The big China question

CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference on New Year’s Eve at the party’s headquarters in Delhi. His focus was on his Bharat Jodo Yatra and the insights he has gained about India and its current condition from his interaction with people while he has been traversing our vast land on foot. He, however, also made significant comments on the Modi government’s conduct of foreign and strategic policies and these deserve attention and analysis.

Despite PM Manmohan Singh’s efforts, Pakistan didn’t dilute its animosity towards India and China did nothing to change Pakistan’s approaches towards India, including on terrorism.

He alleged that there was violence, hatred and chaos in India which were noticed by ‘other’ countries that take advantage of such conditions. There can be no doubt that, as a general proposition, social harmony and cohesion are strategic assets for any country; their absence, let alone social conflict, are strategic weaknesses. It is only natural for adversaries to seek to exploit such shortcomings.

It will not be surprising if the ruling dispensation dismisses his charges of the prevailing social conditions as a product of his imagination. It would be prudent, though, for the entire political class, even while it is engaged in a bitter ideological contest, to ensure that social peace is not impaired at a time of a challenging external environment. It is unlikely that adverse external conditions in some areas of foreign and strategic policies will change through this year, or the next, even if some analysts do not subscribe to Rahul Gandhi’s assessments of the Modi government’s handling of foreign policy. The Congress leader also said the current government pursued a ‘confused’ ‘event based’ foreign policy in a ‘non-strategic’ manner. He said these approaches would harm the country.

He claimed that the Modi government had mishandled India’s China policy, and that it was important to ensure that China and Pakistan should not become ‘one’. He said this was a ‘central concept’ of the Congress. He claimed that the Congress, right till the UPA 2 government, had ensured that this was not so. He further said that a dangerous situation had arisen for India because China and Pakistan had now become ‘one’. Whatever may be his views on the government’s China policy, he was not accurate about his characterisation of the Sino-Pak ties. The nexus between the two countries has not come about only during the Modi government’s period. It goes back to the 1960s and has been a constant factor which successive governments have had to confront for six decades. Indeed, while no Indian government, or for that matter even Pakistan’s allies such as the US or its Arab benefactors such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have succeeded in diluting the Sino-Pak nexus, it is now assuming more dangerous dimensions for India’s security interests. This aspect needs to be probed further.

Soon after India’s reverses against China in 1962, and at a time when Pakistan was a US ally, and also when it was engaged in serious discussions with India on Kashmir, Pakistan ‘leased’ territory of the then Indian state of J&K to China. This laid the foundation of the Sino-Pak relationship that gradually blossomed into what both countries emphasise is an ‘iron’ friendship, higher than mountains and deeper than oceans. The basis of these ties was a shared negativity towards India. Also, China, and for that matter the US, was grateful for the role played by Pakistan in acting as a channel of communication which enabled a breakthrough in the US-China ties in 1971.

While China backstopped Pakistan in the context of India, it did not do so at the expense of its interests. The events of 1971 and 1999 bear witness. This does not detract from the development of the Sino-Pak ties during non-BJP governments; the overwhelming number of these were of the Congress party. Hence, Rahul Gandhi cannot point fingers at the Modi government only. What has happened since the coming to power of Xi Jinping in China in 2013 is the addition of a positive pillar to the Sino-Pak ties flowing from the Belt and Road Initiative, whose ‘crown jewel’ is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which includes the development of the Gwadar Port. This has added a new dimension to their strategic partnership and has made it more complex for India to manage its western neighbourhood.

Rahul Gandhi must also ask himself the question if the UPA governments had managed to make the slightest dent in China-Pakistan relations. Despite PM Manmohan Singh’s efforts, Pakistan did not dilute its animosity towards India and China did nothing to change Pakistan’s approaches towards India, including on terrorism. China’s assistance to Pakistan in the strategic sphere had continued unabated. Therefore, the claim that the Modi government has failed where the UPA had succeeded is simply not true.

It is open for Rahul Gandhi to question the government’s China policy, and also to warn it of the northern neighbour’s intentions. He can also ask for answers, as can other opposition leaders, on how the government has handled the border issue over the past three years. The Opposition is within its right to demand discussions in Parliament on these issues, though the government is also not wrong in defending its inability to go into details of the India-China border situation because of national security concerns. In the past, such matters were quietly and confidentially discussed among leaders of the political class. It is sad that it appears that such conversations do not take place now.

Instead of trading charges, it is now essential that India’s political, security and industrial classes come together to discuss and arrive at a consensus on how to handle China. In doing so, it would be prudent to base policy on the continuance of close and anti-India oriented China-Pakistan relations.