On China, the error of judgement
hands with the US president at a rock concertlike event in Houston. The blaring headlines and artful event management might ensure 24x7 news coverage, but they can never be a substitute for the exactitude of rigorous diplomacy and quiet ground work that is required to foster ties beyond personal equations.
Let us not forget that within weeks of the Modi-sharif bonhomie in Lahore, there was a terror attack at an air force station in Pathankot, followed by a series of suicide strikes in 2016. Now, within less than eight months of hosting Xi in a luxurious Mamallapuram resort along the Bay of Bengal, India has lost several of its brave soldiers in a gory conflict in the hardy, unforgiving terrain of Ladakh. With the Pakistanis, it could be argued that a rogue Inter-services Intelligence terror network can never be trusted to hold the peace.
With the Chinese, on the other hand, it is far more disconcerting that four decades of relative peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has evaporated in a matter of weeks. To say we were ambushed by Chinese troops would be to admit to military failure. To say we misread Chinese strategic intentions in reworking the status quo on a disputed border would be to admit to a monumental political and diplomatic fiasco.
Unfortunately, political leaderships that thrive on the supremo cult rarely admit to failures. The wounds of what happened on the night of June 15 in the high altitudes of the Galwan Valley are perhaps still too raw to allow for such open admissions.
But sooner or later, any government must face itself in the mirror, admit to failings and course correct. That is now the challenge before the Modi regime. Accept the shortcomings in its personality-centric Chinese policy, recognise that Chinese ambitions in the neighbourhood pose a genuine threat; and diligently work to restore the along LAC in a manner that national sovereignty and territorial integrity are not compromised. Before unleashing the high-pitched rhetoric of promising to recapture Pakistanoccupied Kashmir, let’s start with securing our land in eastern Ladakh. And yes, let’s not blame this on Nehru.
Post-script: On the day of the Ladakh encounter, the Maharashtra government signed a big ticket MOU with a Chinese-owned automaker while a prime time news show called for China to “get out”. The sponsor of the show is a Chinese company. Cut the hypocrisy, it’s time to get real.