Hindsight shows that national leaders who fought the British colonialism and won freedom for the country did not foresee the huge importance which our northern and north-western borders would carry once the country was partitioned. The partition itself created new frontier for divided India. Complacency of our leadership was first shaken when immediately after attaining freedom and when we were still grappling with the aftermath of disastrous partition, our western neighbour launched attack on the State of Jammu and Kashmir. For the first time, New Delhi realized that a new border had come up and it had to be tackled properly. Thereafter the wishful dream of befriending China, the emerging Asian giant to our north and north-east was shattered when China launched incursion across our eastern border. This exposed the vulnerability of our frontier not only on the west but also on the east and north east. Chinese intermittent intrusions into Ladakh area caused us more concerns.
Though these happenings were indicators that in future our northern and western frontiers could become more vulnerable, we did not really respond to the frontier situation as effectively and seriously as we should have. There could be many reasons but the fact remains that for nearly half a century, while the threat of the enemy sitting on our flanks remained we did not do much to thwart that threat. We got stuck up in the cold war cacophony and we depended more on the Soviet Union politically as well as in terms of war machine. As time rolled by, we found that China was emerging as the Asian giant with great ambitions of becoming the super power and Pakistan out rightly supported by both China and the Anglo-American block had also become a serious threat to our security. Things changed drastically when Modi took the reins of the Government in his hands. His Government changed the security discourse drastically and a clear vision was projected that we had to shun complacency and address our frontier security with pragmatism. India, for the first time, realized that she has to drastically change her frontier policy and rely more and more on her own strength. Our military experts and Generals had been repeatedly asking for modern weapons, war machine, border roads, strategic deployment and above all a fully sensitized armed forces. To this Prime Minister Modi turned his attention. He focused on allocation of sufficient funds for the defence equipment, border roads and railways, welfare of the soldiers, one rank one pay scheme, raising of new army units, equipping army, BSF and CRPF with more effective and lethal arms and giving a boost to our security preparations. The Prime Minister celebrated Diwali festival with the jawans on Gurez front where they are fighting the enemy and the harshest weather. Defence Minister visited Siachin and spent the day with the soldiers who are defending the frontiers of the country at 15000 feet above sea level among blizzards and snow storms to deny an inch of land to the covetous and spineless Chinese. The Home Minister spent three days with the army jawans on the Himalayan slopes in Uttrakhand. What does all this show? It is a clear indication that there is a drastic change in the frontier policy of the Government of India. This is the right thing to do because it sends a message to our adversaries on both the flanks that they will not catch India napping. At the same time it is a message to our troops that the entire nation of 125 crore people stands behind them like an iron wall. The recently disposed off Doklam episode has given China a new thinking for the first time that India of 2017 is not the India of 1962 when she tried to stab her in the back just because India believed China could never behave like an enemy. But she did and good that she did otherwise we would have been caught on the wrong foot some day. In his tweet the Prime Minister has said that he will do more to ensure that our jawans deployed in such inclement weather conditions and serving the nation with dedication, valour and great sense of patriotism are provided all facilities enabling them to remain agile and vigilant as they have been ever since. The nation promises to be behind our soldiers in whatever conditions and circumstances they are discharging their duty. We salute these brave soldiers of nation defending our frontiers.
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