A HEAP OF STONES

From The Telegraph, Nov 7, 2006
Border brush with China
SUJAN DUTTA

Lately in Bumla and Tawang, Nov. 6: Behind the bonhomie and the scenes of good cheer that marked the meeting of Indian and Chinese military officials at the Heap of Stones on the Line of Actual Control across Arunachal Pradesh last Monday, Beijing has quietly slipped in a note of dissent on Indian border patrols.

Later this week, the special envoys of India and China on border talks — national security adviser M.K. Narayanan and Dai Bingquo — are scheduled to meet ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit slated for November 20.

The Chinese delegation led by Senior Colonel Li Ming handed over to the Indian delegation led by Brigadier Sanjay Kulkarni photographs that were said to be of Indian Army personnel in Chinese-claimed territory.

The “incursion” is not recognised by the Indian Army but neither does the Chinese side recognise reports of “incursions” by the Indian side. Both sides recognise that their perceptions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are different.

For example, the Indian claim-line is along the watershed of the Thagla Ridge in the Kameng sector that is definitely in Chinese hands.

The photographs were taken by a hand-held digital camera and were purported to be those of an Indian Army patrol near Asaphila in the sector that the army calls RALP — Rest of Arunachal Pradesh — that covers the LAC to the east of the Kameng sector.

By and large, the armies have remained disengaged along the LAC except for an incident last year when two Indian Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau personnel were disarmed and returned. The armies say they are not only implementing “confidence-building measures” but have also evolved “conflict avoidance measures (CAMS)”.

The CAMS cover steps to be taken in a potentially tension-ridden situation, such as how will patrols act if they chance upon each other.

Evidence of an alleged incursion was presented to the Indian delegation at Bumla in the Kameng sector because Bumla is the only place across the Arunachal frontier where border personnel meetings are held regularly.

The two other spots where the meetings take place are in different regions — Nathu La on the Sikkim border and Chushul on the Ladakh border.

The Indian Army’s Tezpur headquartered 4 Corps — that has the dual responsibility of manning the LAC with China and counter-insurgency operations in Assam — has designated Asaphila as a “disputed area”.
The Chinese side also recognises it as such.

In the parlance of border talks, “sensitive areas” are spots where disputes are likely to arise because of differences in perception of the LAC and “disputed areas” are places mutually agreed as disputed.

From The Telegraph, Nov 2 2006
Chinese toys as deadly as guns
SUJAN DUTTA

Lately in Bumla and Tawang: A blue plastic helicopter, two grey plastic aircraft and two dolls are among the playthings displayed on a wooden table inside an operations centre of the Indian Army.

This is the garrison that is emerging as the Indian Army’s “Peace Brigade” with China in Arunachal’s Kameng district where soldiers from the two sides fraternise four times a year.

A placard above the exhibits reads: “Invasion of Chinese Toys”.

In this frontier that evokes memories of a tragic war, playthings inside a war-room are as dissimilar as gulab jamun and tomato ketchup. They are also very similar.

A Chinese officer found the gulab jamun served to him during the first of the border meetings in 2003 so sweet that he wanted to spice it up with dollops of ketchup. But this Monday, the Indian officers inside the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tent during the latest border guard meeting made no such error. Even if the dish that was served did not quite suit their palate, they nibbled at it.

If the Indian Army has begun to acquire a taste for the Chinese, the Chinese have reciprocated in kind.

At a meeting on October 1, China’s national day, Chinese girls wiggled their hips for the Indian guests and danced like Raveena Tandon to the hot (if outdated) Bollywood number “Tu cheez badi hai mast mast...”.

It is easy to conclude from the eating and the dancing on the Line of Actual Control that India and China are killing rivalry and celebrating with each other ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi later this month.

“We are probably moving towards a time when we would not have to patrol this frontier like we do now,” says Brigadier Sanjay Kulkarni.

Electronic equipment and surveillance gadgetry can gradually take over responsibilities that take a toll on both armies in the harsh climes. That will happen with increasing trust. The eating and the dancing between the soldiers means the trust deficit is decreasing.

But the reality is that the rivalry is intensifying so deeply on another front, away from the borders, that even the armies are sensitised to it.

Even on the road from Bumla — that was built by the Chinese during their 1962 humiliation of the Indian Army — the soldiers are beginning to worry about China’s toys like its guns. Threat perceptions along the border with China have altered so radically that the Indian Army is increasingly worrying for the economy in addition to its capabilities that are military.

The mini-exhibition of the Chinese plastic toys — the helicopters, the aircraft and the dolls — symbolise the new concerns. The exhibition is in a room that also has mannequins of Chinese soldiers and identifiers of ranks in the PLA.

In the adjoining hall, there is a large sand model of the area of the Line of Actual Control in the Kameng sector. There are coloured tags for Chinese and Indian positions and highlighters for Chinese “intrusions” across the LAC. Photography is prohibited.
But the army officer who is explaining the intricacies of patrolling the icy Tibetan heights of Bumla is uncomfortable with the word “intrusion”.

“It is just a different perception on where the LAC should be,” he explains.
“Our threats are more indicated by this,” he moves from the sand model to the displayed toys — cheap Chinese imports that threaten Indian businesses.


From The Telegraph, November 1 2006
After Chinese red wine, a Tibetan hiccup- Bhai-bhai and big brother

SUJAN DUTTA

Heap of Stones, India-China Line of Actual Control, Oct. 31: An Indian brigadier and his Chinese counterpart locked arms and sipped from goblets of Yunnan red wine in this frontier post yesterday amid hopes that the warmth will wash down from the icy Tibetan tableland to Delhi and Beijing.

India is hoping that the warmth that cuts the chill among old soldiers will radiate also from the visit by Hu Jintao — the first by a Chinese head of state in a decade — scheduled from November 20.

But the highs are likely to be punctuated in the interim by the visit of Sonia Gandhi to Tawang, the garrison town in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kameng district, 37 km downhill from here.

The Congress chief is slated to visit Tawang’s famous monastery on November 5. The monastery is patronised by the Indian Army and is a symbol of India’s enduring support for the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan cause. A predecessor of the Dalai Lama founded the shrine to Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.

Brigadier Sanjay Kulkarni, who led the Indian delegation at the border personnel meeting, heads the garrison at Tawang. His troops face the Chinese frontier guard across Bumla where the McMahon Line-Line of Actual Control-International Boundary (disputed borders have many descriptions) is marked by a heap of stones and is named as such.

On the Chinese side of the LAC, under a nylon People’s Liberation Army tent, Senior Colonel Li Ming An of the PLA Border Defence Regiment forced the Yunnan Red Wine down the brigadier, who was forced to break a fast. From another tent, the smell of Chinese dishes — such as chicken claw with chilli salad and deep fried chicken claws — wafted across the flat plain 15,500 feet above sea level.

Forty-four years ago in 1962, Chinese forces broke into India through Bumla, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Indian military and rattling Jawaharlal Nehru’s government. More than 2,400 soldiers of the Indian Army were killed.

At the Heap of Stones — where the officers later threw a pebble each to denote a wish for lasting friendship — in sub-zero temperatures, there was in the event an advertisement for bonhomie.

Border personnel meetings are held at Bumla four times every year, twice on the Indian side and twice on the Chinese. This was on Chinese territory but yesterday’s event has been invested with more importance than on previous occasions because it backgrounds Hu’s visit.