China’s Bitter Lesson: Manmohan Singh is no Barack Obama!

For those of you who must have had a good laugh (as also for the sober types) at China’s objection to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh’s stepping on to the Arunachal Pradesh soil, it would help to leaf back a bit and learn about history. The genesis to Chinese protestations dates back to the era of British Raj and to the days when Pandit Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru was at the helm of Indian affairs.

The Indo-China boundaries were drawn during the days of the British rule over India with the help of what historically has come to be known as the McMohan Line - the line that since has become the proverbial bone of contention between the two major Asian countries. And with China always displaying selective amnesia by refusing to recognise the part of the line that stretches over the 1030 km long unfenced Arunachal Pradesh boundary with India while at the same time occupying a chunk of Kashmiri territory (that India claims as its own) has not helped matters at all.

The Jammu and Kashmir portion is on a 43,180 sq km area while the Arunachal Pradesh portion of the disputed land covers 90,000 sq km.

China’s raking up of the Arunachal Pradesh issue now seems to be arising out of the country’s uneasiness at the mass voter turnout (a huge 72 percent) in the recently held elections in the state of India. The democratic process of India though could still be a minor irritant for China, its major worry being the impending visit of the Dalai LamaDalai Lama to the border state.

With India politely rejecting the Chinese request to not allow the Dalai Lama to set foot on Arunachal Pradesh soil stating that the monk is free to move anywhere in India the dragon country seems to be now looking for ways and means to add pressure on New Delhi. Remember, China recently was successful in arm-twisting the US President Barack ObamaBarack Obama and forced him to keep away from the Lama when he visited Washington.

That Manmohan Singh is made of a different grain must be extremely unpalatable to China. After all, Manmohan’s interpretation of the McMohan Line cannot be the same as his Chinese counterpart’s! And by now, Hu JintaoHu Jintao might have learnt the sour grapes way that Manmohan is no Obama!!

All this must help in putting the recent rounds of cold war between the two Asian countries in perspective. But then, that’s another story!

- myVox