Flared up by India’s strategic move to ramp up infrastructure
along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, Sino-India border tensions
have risen high in Ladakh as over 20 Indian soldiers, including a Colonel, were
killed in Galwan Valley deadly clash, the first in last 45 years. The two
countries fought a war in 1962 when India suffered a humiliating defeat. China’s
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said India had crossed the border twice
“provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical
confrontation between border forces on the two sides”. According to AFP, “No
shots were fired” in this latest skirmish and there are reports that it was
fought with rocks and clubs; the Indian soldiers were “beaten to death”. Last
month, both sides exchanged physical blows on Sikkim border, too. Inside India,
Modi government is facing criticism over “great embarrassment and humiliation”.
India wrongfully disputes China’s 38,000 square kilometer territory and 3,440 km
long LAC, and Pakistan’s 140,000 sq km territory with a 740 km long LoC. Several
rounds of talks have so far failed to resolve the boundary disputes; instead
India has started building roads network to boost its capability to move men and
material rapidly in case of a conflict with China and Pakistan. Security
analysts believe that the Indian maneuverability is aimed at blocking China’s
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under which China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
is being built. Already, India is struggling to contain a surge of Covid-19
infections and revive an economy which looks headed for recession.
Hu Xijin, the Editor-in-Chief of Global Times, tweeted that his understanding is
that the Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley clash.
“Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan
Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, don’t be arrogant and
misread China’s restraint as being weak.”The Sino-Indian conflict on the LAC in
Eastern Ladakh gradually generated enough heat to become international news and
grew in intensity by this June. Making bold headlines, the conflict is now
flaring upin which the Indian government andmilitary turn out to be the
losers.India has not only lost the territory, but also its credibility. The
silence of Indian PM, wholike President Trump is obsessed with tweeting and
making ridiculous claims, shows that he has nothing left to tweet.Theclaim that
Indian army some days ago had conducted a surgical strike and regained territory
from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), just as he had done falsely in
Kashmir, has earned Narendra Modi a strong criticism from within and outside
India. The image of Chinese soldiers pushing the Indian soldiers on ground and
tying their hands was the most humiliating sight flooding the social media
platforms and very upsetting and demoralizing for the Indian people.
It all started with both sides digging defences and Chinese trucks moving
equipment into the area, raising concerns of a long faceoff. But interviews with
former Indian military officials and diplomats suggest the trigger for the
flare-up is India’s construction of roads and airstrips. One of these roads is
near the Galwan valley that connects to Daulat Beg Oldi airbase, which was
inaugurated last October. The early March aggressive posturing by India
gradually fizzled out, and was replaced by reconciliatory gestures of peace
after the Chinese simply walked into Indian territory and scared the Indian army
to retreat and take refuge in their bunkers.The PLA in an early morning walk was
able to push back the stone-throwing Indians by 2.5 km along the LAC and
reclaimed miles of their territory which is part of the Chinese Tibet. China has
yet to regain 90,000 sq km of its territory from Indian occupation, including
Arunachal Pradesh or South Tibet.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is far superior in strength and
equipment organized a large-scale military operation featuring thousands of
paratroopers plus armored vehicles to the Indian border in Ladakh.This move
shattered the confidence and morale of the Indian army forcing them to
retreat.Prime Minister Narendra Modi simply miscalculated the determination of
Chinese leaders, back from beating the monstrous Covid-19, successfully calming
Taiwan’s desire to rebel the Chinese were in no mode to tolerate Modi’s foreign
policy of hugging and betraying.
Flirting with Trump and agreeing to kowtow to US foreign policy Modi abused the
Chinese policy of tolerance and nonviolence – no bullet has been fired after the
Chinese army defeated the Indian Northern Command in 1962, so Modi decided to
test the Chinese resolve by building solid military structures on Chinese
Territory. The Chinese government has never accepted the British demarcation of
the Tibet area and has rejected treatise which the British forced on the Chinese
Qing dynasty.
The Indian expansionist and belligerent policy of annexing territories of its
neighbours has backfired in the Ladakh region. According to a newspaper
editorial, “China is not Nepal or Bhutan and the Indian policy of eating away
land will not succeed. The Indian army stands a zero chance of countering a
Chinese advance. The Chinese military has grown manifolds and so has its economy
since 1962. The Chinese GDP is five times larger than India. The Indians know
that rhetoric and gung-ho attitude can only work on the Indian media not on the
ground with the PLA”. Although President Trump has offered to mediate, but his
remarks about Hong Kong and Taiwan, further irritated China. Therefore, it is
unlikely that the tainted US mediation offer will work.
Under the circumstances, Islamabad’s concerns are genuine that the Modi’s
BJP-RSS-led government “is becoming a threat to neighbours. Bangladesh through
Citizenship Act, border disputes with Nepal and China, and Pakistan threatened
with false flag operation.”Pakistan has been forewarning the international
community about this worrying pattern for quite a while now,yet, India’s large
market has blinded the world to the policies it employs at the state level,
especially in Occupied Kashmir.
It is now twelfth month that India revoked IOJ&K’s special status, massive human
right violations are going on inside the occupied valley under 11-month-long
curfew. And the noise Pakistan has been making about India’s aggressive,
xenophobic policies, it must now make a lot more sense to the world. The truth
is that Islamabad has been offering negotiations on all outstanding issues since
Musharraf’s times; he hadoffered a four-point solution, and the successive
governments have been calling upon India to come to a negotiable table. World
knows that it is only India that has always bulldozed every effort for peace.
Modi has falsely made Indians believe that India is an invisible regional power.
Indian Army Generals know the ground realities in Ladakh and even in Kashmir.
After disappointing his nation on Ladakh and last February in Balakot, Indiamay
try to reignite tension on the Line of Control to boost his public approval
ratings which have gone down due to the Covid-19 disaster and massive
unemployment and economic meltdown. He is doomed to fail.