When Dokhlam happened in 2017, I had written - this will not stop here and instead of thumping your chest we should plan a strategy to deter Chinese , but we did nothing except Blowing own trumpet and so a few years later - Galwan happened.
But even then we did not learn anything. We exaggerated their losses inorder to save our faces and our naivity as we had sent our soldiers unarmed to examine whether the Chinese who have entered our territory have gone back or not.
We also hid information from people and publicly announced ; NA KOI AAYA THA AUR NAA KOI AAYA HAI, instead we should have said ; Chinese aaye they aur unhien maar key bhaga diya.
We perhaps did not wish to take that position because we did not want to antagonise the Chinese.
Once again on 09 Dec the Chinese intruded in Tawang region that resulted into a bloody clash and once again there is hardly any authenticated news. The Indian media as expected claims that Chinese have suffered more casualties, as they did in Galwan.
We share a Long border spaning thousands of Kms which is under dispute and gives China an opportunity to finger us at any place of their Choosing.
So, It is not something new that Chinese are doing now, they have intruded across LAC many times before and almost all PMs had to deal with these intrusions and had their own constraints dealing with those.
Initially when it began in 50s India had no money for unproductive things particularly war and military and so avoided to take a confrontational approach but finally how so ever we tried to avoid a conflict , it did take place.
The Indian PMs including the current one have always preferred to follow the same policy of resolving the LAC issue diplomatically, be it Mr Nehru or Indira Gandhi, Narasimhan Rao, Vajpayee, MMS and now Mr Modi.
The yester year Leaders had their genuine problems - they inherited poor India and a weak ill-equipped army so with No money around, they preferred a diplomatic approach. But what intrigues, now is - why is the current PM adhering to the same old policy, after all, he is fortunate to have inherited a reasonably strong India.
This Govt which boasts of being tough is unexpectedly responding meekly; despite the tension and boycott by other nations India attended the winter Olympics held in China, its trade with China is increasing, and despite losing gallant soldiers at Galwan, India withdrew the troops from strategic heights that our soldiers had captured in 2020 expecting a quid pro quo, but it never happened. The Chinese are reportedly still occupying some of our territory in Depsang area.
One can not dismiss Mr Subramanian Swamy casually, who has a reputation of being blunt and exposing many tainted ministers in the past. He had raised this same issue, a few months ago.
He had said “ The government is lying about the ongoing Indo-China border disputes. He claimed that whatever is being said about no one from China entering Indian territory, is all false. They (government) keep saying that there is no intrusion, that no-one has entered or exited, but it's not true. Either the army personnel deployed there are lying to them, or they themselves think that such kind of lies should be pushed forward for whatever reasons,"
The situation now, is no different than it existed in 1986 at Sumdorong Chu or in 1967 at Nathu La and Cho La when Indian army gave Chinese a bloody nose killing almost 350 Chinese soldiers.
In 1986, when Chinese intruded at Sumdorong Chu , General K. Sundarji, had reportedly, told Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi that - while he was not opposed to the matter being settled diplomatically, he would “teach the Chinese side a lesson and a fitting reply if needed without even thinking for a second”. The impact of the stand taken by Indian army was such that when then PM Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1988, he talked with the Chinese Premier on equal footing.
But here we have a Govt that only boasts and takes pride in criticising the yester year leaders but surprisingly responds meekly; despite the tension and boycott by other nations India attended the winter Olympics in China, its trade with China is increasing every year, despite losing gallant soldiers at Galwan, India withdrew the troops from strategic heights that our soldiers had captured in 2020 expecting a quid pro quo from Chinese, which never happened.
This habit of passing the buck to yester year leaders is not going to work anymore, the Govt has to plan to deal with rogue China and he cannot be dealt with effectively by turning your army into a “ Lathi wielding Force”.
If China can construct a Highway through POK, it can deploy its armed forces in Gilgit region despite India’s objections, it occupies land across LAC and claims it as theirs, it supports Pakistan in UNO, then Its high time the Indian Leadership reacts in a manner befitting its status.
Look back to 1967 and 1986 and derive inspiration from there.
However, Unfortunately, this Govt has encouraged sycophancy all around and as a result perhaps have only " Yes Men".
Secondly, When the enemy knows that you are hiding information from your own people, He squeezes you further.
Hence if we do not find a way to deter Chinese, such incidents will continue to happen as a ritual and our Soldiers who can fire effectively will only be resorting to LATHI CHARGE. And let me warn you a SOLDIER does not enjoy doing this, instead he loves Firing.