Soft diplomacy won’t solve vital issues

The decades-old unresolved boundary issue has been the monkey on the back in India-China relations, and it is impossible to know whether we are any closer to fixing the problem than we were before the special representative-level dialogue commenced years ago between the two countries to sort out the matter.

During his just concluded state visit to India, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, of course, that the neighbours could seek through “friendly consultations” to demarcate the boundary — a problem “left over from history” — “at an early date”. It is hard to see what is new in this formulation, though.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee — at his banquet for the visiting dignitary — have pushed the importance of settling the boundary issue if bilateral relations are to blossom, but the Chinese side has, as before, responded with smug homilies.

This government, of course, should lose no time in appointing a special representative for the boundary talks. But it could also politically gear itself for a give-and-take of territory to straighten out the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to the mutual satisfaction of both sides. This means a pow-wow with other parties so that our SR doesn’t have to talk in thin air while negotiating with the Chinese.

The Chinese have long harboured the idea that Indian governments are not strong enough (that they fear an Opposition backlash) to do a territory swap — for instance, agreeing to formally give away Aksai Chin (now only notionally ours as it is part of PoK and has been gifted by Pakistan to the Chinese) for Arunachal Pradesh (which the Chinese have long claimed as southern Tibet). This formula has been part of the diplomatically hinted-at discussion over time. But, do other swap possibilities also exist? Two other points need to be noted as far as the boundary goes.

With its other neighbours China has sorted out demarcation difficulties “that were left over from history”. So, why should India be a separate category? Two, when a top Chinese leader comes visiting, the LAC gets active with Chinese incursions (this time even a civilian incursion).

President Xi has officially pledged $4 billion a year for five years for infrastructure and manufacturing in India. This is not a huge sum. But we should go for it, and also make sure that India is not denied investments in China and its trade imbalance with the northern neighbour is righted.

Mr Modi was trying out “swing and dhokla diplomacy” with the Chinese leader without much purchase at this stage — a lesson for the BJP which used to make fun of former PM Manmohan Singh for not being “strong” enough in dealing with Beijing.