2020 is not 1962 when we suffered a bad defeat from China, all because of Prime Minister Nehru and Defence Minister Krishna Menon tainted in the Jeep scandal. The duo sent the Indian Army equipped with WW 2, 303 rifles to fight the Chinese Army armed with latest weapons automatic rifles.
The Indian soldiers were asked to fight wearing old summer uniforms in extreme cold conditions; still they fought with full courage.
It belies logic why Nehru and Menon did not use IAF which had the latest vampire fighters inspite of the fact that China had no airbase in Tibet from where fighter aircrafts loaded with weapons could take off.
The overall command was placed in the hands of Gen Kaul from ASC – who just knew how to count the number eggs and tinned ration for the troops all the time.
All this was 58 years back, today we have a battle-hardened armed force which is more than a match against the Chinas Armed forces that last fought against Vietnam and that too got a bloody nose in 1969
Unfortunately, Indian Governments both Congress for ten years and for last six years Modi Government of BJP have been too indulgent with China. Congress Government of Manmohan Singh which ruled the country from 2004 to 2014, neglected Indian defence and just depended on politics. This gave impression to China that they can brow beat India and keep on acquiring Indian territory by their salami cut tactics while India will always look the other way. They had the gumption to claim entire 90000 sq. kms of Arunachal Pradesh and 38000 kms of Aksai Chin as theirs.
Later the Modi Government participated in many rounds of border talks with China but with no results. The game is quite simple; China does not want to settle the demarcation dispute with India and wants to keep the issue alive so that it can continue gobbling Indian territory by making stupid claims at different times. The recent skirmish which took place between Indian and Chinese troops on the night of 16 Jun 2020 in Galwan Valley of Ladakh is a case in point.
This area was never under dispute and never claimed by China. However, after this skirmish in which we lost 20 soldiers martyred and Chinese lost 43 soldiers, China is claiming the whole of Galwan Valley as theirs and saying that it was Indian troops who were aggressors. While China does not want to settle its boundary with India it must be noted that it has settled all its boundaries with other countries including Myanmar.
Enough is enough. India of 2020 is not India of 1962 where the 4 div busy making houses in Firozpur instead of training for war, had to be moved overnight to fight China in 1962. Indian Army of 2020 is a battle-hardened force which has been exchanging fire daily — thanks to Pakistan and its jihadi puppets. It is time Indian Neta’s understand this. Most of the time these Indian Neta’s get away with explanation, when any India-China skirmish takes place, that this is happening because of perceptual differences of boundary between China and India. No Sir, no more these perceptual differences.
If China is not ready to demarcate its boundary then let us demarcate it and tell china that we do not have any perceptual difference. If Chinese come to our laid down area let us shoot them. Yes, this will lead to number of clashes but then so be it. Let us not lose any more territory due to this nibbling tactics by China. Let China know that we mean business. Yes, for this we will have to further strengthen our Armed Forces. We will have to restore our mountain strike corps to its original strength of one lakh troops. Also, our navy must be made a Navy of 200 ships from the present 130 ships and Air Force from current 31 fighter squadrons to the authorized 42 Sqns. These are occupational hazards which we will have to tackle, come what may.
Similarly, if China is now claiming Galwan valley as theirs then we should also keep on claiming their area as ours and do the same salami cut tactics as employed by China. Let us not forget that it takes two to Tango.
