Indian American in key U.S. aviation body
The Donald Trump administration has named an Indian-American, Dr Vivek Lall (49), an aerospace scientist, to a key federal aviation advisory committee which provides guidance to the US government on the future of airspace system. Son of a late Indian diplomat, Lall has been appointed for a two-year term on the committee. Currently, Lall is a vice-president at Lockheed Martin. Earlier, he has been a top official at Boeing and General Atomics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met him in Washington DC. Lall has been instrumental in getting breakthroughs for global US defence companies and the US establishment and successfully led over $12 billion of US-India trade.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Lall said, “It is a great honour for me. I would be representing the viewpoints of defence technology organisations in the NextGen Advisory Committee of the Department of Transportation.”
“The committee advises the American government on issues including, but not limited to, NextGen investment priorities, capability deployment timing, equipage incentives, specific technologies, and deployments such as DataComm, National airspace system performance metrics, and airspace design initiatives,” said Lall, who presently resides in the US with wife, Shiva, and two children. He can speak five languages, including French, German and Swahili. Lall is known among the Asia Pacific and US defence and political establishments as the “most influential Asian American” in US defence industry. Before getting into aviation, he was trained as a private pilot in the US. He is a mechanical and aeronautical engineer. Cambridge (UK) listed him as one of only 2,000 “outstanding scientists” of the 20th Century.
During his stint in India, Lall was chairman of the Indo-American Strategic Dialogue and also an advisor to the UN affiliates on cybersecurity and broadband issues. He worked as India Country Head, Boeing Defense Space and Security in May 2007 and earlier as Managing Director of Boeing Commercial Airplanes from 2003 to 2007. Before returning to America, Lall was appointed as president and CEO at Reliance Industries Limited to spearhead growth in new ventures (aerospace and homeland security) in 2011, and worked closely with Mukesh Ambani.
‘Grand Samajwadi Hotel’ raises eyebrows
The common man and the political class are surprised to learn that top “Samajwadis” want to get into the hotel and hospitality business. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and wife Dimple Yadav (Lok Sabha member) submitted on 23 June a building plan map with the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) for opening a hotel—likely to be named Hibiscus Heritage—at a commercial plot, 1, Vikramaditya Marg.
The business plan unfolded weeks after Akhilesh vacated his government bungalow in the same posh locality following a Supreme Court order on 7 May that former CMs could not retain their government accommodation after demitting office. Akhilesh and his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, were living at 4 and 5 Vikramaditya Marg.
Interestingly, a similar application seeking approval for establishing a library on an adjacent plot, 2, Vikramaditya Marg, has been received from Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP founder and former UP CM. Located near the SP office, the 23,872 square feet “1-A” plot was bought by Akhilesh and Dimple on 31 January 2005 from Delhi’s Ujjawala Ramnath, wife of Kamal Ramnath, for Rs 35 lakh. At the time, Mulayam was the CM of UP. The area is in a high security zone. Construction here cannot exceed a height of 7 metres. The LDA officials say that by this rule, both the hotel and the library cannot have more than two floors.
“It was dirt cheap price paid by the Yadav couple for this prime land,” a senior BJP leader in Lucknow told this writer, commenting that “though the price should have been in crores of rupees…we won’t be surprised if some quid pro quo deal was done with the seller.” Taking a dig at Akhilesh for his proposed five-star hotel, a UP minister told this paper, “Perhaps the Samajwadi couple will build a penthouse in the glittering building to make it their permanent living place in Lucknow.”
Bluestar veterans face life threats
Central intelligence agencies have alerted Punjab and some other states about a high level of threat to many serving and retired Army officers who had participated in June 1984 Operation Bluestar to flush out pro-Khalistani armed militants from Amritsar’s Golden Temple. The Intelligence Bureau has warned that Pakistan’s spy agency (ISI) is trying to revive the pro-Khalistan movement in Punjab to engage India in militancy. It is feared that ISI trained Khalistani militants or some Punjab-based gangsters having links across the border may target those Army officers who had taken part in Operation Bluestar. “There is a high level of threat to kill or kidnap these officers,” sources told The Sunday Guardian.
In recent times, names of many gangsters have cropped up in Punjab police records of having links with foreign-based organisations, especially in Pakistan, Canada and Britain.
General A.S. Vaidya, who was the Army Chief during Operation Bluestar, was shot dead near his house in Pune in 1986. Lieutenant General K.S. Brar (Retd) as a Major General had led the operation. He survived a knife attack by a youth in London in October 2012.
Lt Gen Ranjit Dyal, who was the then Chief of Staff, Western Command, died of age-related causes in January 2012. A local gurudwara in Panchkula (Haryana), on the outskirts of Chandigarh, had refused to conduct his final prayers. The Army had then provided a Sikh priest at his home.
The police security has been provided to those who are still in service. They and retired officers have been advised to maintain a low profile and not to discuss their role in Operation Bluestar.
Monsoon session may be a washout
The top BJP leadership is apprehensive that the Congress will try its “old dirty tricks” to create trouble in Parliament’s monsoon session (18 July to 10 August) and ensure its washout. “We are aware that the Congress leadership is working on a strategy not to let this session function so that the Narendra Modi government is not able to highlight many important welfare issues like Wednesday’s decision to approve a steep rise in the minimum support price of crops, giving farmers the promised 50% return on input costs,” a senior saffron party leader claimed to The Sunday Guardian. The minimum support price has been seen as a smart political move in the race for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as it can help ease farm distress and boost rural demand if implemented effectively. But it can also stoke inflation as some Opposition leaders have started claiming. Interestingly, the Congress has also accused the Modi government of wanting to waste the monsoon session. “The BJP does not want to face burning questions confronting the country. It wants to avoid accountability, so it is preparing the ground to create a standoff during the coming monsoon session of Parliament,’” senior party leaders claim. The Congress leadership is in an embarrassing position in view of arrest threat looming ahead for former Union Minister P. Chidambaram in a high profile corruption case. From time to time, the party has charged the Modi government with pursuing vindictive politics.
Press Club gets drunk on football
Press Club of India in Lutyens Delhi is perhaps one of the cheapest drinking holes in the national capital. As it has a high consumption daily, liquor companies leave no opportunity on occasions like the FIFA World Cup, the IPL and international cricket matches to popularise their brands by distributing “free coupons”. Right enough, the drinking crowd swells during the matches, courtesy the “free peg” to kick-start the night. Soon after political or media federation’s meetings are over in the club’s vast open courtyard, smartly turned-out staff of a popular liquor brand appears to set up a huge LED television screen and tune all the other TV sets in the main bar room and other halls for the live coverage of the game. These young men “target the customers”, especially those who come with their families. While the men are given extra free coupons, those with babies and children are in for further special treatment. To enable adult customers to keep drinking, their children are handed out plastic toys and whistles. In the recent IPL matches, special photo-ops were created in a make-shift studio. The ladies were invited along with their husband and kids to get clicked. The picture prints were presented in decorative frames. As the people swing to the mood to beat the heat and enjoy the game, “habitual drinkers” often invite their teetotaller colleagues, like this writer, to sit with them. And, why not? After all, a free coupon should never be wasted.
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com