The border face-off between India and China seems to have cooled for now but there is considerable anger within the government against the army for giving inaccurate details regarding Chumar sector in Ladakh.

The army had built bunkers and started undertaking aggressive border patrolling in Chumar in early April, according to highly placed sources. This had prompted China to play it off in Daulat Beg Oldi sector in the north of Chumar by undertaking a 19 kilometers incursion inside the Indian territory and pitching tents in Rakinala.

Top sources revealed that the high-level China Study Group (CSG) — consisting of national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, defence secretary Shashikant Sharma, home secretary RK Singh and top heads of the central security agencies — took a very dim view of the army giving an inaccurate picture of its manoeuvres in Chumar.

When the CSG sat down to take stock of the Chinese incursion on April 15, the army had apparently said that it had only set up some makeshift shelters in Chumar sector to take care of its troops in times of need. 

Within the next couple of days, the CSG gathered evidence about the army’s actual position from independent sources and confirmed it with the agencies. The information proved that the army had given inaccurate information and was building bunkers that were not in line with the 2005 Border Patrol protocol singed by the two countries. On being asked by dna, the army denied having undertaken construction of any bunkers or intensifying patrolling in Chumar sector.

The episode has prompted the CSG to take a strong view of maintaining the independence of the ITBP and not to handover its operational control to the army.

Sources said that the army had undertaken construction of seven bunkers of which one had already been built and earthwork of four others had finished when China flexed its muscles in Daulat Beg Oldi sector. This sector is strategically important from Indian perspective as it overlooks the Karakoram highway.

By positioning themselves in Rakinala, the Chinese prevented Indian forces from patrolling to at least for patrol points along the Line of Actual Control, just as Indian manoeuvre in Chumar had prevented the Chinese from entering into disputed areas of Eastern Ladakh, which it considers its own.

Sources told dna that when the CSG discussed Chinese incursion in Daulat Beg Oldi Sector on April 15, it asked the army to suspend the visit of its delegation to China to finalise the proposed joint counter terrorism exercise in October later this year.

However, top officials of the army later met the NSA and surprisingly the decision was overturned and the delegation went ahead with its visit to China on April 18.

The unsavoury face-off between the two countries has prompted India to re-look at China’s offer to rework the 2005 border protocol and may seek to redraft in the near future.