We have a neighbour, China...
The juggernaut of China’s economic and political clout in the region should be too good for India, sarcastically speaking, but it didn’t quite work for the Tao kings with respect to a proposed ADB loan of $2.9 billion to India, which China vehemently objected to because the package included $60 million meant for watershed management in Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the state as their own territory and describes it as ‘disputed’. India finally won the loan that covers a period of 2009 to 2012. It is a diplomatic victory for India (after a 6 months’ haul). Sadly, that is where our weighty talk ends.
Far away in South Eastern Ladakh, China has objected to a road construction within India’s territory at Demchok, and this has gathered political clout. Apparently, the road was being built under the Centre’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, when one day, some Chinese soldiers crossing the border came and shouted at the workers to stop their work, bringing the entire project into a halt. The government’s effort to create employment in this remote and diffident region – as also to heed a local demand to build connectivity – has been arrested, at least for the time being. However, China has built a similar road on their side of the border to which India has never objected! RAW (research and analysis wing) has submitted a report stating China has built and/or repaired as many as 27 airstrips near India’s border in Tibet. But when it comes to India, China has raised objections on India upgrading its airfields in Eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
What is flummoxing to see is that despite giving Rs.24,000 crores for the development of the region, the Indian government continues to remain mystically quiet through all these Chinese balderdash moves (even though the CM of AP, Doorjee Khandu, has vowed not to bend his back on Chinese provocations). It is critical that India continues to speak out on the issue on global forums. History itself is a matter of acrimonious debate; from Babri to Arunachal.
The juggernaut of China’s economic and political clout in the region should be too good for India, sarcastically speaking, but it didn’t quite work for the Tao kings with respect to a proposed ADB loan of $2.9 billion to India, which China vehemently objected to because the package included $60 million meant for watershed management in Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the state as their own territory and describes it as ‘disputed’. India finally won the loan that covers a period of 2009 to 2012. It is a diplomatic victory for India (after a 6 months’ haul). Sadly, that is where our weighty talk ends.
Far away in South Eastern Ladakh, China has objected to a road construction within India’s territory at Demchok, and this has gathered political clout. Apparently, the road was being built under the Centre’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, when one day, some Chinese soldiers crossing the border came and shouted at the workers to stop their work, bringing the entire project into a halt. The government’s effort to create employment in this remote and diffident region – as also to heed a local demand to build connectivity – has been arrested, at least for the time being. However, China has built a similar road on their side of the border to which India has never objected! RAW (research and analysis wing) has submitted a report stating China has built and/or repaired as many as 27 airstrips near India’s border in Tibet. But when it comes to India, China has raised objections on India upgrading its airfields in Eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
What is flummoxing to see is that despite giving Rs.24,000 crores for the development of the region, the Indian government continues to remain mystically quiet through all these Chinese balderdash moves (even though the CM of AP, Doorjee Khandu, has vowed not to bend his back on Chinese provocations). It is critical that India continues to speak out on the issue on global forums. History itself is a matter of acrimonious debate; from Babri to Arunachal.
No comments:
Post a Comment