Bottomline | Standing on Lost Ground

Pravin Sawhney

The Narendra Modi government seems to be its own worst enemy. It has willy-nilly allowed the border dispute with China to become a matter of its sovereignty. Consequently, India now appears to be the aggressor. Worse, it has handed over the Ladakh narrative on a platter to China.

Tragically, this has happened at a time when the Indian Army leadership, the lead service in war with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), despite all intellectual and financial resources at its command, has failed to understand how to fight the war China is preparing for. Hence, the government needs to be asked why and how such a blunder was made, especially at a time when India is militarily unprepared. Clearly, those who have advised the government on this matter have no idea about both China and future warfare.

The unravelling of India’s tough-guy posture started with a shocking admission by minister of state for road transport and highways and former army chief General V.K. Singh, to whom was assigned the ignominious task of writing on the wall. Speaking to the media in Madurai on February 7, he said: “…none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. We don’t announce it. Chinese media does not cover it… Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times, as per our perception.” This was in contradiction to the Indian position that it never transgresses. It reinforced Chinese claim that the actual Line of Actual Control (LAC) was its unilateral 1959 one. Hence, by adhering to the 1993 LAC, the Indian Army was guilty of transgressing Chinese sovereignty.

Losing little time, China, while putting the blame for Ladakh on India, said it would defend its sovereignty at all costs. To recall, China’s General Secretary Xi Jinping, since assuming power in November 2012, has repeatedly said that not an inch of its territory would be given up. To take the Chinese argument further, nothing stops China from voicing the idea of re-unification of the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls south Tibet, with the mainland.

Perhaps, one shouldn’t be too harsh on Gen. V.K. Singh for apportioning the blame of Ladakh crisis on the army he once commanded. Through January 2021, numerous media reports had unnerved the Modi government. Showing commercial satellite imagery, these reports spoke of massive PLA war preparedness in Tibet opposite Arunachal Pradesh. With the possibility of a two-front war staring in the face, the Modi government clearly panicked. The military thinking, conveyed to the government was that while the army (military) could fight a two-front war (fighting the primary front while holding the secondary one), China should not be the primary front beca