Shiban Khaibri
Taking undue rather (un)grammatical liberties with the English language but with intent to bring home and extrapolate the extent of a thing of universal damaging nature , of deleterious effect and of destroying nature , such a departure can be overlooked by the experts and the knowledgeable , this writer, therefore, terms the expansionist tendencies of China as “Covidian” or similar to how corona-virus is “made” to spread and expand its tentacles. Since almost all the worst affected countries from the pandemic , including India which has unfortunately jumped to the third worst hit in the world, are vigorously engrossed in finding an antidote , a counter nullifier to it , comity of nations, similarly, must sooner than later join together to cut the Dragon to its size and if possible, have its menacingly fluttering wings clipped. It is widely believed by political scientists that liberty and freedom must survive and stay with more space to stretch and spread if humanity and human values had really any lofty meaning and unparalleled importance . It, therefore, can safely be deduced that survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in our neighbours and other lands. The best hope for peace in this world is how much expansion of liberty and freedom took place and allowed too to sustain as such.
If in a failed state like Pakistan , freedom and liberty had really been allowed to breathe normally and grow , in all probabilities, despite a hard core theocratic narrow minded state, it could have not been indulging in so much of hostilities towards its parent country India , which gave to it its land and water, culture , dress, language , cuisine , traditions, music art and literature as also assets from out of its scarce resources. Those resources became scarce continuously over the period due to Bharat being subjected to foreign invasions, one after the other for centuries together – looting and plundering it and spilling innocents’ blood, ravaging it and undoing its rich and glorious history and historical symbols, followed by over a hundred year’s rule by the British. Despite that, Bharat survived, its oldest spiritual and worshipping traits survived, its legacies and customs remained intact and its spirit of believing in and spreading the message of peace and knowledge triumphed. We became an independent nation in 1947 but it was hardest earned independence, costliest independence since hundreds of thousands of innocents were butchered , tasted independence after Bharat getting sliced away by three regions , in the west , in the east and in the north – West Pakistan, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
We saw how an entire original Bharti religo-culture existence of thousands of years got vanished , vandalised and rooted out lock, stock and barrel from the theocratic Pakistan . Thousands of years of established roots of such original culture was its original identity . Intolerance and religious fundamentalism even after 72 years of almost finishing everything original in Pakistan related to Hindus continues even now when besides host of heart rending instances, a Hindu temple proposed to be constructed with the approval of Imran government was stopped right at the start and whatever little had been erected was demolished by zealots there – forgetting that Lahore, Karachi, Sindh and other places were dotted with thousands of Hindu temples till 1947.
Pakistan has been forging friendship with China as both have some similarities in respect of totalitarian and expansionist ambitions against India . However, Pakistan has another rotten egg on its face , that of promoting and strengthening terrorism . It faces sanctions and now it is the turn of China to face more stringent sanctions and boycotts from the world community in which India has taken a lead by proscribing 59 of its Apps and an implicit boycott of Chinese made goods flooding our markets. The clarion call of the Prime Minister for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” or self reliant India besides making this country economically stronger would prove a death knell to expansionist China in its zest to rule the world commercially and would lose the badge of growth engine of Asia and beyond. It is not without heaps of reasons that the Prime Minister referred to expansionism and expansionist tendencies , of course, without directly naming China in Ladakh which is reminiscent of a matured statesman and a leader of global reckoning . China has not problems with our country only but as an expansionist, a usurper and an encroacher, it has eye on territories which, not in the least, belong to it but just like Pakistan which cannot do without religious fanaticism and sponsoring terrorism , suppressing and persecuting its minorities , China too cannot behave as a noble nation ,it also persecutes its minorities (read Uighur Muslims) like Pakistan does to its largest minority the Hindus . So commonalities between the two totalitarian nations , unfortunately in our neighbourhood are many. However, if China is not a ruthless expansionist country, why should it have grave problems with as many 18 countries is a moot question.
We know China has occupied 38000 sq.km of India’s land in Aksai Chin for which Congress Party and its governments’ policies right from 1947 are responsible. Again, China claims another 90000 sq. Km of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc. Its diabolical moves to wean away Nepal from India with which it has got “Roti and Beti” relations and cultural cum spiritual connections are getting dashed. PM KP Oli trying to appease his Chinese comrade even vomited anti India remarks for which he is in deep soup in his country and is shocked over claims from China on some of its territories. It already “swallowed” lot of Nepalese land in Dolakha , Humla Sindhupal Chowk and other three districts including several of Nepal’s boundary pillars . Very strangely , China claims Mount Everest as its “own part”. Several parts of Nepal, China claims as having been part of Tibet dating back to Sino-Nepalese war in 1788.
Chinese army captured Tibet in 1950 and whole of the Tibet continues to remain under its illegal occupation while it had been an independent Buddhist country. China divided Tibet into areas, renamed them and incorporated them into Chinese provinces, nothing short of blatant annexation like Pakistan did in our Baltistan and Gilgit . However, revelations are that the then Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru arranged rice etc for the invading PLA troops in Tibet when they were busy in rampaging and decimating the Tibetan way of life and culture in 1950s. Without the support of the then government of India to the Chinese PLA troops , it is believed they would have not been able to survive in Tibet. On the other hand, Dalai Lama , the leader of Tibet was given asylum and protection in India by Nehru. Rice Diplomacy to appease China and other favours in international forums by India did not deter Mao Zedong’s China from “back stabbing” India in 1962.
With Bhutan, it has not changed its expansionist ambitions despite the Doklam standoff where it had to step back. Chinese patrols at times do not allow the Bhutanese villagers to access pasture lands falling well within their territory . In respect of Vietnam, China has been occupying several of its islands for the last five decades and on them built its military installations, also an airfield and artificial harbour. Similarly, the moment Japan made it known that some islands falling in South China sea belonging to it had promises of huge oil reserves, China claimed ownership of those islands. Not only has Japan rejected its such baseless claim but even the United States has done it but aggressive posturing by China over the issue has kept the pot boiling.
Even Taiwan is claimed by China as a whole , in particular those islands which China thinks of great commercial interests hence usurping them as they fall in South China sea. In respect of Philippines, many parts of South China sea are contested between the two countries. See the highhandedness of China , Philippines winning the case over such areas in the International Court of Justice , China does not abide by the court’s verdict. Distorted history , China has full recourse to as is usually wont to communists and relating to Yuvan Dynasty rule of 13th century claims entire North Korea . It claims by that logic whole of South Korea also. By that standard, India has “every right” to claim Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar , entire Pakistan and not only the PoK on Chinese set historical norms. A super power like Russia too is not spared by China and claims 160000 sq.kms of Russian territory , most of which is resources rich but sparsely populated. In the same way, it has disputes (one sided) thrust on Laos, Tajikistan, Cambodia and Mongolia .
Indian hard stand, diplomatically , militarily, economically and internationally against China for its evil expansionist ambitions against our country, under the leadership of Narendra Modi has resulted in rearward movement of the Chinese PLA in Ladakh from PP14, Hot Springs and Gogra points. Though the pull back shall be completed as per agreed terms which China has confirmed, DSDBO Road needs to be fully protected as it gives to us an advantage of 13000 to 16000 ft; height over China and China believing in backstabbing cannot be trusted as cannot be Pakistan too. Hence our vigil, guard and military high preparedness should reign supreme to act as a neutraliser and as an antivenin to its “Covidian” expansionist tendencies.
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