New Delhi: India and China are working on a formula wherein their troops will patrol forward locations every alternate week, so as to avoid violent face-offs between soldiers on the ground.
Top government sources said this has been the established practice on the countries’ border in the Northeast, and has worked well barring the occasional face-off. However, the sources said that border infrastructure development along the LAC, as planned by India, will continue since the activities are well within territory it controls.
“In the Northeast, both sides patrol every week to their patrolling points. We know when the Chinese are coming and they know when we are coming. This ensures that the troops don’t come face-to-face. This is something that can be done in the forward areas of Ladakh too,” a source said.
The source added that local commanders in the Northeast speak to each other regularly — a practice that has continued even during the Ladakh stand-off, with the Chinese even saying that both sides must ensure that what happened in the northern sector should not be allowed to develop there.
“However, we are not leaving anything to chance. Our strict vigil continues all along the LAC. There has not been any kind of aggressive deployment by the Chinese in the Northeast,” the source said.
However, the sources underlined that the formula being worked out will come into effect only when disengagement at the LAC is completed.
As reported by ThePrint on 22 September, India insists China needs to take steps for disengagement first, since it was the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that moved in.
Also read: 5 maps that tell you all you want to know about India vs China in Ladakh
China’s aggressive patrolling started since Doklam
Sources said according to previous India-China agreements, each side is supposed to have a patrol strength of 15-20 troopers.
However, since the 2017 Doklam stand-off, when India stepped into Bhutanese territory and blocked China’s illegal road construction activity, the PLA started bring in bigger patrols along the LAC.
“From 15-20, the number increased to 30 and so on. It has been happening over a period of time. It came to such a point that they started coming en masse and surrounding our troops. This resulted in scuffles, and that led to stone throwing. Then, the Chinese started bringing in clubs and sharp weapons like machetes,” a source said.
The source added that this is what happened on 15 June in the Galwan Valley.
“It was a melee. We could not open fire because the bullets could have hit our own,” the source said.
India has made it clear to China that its soldiers will open fire to defend themselves, and Chinese tactics of “using mass” will not be tolerated.
China has more than doubled its air bases, air defence positions, and heliports near the LAC since the Doklam crisis.
“The 2017 Doklam crisis appears to have shifted China’s strategic objectives, with China more than doubling its total number of air bases, air defence positions, and heliports near the Indian border over the past three years,” a report by leading global geopolitical intelligence platform Stratfor had said.
Also read: India-China endgame in Ladakh looks costly unless both Modi and Xi get a face-saver deal
This is a surrender by India, as China, true to type will advance and occupy Indian territory whenever India is not patrolling. Only a final and binding border agreement should avert India’s liberation of Tibet.
CHINA IS UNTRUSTWORTHY & UNRELIABLE HAVING AGGRESSIVE & EVIL DESIGN TO GRAB TERRITORIES OF OTHER CUNTRIES BY ALTERING OR CAPTURING OTHER COUNTRY LIKE TIBET WHICH IS CREATED BORDER DISPUTE WITH INDIA BY DRAGON. SO PERMANENT SOLUTION IS INDEPENDENCE OF TIBET. ONLY THEN INDIA CAN THINK OF PERMANENT PEACE ON INDO-CHINA BORDER. THE PRESENT BORDER TALKS WITH CHINA CANNOT BE PERMANENT AS EVIDENT FROM UNRELIABLE POSTURE OF DRAGON IN PAST WHICH CANNOT BE BELIEVED SINCE CHINA IS NOT ABIDING ANY PAST AGREEMENTS ENTERED INTO BY INDIA. CHINA IS ALSO ADOPTING DIFFERENT INDIRECT TACTICS LIKE INCITING PAKISTAN, NEPAL, NORTH KOREA AGAINST US. CHINA IS GIVING MILITARY & FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO DIFFERENT INSURGENT GROUPS, POLITICAL PARTIES LIKE CONGRESS, COMMUNISTS ETC. THESE ALL PROBLEMS HAVE ONLY ONE SOLUTION I.E. INDEPENDENCE OF TIBET WHEN CHINA HAS NO COMMON BORDER WITH INDIA AS WAS BEFORE 1950. INDIA GOVT MUST PLAN LONGTERM STRETEGY TO HAVE PERMANENT SOLUTION OF BORDER ISSUE. TIBET CAN BE MADE INDEPENDENT BY ECONOMIC BOYCOTT OF CHINA BY ALL UN MEMBER COUNTRIES BY PASSING A RESOLUTION AGAINST DRAGON TO TO THIS EFFECT.
This ‘alternate week patrolling’ has to be the most naive peace formula. China will definitely use one of its weeks, when India is not around, to occupy more. It is such naive and cowardly thinking of your “top government sources” that has hurt India for decades. It is time for India to truly and thoroughly implement Ajit Doval’s argument that India should move from defense, to offensive defense, to offense with unpredictability. Else, the thinking of your naive and cowardly “top government sources” will result in India going down the drain.
Well said
India should learn its lessons!!! Be Aware, be on your feet. Build your infrastructure, build your economy. Tell your kids where we live is hostile. Wait for their population to get older and at an opportune moment no matter what our principles and the world says!! LIBERATE TIBET!!!