Loose lips sink ships: Why is India's Army chief being allowed to threaten war with China?
When "gau raksha" or cow protection sentiments go awry and the nation starts reporting cases of cow vigilantism from all over, it’s reasonably okay as such events may damage the national secular fabric, but they don’t pose a security risk to the country. And if none other than the prime minister of the country debunks malpractices of cow vigilantism as Narendra Modi did so vociferously on Thursday, then the chances of damages to the national security recede even further.
But what happens when the nation is confronted by external threats directly impinging on national security? This is precisely what is happening in context of India’s rapidly deteriorating relations with neighbouring China. It’s a matter of huge concern and the threat is that going by the current rate of a series of mini crises the eminently avoidable situation may get even knottier and may eventually get out of hand.
The recent standoff between India and China over the developments in Sikkim may well turn into a national security crisis if the situation is not handled deftly – and the handling this time would require efforts not just at political and diplomatic levels but also at the level of the two militaries.
There is nothing unusual about the Sikkim incident. Such border flare-ups have been opening at the drop of a hat simply because the international border between India and China is yet to be settled. Yes, it is a bit odd that China has chosen a completely different venue for the latest border flare-up this time: Doka La along the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction. It’s another matter that the Chinese favourite venues of border flare-ups have of late been in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and in Arunachal Pradesh. It’s also another matter that the Chinese have done a similar thing at the same old Sikkim venue in 2008.
It’s equally surprising – and perhaps confounding too – that this time it’s the Chinese who have been playing the victim. This time the Chinese have projected the Indians as the aggressors – a rarity. But why?
The Chinese have traditionally been in the driver’s seat in virtually most of boundary dispute related flare-ups, thus imparting signals that they can do anything and convey the all-important diplomatic signal that they are the ones who are driving the agenda, not India.
But this time the Chinese have queerly voluntarily projected themselves as cry babies of sorts – a role reversal. Why? I feel that it’s not without purpose. There is method in this madness. The obvious method is that this time by playing the purported victim of India, Beijing is playing to the international gallery. The subtle message to the international community is that if China were to take action then India and only India would be responsible for this.
This situation has come about because of an unprecedented situation that has evolved in the past few days ever since the Sikkim crisis unfolded. Consider the following war of the words involving the Indian and the Chinese armies.
Indian army chief, who visited Sikkim in view of the spiking border tensions, went on record as warning China that India was ready for a "two-and-a-half front war" scenario, indicating tackling a simultaneous twin war front with China and Pakistan and half-the-war in view of the debilitating internal security situation in India because of diverse problems like secessionism and home-grown terrorism.
On its part, the Chinese military rejected as "irresponsible" Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat's remarks that India is ready for a "two-and-a-half front war" and asked him to "stop clamouring for war" and learn from history – an obvious reference to the humiliating military defeat India suffered in the only war fought with China in 1962.
Responding to General Rawat's remarks, the People's Liberation Army spokesman Col Wu Qian said: "Such rhetoric is extremely irresponsible... We hope that the particular person in the Indian Army could learn from historical lessons and stop such clamouring for war.”
On the face of it, this is indeed an “irresponsible” remark from the Indian army chief. He has unnecessarily stirred up the avoidable war hysteria. But normally Indian army chiefs are not known to make such unusually harsh remarks. Now that General Rawat has made such remarks, the obvious question is whether it is his personal opinion or he has been instructed/encouraged by the political leadership to make such incendiary remarks.
Prime Minister Modi needs to intervene at the soonest possible and send a signal to China that the Indian political leadership disassociates itself from such remarks.
Such a clarification from the Modi government is essential because thus far the heat and dust over the Sino-Indian boundary dispute has been kicked up largely on political and diplomatic levels but rarely on military levels. But this time the militaries of India and China are getting involved.
This is highly dangerous. The Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army of China need to get out of the frame. It may not remain a mere war of words between India and China if the two militaries were to get involved and throw potshots at each other.
After all, the two giant Asian neighbours can derive succour from the fact that they have never fired bullets and bombs at each other despite having fought a bloody war 55 years ago.