Offensive edge

The picture of Chinese troops moving towards Mukhpari Top in Chushul on the southern banks of the Pangong lake reveals the medieval mindset of the Chinese leadership, which seeks to grab territory, to deceive the enemy using pre-modern weapons like spears, machetes and clubs, and all this while to pursue the strategic objective of pushing the Line of Actual Control further and further westwards. This, in short, has been the story of the four-month-long standoff in Ladakh that caused a national embarrassment when 20 Indian soldiers, including the Commanding Officer, were killed on June 15. But the attempt by the Chinese soldiers on Sunday evening to dislodge Indian troops from Mukhpari failed, ending in soldiers opening fire in the air and China rushing to blame India.

Shots were fired on the LAC after 45 years; and in Ladakh in the same sector where Indian and Chinese troops clashed during the 1962 War. If this were an attempt to gain a tactical advantage for a stronger bargaining chip before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting of the foreign ministers in Moscow today, it would seem the Chinese are looking towards a negotiated settlement. But it is more likely that the Chinese are running on several parallel tracks: diplomatic initiatives to appear reasonable in the international arena; use of media to cry wolf to shake off the aggressor’s tag; and simultaneously continuing the military push to gain territory.

The Indian Army’s military manoeuvre on the intervening night of August 29-30 seemed to have made a difference in terms of a resolute response to naked Chinese aggression. It needs to be followed up with a reassessment of India’s view on the status of Tibet, the stature of Dalai Lama and the future of the Tibetan refugees in India and their national aspirations. Until China forsakes its designs on Daulet Beg Oldie and Siachen and begins to see reason and profit in comprehensively delineating the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, India has to plan its defence in Ladakh with an offensive edge, to be one step ahead of the treacherous neighbour.