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Soldiers exchanged after melee: Singh
The former army chief said the situation was firmly in control of Indian troops. “There are no intrusions. There are transgressions, not intrusions,” he said.
Former chief of army staff VK Singh, minister of state for road transport and highways in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, says the latest transgression by China across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) into Indian territory has created a trust deficit between the two Asian giants, but cautions that war should be the last resort.
Asked what would be an apt response to the Chinese aggression, which led to a violent brawl on June 15 in the Gwalan valley in eastern Ladakh that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, Singh said in an interview: “If you’re going to tell about the response now, then the response is of no use whatsoever. I am sure the required people have been tasked to think of what can be done, what cannot be done and what all measures have to be taken.”
“In the melee where there are over 600 people just jostling, scuffling, pushing and hitting each other and in a dark night some people got separated; their people on our side and our people on their side. But in the morning they were exchanged.”
Singh added: “The first thing that has been given out is to boycott Chinese goods, let’s start with this. Let’s hurt them economically, other things will follow. War and use of force is the last resort always and every time. When all other means fail then you resort to this. There are many means available.”
Singh’s comments come in the backdrop of outrage over the June 15 skirmish, in which Chinese troops armed with nail-studded rods and clubs attacked Indian troops. The 20 Indians who died were the first fatalities in a confrontation with Chinese troops in 45 years.
The former army chief said the situation was firmly in control of Indian troops. “There are no intrusions. There are transgressions, not intrusions,” he said.
On the May confrontation in Pangong Tso, he said: “ ... this is not just a yearly feature, but happens in the summer and sometimes in the winter also. These have been happening, the only difference this time is that the transgression has involved a certain amount of stealth in the Pangong Tso area, they’ve done things which they have never done earlier.”
Singh said subsequent negotiations centred on wherever there have been transgressions such as Patrol Point 14 where “they said LAC is not this way but is a different way.”
“They have been told that we been sitting here on this for decades now, where is the doubt?. Same is true for other regions including Chumar. They try and come to the heights opposite the DBO [Daulat Begh Oldi]. All this is very old, it’s not something which is new. What is new is as the infrastructure becomes better they try to overawe us by more strength or vehicles.”
Singh said the Chinese were not on Indian territory across the LAC, asked about China laying claim to Galwan.
“The LAC is an interpretation from a map given in 1959 and Chinese keep advancing some claim or the other. The LAC is not marked on the ground, there is no agreement on it. There is a certain amount of flexibility that exists out there. But there are places where both sides know their own sides and ensure these are protected. Where there is no-man’s land, which comes up because of these perceptional differences, is where these patrol face-offs take place,” he added.
Asked about Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s question at the all-party meeting with the PM on Friday if here had been an intelligence failure, Singh said::”I am not in a position to respond because intelligence is a domain that is looked after by the RA&W {Research and Analysis Wing}. What I can refute is that it is a military intelligence failure...”
Singh said the Chinese aggression across the LAC may be an attempt to deflect attention from other issues.
“Why would China try to do things on the border, it is there any reason? In China nothing happens at the local level, it all comes from the top and who is the head of the military commission, {President} Xi Jinping. So this is not like India where broad instructions are there and commanders do their own things. What is it that they want to divert attention from? They are in the firing line of all the countries in the world because of Covid, they are having problems in Hong Kong, they hav problems in the South China Sea, they have trade problems with the United States, everybody is blaming them for everything. It means they want to divert attention from something.”
