After a section of Indian media and journalists amplified a Chinese propaganda video, pictures of the Indian Army put paid to the speculations of the Chinese flag being unfurled in Galwan valley by sharing the latest pictures of their soldiers standing with Tricolour in their hand at the same place.
As per the security establishment, the pictures of the Indian Army jawans holding the Indian flag in the Galwan Valley is from New Year’s eve. The pictures show a contingent of the Indian Army personnel raising the Tricolour at the site where India-China clashes took place in June 2020.
Sections of Indian media amplify Chinese propaganda video on intruding in Galwan Valley
The pictures have emerged after some Indian media channels and journalists lapped up the Chinese propaganda video released a few days back, which alleged that Chinese soldiers were unfurling their flag in Galwan Valley, the friction point between India and China that saw bloody clashes between the armed forces of the two countries in June 2020.
In the 45-second Chinese propaganda video shared by Shen Shiwei and CCP mouthpiece Global Times, PLA personnel were seen unfurling the China flag at what they claimed to be the Galwan Valley. The video was amplified by some media organisations, journalists, opposition politicians, including Rahul Gandhi, who took the Chinese claims of intruding into Galwan Valley at face value and slammed the government for not being able to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity.
In the Galwan Valley near the border with #India, under the characters “Never yield an inch of land,” PLA soldiers send new year greetings to Chinese people on January 1, 2022. pic.twitter.com/NxHwcarWes
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 1, 2022
However, the Government of India refuted the Chinese claims made in the video, adding that the clip was shot not at the India-China Line of Actual Control along the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh but was from deep inside the Chinese territory.
“It is clear that the video was shot within the Chinese side of the valley. So, any action, such as blocking the video may not be needed,” a source in the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeiTY) was quoted as saying by News 18.
It is worth noting that before releasing its propaganda video on Galwan Valley, China had tried to provoke India by renaming 15 Arunachal Pradesh villages with its own name. The Ministry of External Affairs of India had then strongly registered its protest with Beijing, asserting that the border state has been and will always be an integral part of India and “assigning invented names does not alter this fact.”
India-China clashes at Galwan Valley
On June 15, 2020, the Chinese troops had attacked the Indian troops along the LAC near the Ladakh border. The clashes had resulted in India losing 20 of its soldiers. Estimates suggest China had lost 43 of its men. However, after months of denial, China officially acknowledged the loss of at least 5 of its soldiers.
The killing of the Indian soldiers marked the Indian Army’s worst losses since the Kargil War in 1999 and signified the most intense military combat between India and China since 1967 when about 80 Indian soldiers and at least 300 Chinese PLA troops were killed in the course of the savage skirmishes that broke out near the Nathu La and Cho Lo passes, the strategic gateway to the crucial Chumbi valley.
The fallen Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley clashes were honoured by the government and their last rites were performed in the presence of government representatives and were accorded with the due status of martyrs. PM Modi and the then COAS Bipin Rawat had also visited to meet and speak to the injured soldiers.
