On Sunday (November 7), the Chinese State media posted manipulated pictures of
the Galwan Valley clash that took place between the Indian forces and the
Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on June 15 last year. The images,
posted by a Chinese journalist, were morphed to suggest the complete surrender
of the Indian army before a dominating Chinese side.
Shen Shiwei, the International News Editor of the China Global Television
Network (CGTN), claimed in a tweet, “New pictures of last June’s Galwan clash
emerged on social media, showing surrendered Indian soldiers captured by
Chinese PLA.” He further added, “Indian soldiers violated newly-reached
consensus and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel, leading
to serious physical conflicts.”
Social media users debunk the narrative of Chinese information warfare
machinery
Netizens were quick to bust the Chinese propaganda peddled through the
micro-blogging site. A Twitter user (@Rahhul_Kumar_) pointed out several
discrepancies in the images posted by Shen Shiwei. He underlined 6 points that
clearly suggested that the image was digitally tampered with by the Chinese
information warfare machinery.
“Just look at the Boot of that soldier(encircled) he is wearing some footwear
and does not even look like what our soldiers wear. Not even a single INSAS is
loaded. Jacket and pants are mismatching with the other soldiers… Almost each
and every soldier is wearing a different kind of jacket…an actor/soldier can
be seen wearing a sweater… just look at no 1 pointer. Does his hair, jacket
seem like (that of) professional army soldiers. Note: read actor where it’s
written soldier”
Another Twitter user pointed out that several so-called captured Indian
soldiers have long hair, but actually, Indian army men are not allowed to keep
long hair. “So nowadays Indian army soldiers are allowed to keep long hair?
Better luck next time with propaganda,” he wrote.
Retired Major General Harsha Kakar also rubbished the images as ‘morphed’. He
tweeted, “These are fake & morphed pictures. Indian soldiers do not have
long hair. These are not soldiers but locals whom China has clicked attempting
info warfare after it faced a crushing boot in Tawang. It is desperate to hide
its 111 casualties in Galwan. Improve the quality of fake pictures.”
Another Twitter user inquired whether the Chinese forces ended up taking a
year’s time to morph the images. “(Did) it take you one year to morph one
photograph? That’s bad. Just to fix your post, Indian soldiers do not wear
Salwar Kameez or have long hair. Try better next time. And yes, send my kind
regards to Winnie the Pooh (a reference to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping),” the
user concluded.
One Thomas Shelby took a jibe at the Pakistan army (often dubbed as salwar
kameez army) and clarified that the Indian army personnel do not wear such
attire. He had encircled a man in the image shared by Chinese media to
highlight how that individual was wearing salwar Kameez.
The Galwan Valley Clash Between The Indian Army And The Chinese PLA
On the night of June 15th 2020, China had attacked Indian soldiers and
unilaterally tried to change the status quo in Eastern Ladakh by attempting to
intrude into Galwan valley in Ladakh. In the violent face-off where Indian
soldiers managed to push the PLA soldiers back, 20 Indian soldiers made the
ultimate sacrifice and reportedly, China had lost 43 of their men. After the
face-off, China had vociferously denied reports of casualties on their side
and called it a misinformation campaign.
The fallen Indian soldiers were honoured by the government and their last
rites were performed in the presence of government representatives and
accorded them the due status of martyrs. PM Modi and the COAS had also visited
to meet and speak to the injured soldiers. About 8 months later, China had
posthumously awarded honorary titles to 4 of those PLA soldiers who had died
during the attempted intrusion into India.
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