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POLITICAL DIARY
PM Pussyfoots On Arunachal
WHY ARE WE SCARED OF CHINA?
By Poonam I Kaushish
New Delhi, February 05, 2008
It was dubbed as an important visit. All eyes were on him.
But, he pussy footed when the need of the hour was assertion.
So, he came, he saw but failed to conquer! This encapsulates,
Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, the first of an
Indian Prime Minister in 12 years. Importantly, his visit left
more questions than it answered. Raising a moot point: Why are
we scared of China?
Undeniably, Manmohan Singh owes the country an explanation as
to why he omitted Tawang from his itinerary. Specially against
the backdrop of Beijing laying claims on it repeatedly.
Remember, the Chinese Ambassador to New Delhi, Sun Yuxi’s TV
interview, claiming “the whole of Arunachal Pradesh including
Tawang as Chinese territory” and demanding that India agree to
“mutual compromises” and “some give and take in 2006.” Tawang
is militarily important as it is the critical corridor between
Lhasa and the Assam Valley. Besides, it has a symbolic and
historic significance as several Indian soldiers laid down
their lives there during the 1962 war with China.
Instead of using his visit to clear the air, the Prime
Minister emitted wrong signals, notwithstanding his poetic
description of Arunachal as, "The sun kisses India first in
Arunachal Pradesh. It is our land of the rising sun.” Thus,
losing a good opportunity to put Beijing on notice about its
claim on Arunachal and assert unequivocally that Arunachal
was, is and will continue to be a part of India.
Even as South Block mandarins would have us believe that it
was a deliberate ploy not to provoke China and allow the
boundary question to eclipse the meeting ground between the
two on various CBMs in place, regional and global issues.
Sadly, New Delhi failed to realize that poetic descriptions
don’t add up to good politics. A cold reality check exposes
the much-awaited visit as nothing more than a touch-talk-timid
dampener. New Delhi played into the Chinese hands thanks to
poor tactics and allowed itself to be outmaneuvered.
The end result? Beijing is now pursuing an aggressive foreign
policy. Within days of the Prime Minister’s return from a
“successful, historic, path-breaking, warm, great body
language visit” to Beijing last month, China stumped India by
lodging a diplomatic protest over Indian military activity in
Sikkim. It is claiming that Indian troops are trying to be
active on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
and building structures along the LAC and the Indo-Bhutan
border.
The reopening of claims, particularly on the Sikkim border,
has taken New Delhi by surprise. China may have ceased to
depict Sikkim as an independent country in its maps, but the
important point, often overlooked, is that it has yet to
expressly acknowledge that Sikkim is part of India. Beijing
has declined to affirm that Sikkim is part of the Republic of
India.
Further, in the last 24 months, China has made over 300
military incursions across the LAC (more than three a week),
specially in Arunachal Pradesh. Only a month back, the Chinese
demolished some Indian forward posts and bunkers near Doka La
on the Bhutan-Sikkim-Tibet tri-junction and a Buddha statue
near Tawang.
New Delhi thus should be wary. As it stands, Beijing has built
a township across the border in the State. Given the ethnic
and cultural affinity, the bustling township beckons the poor
Arunachalis to partake the Chinese Las Vegas. It is pertinent
to recall that when the former Arunachal Pradesh Chief
Minister, Gegong Apang applied for a visa to visit China as a
member of an Indian delegation, Beijing said no visa was
needed for its own citizens!
Equally worrisome is the Chinese capability to rapidly deploy
forces against India by expanding its infrastructure in Tibet
significantly, by building roads right up to the LAC and
extending the new railway line to Lhasa southwards. Also,
space photos dished out by Google three years ago show China
having built simulation centres at Huangyangtan, near the
Great Wall in Nignxia province, to target Indian military
installations in Jammu & Kashmir.
Clearly, Beijing’s actions belie the bonhomie claimed by
India. The problem is that while the Chinese are pragmatic,
most Indian leaders are too sentimental. A bhai-bhai policy is
so much more romantic than a firm stand! Today, even as New
Delhi repeats that it is 'happy with the progress of the
talks', Beijing keeps intruding into Arunachal and South Block
looks the other way so as not to jeopardise the
'negotiations'.
Thus, a mutually satisfactory breakthrough on the boundary
dispute looks nowhere in sight. Once in a while India claims
that China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq km of J&K,
including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad.
China accuses India of possessing some 90,000 sq km of its
territory, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh. Arguably, what is
India’s final goal? Is it ready to give away part of its
territory which has been illegally occupied by China?
It is all very well for President Jintao and Wen Jibao to
assert that China was ready to work with India to “actively
seek a fair, just and mutually-acceptable solution through
friendly consultation on an equal footing ….and the boundary
issue will be converted into a bond of good-neighbourliness
and mutually-beneficial cooperation”. However, the wily and
inscrutable Chinese have not budged an inch from their stated
positions on two critical issues, which form the core of the
fragile Sino-Indian ties since the 1962 war. Till date, New
Delhi has failed to get Beijing to either present maps of
their version of the LAC, which have been promised since 2001
or fortification of its borders on the Tibet plateau.
Why? It is busy building a railway link to Lhasa which will
improve its capacity in case of a conflict with India. But
Beijing asserts: “This is only to strengthen our borders.”
Against whom? Is this any different from the massive building
of roads during the 1950s to liberate Tibet? With Beijing
remaining mum, how can New Delhi hold any substantive
discussions? Are these attempts to simply lull us into
complacency, like in 1962, while they strengthen their
military capability across the border and in Tibet?
New Delhi must be both alert and assertive. A first step to a
settlement of any dispute is clarity on the LAC or at least
appreciation of the “no go” areas so that provocative or
unfriendly actions can be eschewed. Exchanging maps showing
each other’s military positions, without prejudice to rival
territorial claims, is a preliminary step to first define,
then delineate and finally demarcate a frontline. Beijing’s
disinclination to trade maps underlines its aversion to clinch
an overall border settlement or even to remove the ambiguities
plaguing the long, rugged LAC.
Clearly, we seem to be stuck in a limbo notwithstanding the
‘contentless’ Vision Statement For the 21st Century” (sic)
encapsulating a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable
solution of the border dispute on the basis of the political
parameters of 2005. China has reportedly backtracked on the
understanding that any settlement should not involve exchange
of populated areas. Two, China is non-committal on supporting
the lifting of restrictions by the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group
against New Delhi. It fears that with India being the only
country in Asia that has the potential to match and surpass
it, Beijing cannot afford to risk its monopoly.
So, all that Manmohan Singh and his Government is likely to
get are sweet nothings and vague promises from the Chinese. In
exchange, the Chinese leadership will expect substantive and
painful concessions from the Indian side, such as the handing
over of Tawang. Tragically, as always, New Delhi has
squandered a good opportunity to put across its point of view
effectively and derive strategic benefits crucial for its
defence and in geo-strategic political terms.
Both in Beijing and Arunachal Manmohan Singh, like his
predecessors, has fallen a victim to the great Indian failure
of seeking convenient compromises for cheap populist applause.
Failing to realize that the supposedly hard talk of no
shifting of borders and population interspersed with sweet
talk of brotherhood etc is meaningless. What counts are agreed
conclusions and future agenda on basic issues. In this case
--- border.
Clearly, New Delhi needs to fashion a more result-oriented,
real politik strategy. It’s high time that South Block
injected realism by shedding deluding platitudes and misplaced
bonhomie and placed a premium on substance and leveraged
diplomacy. With Beijing we need to be clear on our national
interests and should doggedly pursue them. Stop being scared
of China. ---- INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
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