China’s recent preemptive aggression in Ladakh has stretched India’s patience a bit too far. Prime Minister Modi decided to fight back by capturing the Black Top, a strategic peak overlooking the Pangong Lake and nearby territories. It marks a significant shift in India’s policy to deal with China.
For this operation, India deployed the Special Frontier Force, an elite and secretive special operation force consisting of exiled Tibetans. India informally declassified SFF by providing media access to cover the history of SFF and its involvement in critical military operations in the past. Furthermore, the SFF Commando Nyima Tenzin killed in conquering the Black Top peak was given a full military honor. BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav attended the funeral and was telecasted across India.
India’s clear and strong message to China that India can play the Tibet card is still short of bringing Tibet on the international platform. India’s predicament lies in history.
India’s first Prime Minister Nehru’s ill-conceived China policy led to many miscalculations and poor decisions that India is paying today. At the height of his blind faith in Mao Zedong, Nehru promoted China for the UN Security Council’s Permanent Member instead of accepting it for India. Nehru refused to oppose China’s invasion of Tibet, letting the buffer country that had kept India away from China for centuries to collapse. He even advised the Dalai Lama not to bring it to the international forum. However, Mao construed those overtures as Nehru’s weakness and attacked India in 1962 and annexed Aksai Chin from India.
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