Pratyush wrote:Karan M wrote:This guy according to several should have been court martialed and drummed out of service
I don't understand the context of the comment.
What had happened?
Do your own research.
Pratyush wrote:Karan M wrote:This guy according to several should have been court martialed and drummed out of service
I don't understand the context of the comment.
What had happened?
Or what has not happened?Pratyush wrote:I don't understand the context of the comment. What had happened?
I will let you dig into what HS Panag has been upto post-retirement.It may also be recalled that no action was taken against the General (Retd) Deepak Kapoor, on the CAG report, which was tabled to Parliament in 2008, which had held that Gen Kapoor, as Northern Army Commander in 2005-06, had procured items worth crores “which were not related to urgent requirements”. “The issue wasn’t fully probed because the ‘whistleblower’ officer, Lt Gen HS Panag, who as the new northern command chief, had opened the inquiry into the issue, but was transferred halfway into his tenure from the northern command in February 2008.
I think several of us think in Black-and-White. And do excellent navel gazing. I am seeing on twitter where several so called "protect India forces" have declared that Mudi is #AntiHindu and #MudiMustRezine stand.chetak wrote:such a thing is very bad for India. Why did sushma, earlier and now Modi have to overfly paki airspace on their way to Bishkek while the rest of us yahoos need to skirt paki airspace and pay extra to do so.
Shabash to the Adarsh General.chetak wrote:posted without comment
darshan wrote:India Speaks Daily on Supreme Court that is not capable of seeing murders in West Bengal but has opinion on Twitter freedom: https://youtu.be/C0u2ySZRvg4
Also talks about prithviraj chauhan syndrome that runs in BJP.
nothing is more funny than people taking themselves seriously and telling others they don't have high level thinking as if they have accomplished big in life to comment on others.pankajs wrote:Appeasement is good.
BackstabbingIgnoring supporters who can't go beyond first level thinking is also good. Shows maturity of the leaders.
PS: Generic comments on generic comments.
PPS: Comments of specific cases may different from the above generic comments.
Agree 100%.Karthik S wrote:nothing is more funny than people taking themselves seriously and telling others they don't have high level thinking as if they have accomplished big in life to comment on others.pankajs wrote:Appeasement is good.
BackstabbingIgnoring supporters who can't go beyond first level thinking is also good. Shows maturity of the leaders.
PS: Generic comments on generic comments.
PPS: Comments of specific cases may different from the above generic comments.
Tactics saar not strategy. Tactics sure won elections, little early to call them very successful. BTW how people take their opinions is upto them. Nobody asked for your opinion of others opinions, so don't dive in (nose first) into others opinions.pankajs wrote:Agree 100%.Karthik S wrote:
nothing is more funny than people taking themselves seriously and telling others they don't have high level thinking as if they have accomplished big in life to comment on others.
Laughable to see folks who have achieved nothing commenting on strategy/tactics of very successful folks! These folks need to stop talking their own opinions so seriously. Couldn't be funnier.
PS: I would have agreed 400% but for the laws of mathematics.
As you have yourself stated before, funny coming from folks who have no political acumen to be commenting on folks who have a track record of upwards of 15+ years.Karthik S wrote:Tactics saar not strategy. Tactics sure won elections, little early to call them very successful. BTW how people take their opinions is upto them. Nobody asked for your opinion of others opinions, so don't dive in (nose first) into others opinions.pankajs wrote: Agree 100%.
Laughable to see folks who have achieved nothing commenting on strategy/tactics of very successful folks! These folks need to stop talking their own opinions so seriously. Couldn't be funnier.
PS: I would have agreed 400% but for the laws of mathematics.
So all fine then at your end. cheers.pankajs wrote:As you have yourself stated before, funny coming from folks who have no political acumen to be commenting on folks who have a track record of upwards of 20+ years.Karthik S wrote:
Tactics saar not strategy. Tactics sure won elections, little early to call them very successful. BTW how people take their opinions is upto them. Nobody asked for your opinion of others opinions, so don't dive in (nose first) into others opinions.
It's by Michael Kugleman, A_GuptaJi, I thought you would be familiar with him. The man is more Baki than a Baki. Unfair aunty specifically referred to him in her latest musings.A_Gupta wrote:Desperately trying to get hooks into PM Modi: Foreign Policy mag:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/13/mo ... bal-brand/
Modi’s Nationalism Is Spoiling His Global Brand
The Pentagon is battling the clock to fix serious, unreported F-35 problems
By: Valerie Insinna
June 12
WASHINGTON — Over the past several years, U.S. Defense Department leaders have gone from citing technical problems as their biggest concern for the F-35 program to bemoaning the expense of buying and sustaining the aircraft.
But the reality may be worse. According to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News, the F-35 continues to be marred by flaws and glitches that, if left unfixed, could create risks to pilot safety and call into question the fighter jet’s ability to accomplish key parts of its mission:
F-35B and F-35C pilots, compelled to observe limitations on airspeed to avoid damage to the F-35’s airframe or stealth coating. Cockpit pressure spikes that cause “excruciating” ear and sinus pain. Issues with the helmet-mounted display and night vision camera that contribute to the difficulty of landing the F-35C on an aircraft carrier.
These are some of the problems with the jet that the documents describe as category 1 deficiencies — the designation given to major flaws that impact safety or mission effectiveness.
Thirteen of the most serious flaws are described in detail, including the circumstances associated with each issue, how it impacts F-35 operations and the Defense Department’s plans to ameliorate it.
All but a couple of these problems have escaped intense scrutiny by Congress and the media. A few others have been briefly alluded to in reports by government watchdog groups.
Bad data in F-35 logistics system resulting in lost missions
Bad data in F-35 logistics system resulting in lost missions
Ever wonder what's driving down the F-35's mission capable rates? Here's one factor.
By: Valerie Insinna
But the majority of these problems have not been publicly disclosed, exposing a lack of transparency about the limitations of the Defense Department’s most expensive and high-profile weapons system.
These problems impact far more operators than the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy customer base. Eleven countries — Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom — have all selected the aircraft as their future fighter of choice, and nine partner nations have contributed funds to the development of the F-35.
Taken together, these documents provide evidence that the F-35 program is still grappling with serious technical problems, even as it finds itself in a key transitional moment.
And the clock is ticking. By the end of 2019, Defense Department leaders are set to make a critical decision on whether to shut the door on the F-35’s development stage and move forward with full-rate production. During this period, the yearly production rate will skyrocket from the 91 jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin in 2018 to upward of 160 by 2023.
Generally speaking, the department’s policy calls for all deficiencies to be closed before full-rate production starts. This is meant to cut down on expensive retrofits needed to bring existing planes to standard.
The F-35 Joint Program Office appears to be making fast progress, but not all problems will be solved before the full-rate production decision, said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the Defense Department’s F-35 program executive.
“None of them, right now, are against any of the design, any of the hardware or any of the manufacturing of the aircraft, which is what the full-rate production decision is for,” he told Defense News in an interview. “There are no discrepancies that put at risk a decision of the department to approve us to go into full-rate production.”
Nine out of 13 problems will likely either be corrected or downgraded to category 2 status before the Pentagon determines whether to start full-rate production, and two will be adjudicated in future software builds, Winter said.
However, the F-35 program office has no intention of correcting two of the problems addressed in the documents, with the department opting to accept additional risk.
The 13 deficiencies include:
The F-35’s logistics system currently has no way for foreign F-35 operators to keep their secret data from being sent to the United States.
The spare parts inventory shown by the F-35’s logistics system does not always reflect reality, causing occasional mission cancellations.
Cabin pressure spikes in the cockpit of the F-35 have been known to cause barotrauma, the word given to extreme ear and sinus pain.
In very cold conditions — defined as at or near minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit — the F-35 will erroneously report that one of its batteries have failed, sometimes prompting missions to be aborted.
Supersonic flight in excess of Mach 1.2 can cause structural damage and blistering to the stealth coating of the F-35B and F-35C.
After doing certain maneuvers, F-35B and F-35C pilots are not always able to completely control the aircraft’s pitch, roll and yaw.
If the F-35A and F-35B blows a tire upon landing, the impact could also take out both hydraulic lines and pose a loss-of-aircraft risk.
A “green glow” sometimes appears on the helmet-mounted display, washing out the imagery in the helmet and making it difficult to land the F-35C on an aircraft carrier.
On nights with little starlight, the night vision camera sometimes displays green striations that make it difficult for all variants to see the horizon or to land on ships.
The sea search mode of the F-35’s radar only illuminates a small slice of the sea’s surface.
When the F-35B vertically lands on very hot days, older engines may be unable to produce the required thrust to keep the jet airborne, resulting in a hard landing.
The Pentagon has identified four additional category 1 deficiencies since beginning operational tests in December 2018, mostly centered around weapons interfaces, Winter said.
“They are not catastrophic. If they were, they'd have to stop test. There's nothing like that,” he said. “They will be straightforward software fixes. We just need to get to them.”
The good, the bad and the ugly
Defense News shared the list of deficiencies with two senior naval aviators — one active and one recently retired — who agreed to review the document. Each offered a different perspective on the seriousness of the problems.
The recently retired aviator said some of the issues jumped off the page at him, including the cabin over-pressurization issue, given the rash of over-pressurization issues in other aircraft, including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler and F-22 Raptor.
But perhaps the most serious for aerial combat operations is the combination of maneuvering issues when the aircraft is operating above a 20-degree angle of attack and the issue of possible structural damage and damage to the low-observable coating when using the afterburner. That coating helps provide the F-35 a stealth capability.
"The one that stood out to me was, wait a minute, you're telling me that the latest, greatest aircraft — [a] $100 million aircraft — can't perform?" the retired fighter pilot said. "It has random oscillations, pitch and yaw issues above 20A?"
However, the naval aviator currently in service said the list of deficiencies did not alarm him and that, given that the F-35 is still new to the fleet, such issues are inevitable.
“That document looks like growing pains for an aircraft that we tried to do a whole lot to all at once,” the senior aviator said. “You’re going to see that if you dig back at what Super Hornets looked like for the first few years. Go back in the archives and look at [the F-14] Tomcat — think about that with the variable sweep-wing geometry, the AUG9 radar: There was a lot of new technology incorporated into the aircraft, and there is going to be growing pains.”
David B. Larter in Washington contributed to this story.
The fight going forward is to maintain a congress-mukt Bharat, and not allow the Modi era to go down as a (somewhat longer) Hemachandra interlude. Congress-mukt means more than just the name and the dynasty, it is this exact corrupt rentier reactionary system they built and fortified all these years.vimal wrote:^^ Be careful with what you wish for. While this is great for Modi government, imagine how this can misused by Congis by setting up unconstitutional bodies like NAC. Or using folks like Sam Pitroda. But then government's hands are also tied due to various factors like reservations etc.
Is that the same global brand that this class of magazines and newspapers constantly proclaim to be divisive, intolerant, casteist and fascist?A_Gupta wrote:Desperately trying to get hooks into PM Modi: Foreign Policy mag:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/13/mo ... bal-brand/
Modi’s Nationalism Is Spoiling His Global Brand
Makes sense that an honorary Baki would go this route in campaigning against Modi.Kashi wrote:It's by Michael Kugleman, A_GuptaJi, I thought you would be familiar with him. The man is more Baki than a Baki. Unfair aunty specifically referred to him in her latest musings.A_Gupta wrote:Desperately trying to get hooks into PM Modi: Foreign Policy mag:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/13/mo ... bal-brand/
Modi’s Nationalism Is Spoiling His Global Brand
PM Modi ji did say something to this effect just before Balakot strikes.Anujan wrote: India can start out by explicitly stating its security objective. The most immediate threat is from Pakistan. But Indians do not want to articulate it as official policy because we are brothers onlee.
Rahul’s own team fed his PM hopes right up to poll defeat
Pankaj Vohra
June 15, 2019,
The events during the run-up to the counting revealed that either Rahul Gandhi was of an over-trusting nature or was too gullible in perceiving how smooth-talking individuals were leading him up the garden path.
New Delhi: There has been intense speculation regarding the reasons that forced Rahul Gandhi to resign as the Congress president, the foremost being that he was misled by his own team, and made to believe that his party was securing between 164 and 184 seats in the recent Parliamentary elections. Based on this inaccurate information, he is understood to have contacted UPA allies such as M.K. Stalin, Akhilesh Yadav, Omar Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Tejashwi Yadav amongst others, and offered to accommodate some of them in the next Cabinet.
He is reported to have even obtained two letters from a senior legal eagle to enable him to stake claim to form the next government. A victory procession was also planned to celebrate the exit of the BJP, which of course did not happen, though instructions to a select few Delhi leaders were passed on to mobilise and assemble a crowd of nearly 10,000 people outside the AICC office on 24, Akbar Road. Given that the assessment of the Congress party went completely askew, resulting in a huge loss of face, Rahul had no option but to put in his papers. Currently, he is in England and is expected to be back early next week in time for both the commencement of the Parliament session as also his birthday on 19 June.
To make matters worse, Praveen Chakravarty, who was his most trusted aide, looking after the election office and data-analysis, besides running the Shakti app, is missing from the scene. A day after the election results were announced he has been incommunicado and efforts by senior leaders to contact him have failed miserably. Incidentally, he had not even provided the Congress with the hard disc of the data he had collected, for which he is alleged to have presented a bill of Rs 24 crore. Senior leaders in the party are suspecting that Chakravarty, who played a role similar to the one played by Prashant Kishor for Narendra Modi in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, could have been a BJP mole in the Congress office.
In fact, four of the eight persons working in the Congress president’s office have resigned. In addition to Chakravarty, Divya Spandana, who, her detractors claim, charged the party nearly Rs 8 crore, is also untraceable; she has also deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts. The events during the run-up to the counting have revealed that either Rahul Gandhi was of an over-trusting nature or was too gullible in perceiving how smooth-talking individuals were leading him up the garden path. It is not only he alone, but both Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too appeared convinced that the Congress was returning to power, raising questions whether the family was living in some sort of a la-la land.
Informed sources stated that Chakravarty had met Rahul on 21 May, on the day of Rajiv Gandhi’s death anniversary, and had given him a list of 184 potential winners of the Congress, along with their respective constituencies and projected margins. Rahul was told that 184 was the number, but if things turned out to be slightly inadequate, it, in any case, would not be less than 164. The data was double-checked by the Congress president’s office, and Rahul asked his office to make a list of nearly “100 first-time MPs”, who he was not familiar with, since they had worked at the state level. He further instructed for a separate list of likely losers to be drafted out as well. The second list included prominent leaders such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Bansal, Harish Rawat, Ajay Maken etc., whom he wanted to be part of the next government.
A day before the counting of votes, and buoyed by the documentation supplied by Chakravarty, Rahul and Priyanka got to work. The two started contacting potential allies and key leaders of their own party. Rahul is reported to have phoned M.K. Stalin and conveyed to him his desire to induct him in the future Cabinet as Home Minister. Sharad Pawar was requested to be a part of the dispensation, since his presence would provide gravitas. Akhilesh Yadav was also offered an important berth, after being asked how many seats the Mahagathbandhan was winning in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav put the figure at 40-plus and asked for Congress numbers in the state, appearing amused when conveyed that the party was winning nine, which included Rae Bareli and Amethi, besides Kanpur, Unnao, Fatehpuri Sikri, etc. Tejashwi Yadav’s assessment was that the Congress could touch the five- to six-mark in Bihar, while his party would be obtaining nearly 20-plus. Omar Abdullah was confident that the National Conference could win three, while Congress may go through in Udhampur, from where Dr Karan Singh’s son, Vikramaditya was contesting.
At the same time, Priyanka, who had an early dinner with Rahul at a South Indian restaurant in Chanakyapuri, was doing her bit. She rang up Congress Chief Ministers and asked them to send the list of potential ministers from their respective states. It could not be ascertained if the CMs actually sent in names or were taken aback by this call.
Two close advisers to Rahul, including a former Union Minister and his personal secretary K. Raju went to the residence of a well-known senior attorney in South Delhi to get two drafts prepared for the President of India. One draft was specific to the Congress staking claim directly and the second one was formulated to support any of the UPA allies. The two letters were delivered at the Congress president’s office.
So certain and assured were the Gandhis of victory that a press conference on the day of counting was also planned, following which a victory march was to take place outside the Congress headquarters. Everything went off-centre when the results started pouring in.
Sources said that the reason for Rahul and Priyanka criticising the Chief Ministers at the Congress Working Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago was because they were misled by some of them. Earlier, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had stated that the Congress could possibly win between 14 and 16 out of 25 from his state, but the winners may not include his son. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Kamal Nath, presented his figure to around 11 to 15 out of 29. It was only Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who divulged the ground reality and said that the Congress would win only three or four seats. He was complimented for his modest assessment and told that the figure would be 8. AICC treasurer, Ahmed Patel, was asked for his estimation regarding Gujarat, and is understood to have conveyed to Rahul that the Congress was unlikely to win any seat from there, a matter which displeased the Congress president.
The entire edifice of the proposed government formation was built on inaccurate evaluation, which has been a brutal blow to the Congress president. Rahul was so sure of success in both the constituencies he was contesting from—Amethi and Wayanad—that he asked Priyanka to contest from Amethi, once he vacated the seat. On her part, Priyanka has been admonishing workers, and telling UP leaders that they should “now prepare only for 2029 elections” given that they had let the party grievously down.
According to reliable sources, Priyanka withdrew herself at the eleventh hour from a possible fight from Varanasi, thereby upsetting Rahul’s overall poll plans for UP. She and her husband, Robert Vadra, communicated to Rahul that beginning her political career with a loss in her kitty would not warrant well. When Rahul insisted, she asked him to contest from the seat instead. Earlier, Shatrughna Sinha had offered to contest from Varanasi against the Prime Minister, and had claimed that he had been assured of a Rajya Sabha berth in case he was defeated from the holy city; he was asked to return to Patna Saheb, from where he was reluctant to fight, given that it was a strong traditional BJP seat.
It is perceptible that the Gandhis feel misled and even in some cases betrayed by people whom they banked on. Therefore, it is most unlikely that Rahul will cave in to pressure and withdraw his resignation. Now that his Prime Ministerial hopes have been dashed, Rahul seems to be adamant that he will leave leadership of the battle against Narendra Modi and BJP to someone else
Not sure where the dhoti shiver or towel was in what I said, but just analyzing some op-eds, by Fair Didi, by Klugelman Paki, and Sushant Sareen. We know on BR, but there are 2 key ways to make Pakis change their behavior:Anujan wrote:Why the dhoti shiver and towel?