Conspiracy theories have emerged after the crash of an Indian Air Force helicopter on Wednesday killed chief of defence staff general Bipin Rawat and 12 others.
Many social media users alleged China could have orchestrated the incident, given the ongoing standoff with Ladakh. Many of these conspiracy theories referred to a similar accident in Taiwan last year.
In early January 2020, Taiwan's chief of general staff general Shen Yi-ming and seven others were killed when the helicopter they were on crashed in mountains near Taipei. Shen was the senior-most official in the Taiwanese military and a key figure in its air force. The helicopter that crashed was a US-made UH-60M Black Hawk.
Eminent strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney was among those who referred to the Taiwan crash on Wednesday evening. He tweeted, “Gen. Rawat's death has an eerie parallel with the helicopter crash in early 2020 that killed Taiwan's chief of general staff, Gen. Shen Yi-ming, and seven others, including two major generals. Each helicopter crash eliminated a key figure in the defense against PRC's aggression.”
However, he emphasised the crashes were not necessarily connected. Chellaney wrote, “The strange parallel doesn't mean there was any connection between the two helicopter crashes or an outside hand. If anything, each crash has raised important internal questions, especially about maintenance of military helicopters transporting top generals.”
Interestingly, China's state-run Global Times took note of Chellaney's tweet. The Global Times handle claimed Chellaney's view was akin to suspecting the US was involved in the crash that killed Rawat due to its opposition to India's decision to buy the S-400 missile system from Russia.
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Global Times tweeted, “This view is like suspecting the US played a role in the crash because India and Russia are moving forward with the delivery of a Russian S-400 missile defense system, which the US strongly opposed.”
Chellaney accused the Global Times of misusing his tweet and argued its response “sadly points to the depraved mindset of the CCP folks”.
Chellaney had noted the death of Rawat during the “warlike situation along the Himalayan front” could not have come at a “worse time”.
