Is India finally standing up to the bullying China?

For some of us who believe we are filled with a little more nationalistic fervour than the rest, the film Haqeeqat may be of some relevance. The 1964 film by Chetan Anand was based on the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and starred Dharmendra and Balraj Sahni in the lead. I remember seeing the movie at a very young age, and It left a very strong mark in my mind. Perhaps not because I was already bubbling with patriotism, but because I was a young boy and the scenes of war and death shook me to the core.

The film is about a platoon of Indian soldiers in Ladakh during the war, who are heavily outnumbered, who all die while keeping the Chinese at bay. The music, by Madan Mohan, and the lyrics, by Kaifi Azmi, do their job of invoking the sense of grief at India’s losses in the war.

I, personally, have never been able to trust the nation of China since. I do not trust their intentions, I do not trust their actions, and I do not trust any parlays of friendship they make towards any other nation. Increasingly, India, for all its good intentioned Nehruvian worldly outlook till date, and the rest of the world, is coming to the same conclusion. R Jagannathan explains it very clearly that China’s worldview, and its ambitions, are much bigger than India, and the latter must find its own voice, and more importantly, be more strategically aware of its role in the world, because the Chinese he says, respect only power.

For many who follow geo-politics, India’s lack of a world view can be very frustrating. If we read our post-independence history, we have been a nation that was only too happy to be a self-reliant, soft spoken, good to its neighbours, “why can’t we all get along?” republic that never wished ill for anyone, even if they spat in our face or tried to take our territory.

Of course, keeping my sarcasm aside, there have been times when India has been aggressive, and in my limited knowledge and reading of our history, those times include when India liberated Bangladesh, and when India tested the first nuclear device, both under Mrs. Gandhi. Whatever her faults, or Operation Blue Star, or the Emergency, her foreign policy was hawkish. Of course that does not take away at all the blots from her political life.

Needless to say, the Modi Government is treating its foreign policy imperatives like a twenty twenty cricket match, going out of their way to strengthen ties, create new ones, forge partnerships, and establish a new India to the rest of the world. This aggression in foreign policy is a welcome departure from the pathetic mishandling of India’s foreign affairs in the Sonia Gandhi Government.

A lot of people who invest in the derivatives markets know that market sentiment is not entirely based on hard numbers and mathematical models. While the Prime Minister and his team have a very uphill task of getting India back on track, a lot also rides on the sentiments that are present. Modi, no doubt, brings lots of positive sentiments, and dispels a lot of the gloom that had set in in the last many years under Sonia Gandhi and her puppet Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Planning Commission had become an instrument to allocate funds to her socialist schemes, and the National Advisory Council became the controlling instrument for the Prime Minister’s Office. Sonia Gandhi as its Chairperson gave her the status of a Cabinet Minister and all the perks that came with it, in fact, it was her brainchild. It is no wonder that the Indian voters gave Modi a mandate to govern never seen in the last two decades.

While India’s internal systems and processes are on their slow mend and will take time, no matter how impatient some of its critics get, India’s foreign policy is certainly on an upswing, with the PM leading the way himself. After most Heads of State attended his swearing in as the 15th Prime Minister of India, he has visited Bhutan, Nepal, Japan, Brazil and is in the United States now. Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, has been under the media radar but has been busy in her own right, travelling to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Singapore, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Even the President of India visited Vietnam, in a very clear foreign policy move. In the same period, India has welcomed leaders from the US, Australia, England, France and Russia.

Now in the United States, Modi is drawing rockstar crowds. I do not doubt that there is a hint of deliverance and grandstanding in this massive event planned at the Madison Square Garden, after the US denial of visa to him for so many years. What Modi and Obama will be able to hammer out in NYC is another matter.

To close it all out, China is most certainly wary that India now has a hawkish leader who talks tough and is taking India’s foreign policy very seriously. Given China’s grand vision of itself, surely there is something to be read between the lines when Xi Jinping comes calling to India instead of formally inviting Modi to Beijing. As R Jagannathan points out, perhaps his haste was a Chinese attempt to see for themselves the mettle of the new government.

India will have no shortage of allies if it decides to take its issues with China to the next level. They have their eyes on the lands of all the nations around it, the seas around it, and having firmly established themselves as the world’s manufacturing hub, on most global resources. They have made their intentions known to everyone everywhere, and I hope India will be there to remind them that they simply cannot bully and bribe their way into being a superpower.