Does India have a serious China-phobia psyche that it have to first address before even starting to contemplate on an honorable and fair relationship with China? The mandarins at the China table in the foreign office had always been at sea while dealing with China and have constantly maneuvered to emerge second-best at every encounter with their Chinese counterparts. In hindsight, the Chinese President Hu Jintao appear to have come to India with the singular agenda; to dismantle the McMahon Line and gain upper hand in the Indo-China border dispute. He has been very successful. They could not have expected more.
When Pranab Mukherjee visited China recently as India’s Defence Minster, he was euphoric that his trip had been very successful. They Chinese chose to be silent. The only visible outcome of the visit was the opening of the much hyped border trading post at Nathula pass. Whether any trade is conducted there-at is not the criteria, but it does ease the embarrassment of explaining away Chinese consumer goods flooding the markets across India, more so in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Of what he achieved as Foreign Minister, especially during the recent visit of the Chinese President, the less said the better.
The crux of the Indo-China border dispute is the McMahon Line. At the Simla conference of 1914, India and Tibet accepted the McMohan Line as the official boundary between the two countries. In 1949, Mao Tse-tung and his communist Red Army overthrew the Nationalist Party or the Kuo MinTang Government of President Chiang Kai Shek. In 1950 the Chinese Army entered Tibet and in 1951 declared Tibet as a Self-governing region of China and refused to recognize the McMahon Line as the authentic boundary between Tibet and India. The Tibetans revolted against the imposed communist rule and under the Dalai Lama who was their spiritual and political leader rose up against the occupation. After a brief uprising in 1959, which was brutally put down by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama and his followers fled to India. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and the leader of their government in exile.
After 1962 the Indo-Chinese border war, successive Indian Governments were satisfied at the status-quo on the border and were content with supporting the Dalai Lama and his cause, which in turn kept the McMahon Line valid and intact in the eyes of the world.
The damage to Indian position and interest started with the hasty China trip of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1993, close on the heels of the Chinese assistance in military aid to Burma worth 1(one) billion US dollars. Myanmar also agreed to the Chinese proposal for the construction of Kunming-Rangoon highway to be built at China’s expense in lieu of granting rights to China to build shipyards and docks in strategic ports like Sittwe in the Bay of Bengal. At a press conference on the eve of his departure in 1993 the Prime Minister of India said that his main agenda was to seek 5(five) years moratorium in conflict or aggression on the LAC between India and China in return for “favorable considerations of Chinese claims in the boundary dispute.”! The Chinese opted for a shorter period of 3(three) years which India readily endorsed. In 1996, just after the end of the moratorium the Chinese President Jiang Jibao ‘happened’ to stop over at New Delhi for a few days on his way to Hong Kong from Paris. The MEA swept the MOU issue of 1993 under the carpet. A snub the Chinese did not easily forget. It was not of disrespect surely, rather a lack of clear and concrete China policy and programme. Years after retirement, the foreign secretary of the time, wrote that ‘India had not raised the matter since its Chinese counterparts did not do so.’ By then it was too little too late.
India’s strength in the border disputes lies in the Agreement of the Simla Conference of 1914. However, the sanctity of the McMahon Line rests largely on the survival of Tibet as an entity and the sustenance of the Tibetan dreams and aspirations. The second grievous self-inflicted would was delivered by AB Vajpayee during his Prime Ministership in the NDA Government. Without any apparent pressure or provocation the Prime Minister unilaterally declared that ‘India considers the Tibet issue as China’s internal matter.’ India’s position and interests were put to great peril. However, during President Hu Jintaos visit, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, put the matter beyond any doubt when he succumbed to Chinese pressure to recognize and reiterate that Tibet was “an integral part of the territory of China.” In a trice, the McMahon Line have been replaced by the Manmohan Line, only no one knows where the latter line begins or ends. Pranab Mukherjee, Senior advisor and Minister MEA, is not likely to, either.
In the negotiation, when India was under pressure, through joint declarations or whatsoever to, nullify the validity of the Simla conference of 1914 and thereby the McMahon Line, which was India’s singular document of defense for nearly a century, it was just being plain practical to put ones foot-down and seek reciprocal recognisation of Aksai Chin, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh as Integral parts of the territory of India. If that was too much at least that ‘China understands that Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh share a long history with India and that Aksai Chin came into China’s occupation after the 1962 border war’ and thereafter leave space for the opinions and aspirations of the people the regions. It was not done. Aksai Chin and Sikkim apparently was not even mentioned. Have these two regions also been gifted to China? Without their even asking for it? The government of India owes the people of Sikkim and Aksai Chin an explanation.
As regards Arunachal Pradesh, the Prime Minister of India could only meekly submit to the Chinese President that “settled population could not be distributed while deciding the border issue.” Arunachal is a sparsely populated state. Has the vast unsettled areas of Arunachal Pradesh then been gifted away without the knowledge and consent of the people of the state in particular and the NE region in general. The Government of India owes an explanation to the people of Arunachal Pradesh, the people of the North-East and the country.
When President Hu Jintao came to India, people thought China owe India one. Probably, most probably, Shashi Tharoor was felled by the Chinese veto. China is non-committal of India’s membership to the UNSC. It is mum on Indo-US civilian nuclear programme. To double bilateral trade to 40 billion dollars by 2010 need not rouse the President of China to come to India. No, China came to India with a single agenda; to dismantle the McMahon Line and gain upper hard in the Indo-China border dispute. China received more than it sought for. India collapsed as the proverbial pack of cards. After Tibet it is now the survival of the North-East India as an entity that has been questioned and challenged. It is clear that the Government of India considers the NE region as it extended fiefdom which is only there to be exploited and used without and need for protection, concern or affection.
Recently, on the NE NDTV Channel one student from Arunachal Pradesh, emphatically state that ‘we are citizens of India, we are part of India. Our people have great affection for India but everywhere we go we are just chinkies.’ Madam, if we go to Beijing or Shanghai we will not be called Chinkies. We will not be called Indians either.
Puni Modoli
Nagarjan, Dimapur
