Round The World
New Delhi, 19 June 2020
China Must Fall
IT’S INDIA’S CALL!
By Dr D.K. Giri
(Prof, International Politics, JMI)
In a violent clash between the Indian and
Chinese soldiers last Monday at Galwan Valley in Ladakh, over 20 Indian
soldiers, including a colonel were killed and more were injured. Casualties are
reported from the other side, but the exact number is not known. Such violent
deaths of our soldiers at the LAC have not occurred since 1945. Media is abuzz
with continued interpretations of Chinese motive in crossing up to 62 kms into
our side of the LAC. The politicians of ruling dispensation and ministers
continue to mouth rhetoric and display ‘unwavering determination’, as the
country is in a state of shock and confusion.
The sad news is that China has invaded our
territory and our soldiers are martyred pushing them back. I refuse to call it
skirmishes in the border; the military engagement is going beyond skirmishes. I
refuse to speculate on why China is doing it. The good news is that ‘Chinese
empire’ would fall; we can make this incident the beginning of that fall. We
should also try to minimise the tremors of that fall impacting our country.
Pradip Bose, an author and a journalist, the
founder of Association of Democratic Socialism, of which I am now the Secretary
General, had predicted privately the fall of Soviet empire, the unification of
Germany and the fall of the Chinese empire. He had bemoaned, “I may not be
alive to see the fall of Chinese empire”. He died a few years ago. Bose was
considered to be one of the best minds of Asia by his peers in international
socialist networks. The basic premise of his prediction was that any government
that does not allow freedom of choice to its people will inevitably collapse.
Soviet communism could not pass the test of time and Chinese totalitarianism
will meet the same fate.
In a communist autocracy, the unbridled power
of the supreme leader at home, in this case Xi Jinping, who has elected himself
to be the leader for life, makes them hunger for more control and influence
abroad. No wonder, China in engaged in incendiary acts vis-à-vis a number of
countries, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, USA, and
India. Beijing is eager to demonstrate to the world that the economic might
counts more than democracy at home than the rule-based order international
affairs. Major well-off democracies having unwisely propped up China are now trying
to counter it; early this month, parliaments of eight countries- US, Germany,
UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Norway set up an Alliance to
“construct appropriate and coordinated response, and craft a pro-active and
strategic approach on issues related to the People’s Republic of China”.
At home, without doubting for a second the
sincerity of our leaders and officers in handling the critical juncture we are
in with Beijing, I must say that unless we have a long term, consistent
approach, we cannot effectively deal with the current ‘limited border war’ with China. Before we
adumbrate a China strategy, we must recognise and remember the mistakes we made
in the past, the missteps taken by the present government. It may sound painful
at this stage, but without facing the facts, and acknowledging the mistakes we
cannot apply the correctives and move on. Some of us have been warning the
government on these, but only power legitimises wisdom, the voice of lesser
mortals can fall only on deaf ears.
Our first Prime Minister, Pt Nehru, in a
sense, the architect of our foreign policy, blundered on India’s role and
strength as a world power back in 1950s and 60s, and heavily on China. We have
mentioned these mistakes ad nauseam; the UNSC membership, the nuclear Bomb, the
‘K’ question, the NAM, Tibet, 1956 equivocation on foreign aggression,
anti-West posture. Modi began well by
unloading some of these baggage of the past like reversing the anti-West
posturing, decoupling our relations with Israel and Palestine, taking firm
steps in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, isolating Pakistan by bypassing SAARC
and creating BIMSTEC. On China, Modi fumbled between countering and accommodating
it, and perhaps with the advice from MEA mandarins, tried to do both, running
with the hare and hunting with the hound.
What is worse, Modi began to undo himself in
his second term in our foreign policy. To start with, his choice of foreign minister,
a former bureaucrat was inexplicable. Rajiv Gandhi made the mistake of appointing
technocrats as ministers and to key positions. Modi did it even 3 times more
than Rajiv, blurring the difference between bureaucrats who live in files and
furniture, and the politicians who feel the push and pulse of the people. Then Modi
called a meeting of SAARC, addressed the meeting of long-dead NAM, hugged the
Chinese leaders more than anyone else, twice in agenda-less meetings while
joining all the available anti-China groupings.
To be sure, Chinese incursion was waiting in
the wings to happen. Only the government failed to see it coming. Nehru was
lulled into complacence by the Chinese. Modi, a shrewder politician, too was
led up the garden path by our bureaucrats on China. He should have realised
that if chest-thumping against Pakistan can win elections, not standing up to
China could strip your world image and lose elections too. When it comes to
China, we invoke the advice of Vajpayee, “you can change your friends but not your
neighbours”. But what good is a neighbour who becomes a threat to peace and
integrity of our country.
Why was a military alliance not in place to
fend off China in such an eventuality? Let us not delude ourselves that we can
fight China on our own. The concept of self reliance is fallacious both in
economy and foreign policy; Modi has confused us and the world by using this
obsolete term, again a throwback to the past. It should be rather self-confidence.
What is prudent is to make strategic alliances. We did not compete with China
for a long time. China should have been the reference point for our foreign and
economic policies, not Pakistan, which is just a vassal state of China. Follow
the Japanese, South Korean or Israel model of defense of the country, not the
NAM nonsense.
Here we are now. Let us learn the lessons
from our mistakes from the distant as well as the recent past and as a country,
in unity, in one voice, face off the Chinese. Let us agree that China is
perfidious, not to be touched with a barge pole until it becomes a democracy
with multiparty politics, unless it stops making fantastic claim on Indian territory,
until it backs off to pre-5th May position in Ladakh. As a
government we continue our military and diplomatic engagements, rapidly build
our military alliances with countries that stand for rule based order and
democracy. Let us make the potential allies realise, China is not only a threat
to India, but to the entire world, like Hitler once was.
Although no one could question the courage
and determination of our forces, like Sam Manekshaw said, we must fight to win
and dismember China in the longer run, hasten its inevitable fall -- liberate
Tibet, save Taiwan from being gobbled up, save Hong Kong’s special status,
demilitarise South China Sea. China might pull back to status quo ante, pre- 5th
May. But that is not the end of our engagement with China. This episode should be
the beginning of the end of China as it is today. Not only the army or the
government, but the entire country should rise against China and take it to the
logical end. –INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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