Friday, April 02, 2010

Chakrabarti's Chinese Tonic for Indians

Sreemati Chakrabarti's op-ed in today's edition of The Hindu talks about improving Indo-China relations by removing the 'mental barrier' and fostering mutual trust. Readers who read the whole piece will notice what the issues are.

The article is well written but from a Chinese perspective. Notice that when it talks about what needs to be done to overcome the trust deficit, the onus is on what Indians need to do to appease the China.

We are told to forget the border issue because it is not hurting either side. This is debatable. Keeping the issue open will perpetuate a festering wound which is hardly going to improve the trust deficit.

Secondly, she claims that 'accepting Tibet as part of China is convenient for India or else an independent 'Greater Tibet' brings to dispute the status of Sikhim'. Again, the bogey of an independent 'Greater Tibet' is classical Chinese state propaganda. Needless to say, the claim is preposterous and little more than fear mongering. The Indian constitutional order is broad enough to allow the people of Sikhim the right to be a part of India and run their own governmental affairs while maintaining their religious allegiance to the temporal authority of the Dalai Lama. In the remote instance that any political question regarding Sikhim should arise, one should remember that the Dalai Lama being a highly respected figure in India, it is quite likely that such an issue will be resolved amicably with the GoI.

Thirdly, she says that India 'New Delhi needs [to] constantly renew its commitment on curbing Tibetan separatist actions on its soil so as to mitigate suspicion that it might intend to 'play the Tibet card'. Having declared Tibet to be an autonomous part of China, India needs to do no such thing. There is no reason not to permit the Tibetans to peacefully seek to realize the goal India has so publicly stated and has long accepted. The burden is on the Chinese government to recognize the problem and negotiate a satisfactory settlement on the issue.

Finally, her statement that 'all the facts behind the border war have not come out in the open' is mentioned only in the context of Indian media propaganda. All facts may not have been made public but enough have come out into the open to know that though India made many mistakes, Chinese provocation was considerable (even A.G.Noorani has acknowledged it in Frontline). Though India has not released the Brooks Henderson report, several books have been published giving the Indian side of the story with one of them even being allowed access to that document (Neville Maxwell). On the other hand, how the Chinese side saw it remains a black box. The blame therefore lies less on the Indian side.

Sreemati Chakrabarti's article may have been a good fit had it appeared in Xinhua. By publishing this, The Hindu has reiterated its credentials as the unofficial spokesperson of the PRC in India.

13 comments:

chindu said...

The article by the new avtar Smt.Chaudhari, is one more reminder that the there is no hope left for Chindu.

There are several Malayalam News Papers like, Madhyamam, Chandrika, Thejas, published by Muslim Organisations. They are well designed and nicely printed. They don't depend on advertisement or subscription revenue for survival. They are lavishly funded by Islamic organisations in the Persian Gulf region. The Hindu increasingly resemble those papers.

Oh..God.. Give me Times of India any day....

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Chindu,

ToI is too frivolous for my taste. We need a paper which discusses all sides of an issues in depth and does not let its own preferences preclude certain points of view from the pages of the paper. At the moment, I don't see a lot of papers like that.

chindu said...

Thank you Pilid. Great News Papers in the West, known for their ethical journalism, like New York Times are facing a financial crisis. Why can't they come to India and chase away the pretenders like Chindu?

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Chindu,

The reason is that entry of foreign papers has been fiercely resisted by the local papers.

kuttychathan said...

Has the Times of India been able to make a dent in the monopoly of the Chindu, in Chennai?

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Kuttychathan,

Not that I know of. Only heard of Deccan Chronicle and IE.

Anonymous said...

If I remember right, Neville Maxwell projected a very anti-Indian stand in the Indo-Chini border dispute.

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Anon,

Sort of yes. At least, it had a very clear slant to the left and espoused considerable sympathy for the Chinese view. But I think his was one of the first books that came out with research upon the border issue and he also, as far as know, has been the only one provided access to the Brooks Henderson report. So despite its shortcomings, it remains a valuable contribution to the literature.

kuttychathan said...

On another issue...What is Chindu's grudge against Justice Dinakaran? Chindu has been on a sustained campaign to oust him. Don't tell me that it is a principled stand. Chindu had shamelessly supported the likes of Navin Chawla in the past.

Justice Dinakaran should have rubbed the Kasturi family in the wrong way. Or he might have associated in the past with the 'fascists' of BJP or RSS.

Any reader who is in the know, please reveal the truth...

kuttychathan said...

Please read this
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/89835/Defence/Snooping+dragon.html

Anonymous said...

The "ideal tonic" (from the revolutionary point of view, as seen through red glasses) would be to extend the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to Delhi and further down south, so that there won't be any border pinpricks. Just like TAR, BAR (Bharat Autonomous Region) will see a lot of "development", direct train link to the capital (Beijing), removal of feudal lords etc. In short, all that will please the chief occupant at Kasturi Building.

And Ananth Krishnan can comfortably stay at home and report.

kuttychathan said...

Friends...If you want to see the true face of Teesta Setelvad, please read this...

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/89840/States/Inhuman+rights.html

Anonymous said...

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Watson discovers that Holmes is using drugs and begs him to desist. Holmes replies that his mind is such that it is unable to stay idle; it constantly needs challenges. The case of YenRam is similar- despite being from an illustrious family, his brain is completely addled by the disease of communism.Many persons visiting the UK for further studies in that era have been subjected to this evil influence, and they have never recovered despite observing that: (1)our culture is fundamentally different, (2) communism all over the world has been eradicated, (3)the communist states in India have been ruined beyond repair by the communists themselves, (4)the recent massacre in Nandigram is the writing on the wall.
Watching journalits like Srinivasan Jain grovel in front of this nut is sickening. Hope the schism in the newspaper results in his expulsion and a new chapter is begun by the paper!