Sikkim . The Chogyal was also an honorary Major General of the Indian Army. He never thought that his 'own army' would act against him. It was only an illusion.
The Chogyal of Sikkim was in his palace on the morning of 6 April 1975 when the roar of army trucks climbing the steep streets of Gangtok brought him running to the window. There were Indian soldiers everywhere, they had surrounded the palace, and short rapid bursts of machine gun fire could be heard. Basanta Kumar Chhetri, a 19-year-old guard at the palace's main gate, was struck by a bullet and killedthe first casualty of the takeover. The 5,000-strong Indian force didn't take more than 30 minutes to subdue the palace guards who numbered only 243. By 12:45 pm it was all over, Sikkim ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.
The Chogyal also lost the second opportunity. The Sikkim Guards had the capacity to stop the Indian Army for two hours. If the Chogyal had informed Beijing and Islamabad about the Indian invasion from the transmitter set up at his palace, both the countries had assured himduring the Kathmandu meetingthat they would instruct their security forces to open fire along the borders with India . Chinese army could even travel to Gangtok to rescue the Chogyal.
Captured palace guards, hands raised high, were packed into trucks and taken away, singing: "Dela sil, li gi, gang changka chibso" (May my country keep blooming like a flower). But by then, the Indian tri-colour had replaced the Sikkimese flag at the palace where the 12th king of the Namgyal dynasty was held prisoner. "The Chogyal was a great believer in India . He had huge respect for Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Not in his wildest dreams did he think India would ever gobble up his kingdom," recalls Captain Sonam Yongda, the Chogyal's aide-de-camp. Nehru himself had told journalist Kuldip Nayar in 1960: "Taking a small country like Sikkim by force would be like shooting a fly with a rifle." Ironically it was Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi who cited "national interest" to make Sikkim the 22nd state of the Indian union.
During a meeting, former Chief Minister of Sikkim BB Gurung told me that the King and Lhendup were just fighting a proxy war. "The real battle was between an American and a Belgian lady." If that was true, the real victor was the third ladyIndian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Two Foreign Ladies
Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker, Hope Cook, in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangri-la. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thick and fast that she was a CIA agent. These were the coldest years of the Cold War, and there was a tendency in India to see a "foreign hand" behind everything so it was not unusual for the American queen to be labelled a CIA agent. However, as Hope Cook's relations with Delhi deteriorated, so did her marriage with the Chogyal. In 1973, she took her two children and went back to New York . She hasn't returned to Sikkim since.
Then there was Elisa-Maria, daughter of a Belgian father and German mother who left her Scottish husband in Burma and married Kazi Lhendup Dorji in Delhi in 1957. The two couldn't have been more different. Elisa-Maria wanted to be Sikkim 's First Lady, but Hope Cook stood in the way. "She didn't just want to be the wife of an Indian chief minister; she wanted to be the wife of the prime minister of an independent Sikkim ." With that kind of an ambition, it was not surprising that with annexation, neither Hope Cook nor Elisa-Maria got what they wanted.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi Indira Gandhi was going from strength to strength, and India was flexing its muscles. The 1971 Bangladesh war and the atomic test in 1974 gave Delhi the confidence to take care of Sikkim once and for all. Indira Gandhi was concerned that Sikkim may show independent tendencies and become a UN member like Bhutan did in 1971, and she also didn't take kindly to the three Himalayan kingdoms, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, getting too cosy with each other.
When the Indian troops moved in there was general jubilation on the streets of Gangtok. It was in fact in faraway Kathmandu that there were reverberations. Beijing expressed grave concern. But in the absence of popular protests against the Indian move, there was only muted reaction at the United Nations in New York . It was only later that there were contrary opinions within India (Former Indian Prime Minister) Morarji Desai said in 1978 that the merger was a mistake. Even Sikkimese political leaders who fought for the merger said it was a blunder and worked to roll it back. But by then, it was already too late.
Lhendup Dorji became the first chief minister of the Indian state of Sikkim and retained the post until 1979. The Indian government conferred on him 'Padma Bhusan' in 2002 and he was also awarded the 'Sikkim Ratna' by the state government in 2004.
Despite such "rewards," Lhendup and his wife Elisa spent their last years in Kalimpong repenting their past deeds. After the death of his wife in 1990, Lhendup was forced to lead a solitary life. He neither had any children nor relatives to take care of him. He cut himself off from his own people to avoid their wrath and hatred.
In the elections held in 1979, Lhendup's SNC failed to bag even a single seat in the Sikkim 's legislature. This effectively brought to an end to his political career. At one time, when he had gone to file his nomination, his name was missing from the electoral roll. In his resolve to dethrone the Chogyal dynasty that had 400-year-old history in Sikkim , Lhendup ended up delivering his motherland into the lap of India . In return, all he got was a life haunted from the shadow of the past and an ignominious death.
(Sharma is the editor of NEPAL weekly magazine and can be reached at sudheer@kantipur.com.np. This article has been adapted from his original article in the magazine and published here with the author's consent.Ed.)
Nepalnews.com Mercantile Connumications Pvt. Ltd.
Tiki Tam Tam
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It would have been excellent if Sikkim became independent and an US ally thanks to Hope Cooke.
It would be ideal for the US and the 'free world' since it could 'overlook' activities in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Bangladesh and even India!
Maybe the situation in Tibet would have been different and the Chinese would not be adjacent to India! Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh would also have had a different course in history!
And maybe even India!
It would have been real cosy, what ho?
It would be ideal for the US and the 'free world' since it could 'overlook' activities in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Bangladesh and even India!
Maybe the situation in Tibet would have been different and the Chinese would not be adjacent to India! Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh would also have had a different course in history!
And maybe even India!
It would have been real cosy, what ho?
Contrarian
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No mate, i'd rather that when the time comes its India directly preparing against China than banking upon US to help us.
Incidentally i wanted to ask your opinion on some thing. GoI and IA have now decided to build infrastructure near the borders with China. This has been against our position for the last 40 years, because the thought and logic was that it would aid China to invade India. It would make their navigation and entry much easier if they have roads in the Indian side near the border as against forests.
Why the sudden change(though i support it)? IA and IAF is still short of the assets they feel are required in the NE sector? Yet they have decided to go ahead with the construction?
Incidentally i wanted to ask your opinion on some thing. GoI and IA have now decided to build infrastructure near the borders with China. This has been against our position for the last 40 years, because the thought and logic was that it would aid China to invade India. It would make their navigation and entry much easier if they have roads in the Indian side near the border as against forests.
Why the sudden change(though i support it)? IA and IAF is still short of the assets they feel are required in the NE sector? Yet they have decided to go ahead with the construction?
Tiki Tam Tam
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Could you be specific?
Contrarian
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How so?
BRO has been mandated to build roads and other associated infrastructure near the border with China. This was not done for almost 40 years with the reasoning i mentioned above. Why now?
BRO has been mandated to build roads and other associated infrastructure near the border with China. This was not done for almost 40 years with the reasoning i mentioned above. Why now?
YOUR AREAS???
Only if you could convince us that those areas are not ours and we could do the same to you then we would all be in business and there would be no need for these forums
Bull
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Its not only the roads even the AF bse there is getting a major upgrade with MKIs and the new jests from the MRCA order to be placed there.
--------------
Deccan Herald » National » Detailed Story
IAF to boost defence along eastern skies
DH News Service,
Guwahati:
The IAF has formally closed down its airbase at Tezpur in central Assam, in order to make it fit for the state-of-the-art Sukhoi 30s and other new generation combat aircrafts that it is likely to induct by 2012.
India has finally woken up to the need to guard its eastern sky with more vigour.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has embarked on a project to upgrade its facilities along the eastern frontier. To start with, it has chosen one of its most strategically important bases in the north-eastern region.
The IAF on Thursday formally closed down its airbase at Tezpur in central Assam, in order to make it fit for the state-of-the-art Sukhoi 30s and other new generation combat aircrafts that it is likely to induct by 2012.
The chief of the IAFs Eastern Command Air Marshal P K Borbora said that it would take almost a couple of years to make the runways and avionics of the airbase suitable for Russian Sukhois. At least two squadrons of the Su-30MKIs would be stationed in the upgraded airbase possibly by the end of 2009, he added.
The Su-30MKIs will replace the ageing MiG 21s that the IAFs mainstay consisted of, through the 1970s and 80s.
The airbase at Tezpur played key roles in Sino-Indian war in 1962 as well as in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.
Change in doctrine
The move to boost air-defence along the eastern frontiers hints a change in the IAFs decades-old doctrine, which laid more emphasis on countering the threat-perception from across the western border.
It comes almost a decade after China gave a major fillip to its air-power along its border with India, by constructing 14 major airbases and a number of tactical airstrips in Tibet.
Though New Delhi does not foresee a re-run of the 1962 war with China, the IAF has been insisting on keeping a deterrent force ready in northeastern region to deal with any eventuality.
Once upgraded, the airbase at Tezpur will be ready for not only the Sukhois, but also for some of the new generation 126 multi-role combat aircrafts for which the IAF has of late floated a global tender. The other airbases in the region would also be upgraded later, said Air Marshal Borbora.
Since 1968, the airbase at Tezpur has been one of the IAFs biggest hubs for the Soviet-era MiG 21s. It has been the cradle of many of the fighter pilots of the IAF, as two MiG Operational Flying Training Units MOFTU Bravo and MOFTU Alpha and the Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) were based here. The EACs spokesman Wing Commander Benoy Chongtham said that the MOFTU Bravo and OCU had already been shifted to other bases last year. The MOFTU Alpha would also be moved out of Tezpur soon, he added.
Most of the MiG 21s and other transport aircrafts and helicopters have already been flown out of the airbase at Tezpur. Air Marshal Borbora was in Tezpur on Thursday to ceremonially bid adieu to the last squadron of the MiG 21s. But the aircrafts could not be flown out till afternoon due to inclement weather.
roadrunner
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YOUR AREAS???
Hyderabad was predominatly Hindu. I'm glad it went to India. Kashmir though isnt, and though India has tried to fill it up with as many Hindus as possible over the years, the ethnic composition has been monitored. The UN resolutions still exist against India on Kashmir.
Marathaman
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Fill it up with Hindus? You must be freakin kidding me. No citizen of India can migrate to Kashmir by law. Moreover, most Kashmiri Hindus were chased out of the area by fanatical muslims long before this terrorism trouble started.
There are almost negligible amount of Hindus in kashmir today, thanks to the Indian government's stupid agreement of giving the region autonomy.
roadrunner
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Well, that's bull. You can research it. The Hindu population has grown.
Though the state was under Hindu rule right up to the lapse of the British paramountcy, the state has three distinct regions, namely the Hindu majority Jammu, the Muslim majority Kashmir and the Buddhist majority Ladakh. The white paper on Jammu and Kashmir records that according to the 1941 census, the total population of the state was 4,021,616. This was made up of 77.11 percent Muslims, 20.12 percent Hindus, and 2.77 percent Sikhs, Buddhists and others.
http://se2.isn.ch/serviceengine/Fil...d=1C2149FD-3204-EF00-71C3-561E494869D0&lng=en.
In 1981, the number of Muslims in J&K was down to 74.9%, the number of Hindus up to 22.6%.
Whilst of course your Hindutva/Bharatvarsha websites scream murder and brainwash your minds that the Hindus are being genocided in Kashmir, neutral figures from censuses clearly show a slow expansion of the Hindu population of J&K and a decrease in the Muslim one.
Marathaman
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Dude, I'm talking about Kashmir, not Jammu.
Jammu has a majority hindu population and i'm not surprised that it has grown.
Kashmir had a minority hindu population most of which now live either in refugee camps or have relocated to other parts of India due to the genocide.
roadrunner
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Firstly, my initial comments were for the whole of J&K because a plebiscite would include both. The manipulation attempted is obvious.
Secondly, if there really was a genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, how come the overall population of Hindus has increased compared to Muslims in J&K? Where are these extra Hindus coming from? Answer, is these pandits have relocated, but the Hindus are not being "genocided" as much as the Muslims whose numbers are decreasing in J&K. These are conclusions from the figures given in censuses.
Marathaman
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Whatever...
Sheesh how many times do I have to repeat.
The poll is for J&K. I am talking about only the K, not the J. The hindu population seems to hav grown because of the J. Get it?
The Hindu population in K has been negligible for quite a while now.
You obviously don't know anything about the genocide of Kashmri pandits in the valley. Please get some info on the topic.
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