Pandering to Chinese concerns, real and imagined, neither lived up to the ideals that India often claims it stands for nor did it clearly enhance India’s strategic interests. Discuss (200 words)
Refer – Live mint
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Recent examples
· India, discourage its government officials from attending a public event “Thank you India” to mark the 60th year of the arrival of the spiritual leader Dalai Lama to India, being organized by Tibetans in New Delhi.
· Taking a step back in pursuing our interests in Maldives citing that, asserting its interests would be tantamount to provoking the Chinese.
· And a think tank in Delhi has been asked to postpone an annual conference just because its deliberations may annoy the Chinese.
Effects of India’s actions
· Whatever may have been the motivation, New Delhi’s behaviour now contravened India’s long-held position that the Dalai Lama is a not a mere political dissident but a spiritual leader widely revered in India.
· Indeed, India’s gestures to Chinese concerns about the Dalai Lama are probably not even in India’s national interest.
· It is important for India to engage China but after dealing with the Doklam crisis so effectively, it doesn’t make sense to concede to China on every major issue.
· The Indian government’s position neither lived up to the ideals that India often claims it stands for nor did it clearly enhance India’s strategic interests vis-à-vis China.
· After all, India is not only signalling to China but also to its neighbours and the wider Indo-Pacific, where it claims it wants a larger strategic profile.
· Such a supine foreign policy posture by a state that wants to be recognized as a major global power is increasingly dangerous.
· Sino-Indian relations, therefore, require deft management, but pandering to Chinese concerns, real and imagined, did not result in a change in Chinese behaviour in the past and won’t result in any sort of stabilization of Sino-Indian relations.
