Dharamsala, September 17 – India may seem to have taken lightly the recent Chinese incursions but a high-level meeting has been called by the National Security Adviser M. K Narayanan of top officials to come out with a comprehensive response to Beijing’s hostile activities. Though the Indian government may have publicly played down the incursions as routine happenings due to differences in perception of Line of Actual Control (LAC) there are angry reactions in the opposition and in the media to the incursions.
The meeting will be chaired by Narayanan and attended by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. The chiefs of the three armed forces, heads of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau may also attend the meeting.
The meeting comes in the wake of reports about a high-profile war game, involving 50,000 troops, launched by the Chinese army that is aimed at improving Beijing’s ability to deploy troops in Tibet whenever reinforcements are required.
In response, the Indian Army has mobilised its troops to forwards posts in Jammu and Kashmir and along the northeastern border with China in an exercise named Operation Alert, a senior defence official said Wednesday, according to IANS.
There has been little progress in the 13 round of talks between India and China on boundary disputes.
In an apparent reassertion of its claim on Arunachal Pradesh China recently objected to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s scheduled visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, a predominantly Buddhist region believed to be the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army is pushing for a rethink on patrolling restrictions in certain “sensitive areas” of the Line of Actual Control, an Indian Express report dated September 13 said. The restrictions, imposed by the China Study Group, a government body comprising of secretaries of Defence, Foreign and Home ministries, the heads of RAW and IB, prevents the Indian soldiers from patrolling as close to India’s claim line in certain areas where recent Chinese incursions have taken place. The restrictions were placed to avoid any confrontation or clashes with Chinese troops.
