The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Corrections and clarifications

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Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008
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Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

* * The second paragraph in a report “India files nuclear separation plan with IAEA” (July 28, 2008) was “The document — as tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 11 March 2006 — was published on Friday by the IAEA secretariat as Infcirc/731 and circulated to all member states.” Siddharth Varadarajan clarifies that it should have been May 11, 2006.

* * The heading of a compilation of photographs was “Shock and awe in Ahmedabad on Black Saturday” (“Newscape” page, July 27, 2008), leading to queries. The phrase “shock and awe”, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant manoeuvres, and spectacular displays of force to paralyse an adversary’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States in 1996. Titled “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance”, the book describes shock and awe as a strategy ‘aimed at influencing the will, perception, and understanding of an adversary rather than simply destroying military capability.’ In this respect, shock and awe bears a striking similarity to terrorism as propaganda, in which psychological rather than material dominance is viewed as a primary war objective.

* * The seventh paragraph in a report “BJP not enthusiastic about inquiry committee” (July 27, 2008) was “On Friday evening, there were reports that the CNN IBN had in fact decided to telecast the ‘tapes’ allegedly showing the act of cash-giving to Ashok Arkal ….” It should have been Ashok Argal, who is the BJP MP from Morena (SC) (Madhya Pradesh).

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