Force rebalance being carried out due to increasing threats from northern border, says Ex-Army Chief Naravane

Former Indian Army Chief M. M. Naravane (File image: Reuters)

In the wake of increasing threats from the northern border of the country, force rebalancing is being carried out. Forces are rebalanced based on the assessment of the threat and former Army Chief General MM Naravane says there has been a movement of troops from Western to Eastern front, news agency ANI reported on December 14.

On the basis of the assessment, Naravan told ANI that the Indian Army feels a threat from the northern borders, which is seen to be increasing vis-à-vis the western border.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the news.

“This analysis of threats and how they are going to manifest is a continuous process. Based on new inputs that we keep getting… we get new inputs based on new acquisitions made by the enemy. We also get inputs of new strategies they are adopting. Based on such things, we keep evaluating the likely threats,” said Gen Naravane in ‘Podcast with Smita Prakash’.

Speaking on his remarks about "rebalancing" he stated, “Based on those threats, what remedial measures or countermeasures we could take. And it is in the light that we felt the threat from our northern borders is increasing vis-à-vis that is of the western border. Therefore, we need to rebalance some forces. We have always had plans in place where some troops could go from the western front to the eastern front and vice versa.”

“It is a question of where they should initially be deployed. They should be initially deployed more to the west and go to the east or north as a contingency or they should be on the adversity first and go to the west as a contingency. That is what rebalancing is. Rather than being more west oriented, they become now more north oriented. That does not mean they cannot come back to the west. There is a continuous threat. We keep on evaluating. In case something changes on western front we revert to it as it was earlier,” he added.

On December 9, Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) within the Tawang sector of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. About 200 Chinese soldiers attempted to climb the 17,000 ft high peak in bid to capture and uproot an Indian post. The troops of India and China had previously clashed violently in the conflict of Galwan in eastern Ladakh in June 2020. During this, 20 Indian soldiers laid down their lives for the country. China has admitted four casualties, but the number is rumored to be much higher.