Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Remember, when the Chinese troops brazenly penetrated 19 kilometres into our territory in Ladakah some two months ago? Remember the nonchalance with which our leaders tried to wish it away with all those silly apologies and all’s wells? For them it was a bad dream that should have been avoided.
Remember the apologies Indian Ministers put on offer to pooh-pooh the Guardian disclosures about the American snooping of our mission in Washington? The EU, spearheaded by the German Chancellor nearly threatened a breakdown of relations with it strongest ally, the US over the same charge? Remember the reference to the resumption of joint India-China military exercises after Defence Minister Antony’s just concluded visit to Beijing? The virtual warning served by a Chinese General only days earlier concerning the border dispute with China, its menacing tone going almost unnoticed.
Such was our obsession with the talks which the Indian National Security Adviser was having on the self-same border dispute with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing that we forgot that Chinese do not normally issue threats as a prelude to supposedly serious meetings, particularly when the talks are heralded as possible beginning of a new era, as significant as the change of leadership in the country, a decennial one in China.
Ostrich-like, we continue to choose not to see, shut our eyes, dig our heads into the sand, allowing ourselves to be blinded by the hyperbole of our own imaginations.
To go by our National Security Adviser’s talks with the Chinese High Representative the two countries did agree, after decades of talks, to work out a framework for future talks. So wait and see. Trust our Chinese neighbour to tell us about the framework. I hope that doesn’t, like the General in question, include handling over Arunachal Pradesh to China.
I was in fact impressed with the Pakistan Prime Minister’s visit to China. The other day, Beijing, being the first foreign capital Mr. Nawaz Sharif chose to visit after taking over. Again, he did score over the Indian Government in that he simultaneously dispatched a special emissary, former Foreign Secretary, Mr. Shahryar Khan to New Delhi with a personal message for Dr. Manmohan Singh.
China which has over the years maintained its “all-weather friendship” with Pakistan chose to add a dash of “honey” this time over adding the relations between the two countries were sweeter than honey. It is not relevant to my purpose to mention what all was achieved by the Pakistan Prime Minister during his Beijing visit but more impressive was that he managed to return with $ 18 billion in his kitty, almost all of it committed to building and doing up the Karakoram highway, extending it to Xinxiang (Sinkiang), passing through Azad Kashmir etc. and ending up at Gawadar port in Balochistan where the Chinese are now operating the port they built for the host country. Pakistan, as between ‘all-weather’ friends, has handed over the running of the port to its builders. Assured access to the port is, of course, a coveted prize for Beijing but importantly it is now proposed to build a pipeline from there to Xinxiang. Incidentally, Xinxiang, the western most province of China, is predominantly Muslim. And they have been rebelling against Beijing for years. The Ughuir population is currently faced with the problem of Chinese Hans being relocated to Xinxiang with the sole purpose of colonizing it to effect a demographic change in the province. Ughuirs and other Muslim sects there have close links with terrorist outfits including those in Pakistan, Afghanistan and some of the Central Asian republics like the Tajiks, for instance.
So the Chinese are busy consolidating their position in that region in sharp contrast to New Delhi, as has been its wont, continues to keep talking with Iran on developing the Chabahar port in south-eastern Iran- only a short distance away from Gawadar port in Balochistan.
For almost a decade India has shown interest in developing the Chabahar and the surrounding area as a regional commercial hub.
It was first discussed when the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatani came to New Delhi in 2003. “Serious” talks were resumed a decade later and only after China offered a 60 million credit line to Teheran, close to the prospective Indian investment in Chabahar and presumably a precursor to a Chinese bid there.
With the imminent withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan, India, Iran and Kabul got together on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Tehran last year to secure their interests. That’s how Chabahar project got a fresh lease of life. Delhi needs overland access to Afghanistan for the shipment of its goods and other projects of Afghan reconstruction as well as development of its mineral resources.
Chabahar provides precisely such access, via an Iranian-built road to western Afghan border linked to the Zaranj-Delaram road India has built in Afghanistan. Not only would it circumvent Pakistan’s denial of access to Indian shipments bound for Afghanistan, it would also resonate geopolitically by lowering landlocked Afghanistan’s dependence on Pakistani ports. That the Chinese built and operated Gawadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province is only 70 kilometers from Chabahar only underscores India’s strategic imperative.
While Iran can benefit by turning Chabahar into a logistical hub, Tehran’s compulsion is also its need to mitigate the economic impact of the Western sanctions against its nuclear programme. That very factor may have, however, made it difficult for Delhi to work with Tehran without offending the Americans. This need not have been so had New Delhi acted when the idea was mooted first a decade ago. Then, there is the question about India’s unimpressive record in executing mega projects abroad, this notwithstanding the fact of Iran’s own unease with opening up its territory for foreign ventures.
That said the Charbahar project is indeed a Godsend should it materialize. The problem though remains that will India really be able to block the Chinese from an eventual “takeover” of Chabahar project. I say “takeover”, because I don’t frankly see India, given its present crippled state, politically and economically, warding off the threat should Beijing really be interested in having a second port in the key region. A pity that New Delhi chose to dither all these long years! May be someone in the government has the vision to see the vistas which Chabahar would open up. But you can never tell. Suppose the upcoming elections throw up the khichri led by the Modis or Rahuls. Yes, you can never tell.
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