In the ongoing skirmishes and tussle going between the Indian Army and PLA of China for last couple of weeks, report are coming that Indian Army has taken advantage by capturing some of very strategically crucial hill tops and other areas in Ladakh region. A few of these positions captured by India Army are in the region of Mount Kailash, this is the area which China had captured from India after 1962 war. Chinese army’s desperate attempts to recapture these strategically important hill tops have been bravely foiled by Indian Army.

International experts and war analysts are terming this Chinese failure to push around Indian troops as PLA and Chinese President Xi Zinping’s reducing ability to intimidate any country in the days ahead. A news article in the prestigious Newsweek magazine a Chinese commentator claims that the failed high-profile incursion of PLA into more areas of Line of Actual Control has risked the future of Chinese President Xi Zinping. The writer goes further blaming Xi Zinping to be the main “architect” of these aggressive moves into Indian territory by Chinese Army which so far have been miserably failed. However, these failures will motivate Chinese President, who as Chairperson of CCP’s Central Military Commission, to renew his bid to launch a more aggressive offensive against Indian positions.

China had advanced its Army in early May in three separate areas of Ladakh where the boundaries between the two countries are poorly demarcated. China has always disputed these boundaries and keeps advancing in the Indian territories quite routinely taking advantage of the dispute. These trespassing of Chinese troops especially increased after Xi Zinping took over as General Secretary of Communist Party of China in year 2012. These trespassing later resulted in the violent face-off in the Galwan Valley in month of June this year. In a premeditated move Chinese troops attacked the unsuspecting and unarmed Indian soldiers who only came to enquire, why the Chinese have not gone back as per the agreement of meeting a day before. This was the first bloody confrontation between the two countries in 45 years. In this deadly fight India lost its 20 soldiers and China is believed to have lost up to 60 of its men.

Towards the end of September Indian troops surprised Chinese forces, in a what its being called a first in a half a century event, by launching an offensive against China. Indian troops captured strategically important hill points before China could reach there. The Chinese troops were taken aback to see Indian troops occupying those positions which was once in their control and they had no choice except retreating. Ever since India’s offensive occupation, Chinese forces are trying different tactics every second day to dislodge the Indian Army and failing every time miserably. India is not giving invaders any opportunity to improve. For the first time after the 1962 war the troops of both countries fired warning shots on each other, violating the decades- old rules of engagement. The Chinese are the ones closer to the truth that Indian troops are displaying a newfound boldness in their actions. The freedom given to Indian troops to deal with situation as required has given them a new jest and they are fighting more aggressively than before.

The game has changed now, and Indian soldiers are more aggressive or should we say more aggressively defensive to protect their borders and even ready to make the supreme sacrifice to save every inch of their motherland. So, let’s hope Xi Zinping does no silly stuff to show himself as victor to the Chinese people by penetrating further escalation. This will not be good for either country and for rest of the world as then other world powers will jump in the fray and situation will surely take a bloody and ugly turn.

-Yugal Parashar