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Praetorium Honoris

Thursday, August 15, 2024

India Reacts ...

The North and South Blocks of the Central Secretariat building which houses various ministries of the Government of India.
Source
The Indian government had been stunned to learn of the Indian Navy's use of nuclear weapons in the Laccadive Sea, some 200 miles south of the southern tip of India. The Russian Embassy was screaming, the United States was asking difficult questions, and, worse yet, the Chinese were threatening war.

Prime Minister Priya Chetti could hardly blame them, they had lost at least three warships. She had been informed not an hour earlier that INS Chakra had failed to report in. Admiral Ganesh Raj had reported that Chakra had failed to check in for over 36 hours. The Navy considered the boat lost at sea.

She turned to one of her aides, "I need to see Admiral Raj and General Gupta at once!"

The aide nodded and said, "Both are on their way here, Madam Prime Minister. Also President Malhotra is coming, he wishes that the government present a united front, no matter what is decided."


"What do you think, Amar?" Admiral Raj was concerned about a report he had received 30 minutes ago, the report which made him call General Malhotra to suggest they immediately go to the Central Secretariat and meet with the Prime Minister.

"I think it's the damned Khalistanis, Ganesh. We have a man inside the BKI, he has reported that part of the Navy was determined to go over to the separatists. We haven't been able to get any more details as our man seems to have gone missing, offline if you will."

Raj stopped dead in the hallway. Malhotra looked at him expectantly.

"The captain of the Chakra is a Sikh, Commander Ramdeep Singh Kharral, his Number One is Commander Yadbir Singh Asra."

"Two Sikhs? What of it? What about the rest of the crew?" Malhotra asked with concern.

"I had the records pulled, they are in this folder, much of the crew is from Punjab."

"They're all Sikhs?" Malhotra gazed at the admiral with a look of panic on his face.

"We're not sure, many modern Sikhs no longer use Singh, Kaur for the women, so it's hard to tell at a glance."

"Dear Lord!" Malhotra gasped.

"Indeed." Raj said as he continued down the hallway.


"India has a separatist movement?" President Nakagawa asked, totally unaware of such a thing.

Bill Aspinall scanned the briefing book he'd had the staff prepare, he read verbatim from the report ...

The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno‐religious sovereign state called Khalistan (lit. 'land of the Khalsa') in the Punjab region. The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab, while larger claims include Pakistani Punjab and other parts of North India such as Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Shimla and Lahore have been proposed as the capital of Khalistan.

"Seriously?"

"Well, according to the footnote, it's from Wikipedia."

The President grimaced. Aspinall continued, "CIA confirms that. For what that's worth these days."

"Well, so far those fellows have behaved themselves, not that we could prove otherwise anyway." Nakagawa hit the button on the intercom for his administrative assistant, he'd been chastised the other day for referring to her as "his secretary."

"Yes, Mr. President?"

"Nancy, I need to talk to the Prime Minister of India."

There was a pause, "That would be Prime Minister Chetti, Priya Chetti. I'll get her on the line, Sir. I'm sure she'll know why you're calling. The submarine business, yes?"

"You should be running the CIA, Nancy."

"No Sir, I like this job just fine. Please hold, Sir."


"I hope you don't mind, Mr. President, but I would like Premier Liu of the People's Repiblic of China to be involved in any official conversations regarding this incident in the Laccadive Sea. After all, her country is, I dare say, the injured party here."

"Certainly, Madam Prime Minister. My people tell me that she has restored order in Beijing and in many other of the major cities in China. So, de facto, she's in charge."

"Yes, that is our assessment as well, here in New Delhi. What I propose is we set up a Zoom conference call for tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. That would be 6:00 PM in Beijing and 3:30 PM in New Delhi, I know that's rather early, Mr. President but ..."

"No, no, Madam Prime Minister. That works very well. Would you do the honors of initiating the call?"

"I'd rather you Americans did so, Mr. President. You are neutral in this matter. I hope."

"Until I know all the facts, Ma'am, we are indeed neutral. Right now this is a matter for India and China to resolve, peacefully I ..."

The line cut off. Nakagawa looked at the phone on his desk, puzzled, but worried as well.

"Nancy?"

"The line was cut on their end, Mr. President. I'm contacting our ambassador in New Delhi right now."

The intercom went silent, Nakagawa looked at Aspinall. "Do I know our man in New Delhi?"

"I don't think so, Mr. President. His name is Vishnu Gupta, career State Department, an honest man from what I've been told."

"So we wait. Contact the Pentagon, I want us at DEFCON 2¹ ASAP."

"Yes Sir."




¹ The final DEFCON level short of nuclear war, the military needs to deploy and be ready to engage within six hours. The United States went to DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

48 comments:

  1. Good timing on another entry for Uprising, rain is drumming on the roof as I read. China, India and ?...... oh my! Got me guessing where this is going Sarge.

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    1. I want toed to illustrate that events in the United States don't happen in a vacuum, there are other players out there.

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  2. All too easy Darth Vader said as he flipped the switch.

    Next line was "impressive, very impressive" as Luke Escaped the trap.

    So goes the storyline of Uprising? Just when you think the situation is starting to settle down, BAM! A separatist movement in Nuclear Armed India shows up.

    DEFCON 2 is something that the rest of the world notices. Hopefully doesn't trigger anybody else. Unintended consequences and all that.

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    1. We are not alone on this planet, it behooves us, as Americans, to remember that. Not everyone wishes this great country well.

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    2. The Cuban missile crisis was scary. My recollection was that the day before the showdown, Navy ships across the world were topping off tanks and putting to sea. The boomers were running fast, deep and silent toward their launch points. Half of SAC's B52s were in the air orbiting over the arctic, the rest on 15-minute alert. That night for the first time American fighter interceptors over American soil carried air to air missiles with live armed nuclear warheads.

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    3. I was just a kid, a rather terrified nine year old. I was interested in military affairs even then and I saw the way my parents were acting. We came very close to the end on that one.

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    4. I was in high school and that two week period changed a lot of relationships and inspired even more conversations. The aftermath of those changes and conversations went on for months.

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  3. Replies
    1. Maybe ominous, might just be crappy software. It happens and that too can lead to bad things happening.

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  4. Sikh assassins claimed at least one Prime Minister of India before...
    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Indira-Gandhi

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  5. Just spit ballin' here,
    Pakistan (India's long time enemy and is nuclear armed as well) has not been mentioned...
    Could we see a surprise actor enter stage left?
    Great story Sarge, you've got me on the edge of my seat!

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    1. And I have really been falling down on my critique biz as I haven't found a single typo in the last few installments...
      Good job Sarge.
      MSG Grumpy

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    2. Pakistan is always a factor in that region.

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    3. I have threatened my editor (which is me) with dire consequences for typos and misspellings. That seems to be working.

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    4. Don't stifle the muse with perfect grammar.

      I want the story and disregard the grammar police.

      Michael

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    5. Heh, he- let the floggings begin. See your 0618 comment sic "I want toed to illustrate that events in the United States don't happen in a vacuum, there are other players out there."

      I agree with your thought there, although mystified about counting toes. Speaking of which, I recently was researching a WW1 Army dude, and found his draft registration card indicating under distinguishing physical characteristics- "Has six toes on left foot."
      That's your serendipity history item for today. ;-)

      Speaking of Sikhs, there are a lot of them in the long haul trucking business, and a number of Indian restaurants popping up near truck stops.
      John Blackshoe

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    6. Michael, I like it when Grumpy finds my errors, saves me the trouble of doing it later.

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    7. JB - Comments don't count. But yeah, my mouse cursor screwed me there, it jumped and "wanted to" became "want toed." Heh, counting toes, I like it. I've seen the occasionally Sikh around here. Their culture is pretty cool.

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    8. Rob - Best thing about reader/commenters finding problems is I don't have to pay them for the edits!

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    9. Sikhs started out as a very peaceful religion. Then the muslim slavers showed up and after that, poof, must have a knife on you at all times.

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    10. Damned fine warriors and soldiers they are.

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  6. Kasmir and its neighbors have each been a problem to each other for several centuries, and most of them problems to themselves as well. Mixing religions and government never seems to work well.

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    1. Pretty much why the Founders included the separation of Church and State as one of our founding principles. (And really, Kashmir isn't the problem, the folks claiming it for themselves are, a lovely region of the planet so I understand why someone would want it.)

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    2. Oh good grief. Sarge, kindly point where the Founders included that phrase or similar intentions in any of the founding papers, including Federalist papers

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    3. Re-read the First Amendment, this part - "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

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    4. The intent is that government shall not dictate the practice of religion to the people as had been done in the American colonies.

      The phrase in the 1A does not preclude the church having influence in government. Indeed, after the founding, for many years were religious services regularly convened inside the Capitol building. There are many more such examples. Even today, the long tradition of opening government sessions with a prayer is honored. Either the prayer is meaningful or it is empty standing on tradition.

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    5. And what's your point?

      You're being argumentative and not advancing any meaningful conversation here.

      Delete
  7. Well, I did not see that coming at all!

    What this story really gives flavor to is the fact that weakness, real or simply sensed, will open a floodgate of activities (mostly bad).

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    1. Wow, I had to dig you out of the spam filter. Gargle is being extremely obtuse today.

      Weakness will attract predators, that's how the system works, even in politics.

      That which doesn't work will eventually collapse. Though Communists, being particularly obtuse, will keep trying.

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    2. Wow, Gargle raised me to spam status. I am indeed honored.

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    3. I suppose it is rather an honor that Gargle sees you as a threat.

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  8. Replies
    1. Very, especially with modern communications and jet travel.

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  9. I'm really hoping the idiots in the US are happy with what's happening world wide. I'm not saying if they hadn't started all this wouldn't have happen anyway, we would be in a better place to handle it.

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  10. A whole boat-load of Sikhs? Pissed off Sikhs? Yikes.

    I wonder if any US boat is tracking them and hasn't reported back to home yet on said Sikh-boat? Tracking stuff that's difficult to track is one of the hallmarks of the US Submarine Service.

    I'm still wondering if possibly the S-Boot (Sikh-boat) may have done China a good deed? Who, exactly, was on board that task force? Political refugees from the old regime trying to get the heck out of another Chinese Revolution?

    And, gee, what' s up with the current Chinese Revolution in your story? Are they more Maoist or are they more 'let's be like Chinese Taipei'?

    Questions. I gots them. Answers. I don'ts gots them.

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    1. Very fine questions, some of which will eventually be answered. (Most of them, I hope!)

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  11. All Sikhs? Reminds me of Captain Ramius hand picking his wardroom for the Red October.

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    1. Where do you think the inspiration for this came from? (Imitation is the purest form of flattery.)

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    2. Well, Clancy was the master of his craft so it makes sense.

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  12. Argh! So good! The suspense is killing me!

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