Assertiveness on China welcome
In officially reacting to reports of the Chinese Army building a bridge across the Pangong Lake many days after this was reported, India pointedly noted on Thursday that this activity was taking place in an area that has been “under illegal occupation by China for around 60 years now”. This is a much-needed reassertion of the Indian case, which the government appeared to have all but abandoned since the Chinese ingress across the Line of Actual Control came to light in 2020. After the 1962 conflict when the Chinese overwhelmed Indian defences, it had remained this country’s official position that Aksai Chin, which Beijing had incorporated, remained Indian territory. In fact, Union home minister Amit Shah had occasion to tangentially re-state this case in August 2019 in Parliament in the course of the government unrolling the changed status of J&K. But that re-assertion, which had riled Beijing, appeared to be a forgotten chapter when, speaking to Opposition leaders after the PLA invaded across the LAC in early 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed that China had done no such thing.
The PM’s tactics and motivations were unfathomable since the historical record is clear. Beijing exploited the Indian leader’s remarks to insist that it had done no wrong, making the diplomatic effort to get China to restore the status quo prevailing prior to April 2020 appear quixotic. In light of this, the spokesman’s on-therecord remark that the bridge PLA was building was in an area that has been “under illegal occupation” by China is a welcome correction. It makes the present government’s position on the boundary question consistent with India’s stand going back to the Nehru era, although any mention of Aksai Chin has been omitted. The country now awaits the PM amending the position that he had unfurled.
Besides the bridge-building issue, India also took strong exception to the Chinese political counsellor in New Delhi writing letters to MPs for participating in a forum on Tibet recently and Beijing’s announcement of giving Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh in a case of cartographic aggression. It was necessary to signal that India’s negotiating stance with China was not going to be meek.