India failed to anticipate China move in 2020 face-off Experts

A heated debate in Parliament  yesterday over the unpublished book authored by former Army Chief Gen MM Naravane (retd) has rekindled the reality of how India was initially "surprised" when China "unilaterally" violated existing peace agreements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in April-May 2020. General Naravane was Army Chief from December 31, 2019, to April 30, 2022.

In April-May 2020, the India Army reacted well to China’s military move, but certainly there was a gap in anticipating the intention of Beijing, said a senior retired Indian military officer.

Yesterday Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, countering Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Parliament, said “the book being cited has not been published”. A news magazine, Caravan, published contents of the book and Rahul was citing the magazine.

Lt Gen SL Narsimhan (retd), a former Director General, Centre for Contemporary China Studies, a policy think tank embedded in the Ministry of External Affairs, says “the May 2020 incidents resulted in casualties to both India and China after 45 years. This was a result of violation of the bilateral agreements by China. Approximately after four years of hard negotiations, both sides completed the disengagement process in 2024.” The LAC has remained stable since then. However, careful monitoring of the LAC should be continued, he added.

Another retired senior officer said skirmishes started in April and May 2020 which led to the fatal clash at Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020. First was the surprise by China along the LAC in April 2020. Beijing rapidly diverted troops exercising elsewhere in Tibet to face India along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. By third week of April 2020, there was a huge body of some 40,000-50,000 troops of the People’s Liberation Army of China along the LAC on their own side.

A clash ensued on the night intervening May 5 and May 6, 2020, at a spot called ‘finger 5’ on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso (Lake) in Eastern Ladakh. A week after the clash at Pangong Tso, a military stand-off ensued all along the 832 km of LAC in Eastern Ladakh with thousands of troops of either side being within a rifle-shot range of each other.

India rapidly ramped up troops. Normally in winters (April is winter in icy heights of Eastern Ladakh), the Army used to maintain about 10,000 troops along the LAC. Another 3,000-4,000 troops are in reserve at a location high enough in altitude to keep them acclimatised for sudden deployment.

The military accretion took about three-four weeks and by third week of May 2020, additional troops, missiles, guns and rockets were deployed. The next major clash occurred in August 2020 at Rinchen La, near the Spanggur gap at Chushul. The Army captured the Rinchen La and Rezang La heights (Kailash range) overlooking the Moldo Garrison of China.

A draft of General Naravane’s book "Four Stars of Destiny", remains unpublished due to pending clearance from the Ministry of Defence over its ‘sensitive’ details on the 2020 LAC standoff and Agnipath scheme. The book was slated to hit the stands in January 2024, The MoD asked the publisher not to go ahead. The contents of the draft are still under review.

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Courtesy: The Tribune -04-Feb-2026