Dokalam standoff at India-China border in Bhutan has been defused following diplomatic communication between the two countries. The tension surfaced when on June 16 last Chinese troops were seen concentrated at Dokalam engaged in constructing a road through the territory which India claims does not belong to China but to Bhutan and that India would not allow any encroachment on that territory. However, during the entire period of tension, India never lost her cool and insisted on one simple point that both armies withdraw to their positions as before June 16.
Though the two countries had agreed during the Astana meeting that border issues would not be allowed to transform into disputes but resolved through talks, Beijing did not hesitate to issue threats and intimidation to coerce India into scaling down from her position. Despite these provocations India maintained dignified stance which even the western diplomats appreciated and said that India had matured in international diplomacy and handling critical issues. New Delhi refused to be intimidated or lose her cool and mildly reminded Beijing that India of 2017 was not the India of 1962.
Dokalam standoff and then its peaceful diffusion have some lessons for both sides. First and foremost is that border disputes can be solved through negotiations and these have not to be magnified so as to bring good relations under pressure. Second, China has to learn that she needs to change her hostile attitude towards India for many reasons. Firstly, India is not a small and weak country that she would go in adopting a policy of intimidating. China will have to bring about a sea change in her border policy with India. China is in the habit of encroaching and intimidating her neighbours but this trick has lost its sheen as far as India is concerned. China will still take time to learn the norms of good neighbourly relations. On Dokalam diffusion Chinese spokesman claimed that India has withdrawn her troops to her original position and that China maintains her sovereignty over her territory. We know that this lie has been said by the Chinese with the intention of creating confusion in India political circles in the hope of making the Indian opposition strong so as to raise doubts. But New Delhi has taken the right step of calling the opposition leaders and clarifying the position to them that withdrawal was under an agreement with China. The opposition should be given credit for considering this issue from national security parameters and declaring that it was satisfied with the way the MEA had handled the issue. We would like to congratulate Modi Government for taking a bold, courageous and correct stance vis-a-vis China’s belligerent attitude. Even Pakistan must be bemused of how India can stand up to the belligerence of China while Pakistan continues her hostility towards us.
China, unfortunately, is living in the distant past as far as her policy towards India is concerned. She is making no secrets of her hostile policy towards India and is giving an impression that India is her rival in Asia and that India is challenging her supremacy and primacy in the Asian politics. This type of thinking betrays China’s total ignorance of India’s history and philosophy of international relationship. China must understand that India the world’s largest democracy is making a historical experiment of running a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation through democratic dispensation. With the consolidation of her democratic institutions, India becomes powerful. As against it China thinks that power means military power only and that only military power sustains the nation. The case of the erstwhile Soviet Union should be the eye opener for her. China has also to learn, as the US belatedly also leant, that India is not to be hyphenated with Pakistan in any respect as that is a fallacy and incompetence of political acumen.
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