India will not accept any change in the traditional and well-defined patrolling routes on the Line of Actual Control — the 3,488 km long disputed boundary between
India and China — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
“No power on earth can stop the Indian Army from patrolling. The (patrolling) routes are traditional and well-defined. Any changes in the patrolling pattern are not acceptable,” Singh said responding to the opposition members’ queries.
Blocking the Indian Army to reach its traditional patrolling points at the beginning of the summer was the starting point of the ongoing Sino-Indian confrontation in eastern Ladakh, which is showing no sign of getting abated even after six months.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) blocked Indian soldiers on the northern banks of the Pangong lake as well as in multiple points in the Galwan Valley and Depsang plains, near the Daulat Beg Oldie airbase.
“I want to make it clear (that) skirmishes and face-offs are because of this (issue of patrolling),” Singh said.
China, the minister said, made “provocative military manoeuvres” on August 29/30 in an attempt to change the status quo in the south bank area of Pangong Lake at a time when the two sides were engaged in military and diplomatic talks to de-escalate tensions.
The defence minister said there was a mismatch between what China says and does.
“Unki kathani aur karni alag hai (their actions are at variance with their words),” he said, reflecting the mistrust that the Indian armed forces have with the PLA at the moment.
Singh’s assertion on patrolling came when he responded to a clarification sought by former defence minister and senior Congress leader A K Antony on the issue of Indian forces not being allowed to patrol in the Galwan Valley, which was never a disputed territory.
Antony and his party colleague Anand Sharma also raised the issue of restoration of the status quo ante on the LAC in eastern Ladakh while negotiating with China.
The minister’s statement was almost identical to what he said in the Lok Sabha earlier this week.