15 March, 2011 (English) - Bharatiya Janata Party

Do a China on ChinaIn an article published inQiushi Journal, officialOrgan of the CentralCommittee of ruling CommunistParty of China, has termedincreasing co-operation betweenUS-India as ‘unbearable’. Itargued that Beijing must send aclear signal to these countriesthat it is ready to go to war tosafeguard its national interest.Throughout the history of thenew China (since 1949), thearticle states, peace in China hasnever been gained by giving in,but only through war.Safeguarding national interestsis never achieved by merenegotiations, but by war.It is well known that Chinais a belligerent and irresponsiblepower with imperialistic designs.For it national interest meansnothing but grabbing territoriesof others. History is full of suchexamples, which prove itsimperialist nature. India alreadyhas been a victim of Chineseimperialistic thrust. We havealready lost about 38000 squarekilometers of our territory toChina in 1962 war.The present UPAgovernment does not seem to bekeen to learn from the pastexperience with China. Indiacontinues to be complacent fromemerging threat to her fromChina. To this article threateningwar, our defence minister A. KAntony articulated that Indiawas “not unduly worried” overChina’s military modernization.It is noteworthy that such threatMarch 1-15, 2011 21By Vikash Anandis not new. An official meetingheld at Leh on January 10, 2010attended by officials from theJammu and Kashmirgovernment, Ministry of HomeAffairs and Army had agreedthat we lost substantial amountof land on boarder to Chinaduring the 20-25 years andencroachments on IndianTerritory by Chinese troops areslow but nonstop. China is alsodeveloping a rail link near Indianborders. The article also warnsthat China is preparing for war.The development surroundingIndia manifests that Chinawants to encircle India from allsides. Nepal is strategically veryimportant for India. There too,we seem to be a loser. Maoist’salliance has formed governmentin Nepal, which has proximityto China. Both these countriestogether provide logistic supportto Indian insurgent groups.Inspite of all these developmentsour Defence Minister says noneed to be unduly worried overthe new developments. Thepresent UPA government at theCenter seems to be toeingNehruvian line in its policytowards China. Pandit Nehruhad always been unconcernedabout threat from China. Hiscarelessness cost India a war in1962 and loss of her territory toChina.The neighbour continues topinprick India at every point itcan. However, India is ready togo another mile to extend herhand of friendship. During therecent visit of Chinese PremierWen Jiabao to New Delhi, Indiaestablishment was patting itsback that though India is notgaining on the political front yet,at least her trade with China isincreasing. At that time bothpledged to increase bilateraltrade by $100 billion from 49.5billion dollar by 2015. It isnotable that our trade relationwith China is a zero-sum game.Indo- China trade is badlyskewed in favour of China. Thatis why China is interested inincreasing trade relation withIndia.Now, the time has come torestructure Indian defence policytowards China keepinguppermost the interests of thenation in mind. Thrust ofdefence policy must move awayfrom being more Pakistan centricand less China centric. Weshould increase our defenceexpenditure. China is far aheadof India in terms of expenditureon defence. China’s defencebudget, pegged at $77.5 billion,is more than twice that of India’s$32-billion.We spend just 2.3 percent of the Gross DomesticProduct against China’s six percent. Chinese has high-techsecurity and surveillance system.But India does not seem to bekeeping pace with China’sstrategic threats in high-techsurveillance system. Forexample, we take our policesystem. China provides mobileto the level of a constable, whatIndia has not done so far whileIndia provides an official mobileto the level of Sub divisionalpolice officer.India must formulate a 20-year plan to take on China. If westart from today then we will...Continued on page 23