What was the Bandung Conference that Sushma Swaraj spoke off

Neville says, India's McMahon Line claim stands only on a forward policy – which had been advanced by British India's North East frontier by close to 70 miles in its final leg.

On Thursday during her reply in the Rajya Sabha on the Doklam standoff, External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj quoted the Bandung Conference. The Bandung Conference was one such episode, the minister said.

What is the Bandung Conference? Let us take a look.

The Bandung Conference was held in 1955 and this was the first ever large scale meeting of Asian and African countries. India was represented by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Zhou Enlai was representing the Chinese.

A retired journalist, Neville Maxwell was quoted by the Indian Express. He said, with some of our neighbouring countries we have not yet finally fixed our border line and we are ready to do so. But before (such negotiations can be held) we are willing to maintain the present situation by acknowledging that those parts of our border are parts which are undetermined. We will restrain our government and people from crossing even one step across our border, (and) if such things do happen we (would) admit our mistake. As to the determination of common borders which we will be undertaking with our neighbouring countries, we shall use only peaceful means and we shall not permit any other kind of method. In no case shall we change that," Zhou had declared.

In 1950 Nehru while speaking on the alignment of the border with Tibet said that the frontier with Bhutan eastwards has been clearly defined by the McMahon Line which was fixed by the Simla Convention of 1914.

China's official maps had ignored the McMahon Line and showed India's North East Frontier Agency as part of their territory. Nehru however said that our maps show the McMahon Line as our boundary. We stand by that boundary and will not allow anyone to come across our boundary he had also said.

Neville says, India's McMahon Line claim stands only on a forward policy - which had been advanced by British India's North East frontier by close to 70 miles in its final leg. It is possible that Nehru was told about the Line by senior official Sir Olaf Caroe during the time of Independence. Interestingly, the Chinese government is said to have come to know about it later when it got access to diplomatic records filed in the Potala in Lhasa but it didn't change their basic policy, he also said.

Maxwell further goes on to add that the Doklam standoff is the sour fruit of Delhi's irrational insistence that it has the right to set its borders as well as that of its neighbours as well.

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