Notwithstanding popular perception, professional soldiers do not join the armed services out of overwhelming ‘patriotism’. They are in fact driven by the desire to get a job that offers material security for them and their family. It is predominantly their own livelihood needs that drives people to enlist.
The leader: 12 December is the 143rd birth anniversary of Hindutva ideologue BS Moonje. He was the mentor of KB Hedgewar and helped him shape the RSS.
The outfit: Moonje founded the Central Hindu Miltary Education Society which runs the Bhonsala Military School in Nashik. The School was named in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
More in the story: What is the BJP's view of Moonje? Why associating with Moonje's outfit can harm the BJP? What was Moonje's association with Benito Mussolini?
A news came through the Indian Express yesterday, that Government is finalising its plans to use the Indian Air Force in Bastar and other regions affected by naxal violence. I had heard this kind of solution to wiping out naxalism mooted by hawkish elements in the security administration under UPA also, but the then Government did not allow it. Under a clearly right wing Government now, these buried plans have been dusted and being made ready to use. There has been a gradual domination of police generated solutions to left wing insurgency/ extremism.
"PUDR strongly condemns the extension of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in Assam, on January 2, 2015 under Section 3 of the Act by the Government of India. Coming in the wake of the recent massacre of adivasis by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit) on December 23, 2014 in Kokrajhar, Sonitpur and Chirang districts of Assam, this extension is a testament to the state’s militarised approach to the political issues underlying the carnage.
'Western governments are rushing to visit India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, drawn by the prospect of multi-billion-dollar deals as the government prepares to open the nascent defence industry to foreign investment. Senior politicians from France, the United States and Britain arrive in quick succession over the next 10 days as Modi prepares to accelerate the modernisation of the country's mostly Soviet-era weaponry. Modi intends to build up India's military capabilities and gradually turn the world's largest arms importer into a heavyweight manufacturer...
'Not even a month into the Narendra Modi government, it seems like one is reading pages out of The Pelican Brief, the Grisham-Roberts thriller. Only, the locale is not Louisiana, in the United States, the river is not the Mississippi, and the NGO is not Green Fund. The country is India, the river, Ganga (Ganges in foreign tongues), the bird, the hornbill and not the pelican, and the NGO, Greenpeace. And the top political issue that has emerged domestically for the new Indian government is the "environment," almost a dirty word now if one follows this month's television debates...
'India is expanding a covert uranium enrichment plant that could potentially support the development of thermonuclear weapons, a defence research group said on Friday, raising the stakes in a regional arms race with China and Pakistan. The revelation highlights the lack of nuclear safeguards on India under new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while sanctions-bound Iran faces minute scrutiny in talks with world powers over its own nuclear programme.
'Braving the wind and rain that lashed aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya as it sailed off Goa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his first outing from the capital since he took charge, underlined Saturday that Indian arms and ammunition should be exported across the world and used by smaller nations to protect themselves.
"He said that he had sent a proposal to the central government to introduce courses in schools and colleges to prepare youngsters for the Indian forces... "We will try to make army training compulsory in educational institutions once the BJP comes to power," said Singh..."
"ONE OF the most baffling aspects of the 2008 Malegaon blasts probe was the cropping up of the name of the Bhonsala Military School. The Nashik-based military academy was started by Hindu Mahasabha founder Dr BS Moonje. The chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2009 cited several witnesses from the school who had confirmed that the main accused in the blasts case had indeed been teaching at the school. One of the main accused was Lt Col Srikant Purohit, who had provided training sessions at the school... The aim of the school itself makes for a startling read.
