India must show courage to fend off an aggressive China

THIS IS with regard to one of the articles written by B Raman (former head of RAW) titled 'India-China: Dangerous Hysteria', which speaks about the possibility of a 'status quo plus' solution under which China will recognise the status quo in Arunachal Pradesh in return for India accommodating some of the Chinese interests in Tawang. I would like to make a small point.

I totally do agree with the point that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind and also by whipping up combative sentiments across India and China, it would be disastrous. If the two nuclear neighbours get down to combat with a crony Islamic state, eager to get involved as it has always been doing.
 

But, it has always been noticed that force respects force and when you are dealing with a neighbour like China, it would always be better to speak up with courage and show that Indians cannot be taken for granted. By putting up suggestions of re-adjustment in Arunachal Pradesh we will be sending a signal across the border that India as a country is desperate to maintain peace in the region and hence, is ready to negotiate to any length to maintain the status quo which I guess is not in the best of our interests.

China which blindly follows the policy of Mao which says: "If the East wind doesn't prevail over the West wind then the East wind will prevail over the East wind" and driven by this hegemonistic mindset, any such adjustment with China will only embolden them to start questioning the very legitimacy of any of our North Eastern borders. Today, it is Tawang, tomorrow it would be Ladhakh and so on and so forth. Hence, it would be wise for India to keep the diplomatic channel open and also at the same time hold a stern posture in front of China and convey a strong message across that any kind of border re-adjustment in the face of coercion is not acceptable.

India should also convey that unless otherwise China is also ready to negotiate on the Nehruvian gift of Chinese occupied Aksai-Chin, which is a disputed territory from an Indian perspective, we will not negotiate on any of the other regions. We should convey it to China that if China feels whatever territory that it has already occupied as a resolved part and whatever it questions is unresolved then we better let our 'Red' neighbour know that it is not always their perspective that matters.(MERINEWS)