China’s incursions in the Ladakh region are the latest in its slew of
border transgressions since 1962. What gives China the edge is its continued
control over Aksai Chin, a significant area North of Ladakh, which allows it
easy access to the India territory across the border.
If one were to look back, the fact is that by September 1962 itself, China
had begun to make deep inroads in the North-Eastern territory, following their
crossing the MacMohan Line. Through the mid to the late 50s, the Chinese were
surreptitiously constructing a highway linking the provinces of Sinkiang and Tibet,
through Aksai Chin. The Indian position in Ladakh was insecure as in those
days, there was no road link to Leh.
The amazing part was that even as early as 1959, Jawaharlal Nehru, while
presenting a ‘white paper’ in the Parliament, conceded that China had taken
over more than 12,000 square miles of Indian territory but tried to assuage
feelings by claiming that the Aksai Chin area was untenable where ‘not a blade
of grass grows’. Still with growing demands for action, Nehru rather
tremulously embarked on a ‘Forward Policy’ whereby, small posts with 5 to 10
men were to be set up in the areas claimed by the Chinese as theirs, more as a
surveillance measure.
Nehru went on to say that any bit of aggression by the infiltrators would
be given a befitting reply by the men commanding the posts. China took this as
a sign of hostility on India’s part and mounted an insurgency that caught everyone
off-guard. The posts proved unequal to the task of pushing back the
infiltrators.
To divert the Chinese attention, the government struck the Chinese forces
across the NEFA where they believed they were better placed. But this was a
tactical blunder for the heavy casualties suffered by the Indian forces here led
to China’s capturing the crucial Bomdi La in the Kameng Division, the
headquarters of the NEFA command and coming close to taking over Chushul in the
Ladakh valley which would have led them right up to Leh, the headquarters of
Ladakh. Then all of a sudden China did a volte-face
by withdrawing troops without of course, losing hold on Aksai Chin, where it
still maintains hegemony.
The embarrassing reverses faced by the Indian Army in 1962 brought to
cruel focus that for all of Nehru’s foresight, defence measures in terms of
deploying adequate forces to safeguard the sensitive North-eastern sector where
the Chinese always had interests, was never high on the list of priorities of
his Government. Nehru believed in peaceful overtures to settle border disputes
and had a perfect ally in Krishna Menon, his Defence Minister, who too believed
in conservative use of forces.
Besides a loss of face, the war showed up how a marked dependence on
diplomatic maneuvers at the expense of military preparedness could have the
most disastrous of consequences. The failure of Nehru’s ‘Forward Policy’ continues
to haunt India even as China, much to everyone’s embarrassment, continues with
its surreptitious deeds.
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