The decision of PM Modi to go to Leh was kept under wraps till he landed at the airport with the entire coordination done by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval,Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane.
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised everyone when he landed up at Kushok Bakula Rimpochee airport at Leh to be briefed about operational preparedness of the Indian military against the aggressive Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
It is understood that Prime Minister Modi gave a message to the Ladakh commanders that they should not initiate any escalation from their side but should definitely retaliate to any aggression. (PTI Photo)
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
Accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane, Modi’s first stop was the XIV Corps headquarters at Nimu outside Leh to ; he was briefed by Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh in the presence of Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi.
The decision of PM Modi to go to Leh was kept under wraps till he landed at the airport with the entire coordination done by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Rawat and Naravane.
NSA Doval, who came out of self-imposed isolation after two weeks, chose to remain in Delhi.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
Experts said the presence of PM Modi in the Ladakh region has not only sent a signal to China that India means business and will not surrender even an inch of its territory but also reassured the local population.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
Experts said the presence of PM Modi in the Ladakh region has not only sent a signal to China that India means business and will not surrender even an inch of its territory but also reassured the local population.
{{/usCountry}}
Indian Army and Chinese PLA are facing off at four points on the LAC in East Ladakh with the latter consolidating on ground while mouthing peace overtures.
It is understood that Prime Minister Modi gave a message to the Ladakh commanders that they should not initiate any escalation from their side but should definitely retaliate to any aggression.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The same message was also given out during the 2017 Doklam crisis.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather major national developments and Karnataka Bandh LIVE.
Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather major national developments and Karnataka Bandh LIVE.
