Arunachal: Don't sleep, act India act

Alankar Srivastava
Published on Fri 10th Jul 2009 12:06:53
July: Let's start with a short story. After creating this world and different countries, God was explaining his disciples how he maintained balance. God said, “Africa is rich in natural resources but has climatic variations. America is rich and powerful but there is a sense of insecurity”.

Then he described India as his most prized possession. God said, "This is the most amazing with wonderful people. It has got rich culture, tradition and is blessed with natural resources".

When asked about the ‘balance’, God replied, “Look at the neighbours I gave them”.

India is surrounded by hostile neighbours from all sides. This is a major impediment on the road to progress and prosperity. China is one such problematic neighbour which has been a pain for India.

China wants India to settle the border dispute and has been claiming Arunachal Pradesh for long. China officially claims 90000 sq km of land in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Recently, on a visit to Itanagar, PM Manmohan Singh said that Arunachal Pradesh is India’s land of rising sun.

China lodged its protest on Manmohan Singh’s assertion over this claim of India. China has always said that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China.

There have been innumerable provocations from the Chinese in recent past. China even denied a visa to IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh when around 100 IAS officers were going for official visit to China, sometime back.

China had recently objected to Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding an irrigation project in Arunachal Pradesh which is a ‘clear violation’ of the charter of the multilateral lending agency.

In the middle of all these, silence from Indian side has been baffling. Indian officials are numb and prefer sleeping over an issue which has the potential to snowball into a big controversy in the days to come.

We need to react and react strongly to Chinese. We can’t take this lying down and need to give it back to them.

Tibet suffered and continues to suffer by China. We need to protest against Chinese intrusion in Tibet. India must realise that they have some responsibility towards Tibet. India has failed so far to exert any pressure on China.

Today, we have no support or sympathy from the world on the Arunachal issue. And only we are to be blamed for it.

The first thing which India needs to do is to recognise Tibet as an occupied territory, if not for Tibetans then at least for our sake. It would send across the message loud and clear to Chinese that India would negotiate border dispute with an independent Tibet and not China. We should bring Tibet issue to the center stage.

Indian government has not learnt any lesson from Aksai Chin. The time is running out and the silence from New Delhi can cost us Arunachal Pradesh.