Who took Galwan when the cameras were recording?

Rancho has been devoured by the camera wars. In 1987-88, when Indian and Chinese forces confronted each other across Arunachal’s Sumdorong Chhu, it became known as the ‘Megaphone War’, with both sides calling each other to retreat. This time with a camera in Ladakh.

News from Ladakh. Rancho is a screen character written by Aamir Khan in the movie “The Three Idiots”. The character Phunsuk Wangdoo was inspired by Sonam Wangchuk, an innovative engineer who fasted until January 30th. He and the thousands of Ladakhis with him are demanding the implementation of the Sixth Timeline of the Constitution.

The BJP Narendra Modi government made this commitment despite the fact that in 2019 it annulled Article 370 and created separate federated territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Article 6 of the Constitution is a proviso to local autonomy. It mainly applies to the Northeast region of India.

Sonam Wangchuck, an admirer of Prime Minister Modi, secretly leaked a video claiming he was under house arrest at the Himalayan Institute for Alternative Research (HIALS), wrapped in layers of blankets in the bitter winter of the frigid desert near Leh.

He wanted to do a five-day fast at Khardung La, a pass over 18,000 feet that leads to the Siachen Glacier. ice sheet. Ladakh’s deputy governor said Wangchuk had refused permission to fast at Khardung La top.

East of Khardung La is Chang La, the gateway to eastern Ladakh, 775 km of the Line of Actual Control with China, where the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) face each other.

Causing or instigating domestic trouble in the strategic region, the only territory joined by India’s adversary neighbors China and Pakistan, and the site of India’s largest military operations, requires special capabilities from the Federal Interior Ministry and security agencies. It was seen 20 years after Operation Parakram, the military deployment following the December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.

How sensitive the area is is evidenced by a document prepared by the 14th Army Corps (Fire and Fury) of the Indian Army and the Chief of Police (SP) in Leh, Ladakh’s headquarters. Leh’s SP is PD Nitya. She was on the Republic Day honor list this month.

The copy of the paper I’m reading as I write this has a point: You can look in the Chinese side and see the Chinese BPM from the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) hut at Spanggur Gap in the Kailash Mountains. Cabin straight, practically became LAC (actual control line). Digging through old files for pictures in the BPM Hut. Plays with this line.

The document was presented at a meeting of Police Commissioners and Inspectors. The meeting last week was attended by the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the National Security Adviser.

Without revealing the obvious, the paper shows how empty Prime Minister Modi’s infamous bombardment of “Na koi gusa hai” (no one entered our territory) in 2020 was.

An excerpt follows:

* The PLA is deploying its best cameras on the highest peaks to utilize the buffer zone area during downsizing talks and monitoring the movements of our troops.

* This unusual situation can be seen in Chushul’s Black Top, Helmet Top (peak), Hot Spring’s Corner and Gogra Hill, and the Depsang Plain near the Chip Chap River.

* (It is acknowledged that Indian troops retreated from Galwan, where 20 Indian troops were killed in a fatal clash on June 15, 2020): With the ‘salami slice’ strategy, they (PLA) claim the buffer zone as their area of ​​operation, then Go back and ask for more ‘buffer’ zones to be created. This situation occurred at ‘Y’ NULLAH in GALWAN and had to move back to Camp 01 without dominating the higher post overseeing ‘Y’ NULLAH.

* In Chuschul, the BPM Hut near the airfield became the de facto LAC…

What was emphasized after the SP presented the documents was that the Indian Army had lost access to 26 of the 65 patrol points. However, it is only when reading the entire newspaper that the seriousness of the military crisis materializes. The approximately 775 km LAC of eastern Ladakh, from Karakoram Pass in the north to Chumur in the south, has 65 patrol points. The Karakoram Pass itself was not a disputed matter between India and China (Xinjiang, a province in China across the Karakoram Pass). But the paper says the Indian military has now blocked access to the recognized international border points. Passes should be available to tourists, she suggests.

“Up until September 2021, senior officials from the local administration and ISF (Indian Security Forces) easily patrolled from Daulat Beg Oldie to KKP, which is 35 km away. However, the Indian Army has put restrictions in the form of checkpoints, as from December 2021 the PLA will install the cameras and immediately oppose the movement of the Indian side,” the newspaper points out.

When the commander of the 14th Corps visited me, he told me that after the PLA installed a camera on the mast of the KKP, “we put two cameras on the higher mast.”

Sujan Dutta is a journalist based in Delhi. He tweets at @reportersujan.

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