Hari Sud’s International View

 Does Joe Biden has Magic Band, which will Fix everything in America Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States, no matter how much Donald Trump speaks of illegality during elections. He himself contributed to his loss during the Great Pandemic. It is the Covid-19 pandemic, which did a job on him. Now he should hand over the job with grace and retire.  Joe Biden's new administration has a tremendous task before it. First of all, it must cure America of the Conservative-Liberal divide. Second, proceed speedily on work on progress in earnest to cure America of the serious pandemic, which has killed more people and sickened more people in America and the rest of the world.  If he has a magic wand, then now is the time to wave it. He may lose all his support in the blink of an eye if very little is done other than election promises. Third, China's obtuse behavior, with huge amounts of American money in their pockets, intimidate countries on the outskirts of the Sou...

 The Chinese are calming down and acting less aggressively at LAC. They made withdrawal proposals that were rejected by India at the 7th Commander's meeting, but the Indian counterproposals probably fell on their deaf ears. Still, there may be a settlement in the works which may not favor China, but my question is why start this fight anyway. Now they wish to retreat. Are they deterred by the extreme cold in the LAC or by the iron grip of the Indian army? They learnt the hard way at Galwan clash and again when they brought their light tanks at Spanggur Gap in September which, when confronted by heavies on Indian side really killed their confidence. Once again, the same question: why begin a battle in which there is no chance of victory? I'm sure their primary game is capturing Arunachal Pradesh. The LAC confrontation has been their dry run to test the courage of the well-armed and trained Indian army. China's leader Xi had altered China's military command by transferrin...

Coronavirus Spread in Indian Masses was a Foregone Conclusion in March of this year   The spread of Coronavirus among the masses in India was a foregone conclusion at least from the model which a senior US doctor of Indian descent and others had used to forecast its spread. He had predicted millions in affected people and deaths in India. May God, a cat catches his tongue. Their prognosis was so upsetting for Indian citizens that a big percentage of people resigned to the coming fate. The doctor was basing his forecast on a model, using the spread of the 1918 Flu epidemic. He assumed that health care was next to nothing in India. They lacked testing kits and were most likely short on ventilators and other other survival kits in the hospitals, hence people will die. Modi, the Indian PM set out right from day one, when the news of this health disaster broke, to prove them wrong. He took steps like - limit incoming people in India afflicted with the disease. Since it is an overseas di...

  Noisy Media in US, India, etc. not helping Covid -19 fight   In the US it is distinctly visible that network like CNN that they have less focus on fighting the virus, instead a huge effort is centered on being critical of Trump and Trump Admistration. The New York governor on CNN is paying less attention on closing down everything which is the principal cause of the spread of the virus, instead he focusses on grabbing all resources earmarked for others. He quotes hurricane devastation on the East Coast. Immediately after the hurricane, everybody runs to help. His explanation is terribly simplistic. Hurricanes come, destroy and pass on. This virus is not going away. It picks a spot and builds a home there and then migrates to another spot and so on. It is transmitted by humans. The New York governor’s main aim is to grab all resources unmindful of other ‘s needs. For CNN and other leftist media this is an opportunity to fail Trump’s re-election effort with criticism of inacti...

  Reasons why China started this fight Diplomats and strategists have not yet figured out why did China pick this time to start a physical push and shove with India in Sikkim and Ladakh knowing fully well that India is well prepared. They got bloodied in Sikkim but are still face to face in Ladakh. There is Convid-19 pandemic on and China in its industrial heartland of Wuhan suffered the worst effect. It allowed the virus to deliberately escape China with travel and unleash havoc everywhere in the world, - US, Asia & Europe, its main trading partners. Today they are suffering Its worst effects......... Now, since the brand China among its customers is dead, their lifeline of exports is at standstill. Who wants to import anything from them. Even the defective virus prevention safety hardware hastily exported has been returned. ...... Hence my point is why would anybody in his right mind pick up a fight out of all the countries with India.  Three points come to mind;- 1. The...

  IS IT TIME TO RECOVER THE AKSAI- CHIN The Chinese started this fight but to their disadvantage, India is well prepared with 200,000 mountain trained troops (the best in their class) all of them, of late, well positioned on the LAC. That temporary surprise of nail studded baseball bat fight has evaporated. India moved all the troops from the rear to Ladakh and now they are well acclimatized.  The Chinese are in no position to resist a major thrust in Ladakh to get to their Akas-chin road. Once you have the road in our gunsights then it is all over for the Chinese occupation. I am no military man, but I am told including the Chinese military analysts in their media that Indian troops are better trained and equipped for mountain warfare. The American later verified this fact in ‘Belfer Center’ analysis. I quote : ‘the Conventional wisdom has it that China holds a significant military advantage over India, but recent studies from the Belfer Centre at the Harvard Kennedy School o...

  Recent Ladakh Truce Took Away a Great Indian Opportunity India gave away too much to buy peace in Ladakh. In fact, Chinese belligerence needed a big hard kick on their back but Alas! that opportunity is all gone. They attempted another piece of Salami slicing of Indian land and offered India that rare opportunity to kick them in the Himalayas. That opportunity would have laid to rest Chinese expansionist policies in the rest of Asia. India had all the advantages in all of Ladakh to capture back Akas-Chin plateau and severe the road link between Sinking and Tibet. In all probability Tibet would have been free and Pakistan would be at Indian mercy in spite of nuclear threat. Alas! it did not happen. Later we may regret that lost opportunity. This was the time to wash that 1962 blot of Chinese victory, a blot on Indian conscience. Question is that, why did they come and then why did they leave so quickly? Did they think that India is not well prepared and they can redo all that vict...

  Is this Chinese new brinkmanship or posturing in Ladakh? If it is both the above, then the Chinese have lost the game. I hope it is not true. I choose to assume that Chinese with these minor intrusions on one or two hilltops in Ladakh is an effort to offer Pakistanis a breathing room after the Article 370 abolition and declared Indian intent to regain the a Pakistani Occupied territory. No Indian plans to capture POK have been made public. We are merely guessing that the Chinese are trying to defocus India from its declared intent. The Chinese quickly signed a dam building contract in POK (Basha Dam) and on a long range basis their intent is to protect the CPEC road. The former quick agreement for construction in disputed territory will allow Chinese to enter the war theatre to protect their own interests. Although the CPEC road is a waste of money with hundreds and hundreds of lorries daily crossing the 14,000 feet Khunjereb Pass with great difficulty, nevertheless, for China it...

  Why is China Nervous about India’s DSDBO Road? It is a long range Indian intent to get the Aksai Chin plateau back, but there was no intent to initiate a fight about it today or in next five years. Only thing India undertook in the last few years is to build roads and infrastructure which had been neglected for the last 50 years. One of the strategic road DSDBO* road together with a twelve or so feeder road which runs parallel to the Chinese Aksai Chin road, but roughly 70 to 80 km away, has bothered China. In Addition, India is also establishing an all weather connectivity to Ladakh by building a tunnel under the Zozilla Pass on Srinagar - Leh road and also as an alternative route to Ladakh by building a difficult road from Manali to Leh tunneling under the Rohtang pass. The latter is an alternative strategic route, in case the Srinagar - Leh road is ever blocked. All this in my dictionary, a huge road building activity on India’s part. That has made Chinese very nervous. They w...

  Indian occupation of strategic heights in Ladakh There is a possibility that the Chinese were fooled or were overconfident to keep the heights on the southern shore of Pangong Lake unoccupied. With their major base at Moldo which is located the edge of the smaller Spanggur Lake and a bunch of heights and peaks overlooking the Moldo base, it is hard to believe that they would not think of defense of this base first. As a field commander you would do everything secure the base from all sides. They did not undertake that operation. Or they knew all about it yet they allowed it to be surrounded by the Indian Army. Now that this base is in a hopeless position. It has to be vacated if large scale hostilities break out. Then what is the educated analysis of this Chinese stupidly of not securing the base. My hat is off to the Indian Army for seeing this weakness and occupying all the surrounding heights leading all the way to Chusul, in one tactical move. And so, what is the answer to th...

  Impasse With the Chinese at LAC in Ladakh With China at LAC, an impasse has been reached. They are not going back from Finger 4 to Finger 8 without a fight. India is not vacating the heights in Chusul and few occupied right above the Chinese Finger 4 position. Former Gen Hooda Recipe has suggested confidence building measures to appease Chinese to withdraw. None of his opinions will work. In fact these confidence building measures were in place when Chinese moved the LAC westward at a few places like Fingers area and in Despang. A firefight may be the solution. Alternatively we should look for gaps in Chusul - Damchok area and move the LAC farther east and put the Chinese road work within artillery range. Same should be explored in Galwan valley but it is useless effort, with the terrain of the situation. But a lot is possible in the Depsang plains where the Chinese have moved the LAC westwards a bit. That is a small natural flat ground at 14-15,000 feet. That is an excellent tan...

  Uncomfortable Chinese at Ladakh From all these happenings in last six weeks at LAC, and rapid commander’s meet one after the other, it would appear that Chinese are quite in a rush to disengage before the start of full blown winter. The next commander meet, eighth, has been scheduled much sooner than any time the previous meets in the summer time frame we’re scheduled. Is it that they are nervous of Aug 29/30 surprise India may spring upon them. ..... Did you notice that those virulent and worthless commentaries in the Global Times are not there any more. Other reasons could be that China is preparing to invade Taiwan. That they have been preparing in earnest in last six months much more earnestly than ever in last 60 years. Chinese have probably noticed two things .... 1). America is totally during elections and its aftermath not well prepared to defend Taiwan. ...2). People blaming China for coronavirus has abated. They after a lapse of five months are back to buying Chinese ma...