Independent India turns 70 next year. The country has made reasonable progress in many sectors though the dream of becoming a developed country remains elusive. Diplomacy and bureaucracy are two areas where India has no professionals matching the global standards. The country has many politicians but we have to scan carefully to locate one known for selfless, humble and dedicated services.
Foreign policy is also a sector where India needs world-class diplomats to address and resolve its issues dating back to 1947. The fact that India has strained relations with all its neighbours is shocking. A country boasting of a civilisation dating back to thousands of years and gave the world Bhagavad Gita has no real friends in its neighbourhood.
Pakistan and China have posed problems since 1947. It is strange that even after seven decades we have not succeeded in resolving these issues. Adding to our woes, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri lanka etc have emerged as problem countries. Is there any other country in the world with so many unfriendly neighboursIJ Who is to be blamed for thisIJ
Our diplomats take to writing books post-retirement since most of them are left with a lot of time at their disposal. These books are promoted as hitherto untold facts from ground zero, which forces readers to rush to bookshops to get the copies. The euphoria ends within the first week itself as they leave the readers as confused as they were in the beginning.
Shivshankar Menon, a diplomat who served India with distinction in many capacities before retiring as the NSA, has written Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy, a book in which he reminiscences five major foreign policy initiatives of the country in which he played a major role.
Menon is the grandson of KPS Menon, Independent India’s first foreign secretary. Shivshankar Menon, living up to his reputation as the scion of the Menon family, has not disappointed readers, though he has left many questions unanswered. It gives enough proof of his inclination to the Marxists by desisting from pointing a finger at China.
The five chapters Menon has penned are on the 1993 Border Peace and Tranquillity Agreement with China, Civil Nuclear Initiative with the USA, Mumbai Attack and Cross-Border Terrorism from Pakistan, culmination of the 2009 Civil War in Sri lanka which saw the elimination of the Tamil Tigers (lTTE) and why India pledged ‘No First Use’ of nuclear weapons. These are real reports from ground zero as Menon had played crucial roles in formulating the Indian stance in all these developments.
The signing of the 1993 agreement between India and China has its origin in a 1992 chit chat between JN Dixit, the then foreign secretary and Menon. Dixit, accompanying PM Narasimha Rao to Japan, had asked Menon if India could settle boundary dispute with China. Menon said it may be possible to make China agree to maintain peace along the border based on the then prevailing political situation in that country.
It was immediately after the Tiananmen Square massacre which saw the Communist regime using battle tanks and machine guns against its own people who were ‘demonstrating for democracy and freedom’. China was in a state of cauldron with the leadership plagued by fears of evil machinations of the US and also of deep division within the Chinese Communist Party. Menon was confident that though it may not be possible to make the Chinese to come down from their stance on territorial dispute with India, they may be persuaded to ‘ensure peace along the border with India, freeing the Chinese Government to deal with more pressing concerns of internal stabilisation and the US.’
While recounting the run up to the signing of the 1993 BPTA, the former NSA gives a bird’s eye view of the history behind China’s claim to Indian territories. One should thank him for explaining the differences between boundaries and borders, terms which are used interchangeably.
In 1962, the Chinese authorities, unleashed the People’s liberation Army over the hapless Indian soldiers posted at the border areas because the ‘comrades’ had suspected India of providing arms and ammunition to Chushi Gangdruk, a Tibetan guerrilla organisation fighting the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The ‘war’ saw 1,383 Indian soldiers getting killed, 1047 maimed and 1696 missing.
Adding insult to injury is the Chinese action of annexing Aksai Chin, and claiming it as that country’s historical and traditional land. Indian politicians do not like to speak about this incident as it may bring out the proof of Jawahar lal Nehru’s incapability as a PM and also of VK Krishna Menon, the then defence minister of the country. This is left unsaid by Menon while explaining the signing of the BPTA. What is baffling is how India acceded its boundaries to countries like China and Pakistan. Boundaries become line of Control (lOC), line of Actual Control (lAC) and International Border (IB) as India keeps on losing territories.
Menon points out that though India does not have a delineated lAC with China, “it is probably India’s most peaceful border in the last 30 years with no terrorists or cross-border firing.” He believes that China would keep the boundary issue alive as a lever. He also believes that the trespass by PlA into Chumar, a disputed region, during President Xi Jinping’s visit to India during September 2014 was an attempt by China “to emphasise to the new Indian PM its military dominance and ability to embarrass India on the border...”
What brings out the incompetence of our diplomats in sorting out the border issue with China is Menon’s claim that there was more to India and China than the boundary. “China is India’s largest trading partner in goods while India competes for global markets,” writes the former NSA. But what is not being said by Menon is the cost India pays to China. According to a written reply by commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the lok Sabha in August this year, India’s trade deficit with China in 2015-16 is $53 billion!
In addition to that, China does not lose any chance to give pinpricks to India, whether it is the country’s desire to be in the Nuclear Suppliers Group or to be a member of the UN security council. Add to these, the Maritime Silk Route, China Pakistan Economic Corridor and the String of Pearls, a series of ports along the Indian Ocean with which China hopes to tighten the noose around India’s neck. Though no shots have been fired by the PlA at the Indian soldiers, there is neither Peace or Tranquillity in the 1993 treaty.
The ties between India and China, which were in a state of limbo, perhaps got enlivened by Dr Subramanian Swamy, whom the Chinese describe as their one and only trusted friend in India. Swamy had a 100 minute long interview with Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping in April 1981 which led to the opening of Chinese borders for Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. Menon should be aware of this meeting though he has chosen to look the other way.
We need diplomats of global standards for us to breath easy. Our IFS officers may be good students and bookworms but not good diplomats. How I wish India too had diplomats like Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice!