Thread by @ukshahi

What I am going to chronicle here is a veritable account of the situation on the Indo China frontier.
It is also an account of how different Indian governments have acted to Chinese aggression (even a milder one) in the past.
By past, I don't mean only 1962. I mean recent past.

PM Modi has said that no PLA incursion has been allowed into territories that were controlled and dominated by India prior to this stand off, i.e March 2020.
Our territorial integrity is intact. Our military posts are intact. We didn't compromise on sovereignty.
#ChallengeChina

PM @narendramodi also reiterated India shall protect its territorial integrity at all costs. He said armed orces are on high level alert. They have been given full freedom to act as they deem fit.
Every activity on the LAC is being monitored. He was confident. He was reassuring.

What this government is facing today is the greatest act of Chinese aggression since 1962.
China has made buildup along the LAC opposite Indian positions in Depsang, Galwan, Hot Springs, Pangong Tso & Demchok.
India has matched Chinese deployment with its own mirror deployment.

Responding to the Chinese aggression, India has also added Apache attack copters, Sukhoi fighter jets, artillery guns & tanks to defences along the LAC.
3rd Infantry Division tasked with Ladakh was already there.
Another division (15 thousand combat troops) was moved in May.

Another mountain division of the Indian Army, kept ready for contingency, has been acclimatized over the past two weeks for war fighting at more than 14,000 feet.
Three divisions now form an arc and are ready to respond. 
Intensive combat air patrolling is being done every day.

It becomes our duty then that we discuss and examine how previous governments responded on facing much milder Chinese aggression when the PLA deployed just one platoon sized contingent along one sector across the LAC in 2013 .

Let's go back 7 years to 15th April, 2013. There is a place called Raki Nula in Depsang, 30 kms south of the DBO where the PLA had set up a platoon sized camp.
Indian Army responded to the Chinese presence by esbalishing its own encampment 300 metres away.

Negotiations between India and China lasted nearly three weeks, during which the Chinese position was reinforced by trucks and helicopters.
The dispute was ""resolved" on 5th May 2013.

As part of the "resolution" , India had to dismantle some military structures 250 km to the south in Chumar Sector.
We lost significant lands as a result in the Chumar Sector. Look at this 2013 news report.
The then weak leadership gave in to China.
indiatoday.in/india/north/st…

Compare this to the present standoff. The genesis of the present standoff is in Leh Darbuk Shyok DBO Road that runs at least 10 km inside the LAC at several points, and runs perpendicular to the Galwan River too.
To connect this road to LAC, India was constructing feeder roads.

This included a Bailey bridge over a Nullah or rivulet, near the confluence of the Shyok and Galwan rivers. This bridge greatly enhances the capacity of Indian forces to deploy heavy artillery guns and other military equipment along the LAC.

It was this particular bridge that was unnerving the PLA.
It was the beginning of the bridge construction marked the beginning of heavy PLA deployment all across the LAC at different hotspots.
China deployed every trick in the book to stop the bridge.

Then the PLA indulged in first bloody conflict in last 53 years by attacking our soldiers fatally at Patrol Point 14 at the LAC off Shyok River in Galwan.
Our soldiers retaliated inflicting even heavier casualties upon the PLA.

https://twitter.com/ukshahi/status/1273140402678312960?s=19

3 days back on 18th June our BRO completed the Galwan River Bridge, just 2 km away from clash site at PP 14.
It was very easy for the Modi government to halt construction activities on our side of LAC and reach a compromise like previous govts used to do.

https://twitter.com/ukshahi/status/1273955293731278848?s=19

This was the response of the UPA RM in Parliament when asked about the Indian Border Infrastructure Development in the region.
He accepted Chinese infra is much better. He accepted the policy of deliberate non development of infra across LAC. That has changed now .

Since 2014 when PM @narendramodi came to power, there has been significant development all along the LAC. Construction of DS DBO road was expedited.
Strategic Zoji La Tunnel Project was inaugurated by PM himself in 2018.
It will be completed by 2022.

https://twitter.com/ukshahi/status/1264544087069396992?s=19

Doklam Embarrassment, Indian Refusal to RCEP, Abrogation of Article 370, change in FDI Rules, decline in Chinese Exports & India's strategic alliance with the US - all these snubs have made China desperate.
All was possible only because this Indian dispensation stood upto China.

Before coming to the border situation, I must mention two motivated and cynical individuals who forecast doomsday at everything.
One of them is a retired Colonel who is a slave of a political family. You can see his duplicity and hypocrisy in a video doing the round these days.

Another is a retd. senior army official who in 2012 masterminded blueprint for Indian withdrawal from Siachen under instructions from the then govt that wanted to appease Pakistan & demilitarize Siachen.
Gen VK Singh prevented that. The lobby targeted him with a fake coup story.

Let us come to the present situation across the LAC now. Let us dispel some false notions once and for all and put the facts on record.
These facts are corroborated with satellite imageries and OSINTS.

Indian Army is standing strong along the LAC.
In the map, you can see PLA camps and matching Indian Army camps (& structures) across LAC at Galwan Valley, Hot Springs Area & Pangong Tso.
Indian Army men died protecting our lands.
Our soldiers killed 40+ PLA men too.

What India demonstrated on the night of 15th-16th June in the Galwan Valley was the unshakeable Indian resolve to protect our lands at every cost .
India further sent a message that any attempt to transgress into Indian land shall result in punishment to the PLA.

In Galwan, Indian Army has set up camps on our side of LAC, matching the PLA deployment across the LAC to protect our all important Leh Darbuk Shyok DBO road(which you can see in the map).
To protect our strategic road, Indian army has gone for a heavier deployment than the PLA.

From the Chinese side of the LAC on the ridgeline in Galwan, the PLA would be able to clearly see our traffic going along the newly finished Dabruk Shyok DBO Road.
Therefore, protecting this all important road is vital. This particular road is like a thorn to the Chinese.

Now let us come to the Hot Springs area. In the Hot Springs Area, the PLA men had attempted their Salami slicing by making occasional incursions into our side of the LAC, using a small dirt road and a compacted patrol route. These cross a few hundred metres beyond the LAC.

In response to these likely incursions, it appears that Indian forces have begun bolstering defences at Indian Gogra base (6Km from LAC) and also construction of a major permanent position near LAC to prevent future incursions that have been mentioned.
Image Credit : @Nrg8000

I repeat. Both in Hot Springs Area and in the Galwan Valley Region, the PLA has not been allowed by the Indian Army to transgress into the Indian side of the LAC (as it stood on 1st April 2020).
In both these areas , the PLA has not been allowed to set up its camps on our side.

Certain people then ask why did the violent conflict on 15th-16th night took place. The bridge construction mentioned above had unnerved the PLA .
They had set up camps within 0.5km of the LAC on their side of the LAC near PP 14.

The Lt. General level talks on June 6 had stipulated that the PLA would withdraw from the forward positions at the LAC on PP 14.
Even after their commitment, the PLA didn't withdraw.
So our Colonel had gone there to remind them of their commitment and ask them to move back.

That's when they indulged in treachery and fatally attacked our Colonel and soldiers accompanying him. Thereafter our soldiers of the 16th Btn of Bihar Regiment retaliated and made the PLA pay a larger price in terms of human casualties.

*establishing

bridge construction "that* marked the beginning

Pangong Tso deserves to be discussed separately. This thread was getting way too long. Will put out a separate thread for Pangong Tso tomorrow.
At the end, don't be misguided by those agents of misinformation who gleefully take sadistic pleasure in any mishap that befalls India.