The government on Monday withdrew a list of over 1,000 non-‘swadeshi’ products to be banned from sale at Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) canteens barely a couple of hours after it was circulated as several items in it were made in India.
Stating that action is being initiated for the “lapse”, Union Home Ministry officials said there were discrepancies in the list issued by the Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar (central police welfare stores) and a new one would be issued after due diligence.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which manages the board of the CAPF canteens, said the list was issued “erroneously”.
“This is clarified that the list issued by Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar on May 29 regarding de-listing of certain products has been erroneously issued at the level of CEO.” “The list has been withdrawn and action is being initiated for the lapse,” a statement issued in the name of the CRPF director general said.
The CRPF chief is the chairman of the welfare and rehabilitation board that looks after the network of canteens. —PTI
India renews dialogue offer to avert Nepal map revision
India is making a last-ditch effort to persuade Nepal not to push ahead with a Constitutional amendment that will formalise the inclusion of territory claimed by India in its political map.
Nepal has already issued a revised political map but a Constitutional amendment, if passed by its Parliament, will give finality to the process and allow the new contours of the border to be incorporated in its coat of arms.
Nepal government has tabled a Bill to approve a new map which shows Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura-which also feature on India’s map-as part of its territory. India has rejected the map, calling the revision “unilateral” and “not based on historical facts and evidences”.
Sources said India has attempted to convey to Nepal that it is ready for talks with the tactical aim of delaying the parliamentary procedure. The new offer, conveyed through former security and diplomatic officials, is a revision of the old offer to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks after the Covid epidemic is over. The old offer of holding talks after the epidemic had riled the Nepalese political class and led to hardening of stance. Kathmandu had argued that talks could also be held during the pandemic if Defence Minister Rajnath Singh could inaugurate a road running through disputed areas while Covid was raging.
While the Indian side has not officially acknowledged the feelers sent out to Nepal, its Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali said Kathmandu is in constant touch with New Delhi. “The date and modality of informal talks are not fixed yet, but we are in constant touch with the Indian side… We want to resolve the issue through diplomatic means,’’ he was reported as having briefed Nepal’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.
The last-minute Indian attempt is the same tactics of 2015 when S Jaishankar, then the Foreign Secretary, had landed in Kathmandu to block major legislative changes that had upset Madhesis living in the plains bordering India. By the time Jaishankar landed, the die had been cast and Nepal did not heed the Foreign Secretary’s call, leading to an unacknowledged economic blockade.
Militant killed in encounter in J-K’s Pulwama The gunfight between security forces and militants still on
One militant has been killed in an ongoing operation in Pulwama district of south Kashmir early Tuesday morning.
Officials said a gun fight between security and militants has broken out in Sainmoh village. According to army, one militant has been killed in joint operation even as the gunfight was still on.
Militants were given a chance to surrender. Announcements were made for them to surrender but militants opened fire resulting in the gunfight. Recently, security forces had successfully managed to thwart a suicide attack in the district with the detection of an explosive-fitted car.
Top US lawmaker slams ‘Chinese aggression’ against India, urges Beijing to ‘respect norms’
Terming China a “bully”, a top American lawmaker has voiced concern over the “Chinese aggression” against India, urging Beijing to “respect norms” and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border standoff with New Delhi.
“I am extremely concerned by the ongoing Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border,” said Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbours rather than resolve conflicts according to international law,” he said.
Engel’s comments have come in the backdrop of the continuing standoff between the militaries of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“Countries must all abide by the same set of rules so that we don’t live in a world where ‘might makes right’. I strongly urge China to respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions with India,” Engel said in a statement.
The statement comes a day after China said that the overall situation at the border with India was “stable and controllable”, and both the countries have “unimpeded” communication channels to resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations.
“China has been implementing the consensus between the two countries’ leaders. We have been committed to upholding our national sovereignty, security as well as stability along the border”.
“Now the overall situation in our border areas is stable and controllable. We have unimpeded communication channels and we hope and believe through dialogue and consultations we can properly resolve the relevant issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing.
He was responding to a question on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks that India will not let its “pride be hurt” in its latest border flare-up with China but is determined to settle the dispute through talks between the giant neighbours.
“I want to assure the country that we will not let India’s pride be hurt in any circumstances,” Singh said in an interview to a news channel on Sunday.
India on Wednesday said it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row.
“We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, replying to questions at an online media briefing.
Both India and China have rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate to settle the current standoff between the militaries of the two countries.
“The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels,” Srivastava said.
Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.
Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. PTI
Chinese forces moved up to north of India along LAC, says Mike Pompeo
China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, asserting that authoritarian regimes take these kinds of actions.
Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.
“We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border,” Pompeo told Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka of AEI’s ‘What The Hell Is Going On’ Podcast.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) continues to hide and obfuscate and delay the global response to the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. It has taken actions destroying the amazing freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, he said.
“Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party. The nature and the activity that they’re undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea,” he said.
Pompeo said that these are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take, and they have a real impact not only on the Chinese people there in China and Hong Kongers in Hong Kong, but a real impact on people all around the world.
“The United States has a responsibility and the capability to push back against that, ensure that the American people are properly served by a foreign policy that recognises the threats that emanate from China today,” he said.
Responding to a question, Pompeo said that the recent Chinese actions be it on the India border, or Hong Kong or the South China Sea, have been part of the Chinese behaviour in the recent past.
“It’s not just over the past six months. We’ve seen over the past number of years continued Chinese build out of their military capabilities, and then continually more aggressive action. I mentioned India. You’ve mentioned the South China Sea.
“We see this same kind of things with them attempting to build ports around the world as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, places where they can move the People’s Liberation Army Navy. We’ve seen their continued efforts to expand militarily,” Pompeo said.
For the past 20 years, the US has not responded to these things in a real way, he said.
“We’ve viewed the 1.5 billion people in the Chinese market as so important to the American economy, and the risk that the Chinese would respond by closing us out for the favour of some other nation – I think people have just been too worried about that to actually take the responses that we take to every other country that behaves in the way that China has done,” Pompeo said.
President Donald Trump has not done that, he asserted.
“Trump’s made it very clear whether it’s the signature issue on trade… reciprocal trade… and now beginning to move to all the other elements of power that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand,” he added. PTI
Are Indian Army’s Special Forces losing their edge?
Commandos from 4 Para (SF) dropping from a helicopter to hunt for terrorists. This is the last photo of them alive
The Indian Army suffered a huge setback on April 5, when a five-man squad from the elite 4 Parachute (Special Forces) battalion, or 4 Para (SF) as it is more commonly known, were wiped out during an encounter in the mountains of Kupwara, north Kashmir, with terrorists who had crossed over from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on April 1.
The terrorists, believed to be five in number, taking advantage of inclement weather and heavy snowfall, infiltrated into the mountainous area of Kupwara through the Line of Control (LoC). However, they were spotted by an infantry unit deployed close by and challenged. However, the terrorists managed to escape deeper into the mountains.
This necessitated the deployment of the army’s best-trained and most motivated soldiers, the commandos from special forces units, who are relied upon to do the most difficult and dangerous operations, which are beyond the scope of regular infantry.
Usually, the special forces do their homework meticulously before they carry out any operation. Proper reconnaissance of the target is carried out, capabilities of the opposing forces are assessed and then only they move in for the kill.
The 2016 surgical strike, which was carried out by 9 Para (SF) and 4 Para (SF), was a classic example of what specially trained soldiers with proper intelligence and meticulous planning can achieve.
In Kupwara, the two squads of commandos that were deployed didn’t have that luxury. The only input they had was that there were five terrorists who had infiltrated into Indian territory and they had to be captured/killed before they could make it to the Kashmir Valley and disappear among the local population, making it very difficult if not impossible to track them.
So, the commandos were not up only against terrorists, who were well-trained which became evident later, but also against the elements and time, as the local army commanders wanted quick results.
Such operations are dangerous even for tough-as-nails commandos. In a similar operation in Hafruda forest of Kupwara on March 21, 2009, 1 Para (SF) lost 8 soldiers, including Major Mohit Sharma, who was posthumously awarded Ashoka Chakra, nation’s highest peace time gallantry award, after they were heli-dropped on a search and destroy mission against militants hiding in the forest but they were caught in a well-planned ambush.
In the afternoon of April 4, the commandos got the go ahead to deploy. Two squads were flown into an area where the terrorists were believed to be hiding. The commandos got out of the helicopters and started their mission in chest-high snow.
Surely, the terrorists who were hiding nearby had heard the helicopter and they knew that when a helicopter is pressed into service it can mean only one thing: special forces have been deployed.
The five commandos who made the supreme sacrifice
Early on April 5, one squad of the commandos picked up footsteps in the snow and started following them. What happened after that is hazy. The army version is that the ice cornice on which the commandos were standing gave way and some of them fell into a stream near the spot where the militants were hiding, who opened fire immediately on the commandos.
The commandos who didn’t fall, also slithered down and joined in the close-quarter hand-to-hand battle which resulted in everyone including the four or five terrorists and the five commandos dying.
But there are other theories going around which say that the commandos were caught unawares and were in fact ambushed and eliminated and the terrorists were then killed by the second squad of the commandos who were nearby and had rushed to the spot after hearing gunfire.
It is very likely that the spin doctors in the army turned an embarrassing ambush into a heroic action by putting out the narrative that the five commandos eliminated the terrorists while perishing in the process.
And why will they not? Losing an entire squad of supposed elite soldiers, the cream of the army, to terrorists is a defeat and the army would never accept it. It would hit morale of the forces and point fingers at everything, including poor intelligence and selection and training standards of special forces.
The terrorists who died were no ordinary terrorists. They were highly trained and motivated. To take out a whole squad of commandos is no easy task and there is no doubt the terrorists were trained by Pakistan Army’s special forces, the Special Service Group (SSG). In the past too, SSG-trained terrorists have proven to be tough fighters who have given Indian Army a hard time.
Even a senior army officer, who asked to remain anonymous, has said that the commandos walked into an ambush and the army is trying to hide this fact.
This incident has several similarities to what the Indian Air Force did with the downing of the MiG-21 Bison in the aerial battle with Pakistan Air Force fighter planes over PoK on Februry 27, 2019. The MiGs were launched to counter enemy planes. Likewise, the commandos were heli-dropped to take down militants who infiltrated. In both actions, our forces came off worse, though in Kupwara an entire squad of supposed elite soldiers, the cream of the army, were wiped out while on February 27, the MiG was downed by a superior fighter plane.
In my opinion, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, the MiG-21 pilot, didn’t fire a missile seconds before he was hit and therefore no PAF plane went down.
This is all propaganda. I guess the BJP-led government at the Centre wants to hide embarrassing defeats and instead wants to put out a narrative which paints our armed forces as heroes in every action, even when they have been overwhelmed by the enemy.
On February 27, we were surprised by PAF’s daylight raid and this led to confusion which resulted in downing of an Mi-17 chopper and deaths of six IAF personnel onboard and the shooting down of the MiG. The Sukhois and Mirage 2000s were also not able to fire their missiles, which again highlights the inadequacies which have marred our armed forces.
In Kupwara, the army was unable to track and finish off infiltrating militants for three days hence there was pressure from local commanders to find and eliminate them fast.
I think this hurriedness caused the surprise element to be lost and when the commando squads were helicoptered in, the mililtants knew what they were up against and they were prepared.
By now the militants in Kashmir know the standing operating procedure of Special Forces teams. If they hear a helicopter, they know the SF teams are coming and about to be dropped and this gives them ample time to prepare an ambush.
If militants can take out a SF squad, what can they do to a group of regular soldiers? The army has to take a long, hard look at what happened in Kupwara and change its standing operating procedure so that it stays one step ahead of the opposing forces.
Ramandeep Singh Bajwa, Senior Associate Editor
bajwa.rs@gmail.com
Armed forces are the unsung heroes in the battle to overcome coronavirus
An AN-32 transport aircraft of Indian Air Force is being loaded with medical equipment which will be flown from Tambaram (Tamil Nadu) to Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) for the setting up of medical lab & facilities
As the number of coronavirus cases increase with each passing day in India, we are immensely grateful to doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, police, fire brigade, sanitary workers and others who are untiringly working day and night to keep us protected.
But aren’t we forgetting that a force of more than 14 lakh strong is also silently playing its part in battling the pandemic? Yes, the Indian armed forces which include the army, navy and the air force aren’t on everybody’s radar but they are fulfilling a vital duty of reaching out to the masses and delivering essential goods.
Like us, many in the armed forces are working from home but the rest are lending a hand ensuring that people in need around the country have enough stocks of essential supplies.
Working selflessly, soldiers, sailors and airmen are not only supplying essentials on the ground but are also transporting critically important things like personal protection equipment (PPE), medical equipment and medicines to parts of the country where they are in short supply.
They stay away from their family members, fearing their loved ones might get infected but they take this painful separation in their stride and carry on fulfilling their duty stoically.
As armed forces personnel are posted all across our vast country, they are best placed to feed workers, labourers and others who have been left jobless and away from their homes. In such places the armed forces are sharing the administration’s burden of looking after people who can’t look after themselves.
The armed forces are always training and preparing for war and this pandemic is nothing short of a full-blown war. They are not only collecting and distributing essentials but also setting up and managing quarantine facilities, which will help us in overcoming coronavirus.
So, as civilians it is our duty to help the men in uniform, who are sacrificing so much for us, by staying at home.
Sakshi Kanwar Jasrotia,
skj2022.sj@gmail.com
Naval helicopters will be Modi govt’s first challenge in its ‘atmanirbhar’ push in defence
With HAL pushing for its inclusion in the programme, the Navy, which is desperate for utility helicopters, fears the project will be delayed.
New Delhi: The nearly $3 billion deal for Naval Utility Helicopter (NUH) could become the first challenge for the Narendra Modi government under the new ‘atmanirbhar’ initiative in the defence sector.
This is because the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is pushing for its inclusion in the programme. The initiative is being pursued under a strategic partnership model focused on the Indian private industry meeting manufacturing needs through tie-ups with foreign vendors.
The Indian Navy, though, is worried that the whole programme will be delayed if HAL is brought in, which the Bengaluru-based firm denies. The Navy has been desperate to replace its Chetak of 1960s vintage with NUH.
The NUHs are to be utilised for multiple roles, including search and rescue, casualty evacuation and low-intensity maritime operations, besides torpedo drops.
The Navy had received eight responses to the Expression of Interest (EOI) issued in February last year as part of its plan to purchase 111 helicopters for Rs 21,738 crore.
HAL had submitted two bids at the time, one by itself and another through its joint venture with Russian Helicopters to produce the Kamov chopper, a Russian utility chopper.
The Ministry of Defence is yet to clear the file for issuance of Request for Proposal (RFP) for selected vendors and may take a fresh look at the proposal to include HAL.
Defence sources said that the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had already considered the participation of HAL when it decided on pursuing the project through the strategic partnership (SP) model.
“Discussion in 2018 DAC for AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) regarding inclusion of HAL and then DAC directive to progress through SP model indicates that HAL is not to be included,” a source said.
HAL says it has the tech but Navy needs to be clear
Speaking to ThePrint, Wing Commander Unni Pillai (Retd), executive director (CTP-RW) at HAL said, “The essence of SP Model is to bring in technology into the country that we don’t possess.”
He added that the transfer of technology (ToT) in the heavier weight lift class makes sense because HAL is still trying to design one.
“But getting something, which is in the same weight class as ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter), it does not make sense. Whatever they (Navy) are trying to get in is 1970 design,” he added.
He argued that the foreign chopper “the same configuration as the ALH” will be nearly Rs 10-15 crore more.
“And then what happens is that the actual expenditure comes in every 5-7 years when the aircraft requires upgrades, including when new systems have to be put. And that is when the foreigners start bleeding us … we will keep paying money to people,” he said.
The senior HAL official said “Atmanirbarta will never happen” if we depend on imports.
“If we have a design and needs to be done up to somebody’s requirement, the two parties need to sit together. The Navy has never engaged HAL in what exactly they want. Initially, in the 1990s, they wanted a replacement for Seaking (helicopter) which is a 10-tonne class. They wanted all the equipment to be fitted on an ALH, which is a 5-and-half-tonne class. This is not possible.
“So now, what they want is a smaller utility class helicopter which is a five tonne class. We have something in that class. Whatever adaptation needs to be done will be done,” he said.
Pillai underlined that the HAL’s chopper meets the Navy’s requirement. On the issue of folding blades, a requirement for Naval operations, he said HAL has segmented the blade.
“There are two bolts there. You remove one and it can be folded. It takes about six minutes to fold on the LUH (Light Utility Helicopter). On the ALH, we are planning to incorporate the same which we would be able to do at the same time,” he said.
Asked about fears that HAL will not be able to deliver on time even if it is able to meet all requirements, he points to its performance in the last five years to say the state-run firm has delivered ahead of time.
“In ALH for example, the Army had placed an order and we delivered one year in advance. We are capable of delivering in advance,” he said.
Defence sources told ThePrint that if HAL is included, it will erode the level playing field for private players since it already has government-funded infrastructure, which cross subsidises Transfer of Technology and indigenous content.
According to provisions in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), HAL cannot be included at this stage since the process has already begun.
“If HAL has to be included, then DPP has to be modified and ratified by DAC followed by issuance of fresh Request for EOIs to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and SPs,” the source explained.
As of today, the private companies have got a miniscule percentage of the overall orders to Indian companies placed by the Navy.
According to official statistics, since 2014, almost 95 per cent of the orders to Indian companies have gone to Defence Public Sector Undertakings and Public Sector Undertakings. HAL has an order book of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore, including that of Light Combat Aircraft.
Navy sources said that HAL was provided naval requirements from as early as 1990 to make a helicopter, but till date, the helicopter cannot meet requirements of the Navy.
“HAL will take another two years to meet blade folding capability. If at this stage HAL is included, the process will come to a halt as the Empowered Project Committee cannot clear ALH as a platform since it does not meet the quality requirements,” another source explained.
The source added that a higher body like DAC will have to accord this dispensation.
“However, if this is accorded, then other helicopters will also be added in the fray. The whole process would need to be recommenced, delaying the project further while diluting the operational functionality of the NUH,” the source said.
Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retd) said all platforms have to meet the Navy’s requirement for it to be considered. Automatic blade folding is an essential necessity which naval helicopters require since they operate from decks of ships.
“Also, HAL order books are loaded. The whole idea of strategic partnership is to allow Indian private industry to come forward and provide the services with an alternative R&D (research and development) and manufacturing line. This would help bring in real indigenisation that every government has been wanting to usher in,” he added.
The fresh Chinese construction activity is happening around Finger 4 in Pangong lake area. China also blocked the route of Indian patrol teams in the disputed region.
n army convoy moving towards the Zojilla pass, in Drass, Ladakh on 28 May 2020 (representational image) | ANI
New Delhi: Chinese soldiers are busy blacktopping a track in the disputed ‘finger’ area of Pangong lake in Ladakh after blocking the path of Indian patrols with a new bunker, two bulldozers and a moat-like construction.
Sources told ThePrint the fresh Chinese construction activity has been happening around Finger 4, a disputed territory. Blacktopping is the final stage of building a motorable road.
The 134 km of Pangong lake’s northern bank juts out like a palm, and the various protrusions are identified as “fingers” to demarcate territory. While India asserts that the LAC (Line of Actual Control) starts at Finger 8, China claims it starts at Finger 2, which India dominates.
In 1999, during the Kargil War when Indian forces were diverted, the Chinese had stepped in and built a track up to Finger 5, but this was not completely blacktopped.
Sources said the Chinese have dug up a moat-kind of structure and also blocked the route of Indian patrols with two bulldozers.
They said the Chinese are working at a fast pace blacktopping the route. This has always been the Chinese strategy and construction happens at super-fast speed, sources added.
Even though the area is disputed, Indian patrols used to move up to Finger 5, but if the Chinese don’t move, patrolling teams won’t be able to go much beyond Finger 3.
On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his US counterpart Dr Mark T. Esper that it would use “existing bilateral mechanism” to ease tensions with China along the LAC in Ladakh, after US President Donald Trump offered to play mediator for the two Asian giants.
India should’ve anticipated the Chinese appearance in Ladakh, even the timing of it, when the status of Jammu & Kashmir was changed.
Illustration: Soham Sen | ThePrint
Why, when the Chinese PLA comes bullying its way along the borders in Ladakh, am I invoking an outrageous American political satirist, P.J. O’Rourke?
Among his finest pieces is his ‘A Brief History of Man’. You can find it in his collection Republican Party Reptile. In less than a thousand brilliant words, it spans the entire human history. He takes all the great civilisations and reigns that rose and fell or survived in that sweep.
What’s relevant to us today is one short sentence in which he dismissed China: “Meanwhile, in China, there were the Chinese.”
You can interpret that any which way you wish. My guess is that he’s conveying that sense of resignation you find about the “inscrutable” Chinese. A familiar thought in the West.
But we don’t live in the West. We’ve lived next door to China for as long as first civilisations grew.
If we study our own post-Independence interactions with the Chinese, what is it that we might describe as inscrutable? Their military assault across two fronts in 1962 may have been a surprise to our leaders, but that is only because they were delusional.
Every Chinese action with respect to India since, from their ultimatum to India to “return their stolen yaks and sheep” in 1965 when the 22-day war with Pakistan raged, to their supposedly ‘surprise’ appearance along the Ladakh frontier this year, in fact, shows that the Chinese are far from inscrutable. They are predictable.
The push at Nathu La (Sikkim) in 1967 was probably to check out the resolve from India. Which they saw at its weakest — having fought two recent wars (1962 and 1965), famines, ship-to-mouth existence, political instability and a diminished Indira Gandhi. Remember, China had already joined the nuclear club in 1964.
The Indian response was a lesson they quickly learnt. A lot of detail on that short, sharp, local but historic engagement has recently been published in a full-length bookWatershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China by Probal Das Gupta, which I was honoured to write a blurb for. What did the Chinese do after that? They have kept the peace for 53 years.
Will you call that response evidence of Chinese inscrutability? They probed us, got a rude push-back, and decided to wait and stir the pot in different ways, at different times.
Over six decades, since about 1960, the Chinese have been able to dictate the evolution of their ties with India, with the pace and landmarks of their choosing. Whatever blunders we might fashionably blame Nehru for today, he ceased to matter in 1962. The Chinese retained what they really wanted in 1962. The truth is, they had it in their possession almost fully, barring small, tactically important slivers in Ladakh. They asserted their ownership and let their larger claim, Arunachal Pradesh, fully in Indian control, go militarily uncontested.
They never gave up claim on it. Their view rose and ebbed as power equations evolved, in the region and the world. They checked us out again in 1986-87 at Wangdung-Sumdorong Chu (Arunachal), when they saw Rajiv Gandhi take India’s defence budget to a never-before-or-after 4 per cent-plus of GDP, especially when the India-Pakistan situation was on the edge during Exercise Brasstacks.
Once again, the response (Gen. Sundarji’s Exercise Chequerboard) was firm and the Chinese backed off. Lesson again, the Chinese won’t open fire for the heck of it. Or when they are absolutely sure of an easy victory so they could be seen like ‘teaching an upstart a lesson’ as they did in 1962. Predictable.
So much else — Mao Zedong reportedly flashing that enigmatic Mona Lisa smile at young Brajesh Mishra, then heading the Indian embassy in Beijing as a mere Charge d’Affaires in 1970; an attack on Vietnam to the embarrassment of Atal Bihari Vajpayee visiting Beijing as the Janata Party’s foreign minister; a nuclear test when President Venkataraman was visiting China in 1992; sabre-rattling over Dalai Lama’s visits to Tawang — fits that pattern. Everything, from 1962 to Doklam fits a pattern: Deliver a message, add leverage, and return.
All the stand-offs after that, including recent ones such as Chumar, Depsang Plains and Doklam, have ended the same way. The message is, see, who’s the boss out here? In Chumar, it was to India as it was feting Xi Jinping. In Doklam, to Bhutan.
Whatever our pretence, we journalists are not experts at most things. Least of all on China. But journalists also have the privilege of learning from people who know better. We have learnt over the decades from our finest minds over two generations, from late Dr K. Subrahmanyam, the greatest strategic scholar of independent India, and General Krishnaswamy Sundarji to C. Raja Mohan now, and many others. But two conversations stand out in today’s context.
Dr Manmohan Singh, as prime minister, met a group of editors and gave us a masterful tutorial. He said China was coolly using Pakistan as an instrument to keep India perpetually off-balance. Our future, therefore, lay in breaking out of this ‘triangulation’.
His choice, obviously, was to reach out and seek peace with Pakistan. A much bigger and powerful China, he thought, would see less of an incentive for peace with India than Pakistan. In any case, for China, it is a low-cost strategy to keep India preoccupied with its client-state Pakistan.
That was his idea of breaking out of this triangulation. Today, that option is not so available, as hostility with Pakistan is central to the Modi-BJP politics. They’d rather make peace with China than Pakistan.
That is why the lavish welcomes and frequent meetings with the Chinese leaders. The objective, still, is escaping that triangle.
The second was Vajpayee explaining the Chinese negotiating style. “Dekhiye, aap aur hum baithe hain aur vaarta kar rahe hain (see, you and I are sitting and negotiating),” he said. Both of us want something. I will ask you, let go of a little, you will say no. I’d say OK, a little less then. You will again say no. But ultimately you will relent and let go of some. The Chinese would never do that.
Both these leaders underlined the same point, that the Chinese are consistent, and predictable. Which is why we should not be surprised by what they have unveiled across Ladakh. We should have anticipated it on 5 August last year when we made the big changes in Jammu & Kashmir.
We were not oblivious of the fact that there is indeed a third party in the territorial jumble there, and that is China. Home Minister Amit Shah left nothing to chance when he said in Parliament that “we will bring back Aksai Chin even at the cost of our lives”. Then, there were the new maps, objections to CPEC going through Indian territory, the weather reports. A broad territorial status quo had existed in Ladakh-Aksai Chin since 1962. India made its intention to change this status quo public.
Don’t ask me what is exactly happening on the ground in Ladakh. Are the Chinese on this side of the LAC or that? Because I don’t know. I can’t read satellite pictures. There is nothing like a LAC marked there, not even a distinct geographical watershed. All I can say is, I see no brigade-sized formations spread out there. How others read them depends on which side of the political divide they are on. At a time so polarised that even a 65-year-old, half-cent-per-pill drug like HCQ becomes politicised, you hardly expect much honesty being extended to satellite images of barren, naked mountains.
What I can say is, this should have been anticipated and gamed before the die was cast on 5 August 2019. This Chinese move, like all others in 60 years, was fully predictable. Even the timing. It was only a matter of the snows melting.
This article has been updated to accurately reflect that China attacked Vietnam when Vajpayee was visiting Beijing and conducted a nuclear test when President Venkataraman was in China in 1992. The error is regretted.
