Despite his supporters flaunting the 56-inch chest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not picked the gauntlet flung by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The brutal murder of 20 Indian soldiers was planned by the head of China’s Western Theatre Command, General Zhao Zongqi to “teach India a lesson”, according to the US intelligence sources. Hence, there is now no doubt this attack on our soldiers was pre-planned by this dastardly general who wants to impress his Supreme Commander, President Xi Jinping so that he can be inducted into the think-tank of the Chinese armed forces.

To intimidate India into relinquishing its territorial claims on the Galwan valley and in Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and Sikkim is exactly what this Chinese general wants. First, bully and try to cow down India. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged Modi has surrendered Indian territory of the Galwan valley to China. And that, without the approval of Parliament which alone has the authority to cede Indian territory to China. Predictably, the PMO has dismissed this as opposition propaganda.

The Opposition has pointed out that our braveheart Indian soldiers laid down their lives to defend Indian territory against incursions from China. This is precisely why they have become martyrs. To defend precious Indian territory against Chinese aggression.

Also Read: China was always India’s enemy no.1

So, if China did not intrude into Indian territory or have pulled back after intruding, what is the brouhaha all about?

Satellite imagery reveals massive Chinese deployment in the Galwan valley and the lake area. This is reminiscent of the Doklam standoff in August 2017. The Chinese want to nibble away at Indian territory to see our reaction.

Whether the Chinese troops crossed the LAC or not appears to be a secondary question now. Three separate brawls broke out because the Chinese forces had earlier built a structure on the Indian side of the LAC. And when Colonel Santosh Babu went to see the structure with some soldiers, a Chinese soldier violently pushed him on the chest using expletives in Chinese.

The reaction to pushing a CO (Commanding Officer) is like being a witness to the abuse of your parents which is why, as expected, the Indian soldiers gave a tit-for-tat response. But that is not the issue right now. What has taken place is that China has claimed the entire Galwan valley - which has been admittedly part of India even after the 1962 war with China.

So, China is testing India’s response to its redrawing the map of its borders and dictating to India what it can or cannot do.

What has emerged now is three separate incidents were leading to the horrible deaths of 20 of our braveheart soldiers. Some media reports allege some bodies of our braveheart soldiers were in all probability mutilated by these Chinese fiends.

Be that as it may, Rahul Gandhi has been described as a traitor for questioning the version of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi that there have been no incursions into Indian territory and that our soldiers will defend every inch of our territory. Rather than present a United front to China, this dastardly enemy country is being presented with another BJP versus Congress shouting match.

The fact remains is that China has claimed the entire Galwan valley, which is intolerable. The Galwan valley was never part of Chinese territory and can never be accepted as such.
 
There is no doubt that Modi has proved to be the toughest of the Indian Prime Ministers, making look the decision-making of his predecessors like Jawaharlal Nehru and Manmohan Singh as weak, effete and cowardly.

But having a 56-inch chest is not enough to take on the Chinese because their GDP and ipso facto their military spending is 20 times higher than India. No doubt, China is not Pakistan.

But if Sonia Gandhi visited Beijing during the Olympics, so did Narendra Modi as head of state later on. Modi invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to India in 2019. It is difficult to accept that Xi Jinping was not aware of the Chinese fiends murdering our braveheart Indian Army soldiers on the LAC.

In typical PRO rhetoric repeated ad nauseam, on a TV show, the armyman-turned- PRO kept repeating the fight took place due to different perceptions cleverly not replying as to whether this was on the Indian side of the LAC or the Chinese side. There is no doubt that the Chinese entered Indian territory and set up a tent after agreeing to pull back.

The armyman-turned-PRO did not want to contradict the Prime Minister’s line that “There are no incursions into Indian territory every inch of which will be defended by our armed forces.”

The PM did not mention the Chinese who have been responsible for several incursions since May 6.

The internal chaos
At the all-party meeting last week, Modi said, “Neither anyone has intruded into our territory nor took over any post”.

The Congress attacked him for his comments. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram asked: “If no Chinese troops were inside Indian territory, where did the clashes take place on June 15-16? Where were 20 Indian soldiers killed and 85 injured?”

The PMO issued a statement clarifying PM Modi’s remarks.

“Prime Minister’s observations that there was no Chinese presence on our side of the LAC pertained to the situation as a consequence of the bravery of our armed forces. The sacrifices of the soldiers of the 16 Bihar Regiment foiled the attempt of the Chinese side to erect structures and also cleared the attempted transgression at this point of the LAC on that day.”

The statement also added, “In fact, he specifically emphasised that in contrast to the past neglect of such challenges, Indian forces now decisively counter any violations of LAC. Those who tried to transgress our land were taught a befitting lesson by our brave sons of soil.”

***
I want to point out that there seems to be a repeat of 1962 when our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to believe China would attack India. He kept making friendly overtures to China, showing we were weak and unprepared for war. In pursuance of his so-called policy of Non-Alignment, he refused to accept John Kennedy’s help to the Indian armed forces against the Chinese leading to a debacle and India losing the 1962 battle against China.

But Modi has again tried to make friendly overtures to China - our arch-enemy who opposed our bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. China has again vehemently opposed our bid to declare Hafeez Sayeed a global terrorist. If this was not enough, China has occupied Aksai Chin and also tried to grab Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Hence, making friendly overtures towards China which openly bullies us, demeans our great civilisation before the world.

What we have to do is align with the freedom movements in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and immediately the Government-in-Exile of Tibet. We have to derecognise China’s sovereignty over Tibet by asserting that China has contravened international law and human rights by forcefully occupying Tibet and displacing indigenous Tibetans with Han Chinese.

We have to ally with the US, Japan, Australia and other anti-Chinese powers. We must also recognise the Dalai Lama as the supreme head of Buddhism with the right to identify his successor. We must allow the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh without being terrified of this big bully - China.

And finally, we have to ease out the enemy within. Like those bureaucrats and a former national security advisor who wants Narendra Modi to normalise ties with China after they have murdered 20 Indian braveheart soldiers.

These are our biggest enemies. For there can never be ‘normalisation’ of ties with China which is our Enemy No. 1 (as rightly said by George Fernandes) and will remain our enemy until it returns our territory which it has occupied by stealth and deception over the decades.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's.
(Dr Olav Albuquerque is a senior journalist-cum-lawyer of the Bombay High Court. He holds MSc., LLM and PhD in Law.)