Andhranews

New Delhi, Oct. 3: The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. J.J. Singh, has become unusually silent and has completely cut down his frequent and from all accounts rather entertaining interactions with the media. Reliable sources said that the general is acting under instructions from defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has had to ask his eloquent Army chief not to go public with his views and maintain a low profile.

A virtual gag order has been issued on the Chief, the sources said, pointing out that he had not been heard for several weeks now, with even the book by Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and his controversial views on Kargil being ignored by the Army Chief. It is not clear what the immediate provocation for this was, but it appears that Gen. Singh’s views on Siachen, which were clearly more in tune with the Army’s opposition to a one-way deal with Pakistan, has had something to do with the general’s unusual silence.

When asked if the Indian Army was not supportive of the solution to Siachen that was under discussion between New Delhi and Islamabad at the time, Gen. Singh did not deny it. Instead, he said, “We have conveyed our concerns and views to the government and we expect that the composite dialogue between the two countries will take care of all these concerns.”

He further said that the government decision would be taken in consonance with the views put in place. It might be recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cancelled his visit to Pakistan as the Siachen “solution” could not come through as the Indian Army was strongly opposed to the withdrawal of troops from the Saltoro Ridge until and unless the positions last held had been marked and accepted by Pakistan.

Gen. Singh had made it clear at the time that in the Army’s view, “troop withdrawal is a process when disengagement of the forces from the present position has to be undertaken and that will be followed by demilitarisation. We will cross the bridge when we reach it.” The strong reaction from the Army and the strategic community here against the proposal had effectively stopped the government from going ahead with a Siachen solution that did not protect the Indian Army’s last held positions on the ridge. “We have to have some kind of documented proof of the positions the two sides held as a prelude to any solution,” the general had then told reporters.

Journalists invited for breakfast or lunch with the Army Chief are now missing the encounters, which were reportedly always entertaining as Gen. Singh did not confine the discussion to the Army but extended it to cover his family and what his children were doing. He never hesitated to answer questions, and spoke out quite freely and frankly. For instance, his views on infiltration did not always match the government’s figures, and he did not mince words when speaking about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

He created waves soon after taking over by virtually shedding tears about the humanitarian situation in the state, and always insisted that the Army believed in the “velvet touch” to bring the people back into the mainstream. There has been little of this from the Army Chief, who naturally does not believe in keeping a low profile. When he was chief-designate his visit to the Army Golf Club at Dhaula Kuan in New Delhi was preceded by sappers checking each and every hole for explosives.

After he took over as Chief, golfers were greeted by a collage of newspaper cuttings when they entered the golf club and at the point where they teed off, documenting Gen. Singh’s appointment. He had a golf cart reserved for his personal use with a red carpet. Always media savvy, the Army Chief never refused to answer a question and always had several words to say about terrorism, the peace process, the situation in the Northeast and, of course, Jammu and Kashmir, always a favourite subject.

His absence from the spotlight is thus very noticeable. Known as General J.J. in Army circles, he does not speak like a traditional soldier. Short clipped sentences were not for him, and this is best demonstrated by his remarks after he was appointed Army Chief in January last year:

“We stand poised at a critical juncture in the timeline of history. Having left behind us the vagaries of the past, we purposefully stride towards economic growth, social harmony, peace and prosperity. Simultaneously and seamlessly, we are also making the transition to a highly motivated and modern Army, driven by the engines of high technology and a revolution in military affairs. I assure our countrymen that the Army will remain at the service of the nation, at all times, ready and eager to take on any challenge with determination and resolve to emerge victorious.”

Now he is making quiet and silent visits, being seen but not heard, as he has been reportedly instructed to do. In fact, a newspaper described his visit to a Maratha Light Infantry battalion at Kapurthala recently as a “silent” visit. It could not be ascertained whether any reasons were given by the defence minister for pushing his Army Chief into the shadows but, as the sources said, the message was loud and clear for there was no way that Gen. Singh would have otherwise maintained this studied silence on President Musharraf’s book.

Hyderabad, Oct. 3: The State government seems to have decided to “restrict” the role of SemIndia chairman Vinod K Agarwal in the proposed Fab City. SemIndia, which was earlier projected as the chief promoter of the 5,000-acre Fab City, will now be given 75 acres. The decision was taken at the first board meeting of Fab City Special Purpose Vehicle, which the State government now controls with three directors on the board.

The board decided to give the remaining land on lease to any semiconductor manufacturing and testing company that comes forward to set up a facility in Fab City. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was informed of the board’s decisions at a high level meeting here on Tuesday. He also reviewed the progress of the initiatives launched by SemIndia.

After the meeting, Dr Reddy told mediapersons that he would take up the issue of the Centre delaying the semiconductor policy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to New Delhi on Wednesday. Maintaining that the State government had moved the issue with the Centre about eight months ago, the Chief Minister said several investors were waiting for the announcement of the policy.

After the much-hyped launch of Fab City, the government was now receiving inputs about the financial strength and capabilities of Mr Agarwal, whose company Logic Vision in United States had incurred heavy losses in the last few years. He quit the company and shifted base to Hyderabad with SemIndia.

Official sources told this correspondent that SemIndia had been asked by the government to concentrate on setting up the ATMP [Assembly, Test, Marketing and Packing] which Mr Agarwal had projected as the first phase of the project. SemIndia had announced that the unit would be ready by June 2007 at the time of laying foundation stone for Fab City in June.

A note issued by the Chief Minister’s Office on Wednesday makes it clear that the ATMP is still a non-starter. According to the note, a team of international and local world-class experts of SemIndia had been operating in the city for implementation of the project.” It said that SemIndia had engaged the Ramky Group as consultants to apply for clearances.

The Chief Minister was told that the construction of ATMP plant would start immediately after the clearances were obtained. He was told that the financial tie-ups were finalised for the ATMP plant. Sources said efforts were on to rope in a top official of the Software Technology Parks of India for the project. The Fab City board also decided that 300 acres would be developed with all infrastructure though consultant Surbana International, a Singapore based company which was asked to prepare the master plan for 1,200 acres.

New Delhi, Oct. 3: India’s nominee for United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Shashi Tharoor, on Tuesday read out a statement to reporters conceding victory to South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-Moon within an hour of the fourth straw poll. If elected, Mr Ban will be the second Asian to hold the post of United Nations Secretary-General, the first being U Thant of Burma who held office from 1961 to 1971.

The final poll is set for October 9. Current Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s term expires on December 31. “I have been humbled by the support, good wishes and prayers that they have conveyed to me. Although I did not win the race, it is a matter of genuine pride to me that I was deemed worthy by so many people and won the votes of so many governments,” Mr Tharoor said.

If Mr Tharoor was stoic in defeat, there were mild celebrations elsewhere. The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations told reporters outside the Security Council chamber, “It is quite clear from today’s straw poll that Ban Ki-Moon is the candidate the Security Council will recommend to the General Assembly.” American ambassador John Bolton said his country was happy with the selection and was pressing the Security Council to wrap up the process early.

In the fourth straw poll, the 62-year-old South Korean foreign minister got 14 votes and one “no opinion”, the only candidate to emerge without veto. His nearest rival, Mr Tharoor, got 10 positive — two more than the last time — and three against, one of which was from a permanent member which in a formal poll would translate into a veto. Technically, there is still time for the introduction of new candidates but diplomats said it is unlikely with Mr Ban enjoying strong support among the 15 Security Council members.

The diplomats expressed confidence that election by the General Assembly would be just a formality. The other candidates in the race are Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, deputy premier in the ousted Thai government Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, Jordan’s UN ambassador Prince Zeid al-Hussein and Afghanistan’s former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.

Sri Lankan nominee Jayantha Dhanapala had withdrawn from the race. In all the straw polls, Mr Tharoor had maintained the second position but always had some negative votes against him. In the first three polls, the poll did not make any distinction between permanent and non-permanent members, but the fourth did make that distinction and thus candidates for the first time came to know if they had any vetoes against them.

In Tuesday’s poll, Dr Sathirathai and Mr Ghani received four votes in favour but Mr Ghani had 11 votes against him, including three vetoes. Dr Sathirathai had seven no-votes, among them two vetoes. The only woman and the only non-Asian candidate, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, got five votes in favour and six against, including two vetoes, and four expressed no opinion.

New Delhi, Oct. 3: The hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru, awarded the death penalty on October 20 by the Supreme Court for his involvement in the attack on Parliament in 2001, was put on stay after a petition was filed by his family on Tuesday seeking clemency from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The stay comes after the home ministry received a copy of the mercy petition from Rashtrapati Bhavan for scrutiny of various aspects before it gives its opinion to the President, who will then decide whether to grant clemency.

Afzal’s wife Tabassum submitted a petition at the President’s office on Tuesday. She also visited Afzal, who is currently in Tihar Jail, with her mother-in-law, son Ghalib and Afzal’s two brothers. Meanwhile, the families of the security personnel killed in the attack approached President Kalam and requested him not to pardon Afzal Guru.

The families, led by the chairman of the Anti-Terrorist Front, Mr M.S. Bitta, submitted a memorandum to the President’s office stating that any clemency shown to a terrorist like Afzal would encourage other anti-national elements. “A terrorist of his stature does not invite pardon (sic) who exhibited no concern while committing the heinous crime against humanity,” the memorandum said. Afzal’s family revealed that Afzal himself was not ready to seek clemency as he had “lost trust” in the system.

Hyderabad, Oct. 3: In a strategic move, Chhattisgarh has decided to join hands with Orissa to oppose the Polavaram project coming up in Andhra Pradesh when the Chief Ministers of the three States meet in New Delhi on Wednesday. This is part of an attempt by Chhattisgarh to pressurise the AP government not to take up construction of the Inchampally reservoir which will submerge large tracts of its territory.

The move has come as a nasty surprise to State officials since the Chhattisgarh government was initially in favour of the Polavaram project.
The State faced opposition only from Orissa on Polavaram. Chhattisgarh had even supported the stand taken by AP at the meetings of the Central Water Commission and the Central Empowerment Committee.

But, with AP deciding to pursue the Inchampally project in real earnest, Chhattisgarh has changed its stand. Inchampally reservoir will submerge 92,555 hectares of land, of which 21,734 hectares is reserved forest land. This will include large areas of Chhattisgarh. The left part of the Inchampally project falls in Chhattisgarh and its government has already refused permission to AP officials to undertake surveys. By joining hands with Orissa on Polavaram, Chhattisgarh wants to force the AP government on Inchampally.

AP officials are expecting Chhattisgarh to raise the Inchampally reservoir issue at Wednesday’s meeting. If this happens, AP may find it hard to clinch an agreement on Polavaram. “The news that Chhattisgarh and Orissa might jointly demand a new tribunal on Godavari waters is alarming, but we have our own strategy,” said State irrigation secretary Satish Chandra.
The State government plans to construct a reservoir at Inchampally with full reservoir level of 112.77 metres. Chhattisgarh wants the height to be reduced to 80 metres.

“This is not feasible, as it will serve neither irrigation needs nor hydro-electric generation,” said a senior irrigation official. The project proposes to provide irrigation facility to 2.87 lakh hectares in the backward Karimnagar and Warangal districts and generate 975 MW of power.

Sao Jose Dos Campos (Brazil), Oct. 3: It had been an uneventful, comfortable flight. With the window shade drawn, I was relaxing in my leather seat aboard a $25 million corporate jet that was flying 37,000 feet above the vast Amazon rainforest. The seven of us on board the 13-passenger jet were keeping to ourselves. Without warning, I felt a terrific jolt and heard a loud bang, followed by an eerie silence, save for the hum of the engines.

And then the three words I will never forget. “We’ve been hit,” said Henry Yandle, a fellow passenger standing in the aisle near the cockpit of the Legacy 600 jet.
“Hit? By what?” I wondered. I lifted the shade. The sky was clear; the sun low in the sky. The rainforest went on forever. But there, at the end of the wing, was a jagged ridge, perhaps a foot high, where the five-foot-tall winglet was supposed to be.

And so began the most harrowing 30 minutes of my life. I would be told time and again in the next few days that nobody ever survives a midair collision. I was lucky to be alive — and only later would I learn that the 155 people aboard the 737 on a domestic flight that seems to have clipped us were not.

Investigators are still trying to sort out what happened, and how — our smaller jet managed to stay aloft while a 737 that is longer, wider and more than three times as heavy, fell from the sky nose first.

But at 3.59 last Friday afternoon, all I could see, all I knew, was that part of the wing was gone. And it was clear that the situation was worsening in a hurry. The leading edge of the wing was losing rivets, and starting to peel back. Amazingly, no one panicked. The pilots calmly starting scanning their controls and maps for signs of a nearby airport, or, out their window, a place to come down.

But as the minutes passed, the plane kept losing speed. I thought of my family. There was no point reaching for my cellphone to try a call — there was no signal. And as our hopes sank with the sun, some of us jotted notes to spouses and loved ones and placed them in our wallets, hoping the notes would later be found.

I was on the Embraer 600 for a freelance assignment for Business Jet Traveller magazine. My fellow passengers included executives from Embraer and a charter company called ExcelAire, the new owner of the jet. David Rimmer, the senior vice-president of Excel Aire, had invited me to ride home on the jet his company had just taken possession of at Embraer’s headquarters here.

And it had been a nice ride. Minutes before we were hit, I had wandered up to the cockpit to chat with the pilots, who said the plane was flying beautifully. I saw the readout that showed our altitude: 37,000 feet.

I returned to my seat. Minutes later came the strike.
Mr Rimmer, a large man, was hunched in the aisle in front of me staring out the window at the newly damaged wing.

“How bad is it?” I asked.
He fixed me with a steady look and said: “I don’t know.”

For the next 25 minutes, the pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, were scanning their instruments, looking for an airport. Nothing turned up.
They sent out a “mayday” signal, which was acknowledged by a cargo plane somewhere in the region. There had been no contact with any other plane, and certainly not with a 737 in the same airspace.

Mr Lepore then spotted a runway through the darkening canopy of trees.
“I can see an airport,” he said.

They tried to contact the control tower at what turned out to be a military base hidden deep in the Amazon. They steered the plane through a big wide sweep to avoid putting too much stress on the wing.