India: Diffident over growing Chinese Incursions
India seems to be failing in its stance to remain on an equal footing with China as the latter continues its aggressive stance. While the former continues to asks for time for dialogues, the latter aggressively muscle-flexes along the Himalayas.
OVER THE last year or so, the incursion of Chinese troops on Indian soil has gone up. Indian Army has said that it has registered the protest with Chinese officials but it still looked lethargic in their approach to me.
The government is just playing down these border violations by saying that it is not a big deal since the Line of Actual Control is not clearly defined. Whatever the case, if these issues are not addressed seriously then India will face tough times ahead.
China is clearly a stronger power than India, both militarily and economically. As former Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, put it, “The power gap between the two is just too wide to bridge and getting wider by the day.” The day China will be confident enough; it will assert its claim on disputed land more aggressively. Diplomatically also India has performed very badly.
The futile discussion and time buying process will put India under even tremendous pressure. It seems the only progress here is that India's choice of words in public is now the same as China's. “Both countries have agreed to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement of this issue,” Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told Parliament on July 31. “The matter, of course, is complex and requires time and lots of patience.”
It was as if the Chinese foreign minister was speaking. Isn't it odd for India, the country at the receiving end of growing Chinese hostility, to plead for more time and patience after nearly three decades of negotiations?
One thing is clear that New Delhi does not have any well defined plan and strategy to go around settling the disputes. More time means, more time for Beijing to define its strategy. Today, China's muscle-flexing along the Himalayas cannot be ignored. After all, even when China was poor and backward, it employed brute force to annex Xinjiang (1949) and Tibet (1950), to raid South Korea (1950), to invade India (1962), to initiate a border conflict with the Soviet Union (1969) and to attack Vietnam (1979).
India's long record of political diffidence only emboldens Beijing. India accepted Chinese annexation of Tibet and surrendered its own British-inherited extraterritorial rights over Tibet on a silver platter without asking for anything in return. Now, China wants India to display the same 'amicable spirit' and hand over to it at least the Tawang valley. Indian diplomats failed miserably and even in registering protests they appear to be defensive. It gives a feeling that they are clueless about China.
If the situation goes like this then one day, the duo might again be at war. The history has shown that the cost of weak politics and diplomacy has been paid by the soldiers.
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.A hypocritical Delhi used the China factor to support the Sinhalese genocide, but it dismisses as hallucinations a menacing China think tank strategic study on balkanizing India. India������s China bloodied nose in its Northern frontiers soon after the Nehru-Chou (NAM) honeymoon years led prudent and reputable analysts (not apologists) to argue for due weighting for the China factor in India������s foreign policy making. Yet thanks to Delhi bureaucracy������s deal culture China allies have virtually encircled India the latest ally being the Sinhalese. Bhadrakumar attributes the Chinese threat in the South to Delhi������s overt support for the Sinhalese genocide by destroying the LTTE. The LTTE was the leverage Delhi had over Colombo. This was bartered away cheaply by the Narayanan trio inviting the Chinese threat to its doorstep in the South. Nateri Adigal and Anil Athale two other reputed analysts had long argued cogently about this threat to India������s soft under belly emerging from Delhi������s flirtation with Colombo. The indifference of the Delhi bureaucracy power brokers will cost India dearly and no patriotic Indian except the Narayanan trio will disagree.
V S Subramaniam
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