By Vijay Kranti
What happened on 23rd of June in Beijing during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was the last thing that the communist leaders of China were prepapred for. In order to to score a point over the guests, China’s official news agency Xinhua nearly pulled the rug under Mr. Vajpayee’s feet. For a moment it appeared as if history was going to repeat itself on Vajpayee, China and India. It was in 1978 when an angry and slighted Vajpayee, the then foreign minister of India, ended his visit to Beijing abruptly and flew back to New Delhi. Chinese communist masters’ decision to attack Vietnam just while India’s foreign minister was in Beijing on an official visit to mend the fences, was taken by Mr. Vajpayee as an afront to India.
This time too Xinhua hit Mr. Vajpayee and his foreign minister Yashwant Sinha from the blues by announcing to the world that, “The Indian government has for the first time recognized , in an explicit way, the Tibet autonomous region as an inalienable part of China’s territory….” The agency deliberately avoided reference of the just signed border trade agreement between the two sides which will soon open Nathu-la pass on Sikkim-Tibet border for trade between India and China. And as it happens with the Indian media, the news was splashed in the main headlines without bothering to confirm it from the Indian delegation. .
To Mr. Sinha who had fought tooth and nail with his Chinese counterparts to stop Beijing from pushing in a reference to the Tibetan’side of the border trade post as ‘China’ or ‘Tibet, an inalienable part of China’, the news was more that he could swallow as a civilized guest of an over enthusiastic host. Though in a softer tone, he hit out at the Chinese side by announcing in no ambiguous terms that There is no change in India’s policy over Tibet. He even went to the extent of underlining that Dalai Lama was an honored guest of India and his government would never ask him to leave India. By no standards a place other than Beijing itself could have been more sensitive for an Indian foreign minister to make such a statement on Dalai Lama who is always referred to by the Chinese leaders with the choicest abusive titles from the Marxist dictionary.
Luckily, the Chinese leadership chose not to multiply the damage by reacting publicly to the Indian foreign minister s provocative statement. But the Chinese government spokesman Kong Quan put cold water on the hopes of all those Indian officials or observers who thought that China’s decision to open a third border trade door between the two sides in Sikkim as a de-facto admission of Sikkim’s merger with India in 1975. He referred to Sikkim and an enduring question left over from history , and suggested that we have to respect history . He told the Indian journalists in no ambiguous terms that Sikkim issue can not be solved overnight.
No doubt a lot of good words have been said and many fresh miles have been covered, especially in the economic field, by both sides despite this sideshow of fireworks during Mr. Vajpayee’s visit. Both sides have also publicly pledged to keep the process of mending fences going. But then there are too many irritants between the two sides which needs to be addressed. One major source of irritants is Beijing’s policy of enrolling all South Asian neighbors of India in one or other way to keep India enveloped in petty fights with them and thereby generating road blocks in the way of India emerging as a regional power.
It is not a coincidence that this direct geographic interface with these countries became possible only after China occupied Tibet in 1951.Before Mao’s PLA mover into Tibet in 1949 India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan never had an inch of common borders with China
It goes to the credit of Beijing that Pakistan, a former ally of the anti-communist western block, is today more than willing to play as China’s nuclear as well as conventional military proxy in containing India. While good relations with Pakistan and Myanmar have helped China in extending its military arm right up to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean respectively, its defence treaty with Bangladesh has made entire northeastern region of India highly vulnerable. Ironically it was Beijing who did its best in stopping Bangla Desh from coming to exist as an independent nation or to become a member of United Nations.
Yester years Chinese diplomacy in Nepal and Bhutan has been reasonable successful in weaning away the two Himalayan countries from the Indian zone of influence. Thanks to Chinese efforts Nepal has slowly emerged as a convenient playground of pro-China, pro-Pakistan and many other China sponsored anti-Indian forces. Bhutan too has become a safe heaven for pro-China and anti-India insurgent groups like the ULFA. There has been enough evidence to believe that many such groups draw political, financial and strategic support from Beijing and also training in Tibetan areas.
While India welcomes Mr. Vajpayee for his successful trip to China, even his best friends would expect his to keep a close eye on Beijing’s real intentions as both countries move from a zone of mutual distrust to cooperation.
