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HomeOpinion9,400 fresh troops for LAC a message to China—loud and clear

9,400 fresh troops for LAC a message to China—loud and clear

Beijing appears to be preparing to spring a surprise on India in the coming months even as it is eager to settle border dispute with Bhutan.

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The Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement or the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the India–China Border Areas is an agreement signed by the two countries in September 1993, agreeing to maintain the status quo pending final determination of dispute. This agreement provides the framework for border security between the parties until the two parties agree to reduce troop levels compatible with friendly and good relations. They also agree to undertake confidence-building measures along the LAC, including by providing notification of troop movements. The agreement clearly lays down that both India and China will keep their respective military forces in the areas along the LAC to a minimum level compatible.

Today, the “friendly and good” relations are the first casualties of PLA’s irresponsible mis-adventures in the last three years at various points of patrolling.

How China ruined it all

In August 2017, Indian and Chinese forces near Pangong Tso engaged in a melee involving kicking, punching, rock throwing, and used makeshift weapons such as sticks and rods. On 11 September 2019, PLA troops confronted Indian troops on the northern bank. On 5–6 May 2020, a face-off between about 250 Indian and Chinese troops near the lake resulted in casualties on both sides.

On 29/30 August 2020, Indian troops occupied many heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso. The heights included Rezang La, Reqin La, Black Top, Hanan, Helmet, Gurung Hill, Gorkha Hill and Magar Hill. Some of these heights are in the grey zone of the LAC and overlook Chinese camps. Indian Army, equipped with armour and mechanised forces, was sitting on the top of the Kailas Range. The PLA came in direct confrontation with the Indian Army but decided to abort its push.  India chose to pull back from these positions to leverage a larger disengagement. This gave India a decisive edge in the negotiating table. In hindsight, it appears that the Army’s decision to pull back after using the Kailas Range withdrawal as an effective leverage in the disengagement process was avoidable. Continued presence in Kailas Range would have given us a better situational advantage.

China has since built a bridge across the lake about 400 m long and 8 m wide, close to the friction points on the north bank of the Pangong Tso, and the Chushul sub-sector on the south bank.  This will help China mobilise troops at a much faster pace, which precisely is the PLA’s intent. The bridge is around 20 km east (35 km by road) of Finger 8 on the north bank. The Narendra Modi government placed on record its protest of the bridge, saying the area in J&K is under illegal occupation of China since 1962.

“This bridge is being constructed in areas that have continued to be under the illegal occupation of China since 1962. The government of India has never accepted this illegal occupation. Government has made it clear on several occasions that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral part of India and we expect other countries to respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Even though the two armies have decided to disengage from the April 2020 friction points, PLA is yet to restore patrolling rights to the Indian Army in Depsang Plains and Charding Ninglung Nullah (CNN) junction in Demchok with there being no signs of any de-escalation in these areas. While India lost the advantage of sitting on the Kailas Range, the immediate provocation for the troop buildup by New Delhi was the availability of strong evidence of PLA deploying one border regiment, backed by two divisions of Xinjiang and Tibet Military districts with four multi-functional Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) in reserve across LAC in East Ladakh in the western sector. The CAB deployed by PLA also includes combat-ready jets and helicopters used for surveillance and reconnaissance even though the Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement clearly lays down the rules for taking adequate measures to ensure that air intrusions across the LAC do not take place and shall undertake mutual consultations should intrusions occur.


Also read: India’s strategic paralysis with China must end. It is time to call out Xi’s border bluff


How India is responding

Almost three years after the Pangong Tso transgression by the PLA, and negotiations and de-escalation processes, the Indian Army has geared up to face the challenge of what can be described as a three-tiered force arrangement by China along the western and the eastern sector of the 3,488 km-long LAC.

New Delhi has been quick to reinforce border deployment with matching PLA force and better capabilities despite the terrain being more treacherous on the Indian side of LAC in East Ladakh. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting held this Wednesday and chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi sanctioned hiring of 9,400 fresh troops for raising seven new border battalions apart from a new operational base for the India-China LAC guarding force — the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The additional ITBP force will be deployed to manage 47 new border posts and a dozen ‘staging camps’ or troops bases to be created along the LAC as a fitting reply to PLA.

After the abrogation of Article 370, the overall situation in J&K has improved facilitating the chances of holding elections and restoration of the J&K Assembly. It appears that Beijing is in no mood to allow J&K to remain peaceful and its economy improve. With a failed State in Islamabad as its ally, Beijing appears to be preparing to spring a surprise on India in the coming months even as it is eager to settle border dispute with Bhutan on the one hand and bail out Pakistan. With the ongoing G20 activities and economic revival that India is witnessing, a spoil sport China is the last thing New Delhi would want to see. But the message that India is prepared to give a fitting reply to the PLA has gone out loud and clear.

Seshadri Chari is the former editor of ‘Organiser’. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal.

(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)

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