Random Thoughts - Pattabhi Sitaraman

The border skirmishes in eastern Ladakh where India lost twenty of its braves including the CO of 16 Bihar and an undetermined number of casualties on the Chinese side, continues to be a matter of discussion in various forums. The full details though not available, has given rise to many speculations doing rounds as to what had happened on the night of 15th June.  The GOI had been very guarded in its statement that there had been no transgression  into Indian territory by  PLA. Stopping short at that gives rise to lots of speculation of IA crossing the LAC into Chinese territory and pay the PLA in its own coin. The reported exchange of personnel after two days confirms this suspicion.  This apart, one of the news channel pieced together a story, from the interviews with injured soldiers being treated at Leh hospital, giving details about the attack on the night of 15th June. From the day one of the skirmishes, the spokesman of the foreign ministry of China had been...

The de-escalation process that was agreed upon between India and China at top military levels reportedly not percolating down to the operational units is the reason for the skirmishes, body blows and death of a commanding officer and few men on the Indian side and undetermined number of casualties on the Chinese side, reports one of the TV channels.  The death of personnel now in 2020 after 1975 has given rise to a jingoistic call of boycott of Chinese products from many especially in the social media.  There are many ex military officers and citizens who talk of India is not the India of 1960s vintage and the present leadership is far removed from the one that was totally clueless in the 1962 limited war with China forgetting for a moment that China has gone way ahead of India in the last sixty years.  Let us take an objective look at the issues and what the country must do to stand up to the bullying China. China had been cultivating all the nations surrounding In...

The war between the Sikhs and the Chinese in the 1840s when the Chinese over-ran Ladakh, which was under the Sikhs, and consequent treaty between them allowed the Sikhs to rule over Ladakh and the Chinese withdrew beyond Tibet.  The British defeated the Sikhs and took control of Ladakh.   In the year 1865, W H Johnson, an official with the Survey of India, proposed a line along the Pongong Tso lake and including Aksai Chin into Ladakh. This map was presented to the Maharaja of Kashmir who accepted the same and stationed troops in a fort constructed at Shahidulla (Xaidulla) in the upper Karakash river region.  As Chinese did not control either Uyghuristan or Tibet, the map of this line was never presented to them.  Likewise, British survey officer Henry Mcmohan in the year 1914 drew a demarcation line on the eastern part of the country originally known as North East Frontier Area (NEFA), known as Mcmohan line demarcating the border between India and Tibet i...