Offense is the greatest defense. Snubbing defeatist and mindless pacifism, India is following the footsteps of ancient Indian king Lalitadit Muqtapir to deter its enemies. As military tensions go up in eastern Ladakh, India is reclaiming its true civilization. Prime Minister Modi is taking up offensive defense as the fulcrum of his military strategy and giving up the age-old policy of being magnanimous towards your enemy. India seems to have activated the Lalitadit Muqtapir mode in eastern Ladakh. Like the ancient Indian king Lalitaditya who ruled from 724 CE to 760 CE, India has taken up the offensive defense strategy. Al-Beruni in his book writes about Kashmir-King Mutthai who defeated Mohmin, the ruler of Bukhara. The king was actually Lalitaditya Muqtapir. This Indian king helped keep India free of foreign invasions, be it the Turks or the Arabs for three centuries as he expanded his Kashmir empire in all directions. Muqtapir knew how to cut invaders to size. He had a much better ability to foresee threats from enemies, including the Arab invaders. Also, he never shied away from confrontations. He annexed strategically located territories to position himself strongly against any external aggression. He also formed alliances including one with the Tang dynasty of China. Ladakh, eastern territories and Transoxiana, present day Central Asia, Muqtapir had conquered it all in order to blunt any incoming forces. One reason for his unparalleled might was that the Kashmiri ruler never let the enemy decide the course of rivalry. If the enemy tried to open one front, Muqtapir was ready to unleash himself on several other fronts to keep the enemy in check. Similarly today, in a refreshing change since the independence, India is now dictating matters on the de facto Indo-Tibetan border rather than mirroring Chinese deployment. And the Chinese have been taken by surprise. Recent reports state that the Chinese PLA wanted to occupy dominating heights by scaling a tabletop area between black top and Takung heights at Pangongcho's south bank with the help of ropes and other equipment on the intervening night of August 29 and 30. But the Indian army preempted the Chinese troops in what the telegraph describes as a three hours of hand-to-hand combat. This morning, the Chinese PLA was in for a shock as the special frontier force of India a covert paramilitary commando force that recruits heavily from the Tibetan exiles living in India seized a Chinese camp in the surrounding hills of Pangongcho Lake. The Chinese troops were suddenly confronted by the Indian troops outflanking them from dominating heights in the southern Pangongcho lake merely hundreds of meters away. The Chinese are considerably shaken. The Chinese embassy claims that India illegally violated the consensus reached in multiple bilateral talks and that India transgressed the line of actual control on Monday. The spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in India, Councillor G. Wrong said, China has made solemn representations to the Indian side, urge the Indian side to strictly control and restrain its frontline troops, earnestly honour its commitments, immediately stop all the provocative actions, immediately withdraw its troops illegally trespassing the line of actual control, immediately stop any actions leading to the escalation and complication of the situation. But the Indian army maintains that the heights taken over by the Indian soldiers is Indian territory. If Chinese soldiers want to assert their so-called territorial rights, they are welcome to come and fight it out with the rugged SFF troops that mostly consist of the Tibetan Highlanders that want to settle scores with the occupiers of Tibet. Till not very long ago, Indian policy makers and so-called strategists used to refrain from suggesting any preemptive action against China. If it was believed that a particular move would annoy China, it was given up. But things have changed. This is a new India that has no qualms against asserting itself even if it means hurting China's sentiments. Over the past six years, India has time and again gone behind the enemy lines in Pakistan to inflict damage on terror infrastructure, whether it was the surgical strikes in 2016 or the Balakot Air strikes last year. India doesn't shy away from hitting hard and deep into the enemy territory if provoked. China is no exception and it is now being given the Pakistan treatment by Indian forces. Prime Minister Modi's strategy of offensive defense that draws largely from his national security adviser Ajit Thowal's affinity for the doctrine is in line with the philosophy of Lalitade Teh Mukhtapir, the most famous ruler of the Karco-Tideenesty of India's Kashmir. When China ups the anti and eastern Ladakh, PM Modi had two choices, either keep mirroring the Chinese military buildup or take over new features to overall the PLA in certain areas. PM Modi has gone with the latter option in a strong affirmation of the Lalitade Teh Mukhtapir mode. India will fight China but on its own terms and not China's preferences.