FPJ Edit: Questions about the surprise pact with China on border pullout remain
Several questions remain about last weekâs surprise agreement with China regarding the mutual disengagement in the Ladakh sector. In time, probably, we will learn how and why the limited and preliminary, as the government calls the pullback of rival troops from the Pangong Tso side, came about. But the criticism, voiced among others by Rahul Gandhi, that the government was better advised to insist on the Chinese withdrawal from the Finger 8 to Finger 4 area on the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, before settling for a draw-down of troops from other parts of the border is quite valid. It was here that early in April last year the Chinese had barred patrolling by India, claiming the area to be in their possession, a claim fiercely challenged by India.