For the last five decades and more, China has been using the 1962 border conflict to scare India and to put us on the defensive, but we say, we are not anymore! The Chinese propaganda tries to convey to us at large that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is vastly superior to its Indian counterpart on the battlefield.

 

Unfortunately, for the Chinese, it is the same mindset that made PLA transgress the Finger 4 mountainous spur on the north banks of Pangong lake as well as breach the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan valley. .

 

Caught unawares by the Indian Army August 29-30 manoeuvres, a miffed PLA decided to place an anti-aircraft gun on Black Top, south of Pangong Tso, and rolled out main battle tanks to scare the Indians. Chinese propaganda machine is screaming war with India, but fails to realize that modern weaponry is required to fight a war with India and not World War II machines like tanks.

 

 

The disengagement has to be done in such a fashion that it gives mutual security and not a chance to the incorrigible PLA to occupy positions vacated by the Indian Army. The best option available is status quo ante as existed in early April and anything less than that is an exercise in obfuscation.

 

China speaking about India’s 1962 loss is immature, the fact is that the present Indian Army does not fight with.303 Lee Enfield bolt action rifles, light machine guns, three inch mortars and light tanks. A transparent battlefield in Ladakh will sting the ruler of Beijing with the fact that the Indian troop deployment around Pangong Tso is more than the total deployed during the 1962 war.

 

They understand that on-ground tanks and troops are of lesser significance, as big weapons and rockets will take over the theatre of war.

 

Even though the Chinese ruler and his western theatre commander are blinded with ambition to prove to the world that a new global power has arrived, India has enough standoff weapons and deterrence to ensure that PLA takes a huge hit in already sensitive Tibet and Xinjiang province.

 

 

It is high-time that Beijing wakes up to stark reality on the ground as it is dealing with an Army that has been fighting on heights up to 24,000 feet since 1984 and insurgency in both Kashmir and the northeast since Independence.

 

The 1962 war no longer puts the Indian Army on the defensive, it incentivises the force.