Hissing Dragon-Squirming Tiger:

Comparisons, Negotiations

and Attitudes continues....

Knowledgeable observers believed that former National Security

Adviser Brajesh Mishra had been given a negotiating brief by the Cabinet

Committee on Security (CCS) in order to quell Chinese doubts on

whether India was prepared to negotiate seriously, and to make the

necessary political compromises involved in a ‘give-and-take’ package deal

proposal. Indian PM Vajpayee’s statement in November 2003 that a

settlement of the boundary issue with China would greatly ease India’s

defence problems, and free large numbers of Indian defence personnel

from having to maintain operational readiness against China, was seen by

observers as a prelude to an impending breakthrough in finalizing the

guidelines. Mishra’s unpublicized visits to China had been seen by analysts

as steps being taken towards a grand announcement before the NDA

government announced the 2004 elections.

That such an announcement

was not made indicates that as late as January 2004, the ‘Special

Representatives’ of the two countries had not been able to finalize the

guidelines for conduct of the substantive negotiations. But the Bhajpa

government did not find favour with the Indian masses at the elections of

2004, and had to exit high office. The UPA government that followed did

not have the necessary political clout to adequately take the matter

forward, even though it is clearly in India’s own interest to do so.

Analysts are of the belief that India is negotiating on the basis of

Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai’s 1960 offers, but that it has not been

possible to remove certain stumbling blocks as yet. One of them is the

status of Tawang, in the Kameng region of Arunachal Pradesh, site of a

major monastery of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, and

birthplace of the Sixth Dalai Lama. The Chinese are insistent on being

‘returned’ to Tibet. The Chinese are not interested in negotiations that

will merely formalize the ‘status quo'.

To be continued.....