Given the Mindset...

In recent times this column has been consistent in its critique of the UPA government’s China policy and response to the neighbouring country’s routine objections to visits by Union ministers to Arunachal Pradesh. We have had occasion to point out how India is virtually allowing China to get away with its audacity. However, there are no signs of policy shift. It is as though foreign policy-makers in New Delhi are too short on ideas to frame an appropriate response to Beijing’s Arunachal hogwash. On the other hand, there are ‘responsible’ experts who feel that the boundary dialogue process with China must continue uninterrupted, regardless of how it behaves and what it claims. Let them all be informed by China’s state-run People’s Daily Online editorial then, published last Thursday, for a reality check: ‘‘Nobody can deny that today’s India is a power. Indians have become more narrow-minded and intolerable of outside criticism as nationalism sentiment rises, with some of them even turning to hegemony... Given the country’s history, hegemony is a hundred per cent result of British colonialism. Dating back to the era of British India, the country covered a vast territory including present-day India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh as well as Nepal. India took it for granted that it could continue to rule the large area when Britain ended its colonialism in South Asia. A previous victim of colonialism and hegemony started to dream about developing its own hegemony. Obsessed with such mentality, India turned a blind eye to the concessions China had repeatedly made over the disputed border issues, and refused to drop the pretentious airs when dealing with Pakistan... Although the pursuit of being a superpower is justifiable, the dream of a superpower held by Indians appears impetuous. The dream of superpower is mingled with the thought of hegemony, which places the South Asian giant in an awkward situation and results in repeated failure... To everyone’s disappointment, India pursued a foreign policy of ‘befriend the far and attack the near’. It engaged in the war separately with China and Pakistan and the resentment still simmers. If India really wants to be a superpower, such a policy is shortsighted and immature...’’

So that is the typical Chinese mindset. But first thing first. Is not there a realization by China that India is surging ahead — towards becoming a key global player? In the editorial in question, India is referred to as ‘‘the South Asian giant’’, while there is also a tacit admission of the ‘‘giant’s’’ sphere of influence that Beijing is not comfortable with; after all, ‘‘nobody can deny that today’s India is a power’’ and China, being a power in itself, would never have nextdoor India rise as an assertive power. Secondly, China believes that India is hegemonic — mind the repeat of the word ‘‘hegemony’’ in the editorial — bent on occupying new territories. This is a mischievous propaganda that India must counter and make it known to the world. Who was the aggressor in 1962? Who is claiming an entire area and its people as its own without rhyme or reason? Thirdly, China’s all-weather friend, Pakistan, has always inspired its India policy on boundary disputes. China’s complaint is that India has ‘‘refused to drop the pretentious airs when dealing with neighbours like Pakistan’’! But what is there to pretendfailed state of Pakistan — the epicentre of global terrorism? The UPA government will fail the people of the country if it does not keep in mind the Chinese mindset in evolving a new China policy. It is China that is provoking India. THE SENTINEL