New Delhi
7 November 2009
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh is not
unprecedented, nor is the Chinese opposition to it. What is disturbing is China's
increasingly condescending attitude towards India and the region, according to a former
Indian diplomat.
Ambassador K Shankar Bajpai (Retd), who served as the Indian envoy to China, the
United States and Pakistan, says that China's long-term intentions in the region should
be carefully considered before formulating an appropriate Indian response.
"There is no need to panic but we should be ready for all contingencies," he told this
newspaper.
Mr Bajpai acknowledges that there are major differences between India and China but he
does not believe that the issues such as border are irreconcilable.
Srikanth Kondapalli, who teaches at the Centre for East Asian Studies of the New Delhi-
based Jawaharlal Nehru University, believes that the long-term implications of the
Tibetan leader's visit to Arunachal Pradesh will relatively be negative, for several
reasons.
For one, China has signalled that it will re-open the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Since the late 1970s or the early 1980s, New Delhi has believed that there is an
understanding with Beijing on the sanctity of Line of Control; that Jammu and Kashmir is
a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and the dispute should be resolved
peacefully. This was an improvement over the previous Chinese position of the '60s,
that Jammu and Kashmir should be independent and there should be self-determination.
However, by issuing improper visas to the Indian nationals domiciled in Jammu and
Kashmir, China has indicated that Jammu and Kashmir is not a purely bilateral issue.
Further, Prof Kondapalli says that the linking of Jammu and Kashmir to the issue of Tibet
is more disturbing than China's illegal occupation of a part of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Linking the Jammu and Kashmir sovereignty issue to the issue of Tibet can be a source
of long-term conflict," he cautions.
"That, coupled with India's vocal response to the Chinese infrastructure projects in
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), can indicate that the conflict is rising.
"The Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman's open criticism of Chinese
infrastructure projects in PoK indicates that the diplomatic channels are breaking out,"
Prof Kondapalli adds.
The Dalai Lama has travelled to Arunachal Pradesh many times in the past. He visited
the state in 2003 and he was to go to Tawang again in 2008, but that visit was deferred.
Tawang is the town where the Dalai Lama crossed into India in 1959 while fleeing
Chinese occupation of Tibet.
China has regularly protested the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh. It has also
criticised the visits there by Indian leaders. China's opposition stems in part from a
dispute over Arunachal Pradesh that goes back nearly a century. China does not want to
recognise the McMahon Line, drawn in 1914, which depicts Arunachal Pradesh as a part
of India.
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