Is China telling Modi something?

WHAT happened on the India-China border last week, and why did it happen? For the first time since he took office in May 2014, nearly all the national dailies were uniformly critical of the wishy-washy answers given so far by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

What are the facts surrounding the brutal killing of 20 Indian troops by Chinese soldiers on the intervening night of June 14 and 15? Did the Chinese cross into Indian territory and Indian troops move to evict them?

The prime minister told the opposition initially that nobody had entered Indian land, nobody was inside Indian land and no outsider was occupying any Indian posts. But he said so only after claiming that Indian troops had taught the Chinese a lesson. Naturally, people were confused.

An amended version the following day said the prime minister had meant that the secure situation obtained only as a result of the troops' bravery. Which should mean that the Chinese had crossed or did try to cross into Indian territory. Why would the Indians take them on? In which case the intruders must have come armed with the iron rods to assault the Indians.

Indian media described the Chinese as savage and barbaric. How did the Indians kill without the savagery ascribed to the other side?

But Indians also claim to have killed or wounded around 40 Chinese. What weapons did they use, since both sides scrupulously avoided firing? Indian media described the Chinese as savage and barbaric. How did the Indians kill without the savagery ascribed to the other side? And did the Chinese then simply walk away with 10 Indian soldiers, including three officers, from the Indian side to their side?

Be that as it may, why did the flare-up occur? Indians and Chinese troops have been crossing into each other's land since 1962. Indians have been building landing strips near the Line of Actual Control since 1976 or before. Former diplomat Nirupama Rao was handling the China desk when the two countries signed the landmark agreement on maintaining peace and tranquillity on their borders in 1993. Veteran TV anchor Karan Thapar of TheWire news portal asked her what she made of the incident. Could there be a military flare-up as had happened with Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack?

'China is not Pakistan,' Rao stressed. 'Facts are facts. We have to embrace that reality. But, yes. It is a direct message the Chinese are sending to Prime Minister Modi, personally, a kind of a taunt, I would say. They've thrown the...