Cross Signals Across the Himalayas India Must Realise That China Is No Longer Willing to Remain a Status Quo Power

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU 6 EDITORIAL SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2017 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Cross signals across the Himalayas India must realise that China is no longer willing to remain a status quo power So far, China’s reactions have China was even then willing to risk ing’s realism has left China in a kind been on predictable lines, though a conlict with India, then the un- of philosophical vacuum. It has led perhaps more incendiary than in disputed leader of the Non-Aligned to an excess of nationalism and na- Blunt pointers the past. Beijing has issued a series Movement, angered by the grant of tionalistic fervour, making China’s of warnings, viz., that the Dalai La- asylum to the Dalai Lama. The objectives clear-cut. The BJP did well in the by-elections, but ma’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh stakes for China are, if anything, China’s policymakers are cau- would cause “deep damage” to greater today, as it seeks to emerge tious by temperament but are the Congress arrested its slide in Karnataka m.k. narayanan Sino-Indian ties, that New Delhi as a global leader. China would like known to take risks. They are would need to make ‘a choice’ in its to ensure that its ‘rear’ remains qui- skilled at morphing the gains fa- y-elections are no more than pointers to the pop- he 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gy- dealings with the Tibetan spiritual escent, rather than troubled, so as voured by each past civilisation and ular mood. They are not irm trend-setters for a atso, was in Arunachal Pra- leader, that India had breached its to devote its energies to attain its adjusting these to modern condi- Bgeneral election. When the winners of polls in 10 Tdesh recently, which has commitment on the Tibet issue, goals. tions. They prefer attrition to force- Assembly constituencies in eight territories are repres- greatly ruled China’s feathers. taking particular umbrage at the ful intervention, a protracted cam- entatives of four diferent parties, there is no one big Any reference to Arunachal Pra- Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s The Tawang factor paign to gain a relative advantage. lesson to be drawn from the results. Even so, these will desh (‘Southern Tibet’ as China statement that the State did not Indian commentators keep refer- Currently, China has jettisoned inevitably be interpreted as indicators of the public prefers to call it), in context or out share its borders with China but ring from time to time to the fact the Guiding Principles laid down by of context, has the efect of raising with Tibet and asking India to stick that China had shifted its stand on Deng Xiaoping, “coolly observe..., mood, especially when four of the States, which held temperatures in Beijing. The pro- to its ‘political pledges’ and not Tawang. This may be true, but hide your capacities, bide your by-elections, are due for Assembly elections by the end longed stay of His Holiness in the hurt China-India relations. there is little doubt about the cent- time”. Buoyed by its military of 2018. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is sitting Tawang Monastery was, hence, the Oicial démarches were rality of Tawang (the birth place of muscle, and with a defence budget pretty after sweeping the elections in Uttar Pradesh and straw that broke the camel’s back. couched in still more intemperate the sixth Dalai Lama) in China’s of $151.5 billion (2017) which is Uttarakhand earlier this year, did well to best the Aam The mild-mannered Dalai Lama language. Some were in the nature GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO scheme of things for this region. much larger than that of all other Aadmi Party in Delhi, and win a seat each in Rajasthan, spoke with unusual candour dur- of a threat, that the visit would es- the idea of an Integrated National During several rounds of discus- nations with the exception of the Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. The ing his visit to Arunachal Pradesh, calate disputes in the border area, Security Concept, relecting the ex- sions on the Sino-Indian border, U.S., China is no longer willing to seeming to be at times even ob- fuel tensions between the two tent of its prevailing insecurities. my counterpart as the Chinese Spe- remain a status quo power, or play victory in Delhi should be especially satisfying for the liquely critical of China, something countries, impinge on China’s ma- This has introduced certain ‘red- cial Representative for boundary by existing rules governing the in- BJP as AAP leader, and Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal he had previously avoided. All jor concerns and core interests, ter- lines’, that China would never com- talks, Dai Bingguo, made it amply ternational order. India must real- attempted to cast himself in a larger-than-life image, pit- these years, he had displayed re- ritory and sovereignty, and thus promise its legitimate rights and in- clear to me that Tawang was non- ise this, and avoid being caught ting himself directly against Prime Minister Narendra markable restraint, despite con- damage India-China relations. terests, or sacriice its “core negotiable. In 2005, China signed unawares. Modi in his campaigns and public statements. That the stant Chinese provocations. On this Chinese oicial media and the national interests”. On more than an Agreement on the Political Para- AAP candidate lost his deposit is a shocker: the party occasion, his statements should, Chinese Communist Party, in turn, one occasion during the current ex- meters and Guiding Principles for The OBOR outlier had won 67 of Delhi’s 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly therefore, have come as a surprise stepped up pressure on the changes, Chinese Foreign Ministry the Settlement of the India-China As it is, China is constantly seeking to China. Chinese government to take action spokespersons had referred to is- Boundary Question (Dai Bingguo ways to isolate India. It is engaged election. As the AAP seeks to extend its reach and in- against India. The China Daily ob- sues concerning Tibet (and South- and I were the signatories) which in building advantageous power re- crease its clout, it seems to be losing out on its home Choice of words served that “if New Delhi chooses ern Tibet) as having a direct bear- stipulated that areas with settled lations, acquiring bases and turf. More than the victory in Assam, or even in Ra- Nothing that the Dalai Lama said to play dirty… Beijing should not ing on China’s “core interests”. populations would not be afected strengthening ties with countries jasthan and Himachal Pradesh, what will be more grati- during his visit can even be re- hesitate to answer blows with Current China-India exchanges, in any exchange. Even before the across Asia, Africa and beyond. fying for the BJP is the second place inish in West motely viewed as accusatory of blows”. Chinese oicial spokesper- hence, need to be examined from ink was dry, China began to dissim- China’s latest One Belt, One Road Bengal. Its candidate was ahead of both the Left Front China, but the words he employed sons have rounded of this kind of the purview of both international ulate as far as Tawang was con- (OBOR) initiative signiies its new and Congress candidates in Kanthi Dakshin in West — “I’ve long forgiven China’s Com- diatribe by airming that issues relations as well as the domestic cerned, even though Tawang is the outreach, extending from the east- munist Government for occupying concerning Tibet have a bearing on situation prevailing in China. It most ‘Indianised’ place in the en- ern extremity of Asia to Europe — Bengal, an indication that the party could grow in op- Tibet”; we support a ‘One China China’s “core interests”. must not be overlooked that the tire Northeast. All this leaves little the China-Pakistan Economic Cor- position to the ruling Trinamool Congress in the years policy’, “all we want is the right to China’s verbal outbursts on this that Sino-Indian conlict of 1962 oc- scope for compromise with regard ridor represents its most signiicant ahead. That must be truly worrying for the Communist preserve our culture, language and occasion do not conform to type, curred soon after China’s dis- to areas like Tawang. strategic aspect — and has the back- Party of India (Marxist), which had held power in the identity”; “the 1.4 billion Chinese even where they relate to the Dalai astrous Great Leap Forward, in Understanding the way the ing of most countries in the region. State for a record 34 consecutive years until 2011. As the people have every right to know the Lama. For China, a visit by the Dalai which a large number of Chinese Chinese mind works is important. India is an outlier in this respect, 2014 Lok Sabha election showed, the BJP is no longer a reality (of Tibet)”, “once they know Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, in- perished, and the Dalai Lama lee- It tends to be eclectic, contextual and perhaps the only major Asian party of the Hindi belt alone, and is now national in the reality they will be able to cluding a sojourn in the Tawang ing Tibet and taking sanctuary in and relational, leaning towards sys- nation that has not yet endorsed judge”, “until now there has been Monastery, one of the holiest of India. In 1962, Beijing had masked temic content and history. Chinese the concept. If as China anticipates character. only one-sided, wrong informa- Tibetan Buddhism, is no ordinary its intentions skilfully, while India, thinking tends to be convoluted that OBOR has the potential to alter If the BJP has cause to celebrate its position at the top tion” — had the efect of a whiplash matter.

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