BENGALURU: As tempers and patriotic zeal flare over the current stand-off between India and China over the Galwan Valley on the Sino-Indian border in Ladakh that witnessed deaths on both sides, strategic affairs experts suggest that only political intervention at the top level and right messaging can help defuse the situation.
“They (China) are sending a message to India. The problem is not of building roads, but China believing that we are working closely with America and that we have a larger intention. We have to tell China that what we are doing along the border is purely an internal issue and nothing to do with our relations with the US,” said D Suba Chandran, Prof, International Strategic and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.
Chandran, who has also worked with Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, said that India has to make it clear that its relations with the US is not against the interests of China. “How we believe that Nepalis are doing the Chinese bid, the Chinese believe we are doing the American bid. Whether it is Nepal or China we have to talk and resolve the issues,” he said.
China also needs to be told that India’s decision to abrogate Article 370 is purely an internal strategy and nothing to do with border issues. “Chinese believe that we are also staking claim for Aksai Chin region,” he said, adding that China – which has built infrastructure along the border – is not allowing India to do the same on its own side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Strategic affairs experts at the Bengaluru-based think-tank Synergia Foundation said what China is doing seems to have been planned at the highest level with a politico-military messaging for India. They too are of the view that making Ladakh, a Union Territory is viewed as a threat to China-held Aksai Chin region and the strategic Western Highway connecting Xinjing to Tibet.
“The (India’s) road in Uttarakhand leading to Lipulekh Pass, objected to by Nepal, also enables an avenue of approach to the Indian military to the Tibetan Autonomous Region through Lipulekh Pass. China is not happy with this development, especially the one which leads to DBO (Daulat Beg Oldie) and then to Karakoram Pass area,” state experts at the Synergia Foundation. “India has to go alone and resolve it. it is a test for our country’s aspiration as a regional power,” they add.
India prepared to face China: Suresh Angadi
Belagavi: “At a time when the entire world is grappling under the pandemic, China is exhibiting a fox-like mentality to provoke India on the borders,” said Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi. He condoled the demise of the Indian martyrs on China border and said, “Indian Army is prepared to face any situation.” When asked about the probability of a war-like situation between India and China, he said that the country is prepared if such a situation arises. “China shouldn’t take us lightly. Every Indian is behind the army. Their families should not worry at all,” he said. ENS
Tribals mourn Odisha martyrs’ death
Baripada/Phulbani: Two tribal villages in Odisha on Wednesday mourned the death of their sons, who were martyred in an armed conflict with the Chinese on Monday night in Galwan Valley. The martyred were Naib Subedar Nandu Ram Soren and Sepoy Chandrakant Pradhan. Nandu Ram is survived by wife Laxmi Soren and three school-going daughters. Sepoy Chandrakant Pradhan is survived by his parents, an unmarried sister and a 12-year-old brother. He was the sole earning member of his family. ENS