Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat’s explicit assertion on Monday that India will not think twice to exercise the military option against China if talks fail to resolve the prevailing deadlock has caused much flutter. While there are interpretations of varied kinds over its exact connotation, for all practical purposes, an expressive reaction of this kind was expected to arrive sooner than later, given China’s incomprehensibly rigid stand in the stalemate. If viewed in the light of the current volatility when a series of diplomatic and military talks since the June 15 bloodshed at Galwan Valley have met a dead-end, the message was hugely necessary. Whether a conventional war will actually follow in the immediate future after this remark may still be a wild conjecture, as a pressure-building tactic on the notorious neighbour, this was perhaps a required dose.

By now the border standoff in Eastern Ladakh is more than three-month old and the Chinese transgression that led to all the chaos and bloodshed is very much an international issue. Although there are attempts by China to showcase itself as a genuine peace seeker in the eyes of the world, their actual on-ground actions will reflect just the opposite. The much-talked about military retreat on the LAC which is perceived as the only way to restore the status quo ante had hardly been sincerely exhibited by China and their actions can only be read as highly untrustworthy. A point has reached when there is a growing realisation by India that the ongoing bilateral diplomatic and military talks are all but ornamental and therefore fruitless. The hardline attitude hasn’t come all of a sudden and a marked continuity can be observed if the Defence Minister’s constant consultations with the top military brass over the last few weeks are taken in view. On Saturday last also, he reviewed India's military preparedness, where besides the CDS, the NSA and three services chiefs were present.

While Eastern Ladakh continues to be the centre-point of conflict, assessment of the exact depth of China’s evil designs will remain incomplete if focus is not given elsewhere where equally serious things are going on. Starting from Afghanistan in Northwest to Nepal in the north and Bangladesh in the east, the Chinese are on an expansion mission in the subcontinent. It has started with execution of heavy-weight infra projects in these countries, doling out handsome financial aids in the process, which, no doubt are going to prove as ‘pretexts’ in the long-run with the real intention being to make them submissive and dilute India’s erstwhile importance in the region.

Even if a war between the two nations which possess nuclear arms will be least-wished for, given the high degree of China’s villainy, the assertion was necessary and timely.