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| Chinese snobbery, Indian indifference chronic enough | | China’s Intentions III | | ABID SHAH | 9/9/2009 11:44:51 PM |
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An Early Times Special
New Delhi, Sept 9: Chinese moves in North-Western border regions of Ladakh are now in public domain. Yet the question that arises how could they remain under wraps for months or at least since July this year. And why has this been treated in a hush-hush manner? What interest would it serve to keep people unaware of an otherwise disconcerting movement of not so friendly a neighbour in a sensitive border zone?
Strangely, there are no definite answers to this even as local officials did try to do their bit by informing superiors and Army wanted and still wants action to make the frontiers more secure. Defence experts attribute indifference on the part of the powers-that-be to an otherwise highly sensitive issue simply to their wont to look for easy ways rather than face as big a challenge as China poses right from Ladakh to the down east by calling the borders disputed except through the Central part falling under Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand.
Chinese snobbery and Indian indifference have been as old as since the times of the late Jawaharlal Nehru, according to one expert while another points to the late disclosure of recent Ladakh moves of Chinese choppers and ground soldiers to sheer chance whereby the journalists brought to a recent Ladakh festival could have been winked by local officials who must have been getting tired of warning their higher ups about Chinese incursions.
Whatever may be the case, these experts lament, that things are getting hardly any better even after media exposure of China’s moves and the noises set off by this. Experts say China has been taking advantage of a situation where India either prefers or pretends that it cannot afford to annoy Beijing.
This is more so after External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna, has indicated that the UAE military aircraft detained at Kolkata with China bound armaments meant for trial there might soon be released. The aircraft had landed there for refueling without giving correct information about the nature of its cargo. After mulling over as to what to do with it for three days the Ministry appears to be relenting amid UAE’s pleas for its release.
Yet the irony behind the nod awaited for the aircraft to fly to China amid reports of incursions by its forces in Ladakh is not going to be missed by anyone. Experts say whatever may be the case with the China bound aircraft, the Ladakh incursions point to the fact that China has been keeping an eye upon the strategically significant area called Chicken Neck.
It measures over 600 kilometres and runs from Himachal Pradesh borders with China to Karakoram Pass, The Jammu and Kashmir border falls in between. China does not restrict movements of its men, machines and livestock through its area bordering Jammu and Kashmir whereas on the Indian side various government agencies put multiple restrictions on their citizens movements often to ward off smuggling and spying whose possibility is always thought to be high throughout the high altitude border. The recent Chinese incursions have been reported in the Chamur area which is in South-Eastern part of the Ladakh region whereas in the past most Chinese intrusions had taken place in Northern and Central parts of Ladakh point out the experts.
Chinese arrogance through the entire area has been such that they have even gone back from their assurance to exchange the maps of the area. Experts point out Chinese keenness to keep the area disputed because of the safe distance of Beijing and Shanghai from not only this but also from the rest of the border. The only close by town is Lhasa. And if the local Ladakh member of the Lok Sabha, Mr Hassan Khan, is to be believed brisk Chinese construction activity upto the Ladakh border has been on for years where good motorable roads and airports have been coming up on the Chinese side of the borders and there is a Chinese plan to connect Lhasa with Karakoram Pass through a railway line.
Mr Khan hails from Kargil whose interests significantly vary from Ladakh and often there is bitterness among the people of the two regions during times like elections or when Government largesse are to be shared between the inhabitants of the two regions. Yet Mr Khan finds Chinese moves no less alarming.
He told Early Times over telephone on Wednesday, “About a couple of months ago or so I issued a statement about this. It was carried by a daily published from Kashmir. What I pointed out has turned out to be true. And it is simply that we do not have the kind of connectivity that the people of the inhospitable regions as also our troops deserve to match the strides that Chinese have made right upto our borders.
“Beijing says that the infrastructure that is being developed right upto our doorsteps is because of its zest to develop the inhospitable area. Yet none can miss its military and strategic value which is so detrimental to our interests that the sooner we start thinking of accessing the borders through good communication network, the better. I do not say that there have been no efforts towards this end. Yet a lot remains to be done to meet the situation that China is soon going to pose before us.”
(Concluded)
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