By Syed Ali Mujtaba
There is a Chinese proverb; the one who ties the knot can alone untie it. This proverb China wants to attribute to India to reduce the tensions going on along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). China wants India to undo the abrogation Article 370 that changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir.
There are few plausible reasons making rounds for Chinese incursion into India. They are; India’s construction of Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road from 2000. India along with the US and other powers hedging China and India not complying with Wuhan spirit or it’s follow up at Mamallapuram near Chennai are other reasons given for Chinese aggression.
Among the numerous stances of India breaking the Wuhan spirit, the most logical seems to be the abrogation of Article 370 that relates to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, and the claim over the territories in the possession of China thus challenging China’s territorial integrity.
This idea was conveyed by Wang Shida, the Deputy Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR).
He says: “On the Chinese side, India opened up new territory on the map, incorporated part of the areas under the local jurisdiction of Xinjiang and Tibet into its Ladakh Union Territory. This has forced China into the Kashmir dispute and stimulated it to take counter-actions on the Kashmir issue.” CICIR is Beijing-based think-tank affiliated to the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body.
The author says, China had raised this issue at the United Nations Security Council. ‘The Foreign Minister had conveyed China’s strong opposition to India’s moves of abrogation of Article 370 and the establishment of Ladakh as a union territory.’
The author quoted Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement in Parliament of taking back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin from China.
Wang Shida said such statements had “posed a challenge to the sovereignty of Pakistan and China and “made India-Pakistan relations and China-India relations more complex.”
The author acknowledged that India’s foreign minister had conveyed to Beijing that the move was an entirely internal matter that did not impact India’s external boundaries or the LAC with China. But China opposed the Ladakh map for including Aksai Chin as a part of Indian Territory as that has dramatically increased the difficulty in resolving the border issue.
Now in such a situation the question is will India untie the knot, the way Chinese want it to do? Will PM Modi restore the previous status of Jammu and Kashmir in bargain for the withdrawal of Chinese troops? Or will he stick to his party’s nationalist agenda that changed the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir, even if it means compromising Indian Territory?
As things stand on ground, military level talks have failed between India and China. The PLA had flatly rejected the Indian demand for the withdrawal of the Chinese troops from the areas it occupied in May and restored the status quo that prevailed in April.
The Galwan River valley intrusion did not feature in the discussion of the military talks, the core issue of the current dispute. The PLA refused to discuss its intrusions into the Galwan River valley and instead claimed ownership over the entire area that Indian forces were patrolling for over two and half decades. At the moment the PLA has fortified its position at the Galwan River valley and are in a striking distance to India’s strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road.
As a consequence of dominating the DSDBO road, the Chinese have gained strategically and isolated India from the Depsang area where the road ends. The subsector north (SSN) ends at Depsang plains, India’s last outpost at the base of the Karakoram Pass.
The other focal point of Chinese intrusion is on the north bank of the Pangong Lake. Here, the PLA is controlling the mountain ridges that overlook the lake and slopes from the height of Finger 8,7,6,5 and 4. Chinese claim line is now at finger 3 which they made a buffer zone and the new LAC. Indian patrols cannot go beyond Finger 3 and control only finger 1&2.
It appears that China now has come inside three to five kilometers that is supposedly to be the Indian Territory. They occupy some sixty kilometers of Indian land. Since no joint statement was released after the India China military talks, its outcome is well known.
Now the problem Indian leadership faces is to diplomatically engage China and make them retreat to pre-April position. This is only possible only if there is some give and take. The give is India restore the previous status of J&K and the take is China withdraw its troops from its advanced position so that India regains its territory.
If this happens India will untie the knot and both go back to their old positions. India will go back to pre-August 5, 2019 position and China to pre May 2020 position.
If this doesn’t happen then the government has to accept the loss of territory to China while keep on bluffing that the negotiation channel is on, and just like black stashed abroad which is yet to come the leadership will be promising it will retrieve the loss of territory from China.
In such a case, the super nationalist leadership of the country has to go for an all-out war with China and evict it from its territory as India did with Pakistan during the Kargil war 1999. The problem in such adventurism is India may not get colonized again.
All these are Hobbesian choices for India to make. But they very well fits into the Chinese proverb that the one who ties the knot can alone untie it.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
Kuch bhi.
Good article
Na..Give Chinese Treatment to Muslims in Kashmir. That should make Chinese happy.
Muslim problem in Kashmir is only 6 Districts in Kashmir Valley and not in whole Kashmir. These are the Districts with almost 100% of Muslims Population after Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus. All these Districts are around 70 Miles from LoC. HOW LONG YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE MYANMAR ARMY TO CLEAR MAKE KASHMIR A MUSLIM FREE STATE? NOT MORE THAN A DAY.
INDIA IS WEEK BUT TODAY IT SEEMS IT IS EID IN PAKISTAN AND FOR MUSLIMS IN INDIA AFTER MARTYRDOM INDIAN SOLDIERS.
INDIA NEEDS A LEADER LIKE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE WINNER AUNG SUNG SUI KYI TO DEAL WITH KASHMIR MUSLIM ISSUE.
Seems ur more worried of Indian Muslims than our soldiers
That’s Indian Army capacity only to Kill unarmed civilians and burn their houses, like ur mentality is same Gau Mutreh and Gobar
Absolutely right
You should fuck yourself #Hindustani….
Hindu gutter rats only understand violence. We need Idi Amin style rule to deal with Hindu terrorists once and for all.
A Hindu free world will ensure peace everything. The Chinese took out 20 of them without even firing a bullet.
The author seems to forget that the china occupation of Aksai-chin region precede the abrogation of art. 370. India is soverein country and it has every right to take decisions regarding administeration of any state and the current conflict is the result of china unilateral decision to change status quo. Indian armed forces were petrolling the region from finger 1-8 including Galwan river valley till april. The immidiate reason of china intrusion seems to be building of military infrastructure by India to dominate the dob road and it is also well within the indian side of LAC.
Modi is a coward PM of India. His and Amit Shah’s 56 inch chest broadens only in front of countries like Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka etc. But when it comes to China, their 56 inch chest becomes 0.56”. Modi is the biggest liar of the world. He surrendered to Chinese aggression even without a fight. Nehru at least fought with whatever resources he had at that time (1962). Our soldiers died in vein. Now taking advantage of the deaths of the Indian soldiers he will once again fool the people of India and win the election. Fucking coward PM of India.
The worst consequence is poors are dying with the worst political system of India.
This is typical Chinese immature policy. They do the same in the South China sea…they occupy land under any guise and use it for military border purposes themselves. Then challenge the owner to take it back while crying to UN as if they are the victim at same time. The purpose here is china trying to teach India a lesson…in telling India it learned nothing from 1962 war, is same as saying..we kicked your butt once, we will do it again, if you dont give us what we want. Its a threat…but the new India of 1962 is vastly different to India today…China wont be making any cake walks. It was actually china got its ass handed to it in 62….as the tolls were consistent on both sides…with China taking a bit more casualties. China is doing this on all borders with all its neighbors to see how far they can move and press buttons before anything is done. There is only one solution for India…talking will only make the Chinese bastard smug and factitious….Unbending with that attitude of stuff you…what will you do…nothing. ….so India has to go to war…or forever be harassed by china. China just wants the high ground overlooking India s positions…and to control India´s use of the new road they have constructed…China fears this road for some reason…or wants to use it, itself. But fact remains…no one ever won a an argument with china…as they love to twist words while working behind your back. They are actually a cowardly race. This attack and way they did it shows that.
In short india is going to destroy very soon inshallah
Modi is a coward PM of India. His and Amit Shah’s 56 inch chest broadens only in front of countries like Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka etc. But when it comes to China, their 56 inch chest becomes 0.56”. Modi is the biggest liar of the world. He surrendered to Chinese aggression even without a fight. Nehru at least fought with whatever resources he had at that time (1962). Our soldiers died in vein. Now taking advantage of the deaths of the Indian soldiers he will once again fool the people of India and win the election. Fucking coward PM of India.
We kashmiri are today confused due to modhi dirty politics on kashmir issue ..
It’s absolutely wrong on the part of China to invade any part of India. It’s absolutely wrong on the part of Indian government to claim the freedom of kashmiris . the situation of Kashmir is much different from any other state in India . also it is a fact that the whole process of abrogation of article 370 was just wrong according to law . India is not a monarchy , we must remember. India is not like China . the decisions taken by the government can and should be put through the filter of logic and question before and after they are implemented , India gives this right to its citizens. Kashmiris are also India’s citizens , they were before the gross injustice done to them due to the curfew . if the law protects the rights of citizens of Karnataka , Bihar , gujrat , andhra etc, why could it not protect the same for the kashmiris ? was it because they were not considered Indian in the first place, and hence had to be joined with the rest of the country by force. Why did the centre impose a state of fear and anxiety over its own citizens in Kashmir – to make them Indian , as if they were not before . kashmiris are a part of India, they are granted this status by very special laws and circumstances . how could such a different and unique association be dismissed . it was not befitting on the part of the centre to capture and occupy it’s own people , who enjoyed a special status due to a completely legal agreement between the state and the centre. To crush this legal agreement shows the unjust nature of the centre , its complete disregard for its own citizens’ rights and essence of humanity , much like it’s enemy neighbour , China .