DISPUTES LEFT BY HISTORY: SOLVE AMICABLY
It is very sad that first time after 1967 Nathu La clashes, serious violence erupted again, this time in the Ladakh-Tibet border, specifically in the Galwan River Valley area, between Indian and Chinese armed forces though not with firearms but by the use of ordinary incendiaries, clubs and fists, etc. It is reported that at least 20 Indian soldiers have died and about 40 casualties [both dead and injured included] occurred on the Chinese side too, but given the usual recourse to lies in warfare, we can never know the real figures and situation it seems. E.g. the contrast between rival versions about the 1967 Nathu La [Sikkim-Tibet border area] clashes: “According to Chinese reports, the number of soldiers killed were 32 on the Chinese side and 65 on the Indian side in Nathu La incident, and 36 Indian soldiers and an 'unknown' number of Chinese were killed in the Cho La incident … [but] the Indian Defence Ministry reported: 88 killed and 163 wounded on the Indian side, while 340 killed and 450 wounded on the Chinese side, during the two incidents.” {Wikipedia}. Well, whatever be the real status of exact figures, it is doubtless that loss of human lives in hankering for these desolate border regions is extremely painful; and also harmful to the interests of the entire humanity, not just our two countries. There is also a danger that given the astounding levels of chauvinism and jingoism rampant in our country subsequent to these May 2020 clashes, the enmities which have so far remained under strict control may escalate further, with our country already joining the America-Israel evil axis and perhaps may be falling into the American trap and design to shoot China over Indian shoulders. Luckily, there is no such chauvinism apparent in the English media of the other side, though they assert their contentions and deny ours. It seems our government and people have not learnt anything much from the humiliating defeat in the quite unnecessary 1962 border war and even the official Henderson Brooks (-Bhagat) Report delineating in detail the miscalculations and blunders of our government and our army at that time has not been made public even after 60 years in this “world’s largest democracy”! This editor asserts and appeals, as he did time and again, that such disputes left over by history have to be solved through peaceful negotiations, with a friendly and liberal ‘give and take’ approach, but not further complicated by inflaming an irate people’s revanchist passions of revenge and retaliation. §§§
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