Sad ! ~
lives of Indian soldiers lost by brazen aggression of a Nation always looking
bloody. To them war is an act of
senseless passion coupled with political objective. This Nation lost 14 million people of their
Nation in WW 2, yet continues to be blood thirsty. Covid 19 emanated from its
place, WHO was careful enough to name it in such a fashion that it does not
reflect the place, the Nation or anything else and continued issuing false
statements on Corona virus.
In civilized
World too, there are ‘Rogue states’ – the ones that are to be outlawed for
threatening global peace. In WW II, the scale of China’s involvement was
massive. Chiang, for example, fielded four million troops, while China as a
whole lost an estimated 14 million in the war. Had China folded, Japan’s
capacity to fight the U.S. or even the Soviets would have been vastly
amplified. On the Chinese side, after
1949 when the civil war was over, the Nationalists had been exiled to Taiwan,
and Mao was victorious on the mainland, it rewrote a virgin history in the mainland of China—that
the only people who had made a contribution to fighting and defeating the
Japanese were the Chinese communists.
It is never
a peaceful State nor the one that wants peace.
Now Xinfadi food market puts China’s capital city in a “wartime”
contingency mode. Over 100 cases have now been traced back to the sprawling
wholesale market since Thursday after the city had previously gone 55 days
without a locally transmitted case. But rather than taking care of their own
people, leave alone trying to contain it within the country, the rogue Nation
is trying to get involved in another skirmish.
The Galwan
River flows from the Aksai Chin region to Ladakh of India. It originates in the
area of Samzungling on the eastern side of the Karakoram range and flows west
to join the Shyok River. It is named
after a Ladakhi explorer from Leh, who first explored the course of the river.
In 1899, he was part of a British expedition team that was exploring the areas
to the north of the Chang Chenmo valley, when he ran into this previously
unknown river valley.
A very sad
day for the Nation. Twenty Indian
soldiers were killed in a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops at
Galwan Valley in Ladakh, the army said on Tuesday, in the most serious
escalation between the two countries along the border in five decades. News
agency ANI claimed that sources had confirmed 43 Chinese soldiers have been
killed or seriously injured because of intercepts, though the army's statement
did not refer to this. A statement in the morning that confirmed the death of a
Colonel and two jawans spoke of "casualties on both sides". India
blamed the clashes on "an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally
change the status quo there", rebutting China's claims that Indian
soldiers crossed the border.
Colonel B
Santosh Babu of the Bihar regiment, Havildar Palani and Sepoy Ojha laid down
their lives for India, the army confirmed earlier on Tuesday. "17 Indian
troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location
and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have
succumbed to their injuries. Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the army's fresh
statement said.
For more than six weeks,
soldiers from both sides have been engaged in a stand-off on at least two
locations along the Line of Actual Control -- the 3,488 km de-facto boundary
between India and China, and rushed additional troops to the border. They have
been facing each other at the Galwan River, which was one of the early triggers
of the 1962 India-China war, and at the Pangong Tso -- a glacial lake at 14,000
feet in the Tibetan plateau.
Since 1975, this was the
first casualties for India due to a clash with the PLA. In 1975, Indian Patrol
was ambushed by the Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh in 1975. The he three
Service Chiefs, Defence Minister Rajnath reviewed the current operational
situation in Eastern Ladakh. During the meeting, the external affairs minister
S Jaishankar was also present. The area where the troops of both sides are
confronting is the first time since 1962. Though the LAC is clearly defined
here, this is the first time that tensions are brewing in Eastern Ladakh.
In 1962,
China attacked India across the eastern and northern borders. And the
construction of a road between Xinjiang and Tibet was the trigger for this.
Around 179 km of this highway which passes through Aksai Chin in the Indian
Territory is better known as G219. The road the Chinese had built then was
without India’s consent. And since the Chinese wanted to control any movement
by the Indian Army from West to East, mountain passes are required to go across
the mountain ranges. And the Chinese have also ensured that the LAC goes
through the highest Crestline and also which is located to the west. This means
that India does not control dominating heights and there is more depth which
stretches between LAC and the Chinese G219 highway.
The Galwan river is the
highest ridgeline and it allows the Chinese to dominate the Shyok route passes,
which is close to the river. Chinese are keen on controlling this area as they
fear that the Indian side could end up threatening their position on the Aksai
Chin plateau by using the river valley. India is trying to construct a feeder
road emanating from Darbuk-Shyok Village – Daulat Beg Oldi road (DS-DBO road).
This road runs along the Shyok River and is the most critical line of
communications close to LAC. It comes up Patrol Point 14 (PP14).
The Sino-Indian War, also
known as the Indo-China War and Sino-Indian Border Conflict, was a war between
China and India that occurred in 1962. Chinese military action grew
increasingly aggressive after India rejected proposed Chinese diplomatic
settlements throughout 1960–1962, with China re-commencing previously-banned
"forward patrols" in Ladakh. China abandoned all attempts of peaceful resolution
on 20 October 1962, invading disputed territory along the 3,225 kilometre-
(2,000-mile-) long Himalayan border in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line. Much
of the fighting took place in harsh mountain conditions, entailing large-scale
combat at altitudes of over 4,000 metres (14,000 feet). The Sino-Indian War was also notable for the
lack of deployment of naval and aerial assets by either China or India.
37,244
square kilometres of land. That’s almost Bhutan, almost Kerala, almost Manipur
and Nagaland put together. That’s Aksai Chin, the north-eastern end of India’s
crown under Chinese occupation for many decades now, the first move made much
before the Sino-Indian war of 1962. Sixty
one years ago, Prime minister Jawaharlal
Nehru had informed the nation, belatedly, about what the Chinese had been up to
in Aksai Chin, “where not even a blade of grass grows”. Making
a statement in Lok Sabha on August 28, 1959 (Jawaharlal Nehru: Selected
Speeches, Volume 4, by Publications Division), Nehru said: “There is a large
area in eastern and north-eastern Ladakh which is practically uninhabited. It
is mountainous, and even the valleys are at an altitude generally exceeding
13,000 feet. To some extent, shepherds use it during the summer months for
grazing… The Government of India have some police check-posts in this area but,
because of the difficulties of terrain, most of these posts are at some
distance from the International Border.”
Photo at the start - Rifleman
Jaswant Singh Rawat's statue at the Jaswantgarh memorial in Arunachal Pradesh.
He was awarded the Mahavir Chakra. (Photograph: Rajesh Karkera/Rediff.com)
Paying homage to Indian
soldiers – Jai Jawan !
With grief and profound
sadness
S. Sampathkumar
17.6.2020.
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