It appears Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted China–dictated China–India border. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) can argue that it has accepted what was de jure. What is hailed as a historic moment is actually an abject surrender to Beijing. It is practically a defeat. Had the Congress Party done so, it would have been paraded as a force which had sold out India.
Modi, with his flowery speeches in Hindi, may go down well with people who cannot understand the intricacies of the border problem. But surprisingly, the party has the support from the Nagpur headquarters from where the RSS high command operates.
China and India have seldom agreed on where the actual border line is. The India-China border was demarcated by the British during the colonial period, and is known as the MacMahon Line. China does not accept this border line. Nehru asked the Indian army to oust the infiltrators and clear its territory. Since then the relations between the two have been more or less hostile.
The McMahon Line demarcates Arunachal Pradesh to be a part of India; China refuses to acknowledge this and considers the region to be disputed. Any activity that takes place in this area is viewed by China skeptically. In April last year, when the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal Pradesh, China called his visit a “provocation.” It had warned India that the Dalai Lama’s visit would affect the normal relations between the two countries. The Chinese also protested Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Arunachal in November 2017. Beijing has also been issuing stapled visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh visiting China. China wants to indicate that it is a ‘separate territory’ and not part of India.
The relations between the two countries further reached their lowest point in recent years during the standoff over Doklam in June–August 2017. India stood its ground, and ultimately China had to withdraw its forces behind the present border.
Prime Minister Modi’s trip to China last September soon after the Doklam standoff for BRICS did reduce tensions between the two countries. The positive side of Modi’s trip then was the reiteration by the two countries to fight against terrorists, even though it is also true that the friendship between China and Pakistan continues to increase.
Now it seems that Beijing is trying to revive the India–China Bhai Bhai scenario. Soon after PM Modi’s recent April visit to China, a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that both sides possessed the “maturity and wisdom” to handle their differences through peaceful discussion and by respecting each other’s “concerns and aspirations.”
They also agreed to use the Special Representatives’ Meeting on the boundary question to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement. The two militaries will strengthen confidence-building measures and enhance communication and cooperation to uphold border peace and tranquility, said the statement.
China and India have agreed to build a high-level cultural and people-to-people exchange mechanism between the two nations. The informal summit meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also stressed on the need to strengthen the China–India Closer Developmental Partnership so that the relationship between the two will always keep to the right direction.
On the last leg of his two-day visit, the Indian Prime Minister and Chinese President walked along a sidewalk on the shores of the Wuhan’s East Lake and later sailed in the same boat for “peace, prosperity and development” in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. This augurs well.
