Remembering 1962 war: China hurls tirades, India bends to ingratiate

Ananya.s.guha

22 October, 2012

A lot of articles are pouring in regarding the 50th year of the Chinese aggression. Is it a celebration? I for one would like to forget it as a very bad dream. What China is actually doing is trying to cower India into submission, by browbeating her on the Arunachal Pradesh issue, and India is trying to only ingratiate.

I REMEMBER those days distinctly. I was in class one and we had to hide in trenches. We had to respond to mock sirens, and then we had to rush to the trenches. As almost a toddler, I found it at that time great fun. And in the evenings we had to cover the window panes, with dark paper, so that enemy planes do not know, that it is a habitation of a town. Shillong was very quiet those days, and this in fact infused into its somolent life a spirit adventurism.

The Chinese agression was historic. They came to the borders of Assam, the then North East Frontiers, now known as Arunachal Pradesh, but decided not to probe further. Perhaps it was a show of strength. Nehru, in fact had capitulated, he said that his heart bled for Assam! In fact even today the people of North East India and Assam, think that Nehru cared less for this part of the country.

What is China actually doing? It is not a rhetorical question. China is trying to cower India into submission, by browbeating her on the Arunachal Pradesh issue, and India is trying to only ingratiate. China has brazenly shown Arunachal Pradesh in the map of its country, and India can do nothing about it. China has shamelessly violated human rights in Tibet, and India has accepted it, though it has provided political asylum to the Dalai Lama. China is bitter towards India for this, but India seems almost apologetic.

China sees India as a force to reckon with in South Asia, and to combat this it is openly supplying missiles to Pakistan. China is cleverly playing the cat and mouse game, supporting Pakistan, in Kashmir and maintaining 'cordial' relations with India on strategic and admininistrative matters. It purportedly wants to improve trade and economic relations with India. And India either wants this double talk, and double speak, or refuses to see beyond a certain point.

India is naive, when it comes to the open bullying tactics of China. The latter openly hurls tirades against the Dalai Lama, and India maintains a stoic silence. Its gross intervention in Arunachal Pradesh is a shameless act of inarbitration and shows clearly its hegemonistic designs. On the other hand India bends back to ingratiate, to propiate and to please.

How long will this rigmarole continue? Till another external agression, takes place?