by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the Jawans at 11,000 feet height he sent a powerful message to China that it’s no more LAC, its LOC now, though he never uttered such words.
Syed Ali Mujtaba
PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi’s visit to a forward post in Ladakh served as a morale booster for the forces and by addressing the Jawans at 11,000 feet height he sent a powerful message to China that it’s no more LAC, its LOC now, though he never uttered such words.
“The age of expansionism is over. History knows that expansionist forces have either lost or were forced to turn back. The weak can never accomplish peace, the brave do,” PM said from the top of the mountain.
The Prime Minister was trying to say that India will no more tolerate the Chinese aggression. In other words what he meant henceforth there is no more going to be Line of Actual Control and it will be Line of Control that India will protect.
India’s border with China traverses through the Union territory of Ladakh (1,597 km), Himachal Pradesh (200 km), Uttarakhand (345 km), Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh (1126 km).
India says it shares a 3,488 km border with China. China says it shares only 2,000 km of border with India. The difference of 1,126 km is Arunachal Pradesh that India controls but China claims it its own. Also China does not recognize the 362 km boundary claim of India.
All this is because India insists on the McMahon line that British delineated as the boundary between India and China that China does not recognise. It has imaginarily and unilaterally demarcated a Line of Actual Control that it has dictated after the 1962 war.
Also read: Modi Rallies Troops at China Border, as Beijing Urges Caution
So the fundamental difference between India and China is the land boundary question of 1,488 km and two countries hold different perceptions of the boundary line at different places of the imagined border.
Going back to history, there was no demarcated boundary between India and China since antiquity. What actually was only a frontier between the two countries?
The Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir though held the sovereignty of Ladakh but had long given its suzerainty to China that controlled most of Ladakh.
After the merger of the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to Indian Union, Ladakh became part of the Indian territory, with conflicting claims between India and Pakistan over the entire territory of the erstwhile princely state, with China still holding its sway over eastern portion of Ladakh.
In 1949, China that actually held suzerainty over Tibet occupied it and lay claim over its sovereignty. It made Tibet its autonomous region to which India and other countries objected. Meanwhile, India incorporated the McMahon line in its Constitution in 1950 and demarcated its boundary with China, to which China objected.
There were protests in Tibet against China’s occupation that was alleged to be supported by India. China in order to quell the uprising started making the concrete road in the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh to carry its troops from its Xingjian province to Tibet.
China completed this link road in 1957 amidst India’s objections that Aksai Chin is Indian territory. The situation on the ground deteriorated that led to the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The war ended with a unilateral ceasefire by China.
After the end of the war, Line of Actual Control emerged that was mutually agreed upon but remained un-demarcated lines with both India and China having different perceptions over it. Both India and China moved back its troops to 20 kilometres from the Line of Actual Control that divided areas under Indian and Chinese control.
It is because of unresolved and un-demarcated boundary issues with China that transgressions and face-offs between both side’s patrols happened at regular intervals at different locations of the LAC.
The situation was resolved through the mutually established protocols to maintain peace and tranquility on the border. These protocols with China were established to resolve issues amicably at the local formation commander level and the resolving mechanism involved the local Border Personnel Meeting (BPM).
The rapprochement between the two countries reached in 1976 enabled India and China to initiate High Level border talks in 1981 to find a solution to the vexed problem. After eight rounds, the talks broke down in 1987.
In 1988, following Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China, the Joint Working Group (JWG) was set up to look into the border problem.
The two countries signed agreements in 1993 and 1996 to respect the Line of Actual Control. In 1993, the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was signed. The India-China Expert Group of Diplomatic and Military Officers was set up to assist the JWG.
In 1996, the Agreement on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in the Military Field along the LAC was signed. In 2003, two special representatives (one each from India and China) were appointed to find a political solution to the border dispute. Till 2009, these two special representatives had held 17 rounds of talks, but it seems they did not make much headway.
The Modi government appointed National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as Special Envoy for talks with China but he has hardly done anything noticeable.
Then the India and China stand-off took place in 2017 at Doklam. After some 70 days of being engaged in combat mood, the two sides disengaged.
The Doklam issue was discussed in the Wuhan Summit in 2018 and two nations decided to issue “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding.
This was further reciprocated by the second India-China informal summit at Mamallapuram near Chennai in 2019 that was to take forward the Wuhan agenda.
However, in May 2020 clashes broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers first at Pangong Lake on May 5 and then at Naku La sector in Sikkim on May 9. This was followed by violent clashes in Galwan Valley in Ladakh on June 15, when 20 Indian soldiers were brutally killed. Since then Indian and Chinese troops have moved in extra troops to positions opposite each other and currently it is in eyeball to eyeball contact mode.
What is seen in the attempts so far made to resolve the issues several times that the problem has remained the same and there is no forward movement because of the vast difference in perception about the actual boundary line between the two countries?
This time with the Prime Minister visiting the forward location in Ladakh, he has sent the message to the Chinese that he is not going to take things lying down any more.
The Prime Minister’s visit to Ladakh gives ample hint that India wants to dig deep into its position and has unofficially declared that there is no more LAC and what remains is the LOC that India is protecting now.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Success Stories
Chewang Norphel with his wife.
By Kushagra Dixit,
Leh : Years back, on a harsh winter morning in Ladakh in the northernmost Himalayas in India, a young and curious boy in a remote mountain village of the cold desert observed water coming out of a semi-frozen pipe, collecting in a small crater on the ground and freezing, just like a glacier.
A few decades later, in 1986, the boy, Chewang Norphel — as a civil engineer with the Jammu and Kashmir Rural Development Department — took inspiration from his childhood observations and made a breakthrough by devising the first artificial glacier in picturesque Leh, thereby solving a water crisis faced by the local community, of which at least 80 per cent were farmers growing barley and wheat.
Spurred by the success of his experiment, he went on to create 17 such artificial glaciers across Ladakh, thereby earning his nickname — “The Ice Man of India”. Most of his projects received financial aid from several state-run programmes, the army and various national and international NGOs.
Now an 80-year-old source of inspiration, Norphel’s journey was not easy, as people initially used to laugh at him and called him “pagal” (crazy). But that did not deter him as all he saw was a grave problem which needed a solution that he could provide.
“Ladakh has a distinct climate where you can get frost bite and heat stroke at the same time. About 80 per cent of the population consists of farmers and their biggest issue is unavailability of water at the time of sowing in April-May because glacial streams are frozen and rivers flow way too low to fetch water,” Norphel told this visiting IANS correspondent.
Sitting in his living room full of plaques and awards, and overlooking a lawn that he has converted into an agricultural haven, Norphel said rivers are the main source of fresh water, but since they flow at lower altitudes, they are hardly of any use to villages at relatively higher altitudes.
“So we built those glaciers near the villages,” said the “Ice Man” who was awarded the Padma Shri award in 2015. He was also recognised for his achievements by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2011.
Winters are severe in Ladakh due to which there are no winter crops. Whatever water flows during this time is wasted while during the sowing season, there is hardly any water available because natural glaciers, situated some 5,000 feet above and 20-25 km away from the villages, only melt after June.
“So I thought: What if there were glaciers at lower altitudes which would melt sooner due to relatively higher temperature? Thus came the idea of artificial glaciers.
“It’s a technique to harvest winter waste water in the form of ice. And by creating artificial glaciers at relatively lower altitudes, it was possible to get water when it was needed,” Norphel said.
The work to construct a glacier starts in October when the villagers divert the glacial streams, and create embankments in the form of steps to slow down the velocity of water.
“We assure that the depth is kept only a few inches, so that it freezes easily,” he said.
Norphel has built glaciers at the toughest terrains in Ladakh including one at Dha, the native village of the Brokpa tribe which is renowned in the entire region for their distinct culture and their role during the Kargil war.
But close to his heart is the 1,000-feet-wide glacier that he built at the Phukte valley which supplies water to five villages. The glacier was built at the cost of approximately Rs 90,000.
Norphel said that the cost of an artificial glacier today could go up to Rs 15 lakh, depending on its size and capacity.
Norphel recalled how everyone laughed at him, calling him mad when he was making his first artificial glacier in Phukte village. Since it was something that had never been done before, he had to work like a crazy person, albeit with a really good plan and immaculate calculations.
“No one would take me seriously; today they all are benefited. These glaciers are my pride and the fact that my concept has helped so many people gives me peace of mind,” said the humble old man, rarely seen without a pleasant smile on his face.
Retired from his government post in 1994 after 34 years of service, Norphel doesn’t believe in sitting idle. If he is not travelling for work, making new glaciers or inspiring the youth, he is either seen meditating in his room, spending time with his wife or in his kitchen garden where he experiments on how climate change can be used for the benefit of community by growing vegetables otherwise cultivated in the plains like turnip, brinjal, capsicum and cucumber.
A hero for those who know him, Norphel wishes he had more energy at his age.
“Earlier I was full of energy; now I think old age is taking over. Now funds are available, but not the energy… I want youth to take over; they are practical; I want them to practically understand climate change,” he says.
His house is thronged by students from all over the world. At present he is assisting several NGOs in replicating his concept across the cold desert, including the high altitude Changtang district and the low altitude regions where there’s lack of at least one of the three elements needed for better agriculture — land, water and right temperature.
“Changtang region has land and water, but not the right temperature as it’s very cold. Leh has land, right temperature, but not water. And regions below Leh have water and the right temperature but not enough land. We have to make the best use of resources and techniques,” he says with enthusiasm, eager to embark on a new journey of challenges.
Norphel feels that India needs to replicate Israel in the agriculture sector.
“In Israel, they have less water, unsupportive temperature and limited land, yet they have very good production. We want to create something like that here,” he said.
He sees both the positive and negative aspects of climate change and believes in making the best use of them.
“Climate change has both positive and negative sides for Ladakh. Earlier, there were very few options for crops to grow. Now we have more, including vegetables. The negative side is that a lot of glacial streams and water get wasted.”
(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Kushagra Dixit can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Educationist Sonam Wangchuk
By Rituraj Baruah and Rohit Vaid,
New Delhi : Ladakh-based education reformist and innovator Sonam Wangchuk believes that the rights given under the reservation policy should be curtailed after its benefits are used by one generation of a family. Accordingly, families in which one generation has benefited from the reservation policy should relinquish their right and not pass it on to their off-springs.
According to the education reformist, best known for inspiring the movie character Phunsukh Wangdu, played by Aamir Khan in “3 Idiots”, the policy should also be amended to provide reservation in jobs and seats in educational institutions — but not beyond one generation of a family.
“People who deserve are not benefiting, and those who have benefited are forming a creamy layer on top,” Wangchuk told IANS in an interview here.
Talking about the need for reservation on the basis of the financial situation of a person, he said there is a need to reform the current policy.
Wangchuk himself plans to launch a university — Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL) — to bring about a change in the education system and to focus more on the practical aspects of training.
Speaking about affirmative action in his upcoming university, Wangchuk said that though there are no concrete plans, one line of thinking suggests that with “mountains being the core of the institute”, 50 per cent of the seats should be set aside for youth from Ladakh.
HIAL would be an unconventional university giving youth from the mountains knowledge and training for development of mountainous regions so as to earn their living in the mountains itself, Wangchuk said.
The IIT-educated innovator shared his views on the state of the current education system, which has, by some industry estimates, produced a large number of “unemployable engineers”.
“I see two things. One is change the way they are taught so that they gain usable and applicable knowledge. The second part, which is equally important, is why should everybody expect to be employed by somebody, by a government, by a company,” he said.
“So, making education just an empowering force has its own value.”
On his university project, Wangchuk hopes to collect Rs 7 crore by January 26 through crowd-funding, half of his target of Rs 14 crore to set up the first school of the university — the School of Integrated Mountain Development.
So far, Rs 4.6 crore has been collected from the public, he said. The remainder of the target will be collected through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies, he added.
Among corporates, “Jain Irrigation Systems has always been supportive, similarly Essel, and now Petronet LNG, the public sector gas company, is interested and they have committed,” Wangchuk said.
Five public sector entities, including Indian Railways and Coal India, have committed an amount of Rs 5 crore towards the project. “Because, it is the government’s money, we may route it through the Hill Council of Ladakh, who are our partners,” he said.
He will not approach the University Grants Commission for recognition to the university. Instead, he hopes the government of Jammu and Kashmir will pass a bill in the state assembly recognising the institute as a state university.
(Rituraj Baruah and Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rituraj.b@ians.in and rohit.v@ians.in)
—IANS
