Coastal Security

Indian Coastline 7516 km. 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and 2008 Mumbai attacks were a proof of flaw in coastal security. 

 

Threats and Challenges:-

• Remoteness of these coastal areas makes them unguarded. Boats can easily land and disappear in stealth and thus remains undetected.

• Creek Areas of Gujarat and Sunder-bans (W.B.) are particularly vulnerable to clandestine activities since they side by Pak and Bangladesh borders. Creeks are interconnected through small islands and hence make border porous. Man-grooves and Sand Bars provides shelters. No approach channel from Indian Side.e.g. harami nala is a channel which originates from India enters Pakistan and then re-merges in India is a major route for terrorists

• Proximity to volatile countries. There is less than 2000 km distance between Gujarat and UAE. Dhows –large wooden boats used for trade are involved in illicit trade and smuggling from Pakistan through Dubai. No mechanism to stop this trade.

• India’s proximity to Sri Lanka has undermined it’s security. LTTE and other migrants to Tamil Nadu are involved in clandestine activity.

• Due to fencing of land borders, Bangladeshis have been creeping into through sea routes.

• Unsettled Maritime Boundary disputes e.g.

River-line border along Sir Creek with Pakistan and with Bangladesh dispute over maritime boundary and Islands that appear after cyclone i.e. New Moore in India and Talpatti in Bangladesh. The Island disappear but dispute does not.

Bangladesh instituted arbitral proceedings for the delimitation of the maritime boundary with India under Annex VII of UNCLOS,16 the verdict of which will be pronounced in 2014.

• Discovery of vast Hydrocarbons has complicated the situation. Neighbors are claiming the territory under EEZ.

• Strategic Installations although vital for security are high value targets for terrorists.

• Increasing Maritime traffic

Three tier structure of Coastal Security:-

Organisation	Responsibility	Flaws
Indian Navy	Overall Maritime Secirity(outline tier)	Does not have power to control other organizations and their resources
Indian Coast Guard	Territorial water till shoreline (Intermediate Tier)	Not responsible for complete coastal security and Coordinates only Central and state agencies
Marine Police	Patrolling Shallow and Inland water	No responsible for Intrusion

• Other organization such as Custom department and CISF (Marine wing) uses the interceptor boat for Patrolling without having the technical knowledge and manpower to use it. Hence, either the national assets go waste or send for repair due to mishandling.

• Capabilities in terms of assets, manpower, presence, mindset and mind-set are poor. e.g. Indian Navy only prepares for war time defense. Marine Police receives inadequate state attention.

• Organizations do not share intelligence with each other and work reluctantly. Propels only on saving their own goals.

• Measures such as Joint operation Centers, Coordination Committees and Joint coastal security exercises prove inadequate.

Why Indian Coast Guards should be given sole responsibility?

1. Strong presence along entire coastline

2. Has training, tradition and the mind-set.

3. Functioned as the national authority for Offshore Security Coordination Committee (OSCC), national authority for maritime search and rescue, lead intelligence agency for coastal borders and the coordinating agency for coastal security.

4. established good working relationships with concerned organizations as well as with fishermen.

Steps to take:-

1. the Charter of ICG should be amended and its forces should be enhanced and Indian Navy should be freed to develop its wartime capabilities.

2. The ICG should be treated as a border guarding force and brought under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). This will ensure administrative cohesion and revenue flows.

3. MHA should concentrate on training of Marine Police

4. Include private players in Maritime security

5. Should recruit talented local fisherman in Marine Police.

6. Training should be conducted frequently

7. State and Center govt. should co-operate with each other.

Small boats are threat:-

Indian Coast Guard is wary of small vessels without masts in the seas with engines can be operated with oars and are capable of mixing with fishing boats. But Human Intelligence is applied to find the odd boat.

• A Pilot project for tracking vessels <20metres began.

• Difficult to put technology on small boats which do not have masts.

• But registration of fishermen completed and data has been shared with different units of coast guards.

• Radio identification fingerprinting of boats will take place and the prototype model is in place. Card readers are also being provided to monitor movement of the crafts.

• Floating armories are cause of concern. Due to pressure on Somalian pirates they have moved their operation east towards India. Merchant vessels no carry armed guards and since they operate close to Indian waters these guards posed a challenge to us.

• It through ministry of shipping urged regulation of these merchant ships and recording of data of their crew, armed guards and weapons carried by them.

•Patrolling has been increased by 75 percent.

Diplomatic Immunity

• The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 are the two rules that govern diplomatic immunity. These were framed after World War II to formalize the customary rules and make their application more uniform.

• Diplomatic agents also enjoy complete immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the host country’s courts and thus cannot be prosecuted no matter how serious the offense unless their immunity is waived by the sending state.

• Vienna convention 1961 :-

• The treaty was adopted on 18 April 1961, by the United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and immunity held in Vienna, Austria, and first implemented on 24 April 1964
• International treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries
• Specifies the privileges of a diplomatic mission that enable diplomats to perform their function without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country , known as diplomatic immunity
• The treaty is an extensive document, containing 53 articles.
• Article 22. The premises of a diplomatic mission, such as an embassy, are inviolate and must not be entered by the host country except by permission of the head of the mission. Furthermore, the host country must protect the mission from intrusion or damage. The host country must never search the premises, nor seize its documents or property. Article 30 extends this provision to the private residence of the diplomats.  

                                                                       

• Vienna convention 1963 :-

•   A framework for consular relations between independent countries.
•  A consul normally operates out of an embassy in another country, and performs two functions:

1.     Protecting in the host country the interests of their countrymen, and
2.     Furthering the commercial and economic relations between the two countries.

• A consul is not a diplomat, but they work out of the same premises, and under this treaty they are afforded most of the same privileges known as consular immunity
• This convention guarantees freedom from detention until trial and conviction, except for “grave offenses.”
• In March 2005, the United States pulled out of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which allows the International Court of Justice to have compulsory jurisdiction over disputes arising under the Convention. 

•       The Saga of Devyani Khobragade:-  

• She was Acting Consul General in New York
• Accused of fraud visa charges and underpaying maid
• Arrested and strip searched by U.S Marshals

(/* For detailed case history : http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/laffair-khobragade-a-tale-of-two-narratives/article5479354.ece */)

 

According to U.S State Department handbook: 

“Consular officers have only official acts or functional immunity in respect of both criminal and civil matters and their personal inviolability is quite limited. Consular officers may be arrested or detained pending trial only if the offense is a felony and that the arrest is made pursuant to a decision by a competent judicial authority (e.g., a warrant issued by an appropriate court). They can be prosecuted for misdemeanors, but remain at liberty pending trial or other disposition of charges. Property of consular officers is not inviolable. Consular officers are not obliged to provide evidence as witnesses in connection with matters involving their official duties, to produce official documents, or to provide expert witness testimony on the laws of the sending country. Absent a bilateral agreement, the family members of consular officers enjoy no personal inviolability and no jurisdictional immunity of any kind.

• U.S Violations of Vienna convention:

• Invoked the 1961 pact two years back(2011) when CIA contractor Raymond Allen Davis was being tried for murder in Pakistan.

• Davis was released after he paid the families of the two men killed $2.4 million

• Nicaragua case -1980’s

• The ICJ (International court of Justice) held that Washington violated international law both by supporting the contra in their insurrection against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua’s harbors.

• U.S refused to participate in proceedings and blocked enforcement of ICJ’s judgment by UNSC . Thus depriving any compensation for Nicaragua

• Arguments :

1. For : 

• Everyone irrespective of the cadre should obey law of land
• India charged of modern slavery : ill treatment of domestic helps

1.  Against :

• U.S conducting in unilateralist approach.
• Can a Wage dispute between a consul and her domestic help qualify as a grave offence?
• U.S itself has violated convention in Pakistan , Libya and Nicaragua ( cases)
• Compared with China setting up of ADIZ(Air defense identification zone).

INDIA in 2050

                                       

                            

                                                   India is the Country of diversity. It is the beauty if diversity that makes India a unique country in every aspect were it technical, scientific, social, or environmental. Every Indian is worth of accomplishing every task that can flourishes the economy of the nation. Even history has proved that Indians are worth gems for world in the form of the Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Satuyajit Ray, Sam Pitroda and many to specify. It is proved that we Indians has more innovativeness than many other public in the world. Then the question stuck in our mind that according to current situation how India will look in 2050? What will be its socioeconomic status, science and technological development, living standard and other related fields?

                                               Though having busy roads, tight schedule, population density, health hazards etc., we Indians are still proud of our culture. in spite of serving MNC’s with cheap labour, still being the biggest reason of success of our culture that focus on Eco-friendliness, our actions that we though indirectly indulge in serving humanity.

                                               India has experienced extraordinary population growth: between 2001 and 2011 India added 181 million people to the world, slightly less than the entire population of Brazil. But 76 per cent of India’s population lives on less than US$2 per day (at purchasing power parity rates). India ranks at the bottom of the pyramid in per capita-level consumption indicators not only in energy or electricity but in almost all other relevant per capita-level consumption indicators, despite high rates of growth in the last decade.

                                               Much of India’s population increase has occurred among the poorest socioeconomic percentile. Relatively socioeconomically advanced Indian states had a fertility rate of less than 2.1 in 2009 — less than the level needed to maintain a stable population following infant mortality standards in developed nations. But in poorer states like Bihar, fertility rates were nearer to 4.0.

                                            Does this growth mean India can rely on the ‘demographic dividend’ to spur development? This phenomenon, which refers to the period in which a large proportion of a country’s population is of working age, is said to have accounted for between one-fourth and two-fifths of East Asia’s ‘economic miracle’ as observed late last century.

                                             But India is not East Asia. Its population density is almost three times the average in East Asia and more than eight times the world average of 45 people per square kilometer. If India has anywhere near 1.69 billion people in 2050, it will have more than 500 people per square kilometer. Besides, in terms of infrastructure development India currently is nowhere near where East Asian nations were before their boom. In terms of soft to hard infrastructure, spanning education, healthcare, roads, electricity, housing, employment growth and more, India is visibly strained.

                                            For example, India has an installed energy capacity of little more than 200 gigawatts; China has more than 1000 gigawatts and aims to generate 600 gigawatts of clean electricity by 2020. To make matters worse, many of the newly installed power stations in India face an acute shortage of coal, and future supply is not guaranteed. China mines close to four billion tons of coal per year, which has a negative effect on both local and global air quality. At some stage, it is probably inevitable that India will need much greater capacity than its present rate of mining 600 million tons of coal per year, which is also causing local and global pollution levels to rise — parts of India face air quality problems similar to those in China. On oil, India imports close to 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements, while it also runs an unsustainable current account deficit of more than 5 per cent of its GDP, and reserves for new energy sources like shale gas do not look promising either.

                                           India’s food supply is in an even worse position. As a member of India’s Planning Commission put it, ‘we have a problem and it can be starkly put in the following way: around 2004–2005, our per capita food grains production was back to the 1970s level’. In 2005–07, the average Indian consumed only 2,300 calories per day — below the defined poverty line in rural areas of 2,400 calories a day. The trend in recent years is for Indians to eat even less.

                                          So, for India, treating lightly Malthusian predictions about food supply until 2050 or beyond may not be prudent. Worldwide food prices have been on the rise to unforeseen levels, and India too has been suffering from high food inflation.

                                           Even if India manages to feed its burgeoning population, its growth may not be ecologically sustainable. The global demand for water in 2050 is projected to be more than 50 per cent of what it was in 2000, and demand for food will double. On average, a thousand tons of water is required to produce one ton of food grains. It’s not surprising, then, that international disputes about water have increasingly been replicated among states in India, where the Supreme Court is frequently asked to intervene.

                                           The probable answer is that policy makers have failed miserably on all measurable counts. If one compares India to China this becomes clear. While China’s one-child policy has been criticized as against human dignity and rights — and there is no denying that such measures should be avoided as far as possible — the history of human civilization teaches us that extreme situations call for extreme actions. There will be ample time for multiple schools to have their postmortems on the success and failure of the one-child policy, but it has helped China to control its population by a possible 400 million people.

                                           There are still millions of people still surviving in India on income of less than one dollar a day. India will never be consider developed country unless and until the poverty, hunger and pain of the poor on the streets and those living in the slums is curbed.

According to the wealth report 2012 by Knight Frunk and Citi private bank, India will emerge as the economic superpower in 2050, beating U.S. and china with a GDP of $85.97 trillion and India will witness an economic growth of 8% by 2050.

                                          There must be upward mobility in economic terms and recognition is through performance and results, and not through other metrics, which suit special interest groups. Indian high-tech companies should create their own top position in the world by identifying world and fulfilling those by leveraging technologies. They should identify what services need to be developed and delivered to meet the need of our underdeveloped population to improve health-care, education and new economic models to benefit backward sections of the society. The high-tech industry is going through disruptive changes because of transition to cloud- delivered services.

                                         Thus an Optimistic view of emerging India as a fully developed not only as a superpower nation but also as a wholesome development in the fields of health, education, business, urban and special emphasis on rural development with a poverty free, slum free, high employment opportunity are the thoughts and dreams that every Indian might be seeing. with the efforts of all of us we will surely see our proud INDIA IN 2050 as a prosperous, happy and overall developed nation.

NATURE

Night is the best part of the day. 

Clouds are running in the sky, every eyes from earth are searching for MOON. 

Nature is in silent mode no chipir chipir of birds; even you can hear the sound of  air waves, feel the portrait comes out. 

Whole picture of nature captured by eyes. each time i close my eyes...... panorama view appear, helps me to create my my own virtual parallel world. 

Same as traffic signal light red- yellow- green GO GO GO seems to me as disco light every one wants go as fast as they can road becomes Dance floor.
Flowers are right things to do they are practicals and real just like the relation we wanted to.

INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES / भारतवर्ष

INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES

Just after the independence New India has more than 500 princely states at the eve of integration. In princely states era they all categorized in to area and amount of revenue collected varied widely in size and status- smallest Bilbari ( annual revenue of Rs. 8) and largest Hyderabad (80,000 square miles). For A very long time they were indirectly controlled by the British. All the states needs different levels of economic and political development.

Efforts by British (before independence)

·         Direct annexation and de facto paramountcy (policy of subordinate isolation) - upto Revolt of 1857.

·         Indirect rule and de jure paramountcy (policy of subordinate union) following GoT Act, 1858

·         Chamber of Princes-1921.

·         Harcourt Butler Committee (alongside Simon Commission).

·         Federal Scheme of GoI Act, 1935.

Reasons for Integration

·         Termination of paramountcy would have left princes technically free to choose to accede or remain independent, a possibility suggested by Cripps Mission also.

·         INC wanted to avoid the 'balkanisation' of India and insisted on the incorporation of the princely states into India in its negotiations with Mountbatten.

·         Development of trade, commerce and communications during the 19th and 20th centuries had bound the princely states to British India through a complex network of interests.

·         Mountbatten was convinced that integration of the princely states into independent India would to some extent assuage the wounds of Partition.

Princes

·         Bikaner and Jawahar were motivated by ideological and patriotic considerations.

·         Bhopal, Travancore and Hyderabad planned to remain independent.

·         Some proposed a confederation of states.

·         Many dreamt of a return to the situation in 16th century India of several independent principalities.

·         Baroda was the first to join the Constituent Assembly. Bikaner made an appeal which led to several states of Rajputana too joining.

·         Lack of unity.

Mountbatten's role

·         Lumby and Moore take the view that Mountbatten played a crucial role in ensuring that the princely states agreed to accede to India.

·         Enormous prestige and legitimacy - relative of the King.

·         Personal friend of many of the rulers like the Nawab of Bhopal.

·         Princes believed his position as Gov-Gen of Indian dominion following independence would guarantee safeguard of their interests.

·         Assured them of the most favorable terms of accession as possible.

·         Told them that Britain would no longer patronize or protect them.

·         Convinced them that though technically independent they would be rudderless on their own.

·         Highlighted the geographic compulsions that meant most of them must choose India and also religious compulsions (otherwise would be violation of 2 Nation theory).

·         Dealt with the symbolic and princely courtesies of accession.

Pressure and Diplomacy (Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon)

·         Congress' stated position was that the princely states were not sovereign entities.

·         While Nehru and Rajaji took aggressive stances(said they would be treated as enemy states), Patel was more conciliatory in his approach.

·         Policy of carrot and stick.

·         Example of realpolitik.

·         Policy of divide and rule - played princes against one another by winning over support of some early on which unsettled others.

·         Used democratic tools like plebiscite (in Junagadh).

Carrot

·         Aroused spirit of nationalism in rulers.

·         Promised protection of their traditional rights (during accession).

·         Promised autonomy in internal matters and asked only for surrender of defence, external affairs and communication subjects.

·         Assured the provisions of a new constitution wouldn't apply to them.

·         Offered privy purses, retention of personal property and titles, inducements of Governorships as 'Rajapramukhs' (during integration).

·         Emphasized that without integration their economies would collapse resulting in situation of anarchy.

Stick

·         Used threat of popular protest.

·         Encouraged prajamandals to agitate for accession to India - Travancore, Mysore, Kathiawar, Orissa.

·         Cut off critical supplies and lines of communication to Junagadh.

·         Threat of military action.

·         Use of military occupation - Junagadh.

·         Use of police action - Hyderabad (Operation Polo).

·         Kashmir - threat of proxy war- diminished role of Patel - problem still lingers (other acceded states - Patel has had a role - no problems since).

Process of Integration

            1. Accession

·         Instruments of Accession (IoA) - Defence, Foreign Policy, Communications.

·         Produced a rather loose federation, with significant differences in administration and governance across the various states.

            2. Merger

·         Merger Agreements -   to merge the smaller states that were not seen by the Government of India to be viable administrative units either into neighboring provinces.

·         Covenants of Merger -   convince groups of large states to combine to form a "princely union"  -Eg. PEPSU, Saurashtra, United States of Rajasthan, Travancore-Cochin.

·         The only princely states which signed neither Covenants of Merger nor Merger Agreements were Kashmir, Mysore and Hyderabad.

·         Ended the discrete existence of states.

            3. Democratisation

·         Special covenant signed by the Rajpramukhs of the merged princely unions, binding them to act as constitutional monarchs.

·         Gave same measure of responsible government to people of erstwhile princely states as the rest of India.

·         But these governments still remained insulated from central control save for the 3 subjects specified in IoA.

            4. Centralisation and Constitutionalisation

·         Signed new Instruments of Accession which gave the Government of India the power to pass laws in respect of all matters that fell within the seventh schedule of GoI Act,1935.

·         Only exception was Kashmir, whose relationship with India continued to be governed by the original Instrument of Accession.

            5. Reorganisation

·         State Reorganisations Act, 1956.

·         Rajpramukhs lost their authority, and were replaced as the constitutional heads of state by Governors appointed by the central government.

·         Privy purse, the exemption from customs duty, and customary dignities survived, but only till 1971.

Post-Integration Issues

1.      Colonial Enclaves

·         French

o   Chandernagore- 1950.

o   Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe - 1954 (unofficial) ; 1962 (official).

·         Portuguese - after negotiation attempts failed despite popular protests, forced occupation in 1961.

2.      Remaining princely states

·         Nepal -  recognized by the British and the Government of India as being independent.

·         Bhutan - considered a protectorate outside the international frontier of India - treaty in 1949 that Bhutan would abide by India's direction in external affairs.

·         Sikkim

o   Treaty in 1950 with Chogyal Rulers.

o    India had responsibility for defence, external affairs and communications, and ultimate responsibility for law and order, but Sikkim was otherwise given full internal autonomy.

o   1973 - Anti-Chogyal agitation broke out (led by Kazi-Dorji of Sikkim State Congress) - demand for popular elections and democratic government.

o   1975 - the Sikkim Assembly passed a resolution calling for the state to be fully integrated into India - endorsed by referendum.

3.      Secessionism

·         Kashmir

·         Tripura

·         Manipur

4.      Sub-nationalism

·         Telengana

·         Vidarbha

Who was responsible for integration ?

·         Sardar Patel - through his wisdom, foresight, diplomacy and intrigue - guiding hand.

·         V.P. Menon - Patel's right-hand man, ran all the hard yards slowly chipping away at the rulers, without which accession wouldn't have been possible.

·         Bureaucrats - who effected the actual transition by creating the conditions for social and financial integration.

·         The faceless masses - through vigorous protests and active Prajamandals.

o   without the threat of mass agitation from below there would have been no successful integration from above as states wouldn't have ceded so easily.

Critical Perspectives

·         Ian Copland and Ramusack - one of the reasons why the princes consented to the demise of their states was that they felt abandoned by the British, and saw themselves as having little other option

·         Lumby, in contrast, take the view that the princely states could not have survived as independent entities after the transfer of power, and that their demise was inevitable. They therefore view successful integration of all princely states into India as a triumph for the Government of India and Lord Mountbatten, and as a tribute to the sagacity of the princes.

·         Bipan Chandra – criticizes Mountbatten for overstating his mandate and his impact on integration. Believes it to be the result of

o   Sardar Patel’s leadership

o   V.P. Menon’s hard work

o   Urges and aspirations of the Indian people

References

1.      India’s Struggle for Freedom – Bipan Chandra

2.      India After Gandhi – RamachandraGuha