l New Delhi, September 3 (PTI): Army Chief General M.M. Naravane began a two-day visit to Ladakh on Thursday to carry out a comprehensive review of the security situation in the region in view of China’s fresh attempts to change status quo along the southern bank of Pangong Lake, official sources said.

 

l New Delhi, September 3 (PTI): Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, on Wednesday, visited key air bases under the Eastern Air Command and reviewed the IAF’s combat readiness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in view of the heightened border tensions with China, officials said.

 

l New Delhi, September 3 (PTI): India’s Armed Forces are capable of handling aggressive Chinese actions in “best suitable ways”, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.

 

In an interactive session at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, General Rawat said, India’s policy of engagement, if not backed by credible military power and regional influence, would imply acknowledging China’s pre-eminence in the region. He added, India faces the most complex threats and challenges spanning a full spectrum of possible conflict -- from nuclear to sub-conventional -- but asserted the Armed Forces were ready to deal with those.

THIS concerted response of India’s military top brass -- to the latest developments in eastern Ladakh -- is yet another expression of the nation’s changing psychology of freedom. This alertness confirms that India wants to consolidate the military gains it has registered in eastern Ladakh in the past 3-4 days. Reports affirm that the Indian troops have occupied as many as 30 strategically critical features gaining a clear advantage over the Chinese positioning in the region. This is how a nation who cares for its freedom conducts itself.

 

Technically, such visits of top brass to areas reeling under tension are a routine happening, as some may want to point out. But the manner in which India’s defence establishment as well as the political leadership handling matters indicates a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to national defence and security. This assertiveness has been rare in the Indian context, a fact no one will be able to deny.

 

Yes, traditionally, the Indian people have been hearing about the greatness of the Armed Forces. They have also been hearing about the assertion by political leadership that the Armed Forces are fully capable of handling the attempt to dare India’s sense of sovereignty and integrity. But factually speaking, the massive projection of China’s so-called military superiority was a daunting proposition to most Indians. That was so because some vested interests aligning with foreign elements has crafted a fake narrative of China’s vastly superior military capabilities in comparison to those of India. And the people remained a little apologetic about the nation’s own military prowess, a fact nobody directly denied in the past several decades.

 

But all this has changed in the last 5-6 years -- which is obvious even to blind persons. India’s military capabilities have found a new assertion, a new emphasis, a new-found confidence.

 

And this change is being felt all over the country -- in nooks and corners, in mega-cities and small towns, in villages and tribal hamlets. There is a new wave of national confidence sweeping across the land, giving the people a sense of assurance that freedom to be lived in this manner -- protecting it, preserving it, enhancing it in every possible manner. Within the borders, every Indian is a liberated individual, realising the nuances of freedom, enjoying its fruits. For, everybody is cock-sure that he is absolutely in safe hands of the patriotic, professional Armed Forces.

Freedom has several nuances -- which free societies explore and exploit positively. But all those nuances -- like the smile on a young girl’s pink face, the sense of liberation to practise and profess any faith, the sense of responsibility towards history and future of the land -- have been so wonderfully captured in his iconic poem Jayostute Shreemahanmangaley Shivaspade Shubhade, Swatantrate Bhagawati Twam Aham Yashoyuta Vande ... by Swatantrayaveer Savarkar.

 

But all those nuances are possible and enjoyable only when the country is able to bask in a healthy psychology of freedom in which any kind of psychosis has no place -- healthy minds of the healthy people of a healthy country drenched in the uncompromisable thought of freedom which must be protected and preserved at all costs.

 

Hence the collective rush of India’s military top brass to eastern Ladakh -- to pat on the backs of the soldiers and their field commanders who dared the so-called mighty Chinese successfully and gained critical strategic advantage in swift, smart, no-nonsense action.

 

Until recently, all this would have been a part of a rare show of national assertion. But in today’s condition, all this appears to be normal, to say the least -- thanks to the liberated mindset of the leaders the nation is fortunate to have at this juncture in a variety of fields and areas of national endeavour.

 

The need to explain this new psychology is felt at this stage because there could be people among us to take things for granted. No. That is not the reality. The reality is that whatever appears ‘normal’ now in the past 5-6 years is an outcome of a focused effort that took a lot of national energy to make possible. Hence the need to outline before the people the nuances of the freedom we have today, and the national psychology that is changing so rapidly to bring an overall safe cheer to the people -- from corridors of power to streets in dusty villages!