Herewith the comment I have posted there :

Mr  Madhav Nalapat has written a self contradictory article.  Obviously he does not know the subject and appears to have relied on a briefing given by an equally innocent civil servant.

Firstly, the “fishtails” are shown as Tibetan territory in the MacMahon Line. That line is known internationally. The author does acknowledge that “China has settled its boundary with Myanmar on the basis of the McMahon Line” [even though China has never accepted the Macmahon Line].

The author is right when he says “the area within the two fishtails has always been occupied by our troops, as well as by the Mishmi tribe, all of whom are citizens of India.”
True, but our official, published maps (and the Macmahon Line] show the fishtails to be in Tibet, which we have recognised as part of China.

Nehru’s mistake was to engage in gunboat diplomacy with China. He essentially declared war on China on 11 October 1962 when he said that the Army had been instructed to “throw out the Chinese.” Mr Nalapat and his handlers are engaging in the same gunboat diplomacy with China. Come on, gentlemen, China is a neighbour and a major power. She deserves at least as much respect as we give to our other neighbours.

Mr Nalapat has, in the middle of the article, suddenly jumped to the Depsang Plains, which are part of Aksai Chin in the Northern sector. Pray what is the connection with the fishtails in Arunachal Pradesh ?

And sir, the Cocos Islands are part of Myanmar. Nobody has gifted them to China. As the sovereign of the islands, Myanmar has permitted China to establish some facilities there. No Indian government has had any role in the matter. It is absurd to blame Nehru for this.

The article is so riddled with inconsistencies and errors of fact that a complete rebuttal is not necessary.

I have posted a comment :
“The author is quite right. In 1993 we signed an Agreement to Maintain
Peace and Tranquillity on the LAC. The idea was essentially to freeze the
LAC as the international border. It is high time we move forward and
jointly demarcate the border on the ground.”

“A rich man’s son wanted to build an orchard. When he had acquired all the necessary academic knowledge and qualifications, the family purchased a piece of land and started the process of planting trees. The first problem came from a neighboring farmer, in a social get together. The issue seemed unrelated with the farm, but it led to a clash. Soon enough, the problems became serious. There was a dispute over the right to passage to a certain field, and then other issues concerning irrigation and the effect of the fruit trees on soil preservation came in. The nasty neighbor went on to assert that when the trees attained the full height, their shadow would adversely affect his crops. The villain in this story was able to muster enough local support to uproot some of the saplings planted by our friend, well within his duly fenced plot of land.

The young man was livid, and turned to his father for help. The head of the family did his bit of analysis, and after due thought, he went over to a renowned lawyer. After a deliberate examination of documents and the laws on the subject, the attorney went to his client, and said :

“Sir, I have rarely handled a case stronger than this. When do we file the suit?”

The shrewd elder looked deep into the eyes of the lawyer and said,

“Never. I gave you the opponent’s side of the story!”

In a manner of speaking, this also explains how he acquired his wealth! “

Jayarao