Historians and political commentators have been pointing out that in post-independence period India did not adopt pragmatic policy about her northern and northeastern frontier. Within the country and among policy planners, the baffling issue was whether India was to extend a hand of friendship and mutual trust to her recalcitrant neighbours, namely China and Pakistan, or whether a tooth for tooth policy was the answer to their antagonism. Statesmanship demands that all paths of conciliation and accommodation need to be explored for establishing norms of relationship with unpredictable neighbours. This spirit had conditioned the foreign policy of Indian leadership soon after Peoples Republic of China came into existence. However, within a decade of Bandung Conference, we found China launching incursion on our eastern border. India’s option of friendly and cordial relations with China fell through. A new realization dawned upon our leadership.
As far as our western neighbour was concerned, Pakistan had wooed to fight us for a thousand years to snatch Kashmir. Even three wars, one of which cut off the eastern wing of Pakistan, did not stop her from continuing her belligerence against our country. The proxy war unleashed by Pakistan in 1990 is still raging with its fury, and there are no signs of anybody in Pakistan desirous of calling a halt to the perfidy that has now engulfed that country also.
History shows that India has not been pragmatic in chalking out her northern and northeastern frontier policy. The moralistic and idealistic relationship that Indian leadership had been dreaming of about the two aforementioned neighbours has been a dismal disappointment. Both of them are staunch believers in aggressive policy towards India, as they would not like her rise as a power to be reckoned with in Asian Continent. The nexus between China and Pakistan is essentially anchored in encirclement of India and denying her political and strategic maneuverability in the vast Asian land and oceanic space. While Pakistan has engaged us in a two-decade old proxy war besides an open incursion in Kargil in 1998, China has been threatening us in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. China objected to Prime Minister visiting Tawang, something that we cannot and should not tolerate. China has been using other clandestine methods also to establish her claim on Indian territory along the border whether in the eastern or northeastern segment. In Ladakh, Chinese soldiers have been intruding into Indian territory, painting landmarks in red and embossing Chinese flag on walls and stones and objecting to the construction of roads within our territory along the border with China. To crown her bellicosity, just two months back Chinese soldiers made an ingression in Daulat Baig Oldi sector and penetrated about 19 kilometers deep into Indian territory.
Obviously both China and Pakistan have been testing the patience of India. They are convinced that India is not able to make a show of strength in protecting her frontiers, which are vulnerable because of the length and topographical conditions. In the meanwhile China has been building and streamlining the infrastructure along her border with India whether in the eastern sector or in Ladakh and J&K. Not content with building the Karakorum Highway that connects China with Pakistan over the Himalayas, China is now planning rail link and usage of this link for strategic and military purposes. Presence of thousands of PLA personnel in Gilgit and Baltistan region is a threat to India’s security.
It is in the background of this scenario that the Defence Ministry has drawn a comprehensive and very impressive plan of meeting the growing threat emanating from Sino-Pak nexus. Called Mountain Strike Corps, the idea is to give teeth to strategic deterrence against intrusion and ingression on our frontiers. A well trained and well-equipped force comprising three Mountain Strike Corps will not be restricted to defence strategy only but will also carry the potential of making offensive deep into the enemy territory and forestall any attempt of disrupting border security. The proposal is at an advance stage with Finance Ministry already having accorded clearance to it. In a few weeks the Cabinet Committee on Security will consider the plan and then it goes to the Cabinet as the last stage of its journey.
For a long time, defence analysts in our country have been opining on building strategic deterrence along our north and northeastern borders. As we know India has a long and mountainous border with China and Pakistan. It is unfortunate that these two neighbours have been under the false impression that India is not able to protect this long border. We needed to assert and the assertion is now in the making in the shape of Mountain Strike Corps. We want that the borders with China and Pakistan should be secure, peaceful and without any tension. India is not for war and that is sufficiently proved by the fact that we have shown incredible patience in dealing with these hostile elements. But there is a limit to everything. We had to be pragmatic. It is but natural that the Mountain Strike Corps is designed to be a strike force in letter and in spirit. It means that its firepower has to be of a level that it can penetrate deep into enemy’s land and cut off her lines of communication. According to knowledgeable sources, the Mountain Strike Corps will be equipped with advanced war machine including Agni IV and V ballistic missiles, deployment of Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter planes, spy drones, missile squadrons etc.
Once the Cabinet approves the estimated 80,000 crore rupees defence plan, we will have laid the foundation of a permanent and effective northern frontier policy for our country, something that had eluded us for six decades and a half. While the Himalayan border is being taken care of by adding 3 Mountain Strike Corps’ to existing three Corps, one each in Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu, the next part of our defence preparedness would be to bolster our naval defence maximally. China has been trying to bully us in the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and more recently in the Arabian Sea where she has expanded the Gawadar seaport in Makran coast of Pakistan. India has a vast coastline and she is a sea giant to be reckoned with while we keep in mind the most strategic maritime highways crisscrossing these oceans. We hope that the Defence Minister will actively take into consideration this chapter of national security once the Mountain Stride Corps plan is finally through at the official level.
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