India-China Relation : New Scenario

The Indian diplomats should be more active in projecting India's position on the border issue with China. Generally Speaking, the western countries do not appreciate India's view that China was an aggressor and India a victim in the 1962 India-China war Maxwell's book, India's China War clearly blamed India and Nehru for annoying the Chinese govt with statements that were not supported by facts

Nehru's off-the-cuff statement at the Madras airport while he was on his way to Colombo was rather undiplomatic. Nehru had said "I have ordered the Indian Army to throw out the Chinese".  The Indian Army knew nothing about it. MEA and Defence Ministry were not on the same net.  India suffered a humiliating defeat, thanks to the wrong policies of the duo- Nehru and Krishna Menon.

Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, USA has written in his latest book on China that Chairman Mao Zedong had advised restraint when he had a chat with his Chinese field commanders. However, Indian troops inched forward to positions that India had not claimed as its own ever before. Nehru's provocative statements made matters worse.

Kissinger has quoted Mao as saying that under the circumstances he had no choice but to reciprocate the sentiments of a neighbouring country. Courtesy demanded this action. Sarcasm was perceptible. In fact Kissinger has opened the book with a Preface mentioning India-China border war. As a general rule the Chinese nation does not take recourse to extreme steps in settling issue and just waits with patience letting a problem find its own solution.

Mao did not intervene in different disputes directly He believed in setting one country against the other and just relax in Beijing. The Chinese Emperors uses to put a barbarian against another and just did not bother  to look beyond China.

Kissinger is of the opinion that India does not matter much to China but to India, China not only matters a lot but is an obsession.

Having known the Chinese army officers and people for some time and taken a close look at them, I hope they continue to display the old imperial attitude and give others the royal ignore. It indeed will be a way out of a shooting war and pave the way to maintain status quo.

Should there be any minor border violations across the rather ill defined international border, the issue should be sorted out mutually through the existing mechanism. In case of air violations, when India lodged protests with their counterparts, the matter was attended to and recurrence prevented. Many a time the troops exchange greetings on Holi or Diwali or the Chinese New Year  and friendly attitude prevents ugly episodes. Our Raksha Mantri has said in the Parliament that the incident of Chinese soldiers intimidating Indian cowherds was taken up at the appropriate level and recurrence prevented. Our cattle are now grazing at the said spot as heretofore.

Moral of the story is: Proportion between the incident and its reaction should be maintained at the appropriate level. Thus Peace will prevail.

By Chitranjan Sawant