AUM
CHINA THREATENS BUT
INDIA COWERS NOT
By
Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
A.K.Antony, India’s Raksha Mantri is
now in Beijing leading an official delegation. China knows all about the mild
personality of the man from Kerala who never gets provoked and always keeps his
cool. What he says carries weight because the world knows that he is Sonia
Gandhi’s man. He is an honest man. So he has not purchased any type of guns for
the Indian Artillery in the last quarter of a century. Bofors was the last of
the long range effective howitzers bought by Rajiv Gandhi before his fall from
grace and loss of his Congress party at the polls. Antony is against the concept of history repeating
itself. Keep smiling is his motto. Never mind what the Chinese PLA General, Luo
Yuan said in public and our press corps interpreted it as a warning.
China is a powerful country both
economically and militarily. Much water has flown down the Ch’ang Jiang river
between the colonial days more than two centuries ago when eight nations,
including USA, UK, Japan etc had divided China among themselves and controlled
both economy and governance. That was the time when China lost the Opium war
and was forced to cede large territory around Hong Kong to the United Kingdom.
The wheel of history has turned full circle and the Chinese have recovered lost
ground diplomatically without firing a shot.
ART OF WAR
Sun Tzu was a great philosopher and
past master of strategy who wrote treatises on Art of War. His concept is
taught and discussed in colleges of combat in many countries including India.
Acharya Chanakya wrote and practiced the Chanakya Neeti and became a
famous philosopher in both civil and
military circles. Unfortunately Acharya Chanakya did not come in the limelight
as his present day compatriots slavishly followed the former British masters
and the latter had degraded every thing that was Indian in origin.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu as practiced
in China emphasizes brow beating the enemy to such an extent that he loses will
to fight and surrenders. The Chinese generals of today dutifully follow the
philosophy of life, the art of war etc as enunciated by their ancestors many millennium
ago. Ancestor worship is a part of Dharma in China.
With a view to browbeating the Indian leadership before the
arrival of Antony led delegation in Beijing, a Major General of the People’s
Liberation Army issued a public statement to be carried by the global media,
warning the Indian authorities to desist from provoking the Chinese government
and their powerful military lest it boomerangs and harms the Indian interests.
It would be appropriate to recall that just before the arrival of the Prime
Minister of China in India, the Chinese PLA troops had intruded almost nineteen
kilometers into the Indian territory, destroyed some hutments, had threatened
the local cowherds before withdrawing on a reciprocal basis. Their aim was to
put the Indian Prime Minister, meek Manmohan Singh on the backfoot and
psychologically dominate his thinking so that he accepts whatever the Chinese
Prime Minister dictates. The Chinese strategy was a success.
What General Luo Yang said and did is
a repeat performance of the previous script that was successfully enacted by
the Chinese in the Ladakh region that had its direct effect in Delhi. Let not a
shot be fired and force enemy psychologically to surrender. Men like Manmohan
Singh and his foreign minister are ever keen to walk into the Chinese lap to avoid
an aggressive argument. After the Chinese intrusion into Ladakh, when the
Indian Foreign Minister visited Beijing he cared not to raise the intrusion
issue with his Chinese counterpart as he did not believe in grave digging to
unravel the past. A wek kneed policy that brought shame to India.
ROBUST RESPONSE NOW
Antony may be what he is but
certainly not to be compared with the personality of Mark Antony of Rome and
Cleopatra fame. One need not worry in New Delhi now. As members of the Indian
delegation are Lt General Dalbir Singh, an Army Commander slated to be Army
Chief in due course of time, and,of course, Admiral Kohli already nominated to
be the next Chief of the Naval Staff. These two Chief material officers know
how to stand their ground in a discussion on military strategy and not allow
the Chinese generals to have the upper hand. India in the year 2013 is much
different from India of 1962 that the PLA of China had defeated in NEFA, now
Arunachal Pradesh. Even then Ladakh was a different story. More about that on a
later date and not now.
Suffice it to say that the Indian
troops in 1962 were ill clad, ill armed and ill trained for mountain warfare.
There was more politics practiced in the corridors of power and the Army
Headquarters than military strategy. The situation is so different now that the
Chinese generals would not like to launch a probing action and burn their
fingers. Just issuing a public statement warning Indian generals to desist from
war mongering would be good enough for the time being. Nevertheless India must
not lower its guards and must be ever ready to go to war. Prepare for war and
look for Peace to enjoy life.
KNOW THY ENEMY
In the diplomacy of today we meet
diplomats and strategists of every nation and say, Good Morning with a smile.
Even when armies have moved forward and stand deployed in the battle zone in
battle order, never lose a chance to negotiate Peace. We all know that Peace
brings Prosperity but war brings destruction and devastation. However, to talk
to enemy, we must know the enemy. Let us assume for a moment that the Chinese
nation would be India’s adversary, if not a declared enemy. With a view to
dealing with the adversary effectively, a thorough knowledge of his culture,
language, people at large and behavior of common man or average citizenry in
war and peace is an absolute must. Lack of knowledge about the enemy may be
suicidal. So, before knowing yourself and your allies, make an endeavour to
know the enemy.
The Chinese are an enigmatic people.
Everything in China is an enigma. One has to understand nuances of a particular
question or reference made before answering it. It does not matter if answering
a query takes time; take your time but understand it well before answering it.
It is said that the Chinese diplomats and leaders are, generally speaking,
non-committal even on issues of normal conversation, what to say of matters
military and issues of international diplomacy. If you meet a Chinese person in
the morning and after saying Good Morning, just ask him, out of courtesy, how
is the weather today?, he will look up and down, look at your face and just
smile rather than committing about the state of weather. No wonder it takes a
lot of time in discussing an issue of international diplomacy and preparing a
document for signature of political or military representatives of both India
and China.
The present delegation of India in
China knows how to stand firm and not yield ground to wily opponents. The
Indian delegation comprises of seasoned army and navy officers who know what is
what and are not to cower before an empty threat of a Major General of the
People’s Liberation Army. Indeed we know very well that even innocuous
statements issued for public consumption or just for the crowd back home, are
read, scrutinized and cleared by the Intelligence people and accorded political
approval before being used.
In the present case, the Chinese
leaders wished to assess the reaction of an average citizen in the cosmopolitan
cities before proceeding further. Now they know that India of today is
different and must not be put to test by firing paraflares. Our compatriots
must rest assured that there is no imminent danger of a shooting war and normal
life should go on.
Let there be business
as usual.
Email: sawantchitranjan@yahoo.com Mob.
9811173590
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