3) Not only that, India also saw Covid-19 was an opportunity to poach supply chain out of China and has openly engaged in activities in doing so.
Correct. During China's Wuhan Covid-19 crisis. The US-China trade war was still raging. China was getting ripped by the Western media. Themes like "Yellow Alert", China is the Real Sick Man", and Gordon Chang's prediction that finally, China is going down. India must have drank a lot of that Gordon Chang Kool-Aid. Thinking that this is its time to shine. By kicking China when its down.
India launched a full blown smear campaign against China. It was not just the Indian phony media, there were also the Indian companies, Indian government, Indian intellectuals, and even the Indian citizens doing their part. There are media hit pieces, government offering incentives for big corporations to move to India, lobbying in Western countries, and anti-China social media campaigns. Months before Galwan. India had already started a boycott campaign against China. At that time it was because of the "Wuhan Virus". The most well known was the boycotting of Chinese test kits and PPEs.
4) The big picture is that India sensed opportunity and moved to leverage the tension between the US and China, as well as Covid-19, moving closer to the US strategically against China. On top of that, it's very clear India had learned the wrong lesson from the 2017 Doklam Incident when the Indian Army moved into Chinese territory to intervene Chinese building road at the border between China and Bhutan. China showed remarkable restraint to end the standoff by stopping building activities at the site. Later on, Xi and Modi conducted two separate meetings to stablize and manage the relationship. Indian media and strategic community almost unanimously claimed victory and vindication of its "tough" China policy.
The whole premise of Chinese strategic restraint vis-a-vis India and low-profile at the border region towards India is based on India's strategic autonomy and non-alliance posture, or more specifically not joining any group against China. India clearly has misread the intention and behavior from China.
This is where we are today.
Indeed, China made compromises with India during the 2017 Doklam crisis. They stopped their road building and launched a charm offensive with Modi. (I'm not sure today if China walked back on that road building halt agreement. Why bother to honour it anymore?) China had thought that its goodwill will be reciprocated by India. But BJP India had no concept of diplomatic etiquette. To them, China's compromise is a weakness, and India had won by playing hardball. Whether its hubris, or shallow strategic thinking, or both. India thought that China's 'weakness' is something to be taken advantage of. Its an Indian thing to take advantage of another's weakness. After all, India had blockaded Nepal in Sept 2015, when Nepal was still recovering from their April 2015 earthquake.
China had made a mistake in assuming that India's 'non-alignment' is neutrality. India's version of non-alignment is not the same as ASEAN's non-alignment. India wants to be its own hegemon in Asia, but it would also scheme its way to get there. If India could scam (or think it is scamming) another Superpower to take on China for it, all the better. It was the Soviet Union then, its Uncle Sam today. India was already in the US's camp starting from the George W. Bush presidency. India and the US had signed their Civil Nuclear Agreement in 2006, just eight years after India's 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests. How many countries can boast such a quick recovery of ties with the US from nuclear test outrage to signing a nuclear agreement? NK would be so jealous. Plus the US and India had being doing many military exercises already, long before Modi came to power.
In short, India just wants China out of the way. Whether its ruled by the Congress government, or the BJP government. Even in India's early years, India never saw China as a fellow Asian equal who also suffered from Western imperialism. Its was never about anti-imperialism. Its about replacing old Western imperialism with new Indian imperialism.