Thank you Mr Prime Minister--But it is time for you to Go

by tonysarao on 12 Nov 2013, 12:52

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent ---*

(Thomas Jefferson)

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh,

1 Though you have been the Prime-Minister of my Country for the last so many years , this is the first time I am writing to you.

2 Sir, no other man could have achieved what you have done for this Nation of one billion people. But it is time now for you to say good bye.As citizens of this Country we recognise and acknowledge this fact, but we have also seen how in the last so many years our Prime-Minister , the man with the enigmatic smile , gentle manners and with a flair for sher'o shairi, has lost that smile ---- that twinkle in his eyes and that calm confidence . Where is that effervescent energy of the man with the brief case in whom the Country had reposed trust , faith and hope for clean governance'!! What happened ?What went wrong??Where is that slip of paper we knew you always carried in your pocket which was to be handed over the minute you were not allowed to take a decision in the interests of this Country and its citizens??

3 We were sure that now we had a statesman and not a politician at the helm of affairs , but now we feel sorry when we see people comparing Nero with Manmohan Singh-- (yes Nero with Manmohan Singh and not the other way round).

 

Mr Prime Minister look around and see , the Country is burning and wants a change--------------. Throw away the fiddle and rein in the ungrateful , the manipulators , the criminals , the tax evaders and all those so called leaders of independent India , the Ministers , the MPs , the MLA's ,the rogues, the under-performers , at least in your own Government . We the citizens know who they are , we see them on the TV every day ,giving interviews and speaking high flown English and talking gibberish. We demand personal integrity , probity and honesty from these self proclaimed leaders and offenders, whether they are in power or without .Tell your so called allies to either play up or get out . Ask these so called leaders to to stand in front of their legitimate progeny , look into their eyes and declare, ---' We are honest men and true patriots' ! Votes ,chairs,official bungalows,cars with red lights and security posses are not important---- India is.

 

4 So what if the Government falls??There will always be another Manmohan Singh . India will still survive but these blackmailers and their duplicity will not.How can you as the leader of this Nation accept nonsense from upstarts--don't you realise that you are being made into a sacrificial lamb!! Were you  really wanting that bill empowering criminals to stand for elections ro be passed?? Do you really think that the Prime Minister of India should not attend the Commonwealth Meet in Srilanka??? Do you really want to remembered as the 'sad and pathetic ' Prime Minister??!!

5 We had seen your finest hour when you took a principled stand on the nuclear deal much to the chagrin of doubters and manipulators.We respect and admire you as the as the architect of the 1991 liberalisation and we remember how you pulled the Country out from chaos and bankruptcy , but then we now see you blinking during the eyeball to eyeball confrontation on the issue of FDI retail . We see you looking the other way with respect to the 2G scam. Ministers suffering from dementia and senility continue to make policies on environment , education , health , economy ,foreign affairs , service sector. The babu's are having a free run with the passive re-introduction of antiquated socialist policies and license raj eddicts.The black clouds of corruption rain every day and tainted ministers continue to hold office under you !!! Communal riots, disturbances,instances of social degradation and partisan state machinery rock the India of 2013 regularly. Once again,''No se culpe a nadie''--No one is to blame !! Adarsh , Bellary, CWG , Sand Mining and a host of scams and criminal activities by your ministers and compatriots , some in power and some not, continue to be blamed on the Prime Minister, for if an Army faces defeat , who else but the Chief would be the first to be held accountable , though he himself may be a brave man.

6 Remember Mark Anthony's eulogy for Caesar -------------

''I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? 

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; 

And, sure, he is an honourable man. 

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 

But here I am to speak what I do know. 

You all did love him once, not without cause: 

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him? 

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, 

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; 

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, 

And I must pause till it come back to me.''

6 Mr Prime Minister , we know for sure it is not ambition in your case too , for you are a good man but then what about those 'honourable' men who are hiding behind your goodness ?Yes--- uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. And Sir---- what price this crown?? You have done your bit and more.Sometimes a leader has to say ' I Go--This Much and No More or Find a Better Man'. Mr Manmohan Singh --what are you waiting for, or , as the whispers have started ,-are you also really one of them????
Jai Hind

(please forward it so that it reaches one billion people)

Much Ado About Nothing - 1962 And Beyond

HAVE WE LEARNT ANYTHING?? 

'Indian Air Force could have changed 1962 China war outcome' Air Chief Browne

       

'The lessons of Kargil, and impact on air intake airflow, when firing guns or rockets at very high altitudes, seems to have been lost. Because six years later, in 2005, we are talking of breaking mountains and attacking troops in the open. Are fighter bombers to be used to attack individual soldiers?'--

(http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1962War/Bewoor.html) 

 THE RATIONALE GIVEN AND THE ARGUMENTS ARE PRESUMPTUOUS. I WILL TELL YOU WHY. If the Air Force cannot guarantee air support to troops on ground then either we will lose the next war or we have to have our own aircraft for battle field air strikes /close air support.  And which  Brigade , Divisional or Corps Commander is so incompetent that air strikes will be asked for targets which cannot be effectively engaged by Artillery or land based weapons? A former IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal (retd) A Y Tipnis, has blamed former PrimeMinister Nehru for India's defeat in the1962 war with China, amid a continuing debate on why Air power was not used during the conflict.  

  

Be clear about one thing--in times of war it Is the military and the political hierarchy which takes decisions as to the conduct of all defensive and offensive operations .No outsiders are involved unless the Nation is either on the brink of defeat ,or is not sure of its own military and diplomatic strength against an enemy who has proved itself to be stronger.                              

Whether use of offensive air power would have tilted the balance in favour of India , at a time when the Army and the Nation were not giving a very good account of of itself , is a moot point and we can make all sorts of conjectures now. May be if we had used the Indian Navy to seal the SLOC's Westwards from the Malacca Straits onwards , the Chinese may have sued for peace!! But we did not use the Navy aggressively!


Viewed pragmatically , the Country was not only militarily unprepared to fight a war but frankly speaking the National will and resolve was also lacking. As Indians , it was definitely not our finest hour--we were ready to buckle to soon. England,under the leadership of Churchill fought for more than a year against vastly superior forces --all alone. Sorry , but I disagree if now it is being said that the 'Government/Nehru' did not approve the ' use of the IAF '.

By no means am I disparaging the valiant effort of the soldiers and the airmen who did what they did to the extent possible
-
---But had the two Chiefs (that is if they had the resources and the combat power ) categorically stated with the confidence and authority expected from them that the ' IAF will be used and that is our decision'---let me tell you that no Government, Parliament,Bureaucrat or Politician (Nehru/Menon/Galbraith included) could have had the guts to over rule a line of action proposed by the Military .

In 1962 , the IAF had very limited training in so far as offensive support in the Himalayas , high altitude and partly jungle terrain was concerned. There was a lack of operational and logistic bases which could facilitate strikes in the genere of BAS or counter air operations.Yes , some amount of interdiction of supply routes , artificial landslides    ( in the Himalayan steep and barren hills this can be done, do not compare them with the Alps --that terrain and altitude is different ) , limited air cover and BAS/CAS probably could have been provided but definitely not of the magnitude to have turned the tables!

And we definitely did not have a deep strike capability nor identified targets in the TAR or the mainland (CATSPAW was a lesson learnt much later) or the munitions and aircraft capable of meaningful and painful interdiction.In any case the ethos of the airforce (then and more so now) does not support direct air effort(BAS /CAS) for troops on the ground.So what really could the offensive employment of the air force have helped, in say the denial of Tawang to the enemy??Bombing airfields in TAR or doing a Doolittle type of raid with Canberras in the hinterland would have not degraded the war potential of the Chinese.
             In the type of wars and the duration of wars which the international community ' allows' in the present era , strategic bombing and long term depth interdiction will in no way assist ground troops who may require immediate response to remedy critical situations. For this the Air -Force is somehow reluctant.Unless there is complete air superiority no Army can function without air cover.There is a non negotiable requirement of dedicated aerial resources which are earmarked, guaranteed, trained and made available for furtherance of offensive and defensive operations on ground.With out this synergy and jointness , all lessons of 62', 65 ',71' and Kargil will haunt us again.

Since independence , all our wars have been of short duration , depth interdiction is of not much relevance to the Indian Army which does not have the wherewithal or doctrine for a protracted war and the IAF's present ' we are too busy for the first four days' can cause more grief than joy to land based operations. At that point of  time our air defence network , communication and radar early warning network, associated communication system and inter services jointmanship was woefully rudimentary (the last factor, jointmanship , still is inadequate ,despite what the military pundits and experts may say). 

Let me add one more thing, even our available air lift and air supply effort was not adequate, the Country had to depend on the USAF and their C130's to provide air lift for troops and supplies . Once the panic set in we put in our irrational and hasty bid for a couple of squadrons of fighters, radars and transports as our air arm , at that point of time was too weak to sustain operations of the magnitude required for ' victory '.