dsa alert july 2013 issue

7/30/2019 DSA Alert July 2013 Issue

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The conundrum of China was once again painfully highlighted to us just before thevisit of the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. Chinese troops carefully selectedan area in Ladakh where Indians had only two approach routes. One took12-15 days by foot and the better one around a week.

The Chinese in contrast could bring up an Armoured / Motorised Division to thearea from Lanzhou MR within just a day. Having carefully selected the area for ashowdown, the Chinese launched a deliberate provocation in the DBO sector.

That highlights the painful differential in Border roads and infrastructure that has

persisted from the 1950s to date. This glaring failure to build infrastructure severelyconstrains Indias response options and our Foreign Office has in consequence,developed kowtowing into a fine art.

Logistical interior lines: The paradox is that in overall terms, India is on logisticalinterior lines vis a vis China. Our railheads are within 200-300 km of the borders.

Earlier the Chinese railhead in Gormo was almost 2,000 km from the border. The Chinese utilised the period of peace andtranquillity negotiated by us in the late 1980s and 1990s to push up their railways to Lhasa and even beyond. EightStandard Gauge trains per day now come to Lhasa and enable China to build upto 30 divisions or more within the space

of just one month. This marks a paradigm shift in capabilities. Earlier it used to take the Chinese two seasons to build amaximum force level of 22 divisions in Tibet. The scale and speed of the Chinese mobilisation capacity has been sharplyenhanced. We have singularly failed to build roads in the last 200-300 km of the Himalayan borders. Earlier we had anamazing policy premised on cowardice. We wanted to keep the last 50-60 km of our Himalayan borders absolutelyundeveloped so as not to give avenues of advance to the Chinese! This also implied that we just could not launch anycounter attacks / counter strokes into Tibet in response to any Chinese invasion. This was an amazingly defensive stance.In the 1980s Gen KV Krishna Rao had tried to change this nonsensical posture and push our infrastructure anddeployments forward. The Sumdorong Chu incident ensued and Gen K Sundarji launched Op Chequerboard to give afirm response. It had shaken the Chinese. They backed down temporarily and sought peace but utilised the period ofpeace to upgrade their infrastructure while we conveniently went to sleep.

editor-in-chief

The country comes first always and every time.


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publisher's view

V o l u m e 4 I s s u e 1 0 J u l y 2 0 1 3

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Indias greatest geostrategic thinker and the ideal andinspiration of the Defence and Security Alert (DSA)team Chanakya has only one contemporary legendSun Tzu of China whose treatiseArt of Waris of perennial

contemporary relevance. How many Indians know about them?I am sure not even 5 per cent of the total population knowsabout Chanakya and may be hardly 1 per cent is aware aboutSun Tzu in our country. Our people are ignorant about theseworld famous great thinkers who changed the entire gamut of

the socio-political situations of their times with their thoughts and their edicts and we cansee that their thoughts are perhaps even more relevant to the geopolitics of today.

We see the situation in our immediate vicinity as one in which all the neighbouringcountries be they small Nepal and Sri Lanka or the bigger China and Pakistan exerting anegative influence on Indias geopolitical interests and all that we see ourselves doing iscompromising with them on their terms. The aggressiveness of China towards India andother South East Asian countries is increasing day by day. We see how it has beenbullying Japan and Vietnam on issues of suzereignty over offshore resources; and how ithas been supporting Pakistan by providing it nuclear and conventional weaponry andencouraging it in the use of Islamist jihadi terrorism to try and delink the Kashmir Valleyfrom the rest of India. The way China has constructed road and rail networks leading tothe Line of Actual Control all along the Himalayas and its involvement in Gilgit andBaltistan in the name of supporting Pakistans infrastructure development is a realIndia-specific threat.

The most recent intrusion across the Line of Actual Control in the Daulat Beg Oldisector of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir coming as it did on the very eve of the visit ofthe newly elected Prime Minister of China to India had raised grave doubts aboutBeijings intentions vis--vis India. It appeared to be a threat to warn India to keep out ofPacific Ocean littoral geopolitics. But New Delhi was unfazed and Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh made it a point to visit Japan as part of a Look East policy that hasacquired a defence and security content involving Australia, Thailand, Vietnam,Singapore, South Korea and Mongolia. India is holding military exercises with all of themon land and sea over the years. If this is construed to be an anti-China phalanx by Beijingit has only itself to blame for its hectoring and hegemonistic attitude. Hopefully, theChinese Premiers visit to India soon after the intrusion episode will dispel suchinterpretations. Nonetheless, we appear to have taken a leaf out of ChanakyasNeetishastra and his sage advice that Never trust your enemies, be alert on all theirmoves even if they pose to be friendly with you.

In July 2011 I proudly informed you of DSA becoming the first and the onlyISO certified magazine in India in the defence and security domain. Now in July 2013I have another great news for DSA lovers and our friends in the defence and securityfraternity worldwide. DSA has once again become the premier defence and securitymagazine available on the Intranet of Indian Air Force. Now DSA is at the fingertips ofand reaches each and every officer and soldier of the Indian Air Force. This will be agreat incentive for all companies in the defence and security arena doing business inIndia or planning to foray into the burgeoning Indian market.

I take it as an honour for all our contributors, advertisers and of course the entire teamat DSA for their excellent support which has made this possible. The quality of thecontent and the presentation of DSA has proved to be the best in the past and now itsoutreach has also been acknowledged in the public domain. It is another feather in thecap ofDSA which we will wear with great pride!

To commemorate the 75th raising day of CRPF, our premier paramilitary forceteamDSA has researched and compiled a comprehensive feature highlighting theeventful journey of the force in the service of the nation and the challenges it facesunfolding in the internal security environment. Team DSA greets and salutes theofficers and jawans of CRPF.

Jai Hind!

Pawan Agrawal

founding editor

Manvendra Singh

China is an enigma that continues to defy conventional analyses. It has in fact always been an enigma. From thetime it came to regard itself as the Middle Kingdom, till the current era, there has been something about Chinathat doesn't quite gel. It defies conventional wisdom on account of its many extraordinary achievements andsimultaneous contradictions. The economic growth story is the envy of many in the world and an unparalleled

success in human history. The largest number of human beings lifted out of poverty in the shortest span of time in anextraordinary achievement. But not all of China's achievements are worth emulating. Because at the same time as thegrowth story are wretched tales of environmental degradation, denial of basic human rights to its people, brutalities inTibet and Xinjiang and flourishing corruption like there wasn't a tomorrow. It remains an enigma, therefore, becauseit displays extraordinary contradictions. In many ways it remains beyond scrutiny even in a networked age andinformation overkill.

China does not like scrutiny because that entails, nay demands, transparency. And an absence of transparency is thegreatest psychological weapon employed by China. The world doesn't know where China is headed. Is the directionbenign, or is it more sinister, is the fundamental question raising eyebrows and nerves around the world. Nervesbecause China tends to overdo its territorial claims and displays some quite pathetic images of itself. Two soldiersholding the Chinese flag in knee deep waters on Scarborough Reef make for a terrible sight, even if the xenophobic laudthe effort on the mainland. It was an overkill and like all such efforts it bombed. That is why the world needs to knowwhere China is headed, so such pathetic scenes don't lead to scare scenarios that get out of hand. In the recent past therehave been ample doses of that with its neighbours to the east, or the one to the west.

Japan, Vietnam and Philippines can testify to Chinese edginess when it comes to border or boundary management.The East Sea, as the Vietnamese call it, or the West Philippines Sea as Manila calls it and the South China Sea, asthe world refers to it, is the current focus of territorial claims by all; but in which China is pitted against them all.To the west China unilaterally sought to impose an alignment of the Line of Actual Control that took everyone bysurprise. There was no reason to be surprised, because it was the culmination of an internal Chinese politico-militaryexercise that seeks to test responses. They learned their lessons, but have the Indian authorities learnt those that theyare meant to?

India and China are the only neighbours in the world that had never fought until well into the 20th century.Throughout their extensive and rich histories the Asian giants maintained peaceful relations. Something changed in the

two post-colonial societies in the last century that created bad blood. And that has still to be resolved. Its resolution willbe the greatest diplomatic, political and military success story in human history. But it can only be resolved providedboth sides want it badly enough. One-way tickets in international relations are fraught with dangers. Of which Chinaseems to have caused enough to ample number of countries.

DSA

is as much yours,

as it is ours!

Time for Chanakyan realpolitik"Never trust your enemies, be alert on all their moves

even if they pose to be friendly with you".

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Contents

Follow DSA on: @dsalert Follow DSA on: @dsalert For online edition log on to: www.dsalert.org

CRPF: A committed force for internal securityAn assertive China: Cooperation, competition or conflict?

A R T I C L E S

The Anatomy of an Intrusion 6Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee PVSM, AVSM, YSM (Retd)

Evolution of Chinas Ballistic Missile Programme and its 12

Deployment: Implications for Indias National SecurityProf Arvind Kumar

Commentary on Chinas Eighth White Paper on 18National Defence-2013

Maj Gen PK Chakravorty VSM (Retd)

Sino-Indian Relations: Shifting Sands or an 24Enduring Mirage?

Lt Gen Sudhir Sharma (Retd)PVSM, AVSM, YSM, VSM

Chinas Maritime Strategy in the Indo-Pacific: 26Competition for Indias Navy

Cmde Ranjit Bhawnani Rai (Retd)

The Chinese Incursion of April 2013: An Assessment 30Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja (Retd)PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC

Smart Strategies for Staying Ahead of China 36Brig Rahul Bhonsle (Retd)

Central Reserve Police Force: Staunch Sentinels 40

Pankaj Kumar Singh IPS

Paramilitary: Positional Uncertainty Redefined 46

Dr Rupali Jeswal / Damien Martin

The Rise of an Assertive China: An Australian View 60

Ian Hall

Chinese Aviation Programmes: AWACS 64

Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary VSM (Retd)

Indias Submarine Fleet: A Dwindling Force 66Cmde S Govind (Retd)

India China Stand-off in Ladakh: Emerging Lessons 70Brig Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd)

India's Emerging Pragmatic Approach Towards China 72Anand V

An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Magazine

V o l u m e 4 I s s u e 1 0 J U L Y 2 0 1 3

F E A T U R E S

B Raman: Ace Spymaster 29A tribute

Book Review

1962 and the McMahon Line Saga 51Claude Arpi

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SPECIAL ISSUE JULY2013

52CRPF: THEMULTIPURPOSE FORCETeam DSA

Post the Kargil conflict,the Indian governmentdesignated CRPF as thelead Internal Security

and Counter InsurgencyForce of the country. Evenbefore this designation,the CRPF has alwaysbeen in action. The CRPFis already the worldslargest paramilitary force.There is a realisation in thegovernment that the CRPFneeds to be augmentedto provide an adequatebackup to its general roleand responsibilities. Tothat end it is intended toraise its strength fromthe current three lakh

personnel by the inductionover the next five years of22 new General Duty(Male) battalions (anaddition of more than25,000 officers and

jawans) and one moreMahila battalion bringingthe total to four withabout 4,500 women

personnel overall.

4 July 2013 DEFENCE AND SECURITY ALERT 5July 2013 DEFENCE AND SECURITY ALERT

dsa alert july 2013 issue

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