By Manmohan Dhar

In the year 1962 during the months of October and November, when China left no option for India than to enter into a conflict across the Sino Indian border, it would have been a win win situation for India, had the then prime minister Pt.Jawahar Lal Nehru, not committed the mistake of not using the Indian air Force in the war.

Anyways, that is history now. And mistakes made then, can not be rectified now.

And India also is not the same as it was in the year 1962. After 55 years of a war which could have been won but for one mistake, India is now in a position of dictating terms to China.

China has already stabbed India in the back, in 1962, when their army cunningly floated the distorting slogan like,”Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai”, and made forceful advances into the Indian territory. Though we had already captured some important posts of the Chinese army, but we had to withdraw .

Indian Army holds the unique distinction of being one of the world’s best in defending its country’s borders. However, the Indo-China war of 1962 goes down in our history books as a blot on the reputation of our forces and the country. Other than that debacle, there is no black spot on the face of our armed forces. The reason for defeat wasn’t the lack of courage of our soldiers but was the myopic policies and spineless attitude of our political leaders of the time.

Now China has developed a complex. A fear syndrome. It dreads the Indian military might. And this fear  has prompted China to maliciously intrude into the Indian territory of donglong. China is  asking India to withdraw its troops from the Donglong area in Sikkim sector as a precondition for a “meaningful dialogue” to settle the boundary issue, warning that the Indian Army should learn “historical lessons”, in an oblique reference to the 1962 war.

China needs to be told that yes India has taken historical lessons and we will never repeat the mistake we committed in 1962 war, which we would have won.

In fact China’s frustration is  logical. It cannot see India’s economy growing so fast and despite the international instability in the Economic corridors, India has been able to maintain its GDP. The gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period; you can think of it as the size of the economy.

China’s growth has been badly hit because of its reliance on external demand. A closer analysis reveals that India was indeed less dependent on global demand than China at the beginning of the global financial crisis, exporting just 20% of its goods and services, compared with China’s 40%. Indeed, part of the decline in China’s growth reflects a deliberate attempt to change its risky growth model by rebalancing its economy away from external demand and investment towards consumption.

With the global economy in search of a new engine of growth, and with India emerging as the fastest growing major economy, there is some speculation that India might take over China’s role. China’s share in the global economy at one time was less than what India’s is today. According to the IMF World Economic Outlook database October 2015, China’s share of the global economy measured in current dollars was just 3.4% at market exchange rates, and 4.5% at purchasing power parity (PPP) in 1999. In comparison, India’s present (2015) share at market exchange rates is 4.8%, and 7.1 % at PPP.

So it is quite evident that China is not all that happy with India’s global show down in the economic field and it’s rapidly growing potential to cater to the needs of it’s friendly neighborhood and that of the world at large.

Now coming to the recently escalated tension in doklam. China wants to show it’s military supremacy in the region and wants India to  back off from doklam.Doklam in fact is a narrow plateau lying in the tri-junction of Bhutan, China and India. It is a disputed territory claimed by both Bhutan and China. It is situated roughly 15 kilometers from the  Nathu La  pass that separates India and China. Doklam is part of the Chumbithat valley, that lies primarily in Tibet. Doka La is a pass connecting the Indian state of  Sikkim with  Tibet  in China. China and Bhutan have agreed via written agreements of 1988 and 1998 that both countries will agree to maintain peace and the status quo in the region.

So the question of China’s forcible intrusion can not be acceptable in the interest of our friendly neighbors and for  peace in the region.

Repeated warnings from Chinese army have so far been ignored by the Indian side. But if China unnecessarily creates a state of unrest in the doklam area, then India too can not remain as a silent spectator. 

Therefore, it is now a known reality that China can never be a trustworthy friend, and we need to learn it from our past history. And, with Pakistan becoming more and more aggressive in perpetuating terrorism and unnecessarily poking it’s nose in the internal matters of India and now even trying to meddle in the recent doklam embargo, China will, as it has been doing in the past, use Pakistan to aggrivate the situation, to which Pakistan will never say “NO”.

So, friends Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai…..is now for you to decide.