With #Siachen being opened for tourism by @rajnathsingh ji, India finally gets into the job of using tourism as an assertion of sovereignty. Paks have been doing that since 1980s, and we've been behind in this aspect. Great move.

A short thread with a few observations follows. @narendramodi ji and @rajnathsingh must already be aware of this.
Sovereignty in peripheral, outlying and border areas is expressed not only in traditional, overt ways (like army and paramilitary patrols, surveillance)

But also in subtler fashions. Allowing tourism is one, and @rajnathsingh ji's move to let tourists into #Siachen is one. I, speaking with a few friends in the armed forces that I have made, think that the RM's is a beginning move. Other methods can and will follow

Mobile and internet network services in border areas. We've been greatly hamstrung by the punishing geography that Tibet being in Han hands has led to. Road construction is greatly curtailed by it. However, the Modi govt has pushed BRO and other allied agencies in an

Unprecedented manner. There's still the fact that India is about decades behind in the construction of road infrastructure in borders.

A corollary to the still developing road network is the fact that border areas along with China often do not have telecom and internet services that are Indian.
Certain places, of absolutely unquestioned Indian sovereignty, from what friends tell me, have network reception of

Nepal and China, but despite being totally Indian, DO NOT have Indian network providers. This might be shocking to you and me, but it's the truth.

I look at this as a serious national security threat. In the event of a confrontation with the Hans, Nepali networks being used by Indian citizens in border areas will definitely be used to wage #PsyOps on the local populace.

Misinformation, anti India/anti Hindu hostile messages and videos might very well flood such users' mobiles. And its not like such things haven't previously been done. Do read how Russia weaponized the Internet when it attacked Georgia in 2008.

Federal and state govts must work in tandem and assert the rights of Hindus to visit religious places in border areas. Amarnath is a prominent example where pseudo environmentalists (Swedish green on the outside and Arab green on the inside) have tried to restrict

Hindu religious pilgrimages. The govt should absolutely reject such petty commentary, and encourage more such events in border areas, either in JK, or Uttarakhand or Arunachal.