If I were Chinese I would attempt an attack that would cause Indians to revolt against the government. It would be worth looking at what circumstances could be set in motion to make pressure on the government unbearable in this regard. On my own, (personally speaking) I believe this will be difficult to do because the nature of democracy is to try and get people to support the government and it is every adversary and opposition party's dream to whip up opposition to the government.ldev wrote: It is possible that large scale civilian and infrastructure destruction and consequent dislocation of basic services will cause the Indian public to rise against the Indian Government to stop the war. On the other hand, it is possible that public resolve will be strong and will back GOI into a continuation of the war. If that happens, then the CPC is in trouble. Nobody can predict in advance how public opinion will turn out and it's a gamble China IMO does not want to take unless it has to.
I think the Chinese meeting Gadha Gandhi is part of this but Gadha is too insignificant. The Chinese can cripple the "economy of the wealthy and influential" by taking out civilian airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Blr, Chennai etc but I suspect this would not be a good method. The Chinese could collect up people like Yechury, Guha, Sagarika Ghose, Sardesai, Ayyub etc and get them to do a media assault on India.
But it is not easy to make a 1.2 billion country get cowed down easily. 1962 was different because Nehru was an icon and he chose to behave like a loser and made all of India feel like losers. He spoke tough but when the going got tough he wept, did not send in the air force, begged for help from the west.
1000 missiles is like expensive 1000 bombs. In 1971 the IAF was conducting hundreds of sorties per day and more than 1000 bombs were dropped - but Pakistan remained largely intact. They lost the war when the army was defeated and were hardly cowed down as a nation