Article No. 1: CHINA WOES

There is no end to China woes. India is always consumed with the present. Whether it is the Government, opposition, media or experts. All focus at the ‘present’. Isn’t the ‘present’ after all ‘yesterdays’ future? Does anyone ask what the yesterday was? Without correcting the yesterday, we want to solve the present days problems.

The ‘Ladakh Victory’ being hailed by the few is nothing but the complete fascination with the present. BJP had the upper hand in domestic politics from 2014, Doklam and even the current standoff. Not only has it lost the domestic advantage but it has tread along the same path as its predecessors, the Congress. Instead of securing its political future by doing something the country would have loved, it has taken advise of Retired Generals and Bureaucrats who are products of counter insurgency industry. For next twenty years the advisors need to be seen with suspicion.

What did the Government do wrong?

Of the 73 years in power, except for approx. 17 years (Janata Party three years, BJP 14 years) Congress has been in power for more than 56 years including the most crucial period from 1947 to 1971. The China narrative was crystallized by Congress. The nation was kept in dark about the goings on the China border. Nehru and Indira Gandhi took all decisions and the resultant state on China border till date has roots to those years. What were the highlights of these years?

• China declared its claim line internationally in 1959.
• India till date has not declared its claim line despite being a sovereign state.
• India ‘accepted’ annexation of Tibet by China but never bargained for settling border as International Boundary as a precondition.
• Right from Shaksgam Valley near Daulat Beg Odli to Kibuthu in Arunachal, almost 4000 km is the grey area which has been never demarcated as IB or held physically.
• China has been an aggressive bully in matters of borders with all 13 nations it has borders with. It was completely subdued by Russia.
• The snatching of territory has been going on since 1949 and will continue.

BJP had a golden chance to turn the complete country against congress, take a moral high ground, stare back at China and internationally make good the loss of last 73 years including hiding faults committed by it in the seventeen years by simply taking few steps to completely get the population and mandate in its favour. The country would have pardoned BJP even if it would bargain with China so far as the LAC was converted to IB. Alas, BJP lost it due to its obsession of getting involved with micro issues like Rahul Gandhi and dragging in Nehru for every issue.

All BJP requires to do is the following:

• Publish an official map giving India’s claim line.
• Publish another map giving Chinas claim line.
• Annotate the map with actual holding of land by each country.
• Give out year of each land grab by China.
• Put current Ladakh crisis in correct perspective.
• Remove 100% so called ‘experts’ including veterans appearing in media and have caused tremendous damage to BJPs image.
• Get completely new set of professionals who would give their opinion based on merits.
• Create confidence by exposing everything to citizens of India what was hidden by Congress.

Nothing as such happened. Where are we today?

We discuss Finger 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 without understanding difference between IB and LAC, we discuss LAC without knowing where our claim line is, we discuss Chinese aggression on LAC and try to cover up by lies and deploying every resource to further misguide population.

We need to be honest, just honest with India and the nation will not only rally behind but see for itself who the culprit was since 1947.

The current ‘Ladakh Victory’ could have been converted to an actual one, but….

Col Sanjay Pande

© Copyright