EDITORIALS

Can Panchsheel Be Revived?

New Delhi needs to break away from the web of Washingtons pivot to Asia strategy.

he Chinese Premier Li Keqiangs recent state visit and the

manner in which it was presented to the public suggested
that all is well in interstate relations between India and
China. The two sides enacted this script to perfection upon
Beijings insistence they tried to separate the border issue from all
other aspects of their relationship. And they pulled it off quite
well. The media reported that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
took a tough line on the incursion issue, but this was merely to
assuage national pride. When the External Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid met Li during his two-day visit to China in the second
week of May, he had told reporters that he did not seek any explanation from Beijing for the incursion. Yet earlier, over a period
of three weeks, New Delhi had exacerbated tensions between
the two countries. Did Washingtons pivot to Asia strategy of
isolating and containing China and its strategic partnership
with New Delhi have something to do with Indias bellicosity?
India had, after all, signalled that it was considering retaliatory measures to Chinas intrusion across the disputed Line of
Actual Control (LAC) that separates Tibet from Ladakh. At an
emergency meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the
Army chief General Bikram Singh had reportedly presented,
among other things, possible military options, though this was
officially denied. The competitive politics of who is more nationalchauvinist, the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party, had
taken over. And, the media had turned quite hostile towards
Beijing. Three weeks and three flag meetings between the Indian
and Chinese sides failed to resolve matters. But then came a
fourth flag meeting on 5 May and the dispute was resolved!
Just as well that New Delhi came to its senses and agreed to
dismantle the infrastructure, including concrete bunkers the
Indian Army had built close to the disputed LAC separating Tibet
from Ladakh. Earlier, a Chinese platoon had intruded across the

LAC and set up tents in Daulat Beg Oldi and talked only of a conditional withdrawal if and only if the Indian side dismantled the
infrastructure, including the bunkers. The dispute, of course,
ended when the Indian side, despite its earlier bravado, had no
other option but to back down, as the Chinese had demanded. The
outcome left some hurt egos in Indias Ministry of External Affairs
with the latter in denial about the quid pro quo it had to accept.
Let us then come to the heart of the matter as regards IndiaChina relations, which has to do with Washingtons pivot to
Asia strategy of isolating and containing China. Given that
Washington is increasingly seeking to use its strategic alliance
with New Delhi to contain Beijing and is now drawing India
together with its other strategic partners in Asia Japan and
Australia in opposing China, the latter is naturally concerned
about Indias moves. Indias hosting of the Dalai Lamas Tibetan
government-in-exile seems no longer of much consequence,
only an irritant to its northern neighbour. New Delhi is, of course,
alarmed at Beijings ties in south Asia, especially its long-standing
alliance with Islamabad, but also about the port facilities that
China has got access to, not only in Pakistan but also in Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh. As far as India is concerned and it is already
feeling a bit uneasy with the trilateral naval military exercises
that the US and Japan want it to join it ought to disentangle
itself from the web into which the US is bringing it.
Tragically though, New Delhi seems to be in favour of opportunistically taking advantage of the fact that Washington and
Tokyo are keen on its joining their alliance. Manmohan Singhs
state visit to Japan at the end of May was an event that was
closely watched, for more-frequent, joint naval exercises are
now on the cards. The US has been encouraging its Asian allies,
Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines to take belligerent stances in
their territorial disputes with China and is reportedly encouraging
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EDITORIALS

India to do the same. Perhaps India reckons that its ambition to

emerge as a major power can only be realised by becoming a
junior partner of the US.
In such a setting, a border unilaterally demarcated by British
colonialists serves it in good stead. India could have made a
clean break by giving up what were once the colonial territorial
claims of the British empire, resolving the border dispute with

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june 8, 2013

vol xlviII no 23

China and establishing close links with her northern neighbour.

It still can. The coming year will mark the 60th anniversary of the
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, what came to be called
Panchsheel. India and China have a long way to go in improving
their peoples living standards and for this to happen, the practice
of Panchsheel is surely a necessary condition. But that requires
India to first extricate itself from the colonial-imperialist web.