Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh the other day sat in coronavirus distance and sought to convey to China PLA that it's time to call an end to belligerence, saying that the Indian Army is not gonna return to barracks down on the ground unless and until Chinese PLA troops pack up and head back to the rooftops of Lhasa or to the greenery behind the Great Wall of China in Beijing.

Now Xi is mighty pissed off as it was Xi who ordered the charge of the PLA light brigade across the porous LAC, essentially to show to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that you don’t need a snow-white beard to conquer the snow-white peaks of Eastern Ladakh. Ever since Doklam 2017, Xi had been egging the PLA to provoke another China-Indo fracas and now when he got his wish, the PLA has set him back. Unacceptable.

A waste of adrenaline and a waste of testosterone, to boot. Ask United States President Donald Trump and he will elaborate. Tell the “free folks” of the free world of the ‘Chinese Virus,’ and the ‘Wuhan Misadventure.’ How China ripped off the United States’ generosity to give China a leg-up on the capitalist rungs.

Trump has a game to catch up with China and he wants another POTUS term. The Chinese, especially editors of the Global Times, the Chinese version of BJP’s Organizer and the Shiv Sena’s Saamna, are waiting for November to see Trump and the USA flatten the curve of the gone-by times.

The only disturbing wrinkle is what happens if there’s a new incumbent in White House, how will he behave? Will it be business as usual or will things change such that there’s no more bonhomie? You could ask the same question of India, but the problem is Modi is still left with tenure to spare. The American magazine says PLA’s failure to grab land and keep it will goad Xi Jinping to goad the PLA to mount another assault on the LAC, this time with mechanized PLA units, which have seen 30 years of nothing but hot air and no sizzling battle.

The only problem, writes the American genius with the Chinese surname, is that the Indian Army too has rolled up its mechanized sleeves at eyeball to eyeball positions and Xi will now have to go back to the drafting table to look for other plans. Xi, you see, is Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission and he has been using the PLA to tighten his considerable hold on both people and PLA.

An India trounced would be a Ladakh-icing on the Tibetan cake. Anyway, Xi Jinping has no choice but to hang on to the decision to salami-slice India to show that China is ready to shake the world up – especially pomp-and-show United States and PUBG-player India – and lay claim to No.1 pole position on the BRI track.

So, conjectures Newsweek, Xi, red in his face, will make another try to worst Modi on the world stage. He doesn’t want the belief to float that China’s boast to control and rule the ‘New World’ is in doubt and China’s ability to “intimidate” is anything but foregone conclusion. Nobody left to raise a middle finger in challenge to China.

The Mandarin ‘Ni How’ will begin the morning. And rule the day. Neither ‘Good Morning America’ nor ‘Namaste India.’ President Xi Jinping, writes the journalist with the Chinese surname, took a risk and now cannot risk another frisking at the LAC. He wants a clean sweep so as to remain President-for-Life. Already there is whiff of rebellion in the Chinese air. Rare!

The “failure”, writes the leader-writer for the magazine, will have “consequences.” But, he adds with mischief in his pen, the consequences will be felt by India and by rivals at home. Xi Jinping now has another excuse and opportunity to take the axe to opponents and replace irritants with the ‘loyal’ in the PLA. He will also cast renewed covetous eye on Ladakh and regions south.

PLA incursions into India have been frequent ever since Xi became CPC general-secretary. Xi’s placid face is hard to read. But still waters run deep. Then again, Xi is angry that India is refusing to be cowed down. Everybody the world across, including the Chinese, knows that India has the biggest herds of cows on the planet of cows and wouldn’t hesitate to fight for the cow, especially Modi and his party BJP.

June of this year, the PLA crossed the LAC and engaged Ghatak commandos of the Indian Army in a Medieval free-fall and that left 20 Indian Army dead and three times the number allegedly ‘PLA dead.’ A week ago a fresh batch of the Chinese machete-wielding PLA came to scare the Indian Army out of the commanding heights, but the gimmick failed.

End of the day, the word in the icy holds of the Himalayas is that the one who holds on to the heights will hold on to life and form! True, this time it’s very serious, the situation at the LAC, and it’s for the first time in 45 years that a bullet – in fact several – had been fired at the LAC!

Blame it on Xi! He’s got a bee in his bonnet and is using all his overriding bristling powers to browbeat PLA generals he picked to pick up a fight with India to teach Modi and India a lesson in submission. 'Jinping is jumping mad' is what the tissue-paper American magazine arrived at and India better be prepared that the Panda leaves the elephant to rest in peace! Vanakkam. Namaste. Good Morning. Ni How! Hope Xi Jinping gets a hint from Rajnath Singh and takes that hint home to his beloved wife. Wives generally know how to put recalcitrant husbands in place! (IPA Service)