China-India relationship appears to be a bit frosty now. It is not clear why. The Indian government seems to have been careful. For example, Indian government’s reactions to the recent turmoil in Myanmar or Tibet were calibrated to the point of equivocation and blandness. The passage of Olympic torch in India was peaceful — Indian government was sensitive to China’s sensibilities on this matter.
Here is some data –
(1) China’s government has invited Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who has no formal position or title in the government of India for the inaugural ceremonies of the Olympics games in Beijing. This would have been just fine if the Prime Minister or the President of India — the operational and formal heads of the government — had also been invited. Not so. Why would the head of Indian government not be invited for the Olympic games?
(2) China appears to be aggressively upgrading its military infrastructure in the east — eastern part of India near the states of Arunachala Pradesh and Assam. Per Indian spokesperson, China has recently deployed wide range of fighter aircrafts such as SU-27s, SU-30s, J-8s and J-10s deployed at its 14 eastern airfields. India, as a defensive measure, is upgrading the air force bases at Dibrugarh, Mohanbari, Jorhat, Guwahati, Tezpur, Hasimara and Bagdogra, and is considering deployment of a very aggressive aricraft, GF-17.
(3) There have been almost 70 military incursions in Sikkim by China in this calendar year. The latest incursion tool place by on June 16 when a a Chinese vehicle-mounted patrol transgressed around one km into the so-called 2.1 sq km “Finger Area”, the northern-most tip of Sikkim.
May be it is just a series of coincidental events — at least, one hopes so because there is much common good that should bring China and India together than divide them.
Tags: Beijing, China, India, Manmohan Singh, Myanmar, Olympic games, Pratibha Patil, Sikkim, Sonia Gandhi
