Communication gaps at root of Pangong’s explosive situation

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 1

The Pangong Tso (lake) —the blipping flashpoint between India and China in eastern Ladakh —has reached this pass due to the accumulative failure of not comprehending its strategic importance and communication gaps.

Today, the Pangong Tso’s situation has worsened from the days when issues would dissolve with Indian and Chinese troops conducting aggressive drills and then backing off. The threats are multiple like the shimmering multi-coloured waters of the lake.

Now it is at a trigger point of spelling a catastrophe. The military commander-level talks with the back channel diplomacy have not been able to bring about much-awaited thaw. This time, the standoff is because the Chinese have entrenched themselves in the Chushul sector where this 135-km-long lake is — 90 km are with China and the rest 45 km are with India.

Had the successive governments paid attention to need for regular interaction with people, soldiers and commanders at these strategic places, this situation would not have arisen.

In 2009, when the reports of Chinese troops harassing the people living close to the borderline started trickling in, the then Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra undertook an extensive tour of the region, visited all the strategic locations, including the Pangong lake. He travelled on boat up to the Indian boundary in Thakuing, met border people and enquired from them about the developing contours of the situation and the requirements for peace.

During the visit, Vohra had also visited the Siachen glacier, reckoned as the highest battle ground of the world at the height stretching from 18,000 to 21, 000 feet above sea level, and spent time in Diskit and Thoise.

Thoise is the airfield in Ladakh wherefrom the IAF operates. He had spent a night there as well.

The idea of the visit was to comprehend security challenges and timely responses, the people familiar with Vohra’s visit told The Tribune.

This thread of his visits to strategically important places was snapped after he left the state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2018.

Strategic assets require more and more footprints of the people at the helm of affairs to understand the importance of interaction all the time. When there is communication gap, it causes the situation wherein Pangong finds itself today.