life in general: india needs to face china with courage

I would prefer not to look at human relations from the prism of nation-states. But given the unfortunate state of reality on Mother Earth that we have nation-states I have little choice but to succumb to the fact that militaries would be required to defend the borders and lands of nation-states.

In this context, last week, tensions have risen along India-China border. The media have been forthright in reporting on China's more-than-normal military incursions and firings on Indian soil (read here and here). But Indian governmental spokespersons and military spokespersons have been shamelessly playing it down by potraying it as a routine thing and not to be bothered about. The same, however, if were to be happening along India-Pakistan border strong words would already have been used by them.

In this newsreport, India's Chief of Army Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, claims Chinese military exercises are not signficant enough to be concerned about and that media is unfair in writing about the incidents (the newsreport stated 'The General dismissed media perception that the Chinese incursions were a sign of muscle-flexing by Beijing. “I do not share that at all... that is why I say at times the press has not been fair in reporting this very accurately,” he said.).

This is sad but not unexpected. With regard to China, India always has been weak-kneed. The religious zealots that would raise a hue and cry at every single opportunity against Pakistan go silent when it comes to Chinese malfeasance.

I do not think that the people of China are against the people of India or vice-versa. But China's government and military can never, I repeat never, be relied upon to be fair. Not that India has treated the people of its states on the north-eastern part like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, etc with respect. On the contrary, several Indian central governments have been least concered with obscene violations of human rights in those states by Indian security forces.

But China can't be relied upon to maintain peace. Absolutely not. It is well known that it claims Arunachal Pradesh to be Chinese territory. As and when it wants to fight a war against India for whatever reasons it will use Arunachal as the starting point.

I have culled out from wikimapia the section of the India-China border and marked the hotspots. See the image below (click on it to see it enlarged & clear).