Border standoff: Why Modi's China policy is worthwhile instead of Nehru's Panchsheel

Narendra Modi nuanced diplomacy once again worked in India's favour. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister shared good rapport and chemistry. China and India signed 13 agreements including speeding up the boundary resolution process.

Weary about recent Indo-Japan bonhomie, where latter promised to invest $ 35 billion during a span of five years in India , Xi also loosed their purse string. But what is supposed to be termed a biggest victory is the way Indian Prime Minister assertively put all the contentious issue to his Chinese counterpart. Modi, unlike his predecessors Manmohan Singh never hesitated calling a spade a spade.

Change in diplomacy line

Taking strong stand against transgression of Line of Actual Control and repeated incursions recently, Modi said, "To realise the enormous potential in our relations, it is necessary to respect each other's sensitivities and concerns. Peace and stability in our relations and along our borders are essential to sustain our common goals."

Later Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin also reiterated that all issues regarding recent incursion issues have been discussed at length.

According to an India Today report, soon after this hard stand by Indian side, nearly around 1,000 PLA forces who had made incursion into J & K's Chumar region receded back.

But one would be naive only if they hope that this border issue, which has been a flash point between two countries since long be resolved soon.

To understand this stalemate we have to peep into past and analyse what our beloved Jawahar Lal Nehru did in fifties. The experts consider this act of first Prime Minister as one of the biggest folly and failure for which we still have been paying the price.

Panchsheel Agreement

Amid the cries of ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai', five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence known as Panchsheel Agreement was signed between two countries on April 29 1954.

Our first Prime Minister was really excited with the agreement and his excitement and exhilaration could be well understood with one of his statement. "We have done no better thing than this since we became independent", he said in the Parliament just after the pact. But at the same time this much trumpeted Agreement was termed as 'born in sin' by Acharya J B Kriplani.

This much love affair between two country met its end in 1954 itself when Chinese troops where found violating Indian borders in Ladakh. The agreement which was largely based on the mutual respect of each other's territory, and mutual non-aggression were proven completely wrong in the 1962 war.

Chinese shady intention can be understood with the death note written by Mao Zedong before war which stated that Sino-Indian relations should be based on 'armed coexistence' instead of 'peaceful coexistence' as per pact.

This agreement which sealed the Tibet's political fate as the ‘Tibet Region of China', was not even touched by Britishers during Simla Accord of 1912. But Nehru who was obsessed with this ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai' keep on making false propaganda that it will be in best of Indian interest.

And since then successive Congress' government keep on harping about this agreement. In March 2013, then External affair minister Salman Khurshid had reaffirmed faith in Panchsheel at a speech at the ICWA. Recently, Henderson Brooks report also exposed Congress' Government and held Nehru's flawed policy responsible for debacle, though that has yet not been made public.

No to ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai' yes to ‘Inch towards Miles'

It is good to see that Modi Government has decided to depart from the Nehruvian Panchsheel framework. Recently when 60th anniversary of the pact was celebrated in Beijing, India had given muted response.

Only Vice president Hamid Ansari had attended the rituals and external affair Minister Sushma Swaraj deliberately had given a miss. Instead of Nehruvian ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai' which turned fiasco , Modi has given ‘Inch towards Miles' slogan.

Panchsheel was not at all raked up which is a sign that both the country wants new dynamics in the relationship, based on mutual trust, respect and co-operation.

And seeing the lots of similarities between Modi and Jinping, in terms of huge mandate in their respective country, one should be hopeful that a new history in Sino-Indian relationship will be created soon.