India will now impose costs on China whenever it tries its favourite salami-slicing tactics in a bid to incrementally grab territory, a move that marks a decisive change in India’s long-standing border management policy to largely maintain “peace and tranquillity” along the Line of Actual Control, said top official sources.
The “days of walk-in options for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are over” said the sources, even as Indian armed forces went on their highest state of alert along the 3,488-km LAC as well as the eastern seaboard after the bloody skirmish in the Galwan Valley region of eastern Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers dead on Monday night.
China has also further reinforced its military build-ups along the LAC, especially in the areas facing the Galwan Valley, Daulat Beg Oldi, Depsang, Chushul and other such areas of eastern Ladakh.
But the Indian defence establishment is not too perturbed, with an almost war-like alert being declared along the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh with the Army well-prepared to take care of any contingency. The LAC in eastern Ladakh, for instance, has well over 15,000 Indian soldiers deployed in forward areas, with more backing them in the rear.
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“Our soldiers will not move back. There will be no compromise on our territorial integrity. China has played this game of cartographic aggression too many times for too long. They transgress into our territory, arbitrarily make claims, keep on repeating them as if they are true, and then paint India as the aggressor,” said a source.
This will no longer be allowed, with the PLA being made to “bear losses” for every attempt it makes to grab territory, he added. This tough new line comes after a flurry of meetings in South Block, which included PM Narendra Modi and Defence minister Rajnath Singh reviewing the border situation in Ladakh with the top military brass on Tuesday and Wednesday.
