Time to discuss LAC crisis in Parliament

Concerns over India’s declining control over strategic positions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, repeatedly raised by security analysts in recent years, gained official credence at a recent meeting of top police officials in New Delhi.

According to a research paper submitted at a conference of DGPs, since taken down, India has lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points between the Karakoram Pass and Chumar in Ladakh. While Chinese ‘salami slicing’–its gradual grabbing of territory is partly to blame for the loss of access to patrolling positions, the Indian Army’s “restrictive or no patrolling“ in disputed areas left the space open for Chinese soldiers to move in, the research paper says. Additionally, the Indian Army placed “significant restrictions” on civilians and graziers entering forward areas on the Indian side of the LAC.

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As a result of this “play-safe strategy,” aimed at avoiding riling the Chinese or even giving them an opportunity to object to Indian presence in disputed areas, locals were not allowed entry there.

In addition to losing land, India’s acceptance of buffer zones to get the Chinese to disengage has proved costly as they have come up mostly in areas formerly under Indian control, according to the research paper. Much of what it says has been said before. Security experts have been pointing out that India has lost at least 1,000 sq km of territory in Ladakh to the Chinese over the past two years and a half.

The Modi government’s response to these reports was silence or outright denial. Now a senior police official from Leh has substantiated and confirmed our worst fears. What does the government have to say?

It is unlikely that Indian soldiers on the ground would have by themselves decided to stay out of disputed areas. Decisions on such key strategic matters are not made at lower levels.

Who ordered the soldiers to pull back from territory India held till recently? And why? The Modi government has been disingenuous about the situation along the Line of Actual Control from the start of the crisis in April 2020. Soon after the clashes at Galwan, Prime Minister Modi denied the presence of Chinese soldiers on Indian soil. What accounts for the loss of access to around 40 per cent of our patrolling points along the LAC, as described in the paper? It is time the government took Parliament into confidence to discuss the LAC crisis.