HT Editorial

My letter has been written as a reply to a letter by Mr. Amrik Singh, printed in the editorial page. Mr. Amrik Singh shows a great concern towards the Chinese incursions in Ladakh region but my question is ,”has it really happened”. If anyone can remember the Sino-India war of 1962 then he can also remember how the Chinese army withdrew from the region of Ladakh after claiming one part known as ‘Aksai Chin’ which was never inhabited and was claimed by China from much earlier times. Before this all happened there was an offer from Chinese side to talk over the matter; it was rejected by Nehru. Confrontation was result of intelligence failure when Indian troops were assigned to fight with Chinese troops without going for any talks or negotiation. Outposts were made across the McMohan line also. This all heated up the situation as China was cynical about Indian role in Tibetan uprising.
On one side Nehru was not ready to spend money on military and on other side he was making the clash imminent. The war started in Thangla, the territory about which, India was not sure, was hers. Some Indian troops, including Brigadier Dalvi who commanded the forces at Thag La, were also concerned that the territory they were fighting for was not strictly territory that "we should have been convinced was ours". The announcement of ceasefire came from Chinese side otherwise results could have been worse.
In present time Indo-China relations are fairly good and these need to be strengthened further by positive bilateral talks, not by being paranoid about a word written on a stone. Indian Army has also denied any breach of International border so these claims are baseless. China is already leapfrogging in every field. India should take cues from its neighbour. We are already having a troubled border with Pakistan and relations are deteriorating with Nepal also so this hullabaloo should be avoided. China is too big a country to keep bad relations with.