by Sushant Singh
December 10, 2023
Introduction:
Read more here: https://janataweekly.org/the-blind-spot/(Janata Weekly) When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the whole world was besotted with the incredible enthusiasm and the fighting spirit displayed by Ukraine. Western media reports claimed that Russia was certainly going to be defeated soon but the narrative has shifted in 2023. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhny, has admitted that the war is at a stalemate, and Ukraine is struggling to make a breakthrough against Russian defences. Despite massive Western military and financial support, the possibilities of Ukraine reversing Russian aggression are getting dimmer by the day.
Although it is out of the global spotlight, the situation is similar at the Sino-India border in Ladakh. After 48 months, India finds itself unable to reverse the Chinese ingress into border areas that were patrolled by Indian soldiers till 2020. If Narendra Modi’s claim that no Chinese soldier has intruded into Indian territory is true, then Xi Jinping’s soldiers achieved the marvel of denying Indian military patrols access to 26 out of the 65 patrolling points on the Ladakh border purely by black magic. Many of these patrolling points are on the Indian side, well short of the line of actual control. In 20 rounds of talks between corps commanders, the Chinese side has not considered any proposal to have the two sides undertake disengagement in Depsang and Demchok. In the other areas where disengagement took place till last year, the Chinese have refused to start de-escalation that would remove their soldiers from the operational area.
Unlike Ukraine, which wants its territory back, India is not talking about restoring the status quo in Ladakh as it existed in 2020. The Modi government shuns and bars all conversation about territorial control that has been lost to China in the border areas. Leave alone a frank discussion, even questions on the subject have not been allowed in Parliament; the media have not been formally briefed and visits of journalists, even government-friendly ones, to the contested areas have not been organised by the Centre.
