Chandigarh: The second day of Military Literature Festival 2020 kicked off with a discussion on the book ‘Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China’ by Probal Dasgupta.
Former Army officers Lt Gen N S Brar, Lt Gen K J Singh and Lt Gen J S Cheema alongwith Dasgupta discussed the book and the session was moderated by Lt Gen Brar. Lt Gen K J Singh, who commanded the corps at Sikkim which was the place of the battles in 1967, spoke of the nuances around these battles and the area. He elucidated how the Chumbi valley presented a similar vulnerability to the Chinese, like the narrow Siliguri corridor posed to India. He brought up the senior leadership’s perplexing decision in 1965 to withdraw from Jelep La, which gave Chinese the psychological edge (despite India now occupying the heights around the pass) and highlighted the need for a deeper analysis of that decision to withdraw.