Bereaving hearts of Galwan heights.

Hand-to-hand combat without weapons was indeed the goriest of gory affairs on the dominating ridges of Galwan Valley. For the unarmed Indian soldiers, climbing along ridgelines, narrow gorges and reentrants must have been slow and difficult. The more time it took, the bigger target they presented; sitting ducks with no fire cover.

If I could only imagine this massacre on a narrow ledge, it seems a re-enactment of a scene from Iron Age Warfare, where death was brutal, torturous, slow and painful. No soldier in any army of the world deserved such a hike into the valley of death. In mountains, every assault is frontal. That unarmed Indian brave hearts did so is a mystery in military articulation and stratification of command.

But it has happened and leaves serious question marks on Indian military psychology and sociology. Has the Indian army lost that edge in military corporatism and exclusivity it inherited as part of the British Indian army? Has it been permeated by political motivations? Are its commanders more loyal to political masters than the spirit of soldiering? How true is it that in the past two decades, RSS has swollen in Indian military ranks? Such questions not only agitate all military minds.

On the Indian side, casualties including a battalion commander are reported to be over 22. Four officers and six soldiers are captured. The tales of casualties are horrifying. Most combatants were bludgeoned to death while some fell off the steep cliffs.

For a country boasting modern warfare at six levels, warfighting capabilities primarily developed against China, nuclear weapons and demonstration of space defence capability, the inception, planning and execution of this minor operation baffles military professional logic. How could a field brigade, divisional or a corps commander even approve such an operation against a hostile and aggressive adversary challenging common military sense. Sending unarmed soldiers into a hostile environment is a criminal act that reflects the psyche of the chain of command in Ladakh. No military commander would wish his hapless soldiers to die so brutally and foolishly as they did. Who passed these orders and who was responsible; that is the question facing India.

The entire build up in Ladakh by the adversaries, occupation of dominating features by the Chinese and knee-jerk reactions by the Indian military command indicates a wide gulf between the armed forces and the policy imposed by the political...