Loud Thinking September 20, 2014 at 10:51AM

Chinese giving to the Indians a taste of their own medicine..!

HUM AAH BHI KARTAY HEIN TOU HOO JAATAY HEIN BADNAM

WOO QATAL BHI KARTAY HEIN TOU CHARCHA NAHI HOOTA.

Heat on border takes away from Modi-Xi warmth

Indrani Bagchi,TNN | Sep 20, 2014, 02.09 AM IST

A Times of India Report.

NEW DELHI: A $20 billion promise of investment and a 150-dish lavish dinner notwithstanding, neither China nor India emerged from the Modi-Xi meeting feeling warm and fuzzy, revealing the gaps in their relationship.

Narendra Modi genuinely wanted to reset relations with India’s northern neighbour. Looking at the world through the prism of business relations, the India-China relationship held a lot of promise. Industrial parks, investment in railways etc all have the potential of being game-changers in the bilateral space.

But the Chinese incursion in Chumar came as a huge jolt to the PM personally. It was just before the dinner with Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad that Modi was informed of the incursion by Chinese troops. Chinese troops continue to be on Indian territory in Chumar even after Modi’s interventions with Xi. He drew Xi apart and for the next 12 minutes let him have it.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was instructed to stay on the message when she met Xi the next morning. Sushma faithfully carried India’s message. During the restricted session between the two leaders, PM became sharper in his intervention. After a while, officials were asked to leave and the two leaders had yet another one-on-one session, where PM for the fourth time told Xi to pull his troops back.

Just as it was during the Depsang incursion in 2013, the cause for the Chumar incursions this year too is unclear, leaving only theories behind. At least in 2013, the Manmohan Singh government could successfully hold out the threat of cancelling the visit of Premier Li Keqiang. This time, the incursion coincided with Xi landing in India. India’s helplessness was in full display, which left Modi very unsettled.

Behind the placid exterior, Xi Jinping is one of the most powerful leaders China has had in recent times. Beyond the public charm, Xi gave out a couple of clear messages – India is not in the same league as China and economic ties apart, they will continue to play aggressive on the border.

On China’s part, the repeated protests by the Tibetans during the two days, and the Indian media’s less than flattering commentary of the Chinese did not go down well at all. Many in the Chinese delegation believed the Indian authorities could have been more proactive to keep the Tibetans back. Of course, the Chinese media had a totally different take on the visit. They focused totally on the economic deliverables but if you were only reading the Chinese media, you would not think that the Chumar incursion was happening at all. That actually illustrated more clearly than anything the fact that despite being neighbours, India and China still occupy two different planets.

Tags: My Views