NO TIME TO BE LAX

There is all-round jubilation in India over the news that China finally pulled back its troops by two kilometres in eastern Ladakh ahead of the Saturday Lt General level talks to diffuse the simmering border crisis.

The media, as expected, is giving credit for it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It’s true that unlike in the past, New Delhi refused to buckle down under the Chinese pressure and moved its army and ammunition to match the Chinese built up. It is also being pointed out that

Modi and the US President Donald Trump discussing the tensed border situation over the phone the other day has unnerved the Chinese.

However, instead of feeling euphoric over the Chinese withdrawal, India needs to trade with caution. It is not yet clear if the Chinese troops have withdrawn to their original position or are still in the Indian territory considering earlier reports suggested that the Chinese troops had invaded about 10 to 12 km inside the Indian territory.

The border dispute between the two Asian giants has remained unresolved for over 70 years. While India goes by the colonial British government’s treaty of early last century with Tibet, China refuses to accept it saying, Tibet was coerced into signing the treaty. True the Mcmahon Line is largely imaginary and disputed, but not the Line of Actual Control (LAC). But the repeated Chinese adventures inside the Indian territory both in the North East and Ladakh sectors cannot be justified.

The time probably has come to respond to China in the only language they understand – they become aggressive when you go soft and they go soft when you display defiance. Beijing would do well to remember that India of 2020 is not the India of 1962 and that India is capable enough to expose the Chinese façade of being invincible on the battlefield.

..... DB JHA, NEW DELHI via email