Sabah Aslam
KEEP the pot boiling but don’t let it boil over, Gen Zia, former President of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff. The recent tension between India and China depict that the pot is about to boil over. The clash between Indian Army and PLA is a small practical sketch of the whole discourse as to where the situation could lead, if God forbid, any full-scale war theatre opens up. Not only that it has opened up another Pandora box or it can be said. The evolving situation is giving a glimpse of Indian Army’s drifting away from the executives of the country in Delhi over the Galwan mortification since with the recent political developments within India it has been surfacing that Indian Army is not contented with the response of the civil leadership.
Mr Modi who had been portraying himself as the only eligible guardian of Hindustan in general and Hindutva in particular is now emerging as a deranged man. Delhi’s tactics of covering up internal fissures and problems in domestic politics with nationalist border moves is not something new. Not only have that, portraying himself to be successful in all such insane attempts always proved to be beneficial for his political manoeuvring. The past couple of days should have been enough for him to realize that this standoff isn’t the same as that of 2017 at Dolkham, continuing for 73 days straight without any serious damage. This time, however, his denial has cost him a heavy price to pay. According to the Indian media, some 20 soldiers including a colonel had been killed in a recent encounter, needless to say that Indian media’s authenticity has always been questioned.
At home, the demand is of muscular response against China, in military there is an urge of sustaining the credibility. The burden now is on “56-inch” chest. At home apart from shock and awe there is anger as well, anger for vengeance. On the other side of the political aisle, the situation seems not to be worrisome. In his address to the nation after national crisis, the response from Mr Modi was meagre and was restricted to mere defending the territory rather revenge which is clearly evident from sentences like “For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important.” The official statement from the Indian authorities also included that it was a “pre-mediated ambush” on Indian forces by PLA troops.
Gen. Bakshi (R) in a televised interview clearly denounced actions of political ranks and indicated that nowadays in order to fire a bullet the order comes from Delhi’s political realms. Moreover he also added that the response from Foreign Ministry was totally absurd and a due harsh response was needed to make China realize about its action and their consequences. Country’s largest opposition party, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi also has shared his views in which he has clearly questioned the role of central government and particularly PM Modi. The recent confrontation is not ordinary, there may be several reasons for that too specifically the competing strategic goals. The present foreign policy and emerging security threats are a serious challenge to Modi’s regime which is already struggling to contain the Covid-19 outbreak and prepare for the upcoming recession.
There remains ambiguity as to how the situation will steer the forthcoming regional dynamics, but a determining key factor could be Mr Modi’s reaction to it; whether he will go for the populist narrative and continue with the hype that he had created for his electoral grounds and successfully come up as the 56-inch chest person who retaliates or he will go for a more rational approach and go for a mediation and a reconciliation through diplomatic means keeping in mind the fact that the Indian military power can, in no way, overcome the Chinese military muscle. However, if tension rose to a level where there is little or no chance of backing, the world would witness a crisis on one of the world’s most hot spot altitudes of war. With the world already dealing with Covid-19, there might not be an easy way to stop if any unfortunate event outbursts.
—The writer is freelance journalist.
