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If China attacks on Doklam issue , India will not sit idle

Young Bites. Dated: 7/21/2017 8:57:24 AM

( Sh. Nikhil Gupta )
A famous General Clausewitz stated that economy, military power and external policy of a nation are intrinsically locked together . Affiliated to the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, the Global Times has been on the forefront of Chinese media attack on India. Its battle-plan is to obfuscate New Delhi’s points of view on the Doklam issue and peddle China’s deliberately one-sided view of the situation. Global Times threatened that India should get ready for an all out confrontation along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary with China and also threatened to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries. China has blamed India for the ongoing Doklam impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan. Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Doklam before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India. An important issue in this case is that the disputed territory belongs to Bhutan but the standoff is between the armies of India and China. For this, it is important to understand the special relationship that exists between the two South Asian neighbors namely India and Bhutan. Traditionally the Kingdom of Bhutan and India have enjoyed very friendly and cordial relations. India’s contribution towards building of modern infrastructure in Bhutan has been tremendous. Although Beijing has made Indian withdrawal a precondition for de-escalating the Doklam face-off, Indian forces are showing no sign of blinking. Whereas once, China bullied India on the LAC and -- as it is attempting in Doklam -- built roads, tracks and bunkers as ‘facts on the ground’ to consolidate its position in any future negotiation; today the Indian Army is rightly willing to, and capable of, physically blocking such attempts. Doklam is at the tri-junction of Sikkim, Bhutan and China. It is important for us because in mountain warfare, even a 10 feet high ground is of importance. It is also strategically located near the Siliguri corridor. Assuming it is occupied and deployed with guns and heavy armament, it is such a narrow patch that anyone who controls it also controls the entry and exit from the North East. It can cut off the entire North East. The Chinese have entered the Doklam plateau because it overlooks the Chumbi valley which is Chinese territory. This is the military reason why China is keen on the Bhutanese territory. If China gets hold of this territory, the military advantage in India’s Northeast might as well be lost to China. When sensitive territory goes into the hands of your enemy or adversary, he becomes more powerful in military terms. Assuming the Chinese take over that area (the Doklam Plateau) they will not stop at that. They will keep ingressing, and it will be easier for them to further expand their territory. China claims Doklam plateau, an 89 sq km pasture that falls close to Chumbi valley at the corner of India-Bhutan-China tri-junction and is not very far from the Sikkim sector. China, citing the 1890 China-Britain treaty claims it whereas Bhutan has disputed the fact saying the convention applies to the India-Bhutan border, not Bhutan and China. The problem was that the trijunction between Tibet , Bhutan and India had never been agreed upon. How can a state, which claims to be a responsible power, unilaterally grab a ‘disputed’ area to build a road on it when it is aware that this road is strategically located for a neighbour? Some say that it is in Chinese DNA to first change the status quo on the ground and then later to offer to talk. Despite the fact that China has no proof to contradict that the pastures in the Doklam area have for centuries been used by Bhutanese nomads as the Chinese were nowhere to be seen before the first years of the 1960s, the Chinese spokesperson has stridently been speaking of Chinese nomads using these pastures since immemorial times. Indian military planners worry that letting Beijing extend the boundary southwards to Mount Gipmochi would bring China closer to the Siliguri corridor which is a narrow sliver of Indian territory between Nepal and Bangladesh and which connects India’s seven north-eastern states with the Indo-Gangetic plain.
China has launched a disinformation campaign to mislead the international opinion . The current standoff is not only a border issue but a territorial issue as well. Forcible occupation of other nation’s territory has been part of the Chinese statecraft from the imperial days and is being faithfully followed by the present Communist regime. China is used to bullying its neighbors to submit to its demands. China wants to practice hegemony and pursue even greater power . China fears that post 2020 scenario may not be conducive for coercion because of a resurgent and assertive India. China on its part is going ahead with containment of India with a view to keep India confined to the back waters of Indian Ocean. Its policy of string of pearls and the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) is aimed to contain India. The Chinese are equating Indian intervention in disputed Bhutanese territory with license to support terrorist country Pakistan in disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Doklam should act as a wake up call for India to substantially upgrade defense preparedness . India should also threaten to play the Tibet card and tell China that India will agree to One-China policy only if China agrees to One India policy . Former Defence Minister Mulayam Yadav told that China was ready to attack India in collaboration with Pakistan and asked the government to reverse its stand on the Tibet issue and support Tibetan independence.
He further said that India’s stand on Tibet, a reference to its acceptance that the region was part of China, was a “mistake” and the time has come to support its independence as it had been a traditional buffer between the two big nations.
It is obvious that the Sino-Pak axis is deeply intertwined with the demonstrations and militancy in Kashmir and this suits China’s objectives in the subcontinent. Both China and Pakistan can conspire to weaken India’s sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir, if not wrest Kashmir.
The resolution passed by the Organisation of Islamic Conference(OIC) never favours India . This is not new but what is extraordinary is China’s reaction to the recent OIC resolution. Both China and Pakistan are enemies of India and India should not sustain the Chinese economy and look at it as economic warfare. Even as Indian and Chinese troops remain locked in a tense military standoff along the Sikkim sector of their border, the prospect of Chinese companies bidding to lay a submarine telecom cable system for the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), with defence implications, has set off alarm bells in some quarters. BSNL floated a tender for design, engineering, planning, supply and implementation of the submarine cable system between mainland Chennai and A&N Island using four fibre pair with 100 Gbps initial traffic capacity consisting of six segments with one being repeatered from Chennai to Port Blair and five unrepeatered segments from Port Blair to 5 different landing points at Havelock, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamoria & Great Nicobar . Sections of the government and industry are against allowing Chinese bidders for the cable system between Chennai and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands . Industry associations, such as the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association, have written to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to exclude Chinese players and include at least one Indian company to partner any global company.
Communication sector has huge defence implications . Indian nationalistic people should also stop using Chinese products . Equipment stability of European companies is more than the Equipment stability of Chinese companies .
Government’s decision to bring the Opposition on board before offering talks is very welcome. Cohesive national resolve is vital at this time. India should tell China that if they attack us we will not sit idle and we will use our nukes .
The Motto is “ THE ROYALE GUPTA WARRIORS NEVER FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES BUT FIGHT FOR A BIGGER CAUSE “ . Vande matram and Jai Hind