Blasting Punjabi Songs, Propaganda In Chaste Hindi: China Repeating 1962 Tactics In A Bid To Demoralise Indian Soldiers

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using old diversionary tactics in a bid to lessen the morale of Indian troops deployed in the high-altitude areas at Ladakh amidst the standoff between the two countries.

Earlier this month, it was reported that India has captured dominating heights in Chushul sector.

Now, a Hindustan Times report claims that the PLA has kept loudspeakers to assert that the Indian soldiers are merely follies of more prominent political powers leading the nation.

China is persisting with the same tactic in the southern bank of Pangong Tso. Over there, the middle kingdom’s soldiers insisted in Hindi that the posting of Indian troops in those tumultuous positions amidst the chilling winter is ineffective.

They affirm that the Indian political heavyweights make the army act according to their own demands. In the same HT report, a former Indian Army chief disclosed that the PLA had employed these same strategies even in 1962 to lower the guards of their counterparts.

Needless to say, such naïve acts aren’t going to aid the Chinese this time around. Furthermore, it’s pretty rich of them to portray the Indian troops being tools of political powers when apparently their own rulers denied burial permissions to troops killed in the Galwan valley clash against India in June this year.

In fact, as is usually the case with communist authoritarian governments, The PLA in China is a politicised army. Politicisation has been blamed for its past debacles such as in 1979 offencive against Vietnam.

Xi launched military reform in late 2015 with “the goal of “upholding the correct political direction” by strengthening party control over the People’s Liberation Army. This has been achieved by centralising power over the PLA in the hands of the Central Military Commission, while at the same time centralising power within the Commission in the hands of its Chairman”.

This is possibly why Xi is taking the pushback at the LAC quite personally. Gordon G Chang argues that under pressure to prove the competence of PLA.

“China's leader has shown he is good at political mobilization of the army and that he can spend large sums on military equipment. He has also perfected the art of intimidating other countries. Xi Jinping, however, has yet to show his military, in a fight, is worth a damn”.

Also read: 'A Bolder And Better Indian Army Flopped Xi’s Plans, Now His Future Is At Risk'