Use facts as assets
1 min read 13 Dec 2022, 10:11 PM ISTThe closer that citizens are kept in the loop of LAC developments, the less scope for China to exploit any information gaps
PremiumEven with skies full of satellite cameras, what armed forces call “facts on the ground" can be fuzzy, which makes space for geo-strategic games that are difficult to decode. What’s China playing at along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Himalayas with India? On Tuesday, India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that our soldiers had on Friday fended off an incursion in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, forcing Chinese troops back to their posts. Unlike the deadly Galwan clash of 2020 in Ladakh, no Indian lives were lost, and only minor injuries were sustained in the latest scuffle. What Beijing gains from such pin-pricks is hard to make out. They do force military, diplomatic and top-level talks, yes, but if Beijing’s hunt is for leverage in the shape of terrain that’s difficult for Delhi to admit as lost, a ploy often used by spy agencies, then we’d need to deploy the finest of Indian democracy to foil it. The closer that citizens are kept in the loop of LAC developments, the less scope for China to exploit any information gaps. We should have heard of Friday’s hostilities from the government sooner. The secretive state disadvantage should be entirely China’s.
