Meet on Chinese intrusions put off

The ruling establishment appears to be divided over the policy to be adopted to deal with recent Chinese incursions into the Indian territory.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the External Affairs Ministry seem to be on one side seeking to downplay these incursions while the Defence Ministry and the Home Ministry will like India to do some posturing in the wake of the border violations.

A much-awaited high-level meeting slated for today to take stock of the situation arising from the Chinese incursions became a casualty of the differences among key ministries on the threat from China.

The meeting, convened by National Security Adviser (NSA) MK Narayanan, was to be attended by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar, Defence, Home and Foreign secretaries, service chiefs and top intelligence officials, was put off without assigning any reason.

Officials, who had tipped the media about the meeting, were tightlipped today. Various theories were doing rounds in official and media circles over the postponement of the meeting. There were reports that the NSA was incensed how the media came to know about the proposed meeting that was to be kept a closely guarded secret. He was reportedly of the view that such meetings should be held away from media glare.

The Defence Ministry is learnt to be in favour of India adopting an assertive approach in view of the frequency of the Chinese incursions. It also wants curbs on Army patrolling along the line of actual control (LAC) to be lifted.

Meanwhile, India has started sending some definite signals to China over the incursions. It has rejected China’s opposition to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh in November.

Another important signal is that President Pratibha Patil’s visit to China later this year has been put on hold.

The then Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon had announced in June that the President would visit China later this year. Now the officials say the visit might not take place this year because the two countries were not finding mutually convenient dates for it.(TRIBUNE)