If there is one parameter by which we need to evaluate the visit of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, then that should be - how comfortable are we with our largest neighbour, where our territorial integrity and overall security is concerned?
Sadly enough, the current visit does not lend much comfort to us on the same. We can't lose the sight of the fact that, China's relationship with Pakistan is qualitatively better than its relationship with us, notwithstanding the 400 member contingent consisting of business delegation which accompanied the Chinese Premier.
What has really raised eyebrows is China's refusal to mention 26/11 and the well established Pak involvement in the same, in the joint statement, as well as its refusal to acknowledge Kashmir as an integral part of India.
How could we miss the irony that the day the Chinese Premier landed in Delhi, the Chinese engineers blasted through the last part of a tunnel that will connect Metok in Tibet Autonomous Region, bordering Arunachal Pradesh, to the rest of China.
Yes, against such a backdrop rhetorics like " India and China are friends and not rivals" sound hollow, and especially so when we recall the slogan of "Hindi Chi Bhai Bhai" before the fiasco of 1962.
By not agreeing to include the usual mention of the "One China principle" and "Tibet Autonomous Region as part of China" in the joint statement, we might have scored some brownie points on paper at least, but then we need to be realistic about the fact that our refusal to include the same, would not matter at all where the ground realities are concerned, given the fact that the Chinese are way ahead of us, both economically and militarily.
We might rejoice over the fact that the India China trade target for the year 2015 is set at $100 bn, but what we need to dissect here is that - to what extend our trade with China help generate employment, enable industrial growth, and above all protect the interests of the millions of our small artisans, who have been unable to match the growing might of cheap Chinese products flooding our country.
And finally, there is some hope that the issue regarding stapled visas is going to be resolved, but then why could it not preceed the visit of the Chinese Premier, at the Foreign Minister level, so that the credibility of this visit in terms of a genuine improvement of the overall relationship with our largest neighbour, been well beyond doubt?
Yes, we have not choice but to engage with our neighbours, but the least we can do is to ensure that our engagements are conducted to secure our core concerns first and foremost. Under the current circumstances, if we consider our security, territorial integrity, and unnecessary needlings like the unprovoked Chinese intrusions in Arunachal Pradesh, denial of visa to a serving commander of the Indian Army posted in J&K, stapled visas to Indian citizens from Kashmir, support on 26/11, and terror emanating from Pakistan etc as our core concerns, then there is certainly a lot of groundwork to be done where our engagements with the Chinese are concerned, before we indulge in other niceties.
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