The Neighbourhood Battle

 

In the summers of 2013, China's Himalayan Drills had become worrisome. The retired Brigadier never missed a chance to warn that ‘they’ can anytime put a knife in our back. He always believed that with a bit stronger political leadership and a bit better basic amenities, the fight would have been different. After all he still remembered many soldiers fighting in angora shirts forget about jersey. And it was as cold as you can imagine.   

 

His two neighbours had been at loggerheads for long. One was strong, financially and socially in a decent position. The other was comparatively lesser on all these counts. The stronger one would not miss an opportunity to badger the opponent and never skipped a chance to prove his strength and the other's helplessness. One day he heard the one, who was always at the receiving end, saying, 'I am going to an all out with him. Even if he beats me it’s better to be fully defeated instead of getting insulted all the times!' Driven by the concept and brooding over his insults, he went all out with the enemy at the next provocation! It was unexpected given his unresponsiveness of long. The stronger opponent was taken aback and before others, including the retired Brigadier, intervened he had bloody mouth and many bruises. The Brigadier knew the conditions in which the man had attacked finally. He drew the moral of the story: Sometimes it serves to hit hardest when you are pushed against a wall; when you have been completely cornered!

Each time there was some news of the Chinese wrongdoing in the Himalayas, the soldier’s soul pined for revenge. He openly confessed he hated the Chinese to the core of his heart. When this episode happened in which the unprovoking underdog had finally hit, taking the stronger transgressor by surprise, the polish-mannered soldier had even abandoned his neutrality in the affairs and went to the winner’s house to even congratulate him for his brave battle.

The repeated Chinese transgressions into the Indian territory and India's helplessness in this regard served the ex-soldier a corollary to the episode narrated above. He was telling the man representing India in the episode:

China, on account of the War and repeated intrusions, has taken it for granted that India will remain inert to all provocations. Can India act ultimately like you? If China can cross over into our territory, cannot we go for the same exercise sometimes? Suppose China reacts at the level of using force at our China-type intrusion, we will also earn a right to ward them off at the same level if they play the mischief again. It will only define the LOC more definitely---after all you are supposed to put your stamp of authority on your land through the use of forces to the utmost capacity. It will just balance out the position.