Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Wednesday briefed the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on an alleged Chinese incursion in the disputed Eastern Ladakh region amid calls by rightwing hawks in Delhi to escalate the standoff.
The CCS meeting took place amid a proposal to send Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid to Beijing with a clear brief on May 9 to probe ways to amicably de-escalate the border crisis. His visit is expected to be followed by back-to-back tours by the prime ministers to each other’s capitals, in May by the Chinese and June by the Indian. Rightwing opposition parties, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, want the government to scrap the proposed visit, a move that looks more aimed at embarrassing the prime minister than at winning anything out of Beijing. “The CCS met and the Army Chief briefed us on the Ladakh situation,’’ Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who is also a member of the CCS, told journalists after the meeting.
According to Indian accounts, about 30 to 40 Chinese troops from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) intruded into the Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh’s Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector and established camps on April 15.The Chinese incursion is nearly 19km deep inside the Indian territory. After three unsuccessful flag meetings between local commanders of the two sides and India making efforts through diplomatic channels and terming the incursion a ‘localised problem’, China has not yet retreated from the DBO sector in Depsang plains. The deadlock continues amid signs that the standoff may prolong further with Chinese troops staying put for many more days or even augmenting their strength gradually.
