India’s former military intelligence chief talking about the Galwan Valley clash said that New Delhi should review the role of its intelligence agencies and improve their shortcomings when the India-China border crisis ends.
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General (retd) Amarjit Bedi told BBC in an interview that Indian soldier who fought the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley should have received prior intelligence (about the impending attacks).
He said – Indian soldiers should have got the news about the movement of Chinese PLA troops beforehand. I think after this crisis is over, there should be a comprehensive inquiry on the matter.
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It is also vital to improve the intelligence gathering in future. This investigation should not only be within the army but also within other agencies including the intelligence agencies. We did such an investigation even after the Kargil war for which a special task force was created.
General Bedi believes that the aggressive approach by China and the manner in which Indian soldiers were killed in the violent conflict in Galwan Valley, shows that Beijing has worked on all these things in a planned manner.
I think China was working on it for a long time. It is quite possible that they would have started all these preparations from March-April.
After the attack in Galwan Valley, the Indian Foreign Ministry itself described the attack as ‘planned’ and ‘pre-planned’. So why the Indian intelligence agencies do not have the capability to alert the army about ‘planned’ and ‘pre-planned’ attacks, questions the BBC.
General Bedi said — I cannot say that this is a failure of our intelligence agencies. We were also ready but we thought that China would act according to the provisions of the bilateral treaty which was clearly not done.
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On prior information on Chinese activities, General Bedi also said — We knew about all kinds of activities happening inside China, such as infrastructure build-up, military exercises or some other activities. By March, we knew about the war-drills by the Chinese PLA troops and we had communicated the information to senior authorities.
The retired general also adds – China has unquestionably increased its resources and capabilities. Over time, China has considerably increased its military capability. China has three to four times more satellites than India. So it is clear that their capabilities are ahead of India at the moment but then India is not far behind.
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The General also says that our geospatial capabilities have significantly increased in the last eight-nine years, however, we have not reached the level where we want to. We need advanced satellites that can relay ground information in every season, despite the weather the conditions.
