July 13, 2026

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GRAND TEMPLE THEFT

Only dharma survives, everything else is perishable--the Prince of Ayodhya had said, turning away from his royal realm and its riches, going on to live in the forest like a hermit. More than any other deity in the pantheon, Ram, the god incarnate worshipped by millions of Hindus, inscribed duty and detachment as the code of life. Mortals were bound to come up short against that archetype. A century-long political agitation that changed the course of modern Indian history bore his name; it sought ownership. Its fruit was a mammoth temple of gilded splendour that came up in Ayodhya in January 2024 and cost about Rs 2,000 crore.Ironically, the idea that Rama's vairagya, or re- nunciation, could be converted into material opulence did not have to wait long to find a rather more ignoble expression. In the last week of June 2026, two months after the final bit of work was wrapped up around the 70-acre Ram Janmabhoomi temple complex, Ayodhya is awash not with divine grace, but its opposite. A pall of infamy hovers over town as a police investigation grinds forward. What they're chasing is a spreading stain of greed: allegations that crores of rupees donated by devotees have been siphoned off by its custodians.With state opposition leaders, led by Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, levelling serious charges on the issue, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi

NEEDED, A UNIFIED ROCKET FORCE

Recent global conflicts have made one thing clear--salvoes of missiles, swarms of drones and precision-guided R munitions striking targets hundreds of kilometres away represent the front line in military face-offs. Operation Sindoor in May 2025 offered a glimpse of this emerging reality--India's use of BrahMos, Pralay, SCALP cruise missiles, long-range artillery and kamikaze drones demonstrated a capacity for precision strikes against terrorist infrastructure and military targets across Pakistan. The operation also laid a question before India's military planners: does India now need a dedicated rocket and missile force to better marshal its assets, or can existing structures deliver on ever-growing demands? An integrated rocket/ missile force would provide a single framework for India's growing inventory of conventional precision-strike weapons, including drones. Military planners believe that bringing them under a dedicated missile force would make it easier to manage resources, shorten decision cycles and enable faster responses during crises. Officials say that an integrated missile force would also firm up the emerging `Sindoor Doctrine' of swift and calibrated conventional strikes below the nuclear threshold. Analysts point out that in an era where wartime supply chains cannot be guaranteed, better management of missile power is a necessity.Currently, in the Indian military, rocket and missile systems are operated directly by the individual services. Through units of its three artillery divisions, the Indian Army operates surface-to-surface missiles (Pralay, Prahaar, Shaurya), longer-range cruise missiles (BrahMos, Nirbhay) and rockets through multi-barrelled launchers (Pinaka, Smerch). The Indian Air Force (IAF) has control over air-launched missiles like Astra, BrahMos-A and SCALP. Both the army and the IAF have units that operate an array of surface-to-air missile (SAM) defence systems like Akash, Barak-8 and S-400. The Indian Navy operates ship- and submarine-launched anti-ship and land attack missiles like the naval BrahMos along with ship-based surface-to-air defence systems like Dhanush. All nuclear-capable ballistic (Agni) and submarine-launched missiles (the K-series missiles) are managed by the Strategic Forces Command.The strategic environment strengthens the argument in favour of a missile force. Both China and Pakistan have established dedicated missile and rocket forces, recognising long-range precision weapons as a central instrument of deterrence and coercion. Pakistan's Army Rocket Force Command (ARFC) is modelled on China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). India's dispersed arrangements compare unfavourably with these integrated structures, say some experts.The matter was noted by outgoing army chief General Upendra Dwivedi. "If we want to achieve an impact, both rockets and missiles can deliver it. We are looking at a rocket and missile force because Pakistan has established a rocket force and China has also created such a force. It is the need of the hour," he said recently. Gen. Dwivedi clarified that military planners will have to decide whether the "rocket-cum-missile" force would be part of the army, operated directly under the Union ministry of defence or be under the control of the Chief of Defence Staff. He did indicate that it might initially be under the army's artillery branch.Defence Secretary R.K. Singh, too, recently confirmed that India is working to develop a conventional missile force spanning short- medium- and long-range missiles/ rockets. "Evolving global conflicts and Pakistan's growing conventional missile capabilities have