'If you behave like a nail, the adversary will behave like a hammer.'
A total of around 100 troops took part in the operations from the Indian side while the Chinese had over 350 people on the location.
'The Chinese are only about 160-170 km behind.' 'It will not take much time for them to bring their troops back, considering that they have better infrastructure -- and the weather is now favourable.' 'They can move in much faster as the terrain favours them.'
'We must acknowledge China will use Pakistan against India.' 'We all need to know that these two countries are ready to destabilise India at all times.'
'China has forcibly occupied territory it had never occupied before, blocked Indian patrols' access to areas they had patrolled for decades and, most provocatively, killed 20 Indian soldiers.' 'Most countries would regard these as acts of war.' 'New Delhi has apparently taken off the table the option of evicting the PLA with force,' observes Ajai Shukla.
'The one aspect which no Indian military thinker would wish to see emerge is a LoC type of posture at the LAC.' 'The LoC is manned for 750 km and terrorist infiltration has led to the creation of a virtual fortress along its entire length.' 'Something mirroring this at the LAC is going to be expensive although deployment everywhere is not warranted there.' 'However, given the complete trust deficit, there appear few alternatives,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
India's reaction came in response to Beijing announcing Chinese names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as South Tibet.
By jettisoning the seniority principle, the government has sent a strong signal that only merit and suitability will count in occupying posts in the higher echelons of the military, writes national security expert Nitin Gokhale.
'Given the present force levels, India cannot fight and win.' 'India can't hope to terminate the conflict on India's terms and impose the nation's will upon the adversaries,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The remarkable story of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, will be seen in a film featuring Aamir Khan.
A day after Dhaka was liberated on December 16, 1971, then US President Richard Nixon was told by his strategic advisor Henry Kissinger that he had 'saved West Pakistan,' according to confidential papers since declassified by the US department of state.
Nepalese rescuers resumed their search on Monday for four persons still missing after a passenger plane with 72 people, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people onboard.
Brigadier M P Bajwa (retd), commander of the troops that captured Tiger Hill, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how a band of young soldiers won the Kargil War's most famous battle with their blood and grit.
The armies are working to schedule their seventh round of talks to take steps towards "early and complete" disengagement of troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong said India and China are able to properly manage their differences, and called upon New Delhi to avoid taking actions that may 'complicate' the situation in eastern Ladakh.
'China would want to take a tougher stance against India forming those strategic partnerships and prevent Quad from becoming a military alliance.'
As per the agreement reached by the two sides, India and China will withdraw the forward deployment in a phased and coordinated manner, the defence minister said.
Sam Manekshaw led the Indian Army to its greatest military victory this month 46 years ago. Lieutenant Colonel A K Shinde (retd), the field marshal's doctor for 35 years, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih about the charming man behind the soldier's uniform.
Some officials, despite repeated warnings, continue to browse the Internet and visit social networking sites from the very same computer in which classified information is stored, says Vicky Nanjappa
The formal process of disengagement of troops began on July 6, a day after a nearly two-hour telephonic conversation between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on ways to bring down tensions in the area.
India and China achieved a major milestone this year when their bilateral trade crossed the landmark figure of $100 billion but it did not generate any fanfare in both capitals as the two Asian giants are going through a "particularly bad patch" in their relations due to a set of actions by Beijing in violation of agreements that led to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Starting with a modest $1.83 billion in 2001, the bilateral trade crossed $100 billion-mark in the first 11 months this year, a significant milestone for which the two countries carried out campaigns to boost trade and build it as a major stakeholder to improve the relations between two nations, whose ties otherwise remained frosty over the festering boundary dispute and strategic rivalry. According to last month's data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC), the India-China bilateral trade totalled $114.263 billion, up 46.4 per cent year-on-year from January to November 2021.
Adm R K Dhowan is also likely to take a closer look at the submarine building assembly line at the Naval Dockyard co-located with the Eastern Naval Command, on his maiden visit to a field command since taking over, reports RS Chauhan.
'Given the way in which the PLA operates today, I don't believe local commanders were necessarily acting without approval of higher levels.' 'They were acting in a way which they believed they were carrying out the intent of the higher levels.'
'The potential of one such LAC engagement going out of control and leading to heavy casualties cannot be ruled out,' warns Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said complete disengagement requires re-deployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) and this can be done only through mutually agreed actions.
He also said it was important that even during the difficult moments of this "crisis" India has been communicating and engaging with China.
India has told China that disengagement at all friction points is necessary to contemplate de-escalation of troops in eastern Ladakh even as the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed to establish a hotline for "timely" communication and exchange of views.
'It is only when Beijing sees a country with an infirm political will such as India that it acts up as the PLA has done in eastern Ladakh.'
"Whatever we are doing is in close coordination and synergy with the army and the Indian Air Force to produce desired results," he said.
India must break out of this strategic triangulation between China and Pakistan. We need to settle our issues with one of the two, notes Shekhar Gupta.
During the World War, Singh fought alongside the Allied Forces in North West Frontier province, Eritrea, Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), Libya, Egypt and Italy.
"Each soldier was my brother in arms.' 'We fought together and achieved glory for India.' 'We fought on with only one thing in the mind -- that that this is a national battle and we must not let the Pakistanis get the better of us,' says Major General Shamsher Singh, who was awarded the Mahavir Chakra for fighting in one of the bloodiest battles the Indian Army has ever waged.
'This is the only place on earth where Elephas maximus climbs to these heights.'
'He deserved to be field marshal because he carried the air force and navy with him in '71. Remember we were fighting on two fronts -- east and west. He stood out.'
'Crucial intelligence was obtained by a R&AW operative from a couple of moles inside the camps four days before the Balakot operation.'
'The leverage created by the Indian military must not be lost.'
The military preparations underway show that the PLA may undertake operations this summer to achieve whatever objectives they could not achieve last May, asserts Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
The MEA spokesperson did not reply to questions like whether the US had approached India with the offer, whether New Delhi has communicated its response over it to Washington, DC or whether the Trump administration has been briefed about the current standoff between Chinese and Indian soldiers in eastern Ladakh.
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