SOURCE: NEWS18
Lt General DS Hooda, who planned the 2016 surgical strikes into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) post the Uri terror attack, said that China, at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has not come prepared for a full-scale conflict. Lt Gen Hooda added that if that was the case, China would require double or maybe triple the amount of force it has currently brought to the LAC.
Lt General DS Hooda and Lt General Rakesh Sharma, two of India’s finest Army officers, came together at India Today’s e-Mind Rocks to spell out what it will take for India to stand up to China. On being asked whether China is playing mind games to test India’s resolve to protect its territory, Lt General Rakesh Sharma, former deputy chief of army staff and former Fire and Fury Corps co-commander, said that China selected Galwan as it knew the LAC was undecided there and the Finger 4 area because it knew India would react violently.
“It is a game plan that China has been following for some time. The areas that China has contacted us in eastern Ladakh are manifestations of a larger game plan which tends to tell the world, and India, that we are ready to take on the world,” Lt Gen Sharma said.
Meanwhile, Lt Gen DS Hooda said that this time the situation is very different from the past India-China standoffs.
“The past standoffs were very localised. There was a complete absence of violence on both sides. This time, they [China] have come prepared to be much more forceful, much more assertive on the LAC. They’ve intruded in multiple areas. What they have done this time is a departure from the past and the principles that we have followed in the past, I don’t think, hold good,” Lt Gen Hooda said.
Lt Gen Hooda also said that India’s actions must be much more “firm and assertive” and the option of using our own military force should not be completely ruled out.
Lt Gen Rakesh Sharma added that the quantum of force that India has been able to deploy at the LAC is a “very robust measure” and that it gives out a deterrent signal to China not to try out anything beyond what it has already done.
“The threat has been put to rest saying that we have the capacities to handle what you’ve brought in in this area, in the forms of having the troops, our armoured formation and the strong strength being showed by the Indian Air Force,” Lt Gen Rakesh Sharma said.
“The threat of conventional war has been deterred in some form or the other,” he added.
Lt Gen DS Hooda also said that he believes the Chinese do not want an escalation at all, seeing the global pressure they’ve come under.
“If you look around and see what’s happening to them all around the globe, America’s bringing pressure at the South China Sea, the international condemnation they have got, the way countries are getting together and calling out Chinese assertiveness, my sense is that they have bitten off more than they can chew,” Lt Gen Hooda said.
He, however, also added that China will not immediately step back as they’ve come in with some intentions and there are going to be some “hard and tough negotiations” ahead.
CAN PAKISTAN DO SOMETHING ALONG LOC?
Responding to the question whether there is a chance that Pakistan may try to do something on the other flank while India handles China on one, Lt Gen DS Hooda said there is a real “collusive threat” from Pakistan and China, however, it is not manifesting itself now.
“But, we need to be prepared for a two-front threat. I think it would be unprofessional for the military to say that the two-front threat is a myth and it cannot happen. Therefore, we need to be prepared for it,” he said.
“What the Pakistanis will certainly do as this standoff continues on eastern Ladakh is attempt to push-in more infiltrators, attempt to trigger some kind of unrest in Kashmir, it’s something they’ve always been doing. I think they will see this as an opportunity to try and put India under greater pressure. Hence, we must be completely alive to this,” Lt Gen Hooda said.
