Ladakh LAC standoff: India Army has created catch-22 situation for the Chinese, says an expert

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) actions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh Subsector and along the entire length have successfully been contained by the Indian Army.

Initially assessed as a collective training deployment, the occupation of the Fingers 4 to 8, the deployment in the Depsang plains and DBO was a cause of concern. The deployment is likely to continue as each side is unlikely to withdraw to a position which will not allow a Military Commander to fight a cohesive defensive battle.

“Despite eight rounds of talks by the Military Commanders and the last two interactions with the representatives of the MEA have not borne much fruit,” says an Indian Army veteran Lt Col Manoj K Channan.

According to him, “In a graduated response to the PLA’s aggressive designs, the Indian Government and the Military Commander’s engaged in a dialogue at the highest levels on each side, without much success. Ministerial Level talks on the sidelines of the SCO were fruitful in containing the eyeball contact from further escalation. The Indian Government has expressed that the PLA troops should pull back to March 2020 deployment.”

“On the other hand the occupation of dominating heights by the Indian Army has created a Catch 22 situation in which any vacation of the heights will have severe repercussions in case the Chinese occupy them now,” Lt Col Channan tells Financial Express Online.

In his view, “The use of unorthodox weapons from the medieval times is a ruse for psychological purposes, the modern-day soldier is not going to hesitate to “shoot to kill” in case such weapons are engaged in the physical brawls as witnessed in the Galwan Valley.”

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