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This is Kuala Lumpur based media and now you are intelligent enough to make your judgementBorder standoff: India seeks face-saving way to deal with China
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/07/21/border-standoff-india-seeks-face-saving-way-deal-china/
SAM Report, July 21, 2017
A soldier stands guards at a disputed border region between China and India. Photo: Xinhua.
Although the Indian media has been creating hype over the country’s military standoff with China near the Bhutan-China-India tri-junction since middle of June, New Delhi is now studiously playing down the tensions.
Recently, Indian Defense Ministry denied reports of major Chinese troop mobilization on the border. In a statement on 19 July the ministry said there had only been a general state of alert on the Chinese side and a routine annual military exercise was held near Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, in June.
This is despite a report by People’s Daily on the same day citing “expert” opinions that China’s “recent military moves along the Sino-Indian border … have sent a strong message to India amid the two nations’ standoff.
The daily assessed that “Chinese experts believe that the actions showcased China’s strength and sent a strong signal to India. Though India has more troops scattered along the disputed area, China’s rapid deployment of troops, its powerful weaponry, and its advanced logistics support give China the edge over India.”
On 18 July, Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs that diplomatic efforts were under way to end the standoff.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is due to travel to Beijing next week to attend a BRICS event on security issues. Doval, who reports directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is also concurrently India’s special representative on border talks with China.
“It is entirely conceivable that Doval will sound out the Chinese side on some face-saving formula that ends the standoff, devolving upon pullback of Indian troops from Chinese territory,” said the Hong Kong based news site Asia Times.
However, observers pointed out that India-China relations has become adversarial and the Modi government’s foreign-policy compass of “muscular diplomacy” toward China as well as Pakistan is not happenstance.
There is an entrenched opinion within India’s strategic community that shares Defense Minister Arun Jaitley’s recent barb aimed at Beijing that today’s India is not “the India of 1962,” the Asia Times observed.
“Border incidents are increasingly triggered by India’s increasing military strength and an increasingly assertive posture on the border,” Indian military analyst Ajai Shukla was quoted by the paper as saying.
Shukla explained the paradigm shift this way: “The little-known upshot is that India’s military posture has become significantly stronger than China’s on the 3,500-kilometer Line of Actual Control. This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides.
“For decades, India maintained an insignificant military presence in Daulet Beg Oldi, in Ladakh…. But when India’s thickening troop presence blocked Chinese patrols into the area, a prolonged confrontation ensued in 2013.
According to the newspaper, Shukla’s opinion is shared silently by many within the Indian defense-policy community.
But, Modi’s dilemma lies elsewhere. “Indian strategists have a habit of spouting opinions from the ivory tower, whereas Modi is ruling an increasingly unmanageable country through choppy waters with eyes set on the 2019 elections. And the plain truth is that the Indian economy will crumble if a war is thrust upon the country.”
“Because of a clever change in the methodology of calculating gross domestic product, the Indian economy’s growth rate looks impressive, but in actuality, under the combined pressure of the recent policy moves on demonetization and goods and services tax (GST, a unified tax structure for the entire country), an economy that had already been slowing is now virtually crawling.
“The disruption has huge consequences for short-term growth. On top of it, if a war is thrust upon the country, the political economy will enter crisis zone.
Modi understands this, which explains why the standoff with China is handled at the “highest level”. As Georges Clemenceau, who served as France’s prime minister during World War I, said famously, war is too important to be left to the generals.