Kashmir is synonymous with alpine beauty and so is Arunachal Pradesh. That is a similarity of the positive kind. And some other ones are that both are Himalayan and Border States, and Indian too. As a matter of fact, Kashmir and Arunachal are analogous even beyond that degree as well.
The perception that Kashmir is the bone of contention between India and Pakistan is known too well to one and all at least in India and naturally on the other side too, that is, Pakistan…obviously. Now Arunachal is beginning to bear one more similarity to that with the exception that here the other side is not Pakistan but China. The state has become the other bone of contention though of a different kind. The contention here is not between India and Pakistan but between India and China.
China’s obsession with Arunachal is no longer a secret. For quite a long time, for decades, the communist giant is claiming the state, especially the Tawang part to be of her own. Such is the degree of obsession that they would not issue a visa to a government official from that state intending to visit the nation. China never misses out on an opportunity to make absurd utterances that the state belongs to her. They don’t give a hoot to the sentiments of the sons and daughters of the soil of the state. Whenever a controversy arises, the simple and honest Arunchalis would simply say we speak Hindi and we belong to India.
And can China be trusted? China’s past records are a distinct pointer to its clandestine character. The Chinese aggression of 1962 is a glaring one. What right did they have to act in an uncivilized manner? Even after failing in their evil intention to ‘annex’ Arunachal, they haven’t yet given up dreaming of making the state theirs. And how can India part with an integral part of it? The tug of war has not died down. China has shown no symptoms of giving up. It has become a chronic problem. The state has become the bone of contention between India and Pakistan. And Arunachal is fast becoming the next Kashmir! And heaven forbid, there would not be an area to be called China Occupied Arunachal (COA) at par with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
In their agenda
The northern neighbor has a long term agenda. She has plans to spread its tentacles over a large chunk of contiguous border with India. The vexed Tibet issue is a highly controversial issue. Peaceful Tibetans demonstrators were brutally cracked down. They have developed a railway line from its mainland to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. With that they have tightened their gripped over Tibet. That’s not all; they are now planning to extend that up to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city. India’s small Himalayan neighbor would thus be under the Chinese web. These activities and plans do suggest that China has in their long term agenda, the intention to control the entire Himalayan belt near India. This would put China at a strategically vantage point and India would be at an awkward position. The weaving of the Chinese web has begun with Tibet. And in Myanmar, they are augmenting their influence by heavily investing in that country.
The fate
We all are aware of the fact that the nation beyond the border in this scenario is China. And China is not Pakistan! It is quite discomforting for India the Chinese activities in the borders areas. They are fast developing upgrading core infrastructures and infrastructures of strategic importance and in a massive scale. The implications of these activities along the border are too many. It gain exposes our neighbor’s intentions. Unless we develop the state on an unprecedented scale, we are going to pay a heavy price. Not just that, we have to carry that on in a war footing. It would be nightmare for us all if we...one day…will have to ask – Is the fate of AP is hanging by a thread?
Or would Arunachal will remain just another bone of conetntion for an elogated and indefinite period of time? That is the big question.
No comments:
Post a Comment