Mountain Strike Corps' First Battle For Survival!

The government pares down its ambitious Mountain Strike Corps meant to capture Chinese territory in the event of a border war.

- Sandeep Unnithan

Last December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggered off a bout of anxiety within the Indian army. “At a time when the major powers are reducing their forces and relying more on technology, we are still constantly seeking to expand the size of our forces,” he said, addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference, a crucial once-a-year gathering of commanders from the three services, onboard the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. “Modernisation and expansion of forces, both at the same time, is a difficult and unnecessary goal.” The PM’s reference was to the army, which had been raising a new mountain strike corps (MSC) comprising 90,000 soldiers since 2014.

In 2013, the UPA had sanctioned the corps—an offensive formation meant to cross the Himalayas and capture Chinese territory on the Tibetan plateau in the event of a border war— but did not allot the Rs 64,000 crore required to get it off the ground. The army equipped the new formations from their War Wastage Reserves in the hope of enhanced budgetary support at a later date.

On January 13, less than a month after the PM’s speech, army chief General Dalbir Singh told the media that the strike corps was on course and would be raised by 2021. The truth is somewhat different. The 17 Corps—India’s Fourth Strike Corps, in addition to the three Corps that face Pakistan, temporarily headquartered in Ranchi, Jharkhand, is far from being on course.