rahul.singh@hindustantimes.com

NEW DELHI : Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Saturday cautioned against a collusive threat to the Siachen glacier from Pakistan and China and stressed that if the government ordered his force to seize control of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) from Pakistan, it will act on those directions.

Naravane also underlined that “allegiance” to the Constitution of India and its core values will guide the conduct of the army. His comments come at a time when there’s a debate in the country over the so-called politicisation of the armed forces.Talking about his overall focus as the army chief, Naravane said it will be ‘ABC’ — “allegiance, belief and consolidation”. He said the force will be guided by its core values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.

He said it was critical for India to keep the glacier under its possession to pre-empt the joint threat. He also explained how India will deal with a possible two-front war scenario.

“Siachen is an area where one formation is looking after both western (Pakistan) and northern (China) fronts. And that is what makes it so strategically important. We must not lose sight that it is from where the collusivity can happen, and, therefore the importance of always being on our guard and keeping that particular area always in our possession,” Naravane told reporters at his press conference ahead of Army Day on January 15.

He visited the Siachen glacier — the world’s highest and coldest battlefield — on Thursday, his first outstation trip after taking over the top job on December 31.

The glacier acts as a wedge between the Shaksgam valley under Chinese control and Baltistan that is occupied by Pakistan, and prevents the two armies from linking up and posing a threat to Ladakh.

Responding to another question on Siachen and the possibility of China-Pakistan collusion, the army chief said: “As far as the land border is concerned, Siachen is where the two countries (China and Pakistan) are the closest to each other. And that is why the threat of collusivity is maximum at that location, that is, in Siachen and Shaksgam valley,” the army chief said. He said such collusion could be “physical” on the land borders and it could play out in other realms too such as “in technology, coming to each other’s assistance in times of trouble and so on and so forth”.

On how India would deal with a two-front war, he said the army was conscious of the threats from both fronts. “In case of simultaneous threat from both directions, there would always be a primary front and a secondary front. Wherever the primary front is, the bulk of our forces and resources will be concentrated to deal with that threat. And on the other front, we will adopt a more deterrent posture so that we are not found wanting,” he said.