New Delhi: At a time when India-China tension is soaring sky-high, a gaffe on the official Indian defence ministry website on Thursday has put the ministry in an embarrassing position besides pointing at a lack of coordination between the ministry’s various units at a critical time.
On Tuesday (August 3, 2020), the ministry uploaded an innocuous document on its website titled ‘Major activities of Department of Defence for the month of June, 2020’ where four points were listed under a heading 'Chinese aggression on LAC'.
LAC refers to the Line of Actual Control over which there is a lack of consensus on several stretches on the border between the two Asian giants.
A point in the document prepared by the department of defence (DoD) read: “Chinese aggression has been increasing along the LAC and more particularly in Galwan valley since May 5, 2020. The Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong Tso lake on May 17-18, 2020”.
The use of the word ‘transgress’ which means to ‘overstep a boundary or limit’ is at odds to what the government stand is on the latest India-China border row.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while avoiding to name and shame China for the border violence and its consequent escalation, have held that Indian territory is intact and has not been taken over by the PLA.
The statement in the MoD document, therefore, goes against the government stand.
Expectedly, the document was taken out from the website after a leading daily reported the matter on Thursday morning.
A ministry insider told ETV Bharat: “The issue has been taken very seriously in the government. Uploading of this particular document shows that there was no coordination between the DoD, the ministry’s civil bureaucracy and the Army. Such lack of coordination in such tense times as these is appalling to say the least.”
Interestingly, 2020 is an important year for the modernization drive of the Chinese PLA. It is a plan to achieve ‘mechanization’, ‘informatization’, and endow itself with ‘strategic’ capabilities.
‘Informatization’ by 2020 means integration of the military and civilian efforts. According to the PLA, the technological advances made by the Chinese military will not be able to generate world-class combat abilities unless they are matched by modernised personnel and organisational structures.
As part of President Xi Jinping's 'China Dream' project which aims to make the Chinese military a top force by 2049, besides the plan for 2020, there is a mid-term goal by 2035 to turn the Chinese military into a modernized power before becoming a top ‘world-class’ force by 2049, the centenary of the People's Republic of China.
Meanwhile, talks at the military, diplomatic and special representative levels have failed to ‘disengage and de-escalate’ the mobilized forces till now.
Undoubtedly, the standoff between the world’s two biggest armies remains a flashpoint for a bigger conflict.
Also Read: MoD withdraws document admitting to Chinese 'transgression' in Ladakh
