Raashid Wali Janjua
AFTER 1962 Indo-China War a very percep
tive Indian Brigadier S.K Dalvi had written
a book “Himalayan Blunder” with a very onomatopoeic title to warn the world of the Indian obduracy and naiveté. The book was an ideal primer for someone who wanted to understand the sheer silliness of strategic assumptions and false territorial claims of Indian Government. To suppress the truth the famous Henderson-Brooks report which laid bare the truth about that war foisted upon Indian Army by its incompetent leadership was kept out of the eyes of the Indian public. The Indian Army bosses had not broken the truth to the hapless troops on the frontlines about the actual location of the border in Twang sector till October 20, 1962 when the hostilities were into 4th day. The troops of 17th Parachute Field Regiment under Captain H.S. Talwar were sent to reinforce an advanced border post without maps and landed in Chinese captivity in Tibet along with Brigadier Dalvi. Lt General BM Kaul a boisterous big mouth given to political machinations and bluster addressed his troops at Tezpur telling them that the Indian posts at Thagla Ridge at NEFA on McMahon Line had been personally sanctioned by the Prime Minister Nehru after receiving intelligence at the highest level. What that level was nobody knew as the Indian troops without maps floundered in dark like spring chickens becoming easy morsel for the doughty Chinese.
After administering a quick spanking the Chinese declared a unilateral ceasefire on 22nd November and moved back to their border locations. The Indians seem to have forgotten the lessons of that humiliating retreat and have again started a deadly minuet of border confrontation with the Chinese and other smaller neighbours such as Nepal and Bhutan. Though Chinese have their own grievances about Indian incursions and violation of border in Arunachal Pradesh they have studiously avoided an armed confrontation showing patience and gravitas in the face of extreme provocation. The Indian troops had crossed over into Chinese territory at Doklam Plateau in June 2017 claiming it to be their territory. The Area according to China was ceded to Tibet in 1890 by the British Indian government in 1890 as per Convention of Calcutta. China claims that under Article I of that Convention, the starting point of the Sikkim-Tibet border was Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier and that Doklam was located in the Xigaze area of Tibet, bordering the Indian state of Sikkim. Indians like typical hegemons have treated Bhutan and Nepal as vassal states especially after they annexed Sikkim in 1975 through a RAW sponsored spurious referendum.
The real reason for 73 days’ standoff at Doklam in 2017 was the Indian fear psychosis about imagined Chinese threat to Chumbi Valley dominating Siligiri Corridor that connects India with its North Eastern states. Bhutan that had never been colonized in its history had signed a Treaty of Panakha with British India in 1910 according to which the British government was given the right to guide the Kingdom of Bhutan in foreign affairs. The treaty was revised in 1949 with India and in 2007 when India effectively acquired sweeping powers to influence Bhutan’s defence and security policies. The Indians extracted these concessions under duress through threats of blocking the logistical supplies of the landlocked country. Under pretext of that treaty India is stoking up unrest moving its forces in Bhutanese territory to watch over Chinese road construction activity which China claims it is conducting within its sovereign territory. China claims Tibet as its sovereign territory in view of Seventeen Point Agreement of 1951 between PRC and Tibet. The Chinese claim that is based on international law gives it the right to build any road in Doklam area neighbouring Bhutan. Indians however consider Doklam as a disputed border region and therefore resort to frequent illegal border incursions.
A similar face-off occurred along the Indo-China border at Eastern Ladakh near Pangong Tso Lake, the major part of which China holds, on 5th May 2020. Several soldiers were injured in fistfights before the troops were disengaged. On 9th May another incident occurred at Naku La Pass in Nortehrn Sikkim. The fistfights that broke out between the Chinese and Indian troops were eerily reminiscent of the NEFA skirmishes in 1962 that had led to the Indian humiliation of Himalayan proportions. The border clashes on Line of Actual Control despite a Border Defence Treaty of 2013 between two countries indicate clearly the Indian aggressive intent. India has displayed a consistent unreasonableness in its conduct vis-a-vis all neighbouring States, The irredentist claims on State of Jammu and Kashmir along Line of Control with Pakistan show the same expansionist mindset as being displayed while encroaching on Chinese a sovereign territory along LAC. Nepal which has long borne the brunt of Indian border blackmail has long last let loose a cri de coeur by publishing its new political map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura areas within its territorial jurisdiction. The measure is a rude rebuff to the regional hegemon India, that while declaring Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as its union territories, had declared Kalapani and Lipulekh areas of Nepal in 2019 as its territory. The bold step by Nepal is a welcome initiative by a small landlocked state that has remained at the receiving end of Indian hegemony in the past. The bold and justified move by Nepal has been condemned by India as a cartographic aggression, a claim that rings hollow considering historical facts and India’s own cartographic aggressions against Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Pakistan in the past. India being a revisionist state is revising its Treaty of Saugli signed in 1816 between British India and Nepal delineating India-Nepal border and has reacted petulantly to Nepal’s publishing of new map based on its historical claim. The Indian acts in the past few months show that it has not learnt any lessons from its Himalayan blunder in 1962.
— The writer, a Retired Brig, is a PhD scholar at NUST, Islamabad.
