One year of Galwan

June 15 2020 was an unfortunate date when India lost its twenty Bravehearts. The attack by PLA was as surprising to the 16 Bihar regiment as to the rest of India or for the matter the whole globe. The relation with China has deteriorated post galwan which even India showed by giving no interest to revive the relation as the action by the Chinese leaves no place for forgiveness and stand by the Government of India has very well depicted in the economical,  political and diplomatic relations with China.

Anyway, the confusion we had with China whether China is a friend or enemy is in a jacket of a friend got absolutely cleared from June 15, 2020, onwards.

I will not discuss the whole issue of what happened in Galwan but will pounder on few areas like

        • Why China attacked

        • What did they gain from this

        • What did they lose from this

        • How India was prepared during the attack

        • The general sentiment from now on

Before we discuss the above topic let’s be aware that China has been encroaching international borders for a long time but post-1975 no arm attacked took place between both the nation 

Few past border clashes with China

• 1947 to 1962  -  India after independence was in a constant border dispute with China due to the differences in line of actual control and Mac Mohman line which also resulted in the 1962 war.
• 1967 nathu la and cho la clashes in Sikkim in which Chinese withdraws from the Sikkim region
• 1975 ambush by Chinese in tulung la in arunachal Pradesh
• 2017  doklam plateau where the Chinese were building roads in the disputed region the standoff between both the countries last date for close to two months and China moved to its base location leaving the buffer zone.
• 2020 China entered into Indian territory close to  3 kilometres in the Galwan valley and the unfortunate event on June 15th 2020 distorted the relation forever.

Now coming to the present issue of why China attacked in 2020?

Well, it’s hard to understand the bottom-line reason for the clashes although we have had the previous standoff with them . But use of physical forces aggressively and followed by a deployment of troops, tanks and artillery was something new. 

Whether this was a statement that China wanted to make to India like they are swifter in the tough terrain deployment which even we also agree and that’s why we are constantly improving our border areas accessibility with border road organization and another reason for clashes is considered that the Darbuk- Shyok -DBO road that is being constructed in close proximity with China.

The subsequent reason might be that China wanted to make a statement to the globe that they are the supreme leader in Asia and they’re quite ready to take over the globe.

Or it might be a collection of the if and buts we can think of as the attack holds no strong reason why it took place in the first step.

the standoff is understood and the Indian army was always prepared for a standoff because post-1980 \visit of Rajiv Gandhi to china the trust was bestowed over China that physical force will not be used in border patrol.

What did China gain from this?

Well, it is very clear that they didn’t gain anything in the global fertility but they might have been a little bit of morale-boosting to their public and military personal that China is capable enough to to take strict actions in the most efficient manner but in the global facility they didn't have any positive result it's mostly that has hampered their whole image.

What did they lose from the attack?

they have lost more than they have gained actually the most important thing that they lose were allies and made it clear to the world that they are not easy to trust and are an unpredictable nation that hampers global peace.

the way aggression China has used in the past decade had and made global leaders much more conscious of their dependencies over China. Although Trump himself was an unpredictable president in USA history but his stand against China was as directed as it should have been now the G7 leaders are inclining to "build back better world" (B3W) project which is a rivalry to China’s belt and road initiative because the action by Chinese are not trustable and the event of 15 June 2020 just validated the speculation everyone had over China

How India was prepared for Galwan?

the attack came just like a backstab although in military community activity that the other counterpart is making can easily be tracked in this advanced technological era, plus the protocol of not using arms for any border dispute was in place between India and China. But the Chinese just crossed the line by using barbed wire on a baseball bat to attack Indian soldiers and the consequences were heavily shared by both nations.

So, in conclusion, we were prepared as we should have been in Galwan  also we had the trust and faith that even our enemies will be following the mutual protocol that both nations agreed upon for Border Patrol which clearly they didn’t follow

The general sentiment now

post-Galwan heavy weapon procurement took place and a big push to indigenous defence manufacturing under the umbrella project of the Atma Nirbhar scheme. To name a few of them 

• India started to made  Israeli Talwar X 95 rifles which earlier used to be exported from Israel

• 48,000 crore deal with HAL for 83 Tejas light combat aircraft

• 1000 crore deal procurement to Bharat electronics for modern radio system

• 118 Arjun Mark-1A tank worth 84,000 crores

• $200 million  deal for Israeli spice bomb

• 140 crore deal for light altitude UAVs to Indian firm

• 6 new I in the sky worth 10,990 4,00,00,000 to the audio

• 43000 crores for the domestic building of 6 Scorpene-Class Attack Submarines  under Project P- 75i

• 800 crore defence deal with Israel for purchase of Negev NG-7 light machine gun

• Extension of the T-90 tank building license up till  2028 and 16 billion deal for the assault rifle and the Kamov Ka-226 helicopter with Russia

So in general this dispute was a push for  military infrastructure  that was overdue for a longer time for India

The stand by the Government of India to just be in touch with Chinese only as per the need basis and not resuming the earlier relationship is appreciated by Indian public and military the banning of 267 Chinese apps is another knock to the Chinese economic though not big enough but proves the seriousness about the India stand against China.

The continuous progress of QUAD and the role India plays is also a red flag for the Chinese and a reminder of their deeds as India controls the Indian Ocean major chokepoints especially the Malacca Strait where 80% of Chinese oil passes through.

For now in conclusion India is now never considered as a week nation as back in 1962 the way India has advanced the commanders talk by using Kailash range dominance as leverage speaks the same strength that we had in 1999,1971 and all the victories which made us proud.

The way to counter China is through dominance in the geographical locations and simultaneously improving military infrastructure in terms of arms, weapons and roads linkage.

But this thing will come to India favour fully when we are able to challenge China in terms of the economy reducing the trade deficit and holding better ties with global power and especially Chinese neighbouring nations (Mongolia, Russia, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Kazakistan) as China itself is partially a land lock nation so the dependency the aggression that they are using now can be reduced dramatically if we have the same amount of leverage that would stop China taking any aggressive steps in future.