Come R-Day, these boys will slither down flying chopper

This story idea was given to me by my good friend in Bhopal Ritu Raj Mate, who was training these NCC cadets in slithering down from great heights as part of their preparations to use these practice jumps from a chopper at the 2003 Republic Day Parade at New Delhi. Four NCC Cadets were hand picked to do this dangerous but yet fun jump from a flying chopper in front of our President of India and The Prime Minister of India. Ritu Raj Mate who was himself a disciplined cadet during his younger days was given the charge to give them the basic training to get the scare of height from their minds first. When he invited me two weeks of the cadets onward journey to practice on their real jumps from a flying chopper, it was exciting and also great to have a word with the future defense personals. I thank Ritu again for giving me another wonderful story.

Every morning four boys can be spotted climbing down the rope from a high tension wire pole at Bhadbhada dam like an agile monkey. No, neither the boys are into some kind of monkey business nor practicing any rope trick, so to say. They are the four talented National Cadet Core (NCC) corps selected to slither down the rope from a moving helicopter at the Republic Day Parade in the National capital. The boys – Ravinder Rajput, Anup Karmakar, Phool Singh Netam and Sheshnaryan Namdev look pretty excited about the practice. That is of course, understandable. For, among the audience to watch their well-practiced feat will be the President of India A P J Abdul Kalam, the Vice President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
If the boys are excited their trainers and supervisors are no less so. Entire NCC Directorate for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is keenly looking forward to the R-day.
The four boys are put to a rigrous drill every morning by the commandant Brigadier Das Gupta (deputy DG MP & Chhattisgarh), Colonel R R Gadkary, Subedar D S Chouhan, Havildar H M Data Ram and Ex- NCC cadet Ritu Raj Mate.
Colonel R R Gadkary informed that this would be for the first time that the cadets would Para drop with rope from a helicopter. “It is going to be an excellent one.”
The contingent is leaving for New Delhi on December 29 where another 25 days will be more crucial training period for the boys.
The will start actual practice of slithering down the rope from a helicopter.
Ritu Raj Mate says that when he was a cadet he had had training in all sorts of adventure sports. He feels that the early training has stood him in good stead now that he is imparting training to these boys.

Naxals Scout for Techies

This story was given to me by Rituraj Mate who met Govindan Kutty the spokeperson for the Naxals a week before his arrest and asked me if I was interested in speaking to him too. I did a telephone interview with him and asked him to supply the document the naxals had prepared during their annual congress at an undisclosed location. After receiving the full document from Kutty, I asked my co-worker Niranjan Kaggere (who was very interested in doing this story with me), to read the document fully. After he had finished he was planning to do another angle for which I advised him to write that the Naxals are on the look for techies so that they could strengthen their hands and also get world attention on the click of a computer button. This story was discussed with K R Sreenivas the Resident Editor of Bangalore Mirror and then the final text was put to print on December 12, 2007.

Bangalore is one of the cities being targeted by naxals as a recruiting ground for tech-savvy urban comrades

Silicon city had better watch out. Its high tech an glitzy reputation of the country’s own home-grown terror movement. And it won’t be long before the red corridor along eastern India beats a path to Bangalore. Sources within the naxal movement said that a ‘tech’ overhaul of guerilla squads, with a focus on urban areas, is on the anvil.
It is not only techies whom the naxals aspire to rope in; they have ‘plans’ even for the medical fraternity. They party plans to grow networks of sympathizing doctors and hospitals where comrades can be treated. Speaking to Bangalore Mirror Govindan Kutty, a spokesman of the Communist Party (Maoists), said that despite recent setbacks, the movement would be reorganized and intensified.
Buttressing his remark are the ‘guidelines to guerrillas’ adopted at the party’s congress held recently at an undisclosed place, which talk of urban network in cities like Bangalore as a ‘back-up’ for guerrilla squads fighting in remote forest areas across the country.

Govindan Kutty with a friend during his service to the people in these pictures provided by him.

The pictures of the naxal carders during training with sophisticated weapons at undisclosed locations provided to me by Govindan Kutty.

Admitting that there has been a considerable setback in the party’s urbanization plans, Kutty philosophized, ‘setbacks, victories, defeats, up and downs have to be faced by any revolutionary movement.’
Almost echoing his statement the draft guidelines of the party mailed to this newspaper leaves one in no doubt about its urban agenda. ‘In the past 30 years, there has been a disregard towards the tasks of the urban movement. As per the ‘Policies of the Revolutionists’ findings of the ninth congress, the urban areas, with over 60 per cent of the gross domestic product and a huge population, have a growing role to play in the economy as well as in the revolution. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to quickly correct the imbalance.’
The CPI (Maoists) guidelines focus on urban areas with a large working class. The guidelines urge naxal activists to reorient and reorganize urban outfits, and call for urban and working-class ‘specialization’ (read, representation) in high level party committees. Cities in the party’s cross hairs are Bangalore, Ahmedabad-Pune corridor, Delhi, Chennai and the Coimbatore-Erode belt.
In a detailed e-mail, Kutty said, ‘There is a perception that Maoists are against developmental activities. If we were against development. People would not have supported us. Without development, the country cannot progress. But the question is: development for whom? ‘For MNC’s or a handful of traitors who mortgage out country for a song, or for the majority of common people?’
According to the guidelines, ‘Technical help from the cities will in the form of repairs and maintenance of fighting, communication and other equipment of the guerrillas of the PLA, and preparing comrades with technical, electrical, electronic and other engineering skills to take up the challenges in forest and rural areas.’
In other words, the common man’s perception that the naxal movement is restricted to rural and forest areas of the country may no more be relevant. Cities like Bangalore will increasingly be beach-heads for the comrades’ power through the gun’ Agenda.

GUNS AND BRAINS
Urban comrades with good technical skills are the essence of the party and the revolution, according to the guidelines. The idea is to provide working-class leadership an technical support for the people’s war in rural areas and remote places. Unorganized sectors like textile and small scale units – labouring under poor working conditions – are seen as potential recruiting grounds. As the guidelines put it, ‘We must distribute ourselves very well in key industries and set up a strong base.”

VIRTUAL WAR
Naxals are furthering their agenda in cyber space too. They are banking on urban sympathizers with whose assistance they can track, counter and attack the ‘enemy’(read, the state) via the internet.

Combat Exercise by Indian Paratroopers

The main aim of having a Parachute Unit to any country is for quick deployment of the solders behind enemy lines to attack the enemy from behind & destroy their first line of defense. They are the "CRACK FORCE" & help the main army to get in without much damage. The Indian Paras are the Elite group of soldiers & generally all the Special Forces personals are selected from it. Though it has its own SF Units & slowly they are being converted into SF or better known as "COMMANDOS".
The three parachute commandos (battalion-size units) perform Special Forces duties. Airborne, Air Assault or Parachute troops are usually held centralized. The mounts, in all cases, are provided by the Indian Air Force. The parachute and parachute commando units, which are part of the Indian Army's Special Forces, are ready reaction troops, although their use “is heavily dependent on the Air Force air transport fleet.
By start of the new century, the Parachute Regiment had essentially two components. One part was the traditional parachute force, with the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Parachute.
In 2003 the government announced the creation of four new Special Forces battalions to be trained in cooperation with Israel. The intended role for these units was to stop cross-border infiltration in Kashmir, though they were to be trained for cross-border raids as well. One report indicated in 2004, that the 5th Parachute was converting to the Special Forces role; however, it was actually the 4th that converted. There are no open source indications that the remaining battalions were ever actually formed.
The parachute units of the Indian Army are among the oldest airborne units in the world. The 1st unit was authorized on 15 May 1941, & by October 1941 the 50th (Independent) Parachute Brigade had been formed; comprising 152nd Parachute Battalion (Indian), 151st Parachute Battalion (British) & 153rd Parachute Battalion (Gurkha).
The Pictures you get to see below are the ones taken at the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore during the visi of the Sultan of Brunei.

Fighters of the Parachute Regiment Training Center enact a war scene as their slither down a mock training iron railings (left) as they enact an arm to arm combat with an mock target (right) to the visiting Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah after he had checked out the latest and mordern Weapons of Warfare during his visit in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

Commandos of the Parachute Regiment Training Center enact a war scene as one Sits behind an tree trunk to give covering fire (left) to the fellow commando who is running for the final assualt (right) to the visiting Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah after he had checked out the latest and mordern Weapons of Warfare during his visit in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

The below operation is an very coveted one tacking the unpredictability of the Jammu & Kashmir hills surrounded with thick forest and rocky terrain. The Paratroop Commandos are air lifted by a Helicopter and dropped to a certain point to finish an operation with terrorists holed up in a Kashmir home. The whole operation lasts 6 minutes and the enemy is neutralized with meticulous planning and swift and calculated moves during the operation.























This Scene was appreciated by the visiting Sultan of Brunei and he also praised the team from the fast coordinated moves by helping each other through out the six minute operation.

*** Please scroll down for more on the Sultan of Brunei ***

Brunei Sultan's love for Arms!

Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah the Sultan of Brunei visited the garden city of Bangalore on 23rd of May, 2008. his purpose of visit though kept a secret was out in the open the moment he landed into the city. His aim was to strike a arms deal with the Indian Army and also strike a deal with the erstwhile Mysore Maharaja Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar for setting up an resort at his Bangalore Palace and also purchase a few hundred acres of land from the King.
But since I was able to visit only the Army area I have posted some pictures of the Sultan trying his hand some of the pistols and arms on display which the Indian Defense wanted to sell to him. Here are some of his pictures taken by me during his two hour stay at the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore.

Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah comes out of bunker(left) and hops on to his waiting open air jeep (right) after checking it during his visit to the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah interacts with officers of the Parachute Regiment (left) and looks at an Multi Media presentation (right) during his visit to the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah checks out the latest and modern Weapons for during his visit to the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.

Bull Eye: The Sultan of Brunei His Majesty Hazi Hassanal Bolkiah checks out the latest and modern Weapons of Warfare (left) and hits the bulls eye during his visit while trying the latest light combat guns at the Parachute Regiment Training Center in Bangalore on Friday 23rd May 2008.