Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Vicious Chinese Whispers


The Asian time has come finally. China and India are racing to be the bright spots at the world stage. In this game one is trying to knock down the other through fault methods. The idea of splitting India through nefarious designs have been long pending in the minds and hearts of Chinese. Now they are openly proclaiming their evil intentions to balkanise India so that there won't be challenging nation to the Chinese juggernaut from Asia. Will this work?

The Times of India writes (12 August 2009)

India may have survived doomsday predictions — once a favourite pastime of the West — of its balkanization but that does not seem to have
deterred the Chinese. On Tuesday, New Delhi took exception to an article on a quasi-official Chinese website, which boasted that the “great Indian federation” was ripe for dismemberment if Beijing tried just a little.

Posted on April 8 on the website iiss.cn (International Institute for Strategic Studies), the article detailed a roadmap for breaking up India. “To split India, China can bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, support Ulfa in attaining its goal for Assam’s independence, back aspirations of Indian nationalities like Tamils and Nagas, encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and lastly recover the 90,000 sq km territory in southern Tibet,” the write-up said.

The article claimed that India as a nation never really existed in history. It was held together by “decadent” Hinduism which “encouraged caste and exploitation”.

“...China in its own interest and the progress of whole Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India,” the article said.

The ardent hope has been sought to be justified by using the rhetoric of change. “Only after India has been broken up into 20-30 pieces will there be any real reform or social change in the country,” stressed the article meant for Chinese audience.

Hopes of a rebellion by Tamils may appear outlandish, but the article serves to corroborate fears in India about Beijing’s gameplan to encircle India in alliance with regimes in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, of its support for Ulfa and other insurgent groups in northeast and its designs on Arunachal Pradesh which the Chinese insist on referring to as south Tibet. Not amused, India’s foreign ministry cautioned China, asking it to express opinions “after careful judgments based on the long-term interests of building a stable relationship”.

Seeking to hold Beijing to its official statements, an MEA spoksperson said the article “appears to be an expression of individual opinion and does not accord with the officially stated position of China on India-China relations conveyed to us on several occasions, including at the highest level, most recently by state councillor Dai Bingguo during his visit to India last week”.

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