Daily Times

Sir: After fifteen years of effort, India has at long last commissioned its nuclear-powered 6,000-tonne INS Arihant submarine.  It can carry 12 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles with current range of 750 km (being enhanced to 5,000 km). A more advanced submarine INS Arighat will be floated within three years. The submarine realizes Indian Navy’s long-cherished dream of blue-water capability to shoot nuclear missiles not only from air and land but also from sea.

India’s defence-spending spree to acquire latest weapon systems from both Russia (S400 missile defence system) and the West (cyber-warfare and communication technologies) indicates that India is preparing for wars in both short and long term.

Modi made no bones about his intentions by celebrating morale-boosting Diwali or deepawali (festival of lights) with troops at Harshil (Uttarakhand), on China front this year. In 2014, Modi spent his Diwali at Siachen. In 2015, he celebrated Diwali with the troops on Punjab border (coincident with 50th anniversary of the 1965 Indo-Pak war `victory’). In 2016, he was at an Indo-Tibetan Border Police outpost. In 2017, he celebrated diwali with troops Gurez (occupied Kashmir).

Modi is shoring up his image as a Ram avatar. Faizabad (Babri Masjid area) has been renamed Ayodhya (Ram Janam Bhoomi, Ram’s birth place).

AEIMEN MALIK

Rawalpindi

Published in Daily Times, November  9^th 2018.