Firm India pulls up diplomatic channels to tackle China

India has sent a terse message to Beijing ten days ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s bilateral visit to China. On Saturday, India lodged a protest with China on issuance of stapled visas to two young archers from Arunachal Pradesh. The protest was lodged in New Delhi through diplomatic channels. This is the second time in less than five months in Sino-Indian relations when China has thrown up a diplomatic irritant before an official bilateral visit at the highest level. Earlier, China had made a 16-km-deep incursion into Depsang Valley of Ladakh in April-May which was lifted by China after 21 days, less than a fortnight before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was to set foot in India for his maiden foreign visit.[caption id=“attachment_1169093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Difficult bonhomie. Reuters[/caption] On both these occasions, India has indulged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat and stood up to the Chinese. India has stepped on gas in both these instances without bothering about the possible consequences ahead of the to and fro visits by the heads of the two governments. The not-so-subtle message conveyed by India to China is that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. Conveying such a message was important for India as the boundary issue will inevitably figure when Manmohan Singh holds summit meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on 23 October. For years, China has been pursuing its policy of issuing stapled visas to Indian citizens domiciled in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. China has upped its ante and effectively taken sides on the India-Pakistan dispute on Kashmir as the Chinese continue to give normal visas for people residing in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. A seething India has repeatedly lodged protests with the Chinese on their stapled visas policy but Beijing has remained unmoved. In the face of China’s continued provocation, India too has changed its tack in two notable ways. One, it does not honour the stapled visas, though it adversely affects India’s own citizens from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. After all, India has to walk the diplomatic ropes and cannot flex military muscles at the drop of a hat! Two, India has consciously followed an unannounced policy of paying the Chinese back in the same coin by remaining silent on One China policy that China always insists for inclusion in joint statements and joint communiqués at the end of top level visits between the two sides. The Indian strategy for the Chinese is clear: if you up the ante on Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir, we will also not put on record our support to One China policy. That is why in past several to-and-fro prime ministerial visits, India has refused to declare its support for One China in joint statements issued at the end of such visits. The same Indian strategy is expected to be in full play when the two sides release a Joint Statement at the end of talks between Manmohan Singh and Li Keqiang. The Chinese have squirmed at this new-found diplomatic tool now routinely employed by India but then there is nothing much that they can do about it. India’s protests over issuance of stapled visas to two young archers from Arunachal Pradesh need to be seen from this perspective. This is a diplomatic row and has to be dealt with diplomatically and this is exactly what India is doing. If India had failed to do this barest minimum, it would have emboldened the Chinese further. At the same time, one cannot lose sight of the fact that such diplomatic protests hardly carry any ammunition to trigger a change in the Chinese policies. And India is not unaware of that. The Chinese will soften their attitude to India only when India does not fumble in beefing up its economic and military muscles. This requires time. Till India attains that position, the Chinese will continue to throw barbs at the Indians in the form of military incursions and issuance of stapled visas. Therefore, it is all the more imperative for India to set up the Mountain Strike Corps as soon as possible and implement this China-specific idea in such a way that Beijing gets a clear idea that India will go to any extent to ensure its national security, whatever it takes. It will be a good idea to unveil this move before Manmohan Singh embarks on his visit to China. The prime minister needs to take steps by completing the formalities for setting up the Mountain Strike Corps, likely to cost the nation a whopping $ 90 billion. After all, when the UPA government is barreling through its multi-billion dollar food security scheme and has already launched it in several states, money should not be a deterrent when it comes to national security. Moreover, the government will not have to shell out billions of dollars immediately for setting up the Mountain Strike Corps. It will be a long term plan which will take at least a decade for implementation. Till India adds to its economic and military muscles, it is time for some cool and mature diplomacy. No wonder then that you see such statements from External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid which he made on 10 October while returning home from his visit to Sri Lanka. He said that there was an effective system for peace and tranquility on the border with China and therefore there has been no casualty on the India-China border for several years. “There have been events (on the Line of Actual Control) that disturb us, but events that are of a transitory nature and at the end of the day there is no permanent loss and since there are no casualties we can say that the peace and tranquility mechanism that we have is working,” Khurshid said. The writer is a FirstPost columnist and a strategic analyst. He tweets @Kishkindha.