Bharat Rakshak

Y I Patel

There’s a significance to the ceasefire being announced by the DGMOs instead of by the FS or some diplomat. This is in line with the negotiations on the East Ladakh standoff being conducted by Corps commanders. The big signal this gives is that the army will now drive the peace process, not some ret...

Y I Patel

Charding La is to the southwest of Demchok, and to the east of Chumar. Roughly half-way between the two. There is a nullah (presumably Charding Nullah) flowing towards Demchok and joining the Sindhu. Based on a cursory examination of the topography it looks like the nullah is the LAC in that area an...

Y I Patel

Recall that very early in the standoff we had discussed the geography north of Pangong Tso, and had mentioned Piu La and Ane La as key passes leading up to Finger 8 and even to Fort Khurnak... Huge news hidden in this snippet - Gen Joshi reveals to Gaurav Sawant that IA has occupied Piu La and Ane L...

Y I Patel

RM is known to choose words very carefully, so I am very intrigued that IA is pulling back from South Bank of Pangong Tso. I know India has occupied positions on the North Bank, and also on the Kailash Range. I also know Rechin La is several kilometers away from the South Bank of Spangur Tso. So can...

Y I Patel

IAF air base at Sarsawa was, IIRC, considered as a candidate for hosting Rafales before LA problems forced a reconsideration. Lots of Army bases and formation HQs are on major rail lines. No coincidence. vsundar ji your mention of Itarsi rang a bell - Babina, which is quite close if I am not mistake...

Y I Patel

Vsundar ji has a distinguished record in writing, but nothing that would ever go in a coffee table book :D Sorry, couldn’t resist. Had to brag that I have had the distinct pleasure and privilege of meeting vsundar ji in person. Back to the topic at hand: Palanpur in Gujarat is close to Deesa, which ...

Y I Patel

Suraj wrote: ...Do we know why rates are down after over 500K/day last week ? ...

Pulse polio campaign. Covid vaccination should pick up pace again, starting tomorrow

Y I Patel

More pleasing than the order itself is the dedicated facility to manufacture Tejas. This will create an impetus for follow on orders. Now we can say for sure that Tejas is not going the Marut way.

Congratulations to all those who made it happen!

Y I Patel

OMG! What a win!!!! What an incredible game! Bravo India!

Y I Patel

This will become an extremely dangerous precedent if the legislative branch does not stand up for its prerogative. Every law will become subject to a popularity test by the judiciary. Any law in jeopardy of repeal due to vociferous objections from a small group with vested interests.

Y I Patel

The Supreme Court comments on staying the implementation of the agricultural laws and the negative comments on the government’s inability to end the agitation are a shocking breach of judicial impartiality. The court appears to be governing from the bench in a very blatant way. I hope the government...

Y I Patel

This is an interesting movie on an actual Iranian Air Force attack on an Iraqi Air Base. Do watch - very good action scenes:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyc5z6SHQLM[/youtube]

Y I Patel

IMHO “scientific frontiers” can only be the contrivance of someone who lacks an emotional connection to the land. What scientific reason would a true Indian need to consider the Kailash range as part of India?

Y I Patel

Was the call for Bharat Bandh successful or not? Please post reports here. Thanks

Y I Patel

Let me add that this inherited mindset disappeared progressively with each war fought by the army of Independent India

Y I Patel

Indian Army officers inherited an imperial mindset when it came to strategic thinking. By this I mean the following: land had no intrinsic value for a British officer fighting far away from home. It was something that could be traded for strategic gain. This does not translate well when carried over...

Y I Patel

^^^ I don't think the outrage at the assassination comes out of any sympathy for Iran. The whole thrust is on the impact of this assassination on the Iran nuclear deal. Again, make no mistake - no one in USA wants Iran to have nuclear weapons, and a lot of people in USA looked at the deal as a legal...

Y I Patel

Moving on to more positive thoughts, I am very pleased at how India has started setting the tenor of the relationship for the next four years - I point to PM Modi's congratulatory phone call to Biden where they talked about cooperation in clean energy/climate change and health (COVID vaccine). These...

Y I Patel

Regarding the positive trajectory of India-US relations during the Trump administration, I give (roughly) 60% credit to India, 30% credit to China, and 10% credit to Anti-China hawks in the USA. Trump had absolutely nothing to do with whatever is currently positive between India and USA. It is to In...

Y I Patel

100% agree with AmberG's post - everyone should be horrified by this assassination. The Iran Nuclear Accord was good for the entire world, and made India's strategic calculus a lot easier in Afghanistan and the middle east. Trump has quite unnecessarily driven Iran into the arms of China and Russia,...

Y I Patel

A lot of speculation right now on how a Biden presidency will pan out. Instead of making predictions, I am going to recount recent American political history which should help people understand the churn in Democratic party right now and how this will manifest itself, rather than just going by what ...

Y I Patel

Biden has been declared the winner

Y I Patel

Within the Trump presidency, Democrats were led by North Eastern and West Coast liberal elites. Biden and Harris will owe their victory to the African American dominated Democratic base in the Midwest, and very notably, the South. Georgia tipping for a Dem candidate is huge and historic, and marks t...

Y I Patel

India is probably not going to be too pleased to hear this:

Putin: Russia-China Military alliance can't be ruled out

Y I Patel

The first post in this page, just from last June, talks about an upcoming India-Russia bilateral summit. I recall reading another related article that this summit would involve Putin visiting India in October. That is clearly not going to happen in the next nine days, certainly not with India US 2x2...

Y I Patel

Excellent article on the merger of Sikkim with India... a huge strategic win, against American machinations. Worth saving somewhere, just for the record. Sikkim is the middle finger in Mao's five fingers, and guess what happened to it! Let's give credit to those SDRE Raa agints who made this happen!...

Y I Patel

Here we go https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/chinese-president-xi-jinping-asks-troops-to-prepare-for-war-be-absolutely-loyal-report-1731545-2020-10-14 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/14/asia/xi-jinping-taiwan-us-esper-intl-hnk/index.html "Xi Jinping emphasised that it is necessary to uphol...

Y I Patel

Interesting. It could be a feint to make India amass troops and then start raining munition on the massed troops. Sir troops are amassed by both sides, and both sides can rain munitions. Dont know what YIP meant, I would think that these troops can be used to take back POK. Just like the Chinese di...

Y I Patel

There is so much focus on winter preparations. This makes me suspicious.

What if the real plan is not to tough it out through the winter?

Another thought: winter is a consideration only for land forces. For the most part, air power would not be similarly constrained.

Y I Patel

The CCP is going to have an important meeting Oct 26-29. US is very likely to be in great turmoil after the elections, i.e. Nov 5 So my 2 cents is that China will not do anything major before that. After that, depends on US election results. Since onset of winter is so close and a two front approach...

Y I Patel

Rohit

Congratulations on your amazing progress - groundbreaking journalism on SFF for IT, interviews on TV... your expertise is now being recognized well beyond BRF, but I know I speak for all over here that we are very proud of you! Best wishes for your new initiative to post on Youtube.

Y I Patel

There is a very overt insinuation by vested interests that India needs external support to successfully deal with China. One major success in settling this issue without too much bloodshed will be a demonstration that India can push back China by itself. That would be a huge gain for India's interna...

Y I Patel

We have not reversed anything sir, we are just doing defensive maneuvers to avoid any further Chinese mischief. Something we should have done long before in here and in other areas. This 5 point agreement is not an agreement . It is just a diplomatic statement of intent . The danger here is the Chi...

Y I Patel

The 5-point joint statement demolishes a great myth that has been built over decades: that India should be fearful of provoking China. If China was truly provoked, what India did on the Kailash Range should have resulted in nothing short of an all-out war. After all, India reoccupied a range that co...

Y I Patel

I have difficulty believing that any power on earth can dislodge the Indian Army from a mountain ridge. The Chinese attempts after August end are probes to discover gaps in the Indian deployment. Good luck with that. That said, there appear to be undercurrents on the Chinese side which may cause the...

Y I Patel

The Sunday Guardian article - very well written overall, but it is the details that sent a thrill down my spine: First, it was a brigade level assault (let's now call it what it actually was). This was known though from previous articles. Now it gets exciting The assault brigade (which contained SFF...

Y I Patel

Thanks Ankit. Phurchuk La offers pretty good + protected access to the ridge line. It will permit a sustainable presence on that ridge for Indian forces; I suspect protecting access to that pass must have been the major priority of the preemptive operation. Yula La is a bit to the east of the zig za...

Y I Patel

Ankit Desai wrote:
You sure Rezang La's coordinates are correct ? Right of international boundary ! and too far from Requin La.

-Ankit

Yes, I must have gotten a wrong set of coordinates for Rezang La. Here's the correct set, right to the east of Rechin La: 33°24'50"N 78°52'29"E

Y I Patel

Wikimapia is a goldmine -coordinates of important passes in the Spangur Tso area copied below. Kind of makes sense, but note that in this case Requin La is to the left of Rezang La - when looking eastwards. Rezang La: 33°24'50"N 78°52'29"E <-- corrected later Requin La: 33°25'6"N 78°5...

Y I Patel

But my confusion is because GE puts Reqin La on the Western side of the ridge line. I can understand it if it were on the Eastern side. If we don't already have control over the entire Tsaka La road that connects Chushul and Dungti (which Reqin La abuts), we have bigger problems! So I assume that t...

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