As one of the significant principles of war remains the element of surprise, the art and science of Intelligence gathering and analysis has been, down the ages, a vital ingredient of a nation’s state-craft.
During the current India-China face-off in Eastern Ladakh, India’s strategic adversary in Asia – an expansionist and a revisionist ambitious power – China has indeed surprised India’s political and security establishments by transgressing across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at four points in Eastern Ladakh on or before 5 May 2020.
Notwithstanding the violent clashes between the Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on the intervening night of 15/16 June, and later some form of agreement reached between the two senior commanders of the opposing forces to disengage, the Chinese, according to unconfirmed media reports, are in no mood to relent with their incursions in these undefined border areas . On the other hand, they have continued to build additional fortifications, improve roads, induct tanks and artillery guns, and amassed additional troops at various places along the LAC.