How Covid kept Indian Army out of the scene when Chinese troops were moving in

It was the novel coronavirus that delayed a key annual Army drill along the LAC, giving Chinese troops a crucial window to move into and grab strategic positions inside Indian territorial limits — a move that eventually led to a prolonged standoff and the slaying of at least 20 Indian Army personnel.

The weeks-long Galwan standoff, which took a bloody turn today, had begun after Chinese deployment threatened to cut off a strategic Indian road built to link the Daulat Beg Oldie base and the Karakoram Pass with Leh.

After some soldiers caught the infection in March, Indian troops had to postpone their annual summer exercise — the joint drill carried out by Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Sub Sector North (SSN). The postponement helped PLA to move in and block access to a number of locations patrolled by Indian forces in the past.


The exercise, which is carried out every summer by troops from a base in Himachal, mirrors a similar drill carried out by the Chinese troops, government sources told ET reporters.

The forces had to put in place in a host of precautionary measures after a soldier tested positive for the virus sometime around the second week of March. These measures, which included a ban on mass gatherings, forced Indian troops to delay the scheduled exercise.

The Chinese side also put off their drill, but by the time the process resumed they were already in advantageous positions — and they took the Indians by surprise by quick redeployment in the Galwan valley and the Finger Area along Pangong Tso lake.

After finally seeing through the ploy, the Indian Army was forced to break all pandemic protocols and rush troops from Leh to mirror Chinese deployments. But it was already too late and China had by then grabbed the first-mover advantage to position troops well inside Indian territory, according to an ET report by Rahul Tripathi and Manu Pubby.

According to the report, by end-April India was aware of the situation. The first faceoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh occurred on May 5-6. During that incident, scores of Indian soldiers — many from the Army and some from the ITBP — were injured and some detained for hours.