Govt admits that Chinese troops have intruded 19 kms inside Indian territory

How far is the Nation serious on serious issues ?  ~ a columnist in a leading portal stated that the recent incursions into Indian territory near Burthe in the Daulat Beg Oldi area of Eastern Ladakh in the western sector of the Sino-Indian border should be a matter for careful analysis and concern, but not alarm.  Do you understand or agree ?

Some reports put it that the latest face-off between India and China in Ladakh appears to be the worst since the one in 1986. This time, Chinese soldiers have pitched their tents deep inside India’s Depsang Valley in Ladakh. While New Delhi calls it incursion, Beijing denies it, saying that their troops are well within its own territory. Admittedly, the Indo-Chinese border is not well demarcated with China still claiming as its own large parts of India’s border areas. The Tibetan question has been an irritant between the two neighbours. Although there is an explicit understanding between New Delhi and the Dalai Lama that he will not use his headquarters for political purposes, Beijing has raised objections several times in the past to what it perceives as the spiritual heads forays into political activities using Dharamshala as a base.

China has not been a friendly neighbour ~ for that matter, none of the other countries have been…. A war was fought and lost in 1962 ~ things have not changed since.  There has been a sense of growing hostility not only in the border but also in the competition of economic order.  China’s latest intrusion in Ladakh lends itself to a suspicion that Beijing, emboldened by its economic prowess, is beginning to expect that its neighbours behave like “vassal states”. On Wednesday, Chinese military helicopters flew over Indian air space dropping food packets, cigarettes cartons and hand-written notes in what is being viewed in New Delhi as a brazen act of defiance.

Few months ago, China showed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as its territory in maps of the country on their new e-passports, India has retaliated by issuing visas, containing Indian maps including these regions as part of it. But today’s TOI news comes as a shocker…. Times of India reports that the Govt on Friday for the first time admitted that People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops had intruded as much as 19 km inside Indian territory to pitch their tents there, even as it kept a third flag meeting between local commanders in eastern Ladakh "on hold'' to give China "time and space'' to withdraw its soldiers on its own. This formal admission came in a note submitted by defence secretary Shashikant Sharma to the parliamentary standing committee on defence, which said India has "deployed forces to keep a close watch on the border'' after over 30 PLA troops intruded 19 km into the Depsang Bulge area of Ladakh on April 15.

With rival soldiers locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation for the last 11 days at an altitude of 16,300 feet, this is the worst-ever standoff between the armies in over 25 years. Amid the flurry of top-level meetings among defence minister A K Antony, national security advisor Shivshankar Menon and Army chief General Bikram Singh on Friday, contingency plans to plug operational gaps and defences in Chumar, Spanggur Gap and the areas surrounding Depsang Valley were also reviewed. The IAF, too, resumed its air-dropping of supplies to Army troops on the ground in the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) sector after they were briefly stopped in wake of the "deep'' Chinese intrusion.

Sources said India is "not in a hurry'' to hold another flag meeting in Ladakh after the first two such meets on April 18 and April 23 failed to break the deadlock and ended with only charges being traded between the two armies. China, in fact, is believed to have now asked for a flag meeting but India has kept the request "pending'' to see if diplomatic channels being worked deliver results over the next few days. A day after foreign minister Salman Khurshid held India was "not a pushover'' and that he hoped the Chinese incursion issue would be resolved before he visits Beijing on May 9, defence minister A K Antony said, "Negotiations and consultations are going on at various levels to find a peaceful solution to the Chinese incursion issue.'' The defence secretary and other MoD officials appeared before the parliamentary committee after its members wanted to know the actual ground situation in Ladakh. The meeting of the committee was cut short as the "quorum'' was incomplete and the members present were also dissatisfied with the sketchy information provided by the officials. The next meeting of the committee on May 30 will now take up the matter.

As per the note, it was on April 16 that Indian Army patrols reported the presence of the PLA troops in Depsang "19 km west of the Line of Actual Control and beyond our understanding of the Chinese perception of LAC''.

Govt admits of incursions as much as 19 km into Indian territory; does not take any action; Salman Khurshid continues with empty rhetoric of ‘India not a pushover’ ~ wants to visit Beijing ~ when and what action India take – even when our land is under the control of naked aggression of Chinese…. Shambolic are the affairs.

The reality could be that the Line of Actual Control between India and China is notional and has not been put down on any mutually agreed map ~ but what is the official position of India and when will it take any stern action when its position is subdued by arrogant Chinese behaviour.  2013 is not 1962 and the Indian media and politicians should not behave as though it was, by needlessly raising the decibel level and trying to push the government to adopt a hawkish course on the border.  In 1962, Aksai Chin was lost to China in what was described as ‘unfought war’ when Indian troops were clearly in a disadvantageous position with no clear political strategy……. It pains to read….

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

27^th April 2013.