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Col PS Randhawa (Retd)

She is not able to sleep. It has been five days since her son spoke to her for a brief two minutes. It was a long-distance call put through by the Army exchange operator. Before her instructions to her son could finish, the call was abruptly cut. It has been like that since he got deployed on the China border, since mid-June. The calls were erratic and brief, mostly at the mercy of the operator. Gone are the days when she could pour her heart out to her only son through mobile phone calls and give him all possible instructions, mostly aiming at his well-being, safety and security, eating timely and of course her favourite topic of making up his mind to get married.

The son, like a true fauji, does not talk about ‘what is happening there’. She tries to gather information from TV channels and social media but seeing the shoddy display of jingoism, war cries, and sabre-rattling by anchors shuts it off, cursing them that maybe none of their near and dear ones is in the Army and deployed on the border. Her husband advises her not to watch TV and not to believe what appears on Facebook and WhatsApp. Any news about ‘meeting’ on the border with the Chinese is keenly read, watched, and heard by her. ‘Their mothers must be equally worried,’ she muses about enemy troops.

She had been an Army wife and suffered long separations from her husband in the prime of her life. Those days there were no mobile phones and letters were the only means of communication. By the time a letter reached her husband and elicited a reply, a lot would get changed. Some minor problems could get mitigated or she could overcome single-handedly. In the absence of her husband, she miraculously played the double role of father and mother for her kids. Quite naturally, they did not want their son to join the Army and suffer long separations from his family. But fate decided otherwise. The son won’t listen and he followed in the footsteps of his father and forefathers; went to the IMA and joined his father’s battalion. Though proud of her son’s achievement, she cannot help being over-worried about his well-being. Her husband, at times, feels irritated and tells her that she wasn’t even half as much worried about him as she worries about her son. She tells him that he does not know about a mother’s heart.

Her son has given a civil number of his unit Adjutant, away from his location, to be used in exceptional cases. She insists on using that number but the old man is reluctant. He doesn’t want to ‘interfere’ in unit routine, and also does not want to sound ‘too worried’. ‘It is warlike,’ he tells her, ‘leave it to God. Everything will be fine.’ He assures her but she insists. Seeing her restlessness, he gives in. Almost apologetically, he calls the Adjutant and enquires about his son. The officer assures him all is well. Thanking him, he disconnects the call. Mother, having heard everything, is happy and thanks God. ‘I can now sleep peacefully,’ she says.

New Delhi: Top military commanders from India and China will hold another round of talks on 12 October as both sides prepare to stay dug in at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh through the winter, which has already started setting in.

Sources in the defence and security establishment have ruled out any possibility of troop presence being thinned during the winter. All steps, they added, will be mutual and “taken after proper verification process”.

This will be the first round of talks after China raked up the 1959 claim line issue this week.

Sources said that if during the talks the Chinese raise the issue, Indian Army will reject it as always.

The Ministry of External Affairs this week rejected China’s attempt to project the 1959 claim line as the LAC, saying India has never accepted the “so-called unilaterally defined 1959 Line of Actual Control (LAC)”.

The 12 October meeting will be the last involving 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen. Harinder Singh, who will then take over as the Commandant of the Indian Military Academy after handing over the charge to Lt Gen. P.G.K. Menon on 14 October.

This will be the seventh commanders’ meeting aimed at resolving the current India-China standoff in Ladakh. Participants will include Lt Gen. Menon and Joint Secretary (East Asia), Ministry of External Affairs, Naveen Srivastava.

The two were also present at the first India-China military-diplomatic meeting last month, which was held as tensions between the two sides continue to simmer at the border. That meeting ended in a stalemate.

At the next meeting, sources said, India will stick to its stand that disengagement should happen at all friction points, and not just at the southern bank of Pangong Tso, as China is insisting on.

China has been peeved with India’s move on the intervening night of 29-30 August, when specialised units and regular soldiers outflanked the Chinese and occupied crucial heights along the southern bank of the Pangong Tso.

Also read: Modi govt removes spending cap on defence for Q3 amid tensions with China

Forward deployment during Ladakh winter first for India, China

The fresh round of talks comes at a time when the winter has already started to set in in Ladakh.

Forward deployment through the region’s freezing winter will be a first for India and China, which have posted over 50,000 troops each near the LAC in Ladakh backed by artillery, tanks and other equipment.

While there was no forward movement on the ground, both India and China issued a joint statement after the 21 September meeting, saying they have agreed to stop sending more troops to the frontlines in Ladakh, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any actions that may complicate the situation.

A joint statement is also expected to be issued after the talks on 12 October.

Also read: Underground fuel dumps, freeze-proof fuel, mobile ATCs — How Army is prepping for Ladakh winter

New Delhi, October 12

India on Monday insisted on restoration of status quo ante of April and comprehensive disengagement of troops by China from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh to resolve the border standoff, government sources said, as the two countries held a seventh round of military talks.

The Corps commander-level talks began at around 12 noon in Chushul on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and continued beyond 8:30 PM, they said.

As the border standoff entered the sixth month, an early resolution to the row appeared dim with close to 100,000 Indian and Chinese troops remaining deployed in the high-altitude region and showing readiness for a long-haul.

There is no official word on the talks yet but sources said the agenda was to finalise a roadmap for disengagement of troops from all the friction points.

The Indian delegation is led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, and includes Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA). It is learnt an official of the Chinese foreign ministry is also part of the Chinese delegation.

The sources said India pressed for an early and complete disengagement of troops by China from all the friction points besides demanding immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to April. The standoff began on May 5.

The China Study Group (CSG) comprising Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs on Friday finalised India’s strategy for the military talks. The CSG is India’s key policy making body on China.

Ahead of the talks, sources said India will also strongly oppose any demand by China for withdrawal of Indian troops from several strategic heights on the southern bank of the Pangong lake to kick-start the disengagement process.

During the sixth round of Corps commander talks on September 21, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) insisted on withdrawal of troops by the Indian Army from several strategic heights in Mukhpari, Rezang La and Magar hill areas around the southern bank of Pangong lake.

Indian troops had occupied the strategic heights after the PLA soldiers attempted to intimidate them in the southern bank of Pangong lake on the intervening night of August 29 and 30.

India has been maintaining that the disengagement process has to start simultaneously at all the friction points.

At the talks, the two sides were expected to further explore steps to maintain stability on the ground and avoid any action that may trigger fresh tension in the region where troops from the Indian army and the PLA will be facing difficult conditions in the next four months due to harsh winter, the sources said.

Following the sixth round of military talks, the two sides announced a slew of decisions including not to send more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground and avoid taking any actions that may further complicate matters.

The military talks were held with a specific agenda of exploring ways to implement a five-point agreement reached between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at a meeting in Moscow on September 10 on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) conclave.

The pact included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on border management and steps to restore peace along the LAC.

Days after the military talks, the two sides held diplomatic parleys under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs, but no concrete outcome emerged from the negotiations on September 30.

After the diplomatic talks, the MEA said it was agreed that the next round of the meeting of senior commanders should be held at an early date so that both sides can work towards an early and complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC in accordance with the existing bilateral agreement and protocols.

Naveen Srivastava, who has been leading the Indian side at the WMCC talks, also attended the military parleys on September 21 for the first time.

It is Lt Gen Singh’s last round of talks with the PLA in the current standoff as he is due to take charge as head of the prestigious Indian Military Academy(IMA) this week. His successor at the 14 Corps Lt Gen PGK Menon is also part of the Indian delegation.

At the previous six rounds of military talks, the Indian side insisted on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to April.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated following at least three attempts by the Chinese soldiers to “intimidate” Indian troops along the northern and southern bank of Pangong lake area between August 29 and September 8 where even shots were fired in the air for the first time at the LAC in 45 years.

As tensions escalated further, the foreign ministers of India and China held talks in Moscow on September 10 where they reached a five-point agreement to defuse the situation in eastern Ladakh. The agreement was the basis for the sixth round of Corps commander-level talks.

In the last three months, the Indian Army rushed tanks, heavy weaponry, ammunition, fuel, food and essential winter supplies to various treacherous and high-altitude areas of the region to maintain combat readiness through the harsh winter of around four months starting around mid-October. PTI

New Delhi: Plans are afoot to make the indigenously developed laser-equipped anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), successfully fired twice from the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun over the last fortnight, capable of being used on the Russian-origin T-90 tanks that have different guns, ThePrint has learnt.

With two successful tests, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is aiming for user trials of the ATGM by February next year.

Sources in the defence and security establishment said the trials so far have been carried out on the Arjun tanks, with a range of 3-4 km. The DRDO wants to test the ATGM at a 5km range to evaluate its efficacy.

“In the next stage, we will also be test-firing the missile with a warhead before the user trials, which should take place by February,” a source in the know said.

While the first two tests — on 22 September and 1 October — took place at the K.K. Ranges in the Armoured Corps Centre and School (ACC&S), Ahmednagar — the next would be at a bigger range, sources added.

The ATGM employs a tandem heat warhead to defeat explosive-reactive-armour (ERA)-protected armoured vehicles in ranges between 1.5 and 5 km.

It has been developed with a capability to launch from multiple platforms. The ATGM is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials through the 120mm rifled gun of MBT Arjun, and the DRDO also seeks to make it compatible with the 125mm smoothbore gun of the T-90s.

“Right now, it is meant for the 120mm rifled gun of the MBT Arjun. The plan is to make it compatible with the 125mm smoothbore gun of the T-90s,” a source said.

Also Read: Rifles, missiles, ammunition, drones — armed forces on shopping spree amid LAC tensions

The Arjun saga

An order for 118 indigenously manufactured Arjun Mark 1-A ‘Hunter Killers’, with all-weather capability and better firepower and stability than the Arjun MBT, is yet to fructify.

Sources in the know said that the decision has been made and the process is on, despite the Covid-19 pandemic delaying it and the focus shifting on account of the ongoing tensions with China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

While the Army started inducting two regiments of Arjun MBTs in 2004, in 2010, it proposed an improved version, to be called the Mark II and equipped with over 80 improvements, including 15 major ones.

As reported by ThePrint earlier, in 2012, the DRDO offered the Arjun for trials with all the major enhancements, except one — a cannon-launched guided missile (CLGM).

The Army had insisted on having that capability, since other tanks like the T-90 also had it.

The DRDO engaged the Israelis and sourced the Lahat CLGM, which could conclusively hit targets between 2 and 5 kilometres away. The trials validated the CLGM’s laser designator.

The Army, however, wanted a missile that could hit targets as close as 1.2 km.

The Israelis, who were first offered to develop this capability, took about a year to decide on producing it, but, by then, the DRDO had decided to go in for an indigenous CLGM.

Talks between the DRDO and the Army continued until March 2018, and it was finally agreed that the next batch of Arjuns, to be called Mark 1-A, would be supplied without the missile-firing capability.

However, V. Balamurugan, the director of the DRDO’s Chennai-based Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), had said in March that the missile could actually be integrated onto the Mark 1-A as the tanks start rolling out.

Also read: ‘Like lighting a match in cyclone’ — Beauty of India’s hypersonic flight tech is in its engine