The Ministry of Defense has removed all the monthly reports from 2017 from its official website after removing a monthly report citing unilateral encroachment by China in Ladakh.
According to the report of the Indian Express, the monthly reports that have been removed include reports related to the 2017 crisis in Doklam, which do not mention the deadlock between Indian and Chinese troops.
Sources said that the internal mechanism for preparing and sharing reports in public is being changed to make them more comprehensive rather than a list of updates received from each unit of the ministry.
In August, before the removal of all the reports before 2017, the Ministry removed the report of June 2020.
On the second page of this four-page document, there was a sub-section titled ‘Chinese Encroachment on LAC, whose first paragraph wrote: Since May 5, 2020, China’s encroachment has increased with the LAC, especially on the Galvan Valley. On 17-18 May 2020, the Chinese side encroached on the northern shores of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and Pangong Tso Lake.
The report also mentioned the June 15 skirmishes in the Galvan Valley and said that talks were going on with senior military commanders.
It was cautioned that agreement and negotiations at the military and diplomatic level continue on a mutually acceptable consensus but the current deadlock is likely to be prolonged.
On the other hand, Chinese aggression was not mentioned in the joint report of April and May, but without going into detail the crisis on LAC was mentioned.
China was mentioned four times in the reports from August 2019. Joint Military Exercise Hand-in-Hand between the Indian Army and the PLA of China at Umroi Cantt, Meghalaya from 13th-14th August 2019 to India-China Joint Working Group Meeting, 7-20 December 2019, 5 February 2020 Report of a Chinese warship Jiangwei-2 in the Pakistani watershed near Porbandar and a March 2020 report, in which Jiangwei called on the BRO to meet strategic requirements and ensure connectivity to 451 villages in the Upper Subansiri district bordering China. There was talk of building a bridge.
According to sources, the report is approved by senior officials before it is made public. These reports usually do not mention major operations like Balakot airstrikes, India-Pakistan deadlock, Doklam deployment.
Sources in the Ministry of Defense told The Indian Express that earlier reports will be returned to the website soon (by October).
