NEW DELHI: As both India and China play down incursions across the LAC into Indian territories, what is the truth behind the Chinese activity which might be less war-like than the western front but has deepened worry lines over Beijing's objectives?
Foreign minister S M Krishna recently said the border with China was "peaceful" as it had not seen any violence. Yet there has been sufficient noise, certainly in the media, to have now resulted in a parliamentary standing committee attached to the foreign ministry looking at Chinese incursions. Is this a knee-jerk response?
Even as the foreign ministry and other government agencies look to justify incursions as nothing particularly new and as rooted in different perceptions of LAC, security officials and experts feel the government ought to take things more seriously as perhaps for the first time incursions have been reported from all four sectors -- Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
While former diplomat G Parthasarathy came down heavily on MEA for acting as an "apologist" for China, strategic affairs analyst Brahma Chellaney said an Indian approach centered on not saying or doing anything that could upset Beijing however remotely, cannot pass off as "diplomacy".
"It is well known that the LAC is not clearly defined but the foreign ministry is only acting as an apologist for China by saying so. Isn't China responsible for the delay in clarifying the exact LAC position? Incursions have been reported even from settled areas like Ladakh. India is pretending there is no problem when it does exist," said Parthasarathy. He felt India needs to be prepared by arming itself militarily and strengthening deployment.
While China accused the Indian media of exaggeration, it has not been one-sided with articles in Beijing casting aspersions on India. The latest is a report in `Global Times', a sister publication of government mouthpiece `People's Daily', in which a military expert accused India of spying on Beijing's military strength by detaining a China-bound UAE plane, carrying Chinese arms, in Kolkata.
According to Chellaney, this is the first time China has opened pressure points against India all along the Himalayan frontier in peacetime after the 1986-87 skirmishes. "The glaring fact is that Chinese incursions are happening even in Sikkim, even though the Sikkim-Tibet border is the only sector Beijing does not dispute. Similarly, Chinese incursions are occurring in Uttarakhand territory -- the middle sector -- although the line of control there was clarified in 2001 through an India-China exchange of maps," said Chellaney.
As TOI reported earlier, India is likely to allow Dalai Lama to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh this year overruling China's objections but it might be a case of too little, too late. "To the great discomfiture of Beijing, theDalai Lama has been saying publicly that Arunachal, including Tawang, is part of India. Yet, New Delhi is loath to exploit this. It actually blocked the Tibetan leader from visiting Tawang in 2008," added Chellaney.
There is a perception that because China has shown signs of cooperating with India over issues like climate change as they fight attempts by developed countries to impose green commitments and have shared interests in international platforms like G-20 and BRIC, India could perhaps condone border excesses. Parthasarathy rubbished the contention. "Does it have any meaning at all when you consider that Pakistan is also cooperating with India over climate change? Irrespective of these factors, we have to be ready militarily," asserted Parthasarathy.
Foreign minister S M Krishna recently said the border with China was "peaceful" as it had not seen any violence. Yet there has been sufficient noise, certainly in the media, to have now resulted in a parliamentary standing committee attached to the foreign ministry looking at Chinese incursions. Is this a knee-jerk response?
Even as the foreign ministry and other government agencies look to justify incursions as nothing particularly new and as rooted in different perceptions of LAC, security officials and experts feel the government ought to take things more seriously as perhaps for the first time incursions have been reported from all four sectors -- Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
While former diplomat G Parthasarathy came down heavily on MEA for acting as an "apologist" for China, strategic affairs analyst Brahma Chellaney said an Indian approach centered on not saying or doing anything that could upset Beijing however remotely, cannot pass off as "diplomacy".
"It is well known that the LAC is not clearly defined but the foreign ministry is only acting as an apologist for China by saying so. Isn't China responsible for the delay in clarifying the exact LAC position? Incursions have been reported even from settled areas like Ladakh. India is pretending there is no problem when it does exist," said Parthasarathy. He felt India needs to be prepared by arming itself militarily and strengthening deployment.
While China accused the Indian media of exaggeration, it has not been one-sided with articles in Beijing casting aspersions on India. The latest is a report in `Global Times', a sister publication of government mouthpiece `People's Daily', in which a military expert accused India of spying on Beijing's military strength by detaining a China-bound UAE plane, carrying Chinese arms, in Kolkata.
According to Chellaney, this is the first time China has opened pressure points against India all along the Himalayan frontier in peacetime after the 1986-87 skirmishes. "The glaring fact is that Chinese incursions are happening even in Sikkim, even though the Sikkim-Tibet border is the only sector Beijing does not dispute. Similarly, Chinese incursions are occurring in Uttarakhand territory -- the middle sector -- although the line of control there was clarified in 2001 through an India-China exchange of maps," said Chellaney.
As TOI reported earlier, India is likely to allow Dalai Lama to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh this year overruling China's objections but it might be a case of too little, too late. "To the great discomfiture of Beijing, theDalai Lama has been saying publicly that Arunachal, including Tawang, is part of India. Yet, New Delhi is loath to exploit this. It actually blocked the Tibetan leader from visiting Tawang in 2008," added Chellaney.
There is a perception that because China has shown signs of cooperating with India over issues like climate change as they fight attempts by developed countries to impose green commitments and have shared interests in international platforms like G-20 and BRIC, India could perhaps condone border excesses. Parthasarathy rubbished the contention. "Does it have any meaning at all when you consider that Pakistan is also cooperating with India over climate change? Irrespective of these factors, we have to be ready militarily," asserted Parthasarathy.
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