Disputes between India and China

Both stick to stated stance

“Have you forgotten the punishment we gave you in 1962 after you had violated our borders,” this is what a retired top army general told me at Beijing nearly a decade ago. I recalled his warning when India was shaken in the midst of China’s inroads into our territory. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and China’s premier Li Keqiang on visit to Delhi this week have discussed the subject at length. But the victory by Beijing has not let it feel differently and it continues to ride the high horse.

China argues that the normalcy can prevail if the border issue is settled, which means it continues to occupy the Indian territory while the Indian PM is correct in maintaining that ‘no peace and tranquility is possible’ without the settlement at the border.

I do not know whether the people on both sides are really familiar with what the border between India and China is about. When the 1962 war between the two countries ended with our defeat, China unilaterally ceased fire and indicated the ceasefire line as the possible border. But the line, despite India wanting the delineation of a firm one, was not acceptable to China. It changed its mind and declared the line of actual control as the border (China advanced its troops on its own).

This line violated the traditional border both in the Ladakh and the Northeast, the Arunachal side. Even these borders were not sacrosanct for Beijing. The Colombo powers intervened after the 1962 war to ask both India and China to withdraw their forces by 26/2 meters behind the lines where they stood. India withdrew accordingly. But China did not. Even the lines its forces occupy at present are haphazard and favour it all the way.

The Beijing’s intrusion (the Indian PM prefers to call it an incident to keep tensions down) at Ladi Beg in Ladakh is in the area which it has not allowed to be demarcated. In fact, it has treated the entire disputed area under its overall control without negotiating with New Delhi or even indicating specifically which belongs to it. The prime ministers of India and China have discussed the border at length. India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and his counterpart at Beijing have given little importance to the recent incursions. Nor China has offered any explanation for staying in the Indian territory for 23 days and pitching camps inside India. Beijing wants to tell the world that it owes no explanation to anyone for going into its “own territory”.

China has made it clear that it is not in favour of having a firm border because the undemarcated border gives it leeway to lay claim even on Arunachal Pradesh. For example, no information is forthcoming why a separate visa is issued to people from Arunachal Pradesh.

The real issue is Tibet. Beijing may not say so but it links the border issue with the future of the Tibetans, who have taken shelter in India in thousands under the leadership of Dalai Lama. Beijing did raise the issue at the India-China conclave but kept quiet when it was told that the Dalai Lama was a religious leader, nothing more.

But New Delhi repeated the stock reply that the Dalai Lama was a religious leader, nothing began. Whatever be Beijing’s wishes, New Delhi is in no position to reopen the Tibet issue. Buddhism is one of the religion which the Hindus worship. It should not be expected that for the goodwill with China, India can dare to play with the sensitivities of Hindus who are 80 per cent of its population.

Even otherwise, the two countries, India and China, are giants and any clash between them is bound to have stirrings in South Asia and the rest of the world. India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, after the 1962 hostilities, warned the world leaders through a personal letter to each one of them that the two nations represented different traditions and conflicting ideologies. India is a democratic country while China is a dictatorship. And the South Asian countries would be influenced which of the two emerges successful.

From economics point of view, China has beaten India. But political problems have been solved through dictation in China. Can that be the lasting solution when India, compared to China, has kept the society open and given an opportunity for a free play to different points of view and different ideologies. Only time will tell. Yet one thing is clear that India will have to accelerate the economic growth which is now 4.6 per cent as compared to 10 per cent three years ago.

And there is an axis between China and Pakistan. That China is trying to surround India by having close relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar is a serious allegation. Even if the war is to roll out, the pressure on India’s security forces is immense.

India need not treat the border as an obsession. China has seen to it that New Delhi does so. This is its weakness. India should talk to China about the Tibetans who are a millstone around China’s neck. Even otherwise the word Tibet is a bugbear for Beijing. It is too late in the day to question its authority. It is under China because of its suzerainty over Tibet. But there is difference between suzerainty and independence. However, the human rights of the Tibetans is one point which India can take up. It is strange that none in the world has taken notice of dozens of Tibetans who have burnt themselves in the name of freedom and liberation.

India’s determination to increase the bilateral trade with China is welcome. But economic cooperation is not synonymous with the people to people cooperation which does not exist. The problem is solveable in the lifetime of Dalai Lama, for he is willing to accept autonomy of Tibet inside China. The Tibetan youth is not in favour of Dalai Lama’s formula but cannot oppose him because he represents Tibet as long as he lives.

The enunciation that both sides would not attack each other is like the late Chinese Prince to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Beijing never kept its word. There is no assurance that it would in the future.

The writer is a senior Indian journalist.