Can Panchsheel Be Revived?

The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s recent state visit and the manner in which it was presented to the public suggested that all is well in interstate relations between India and China. The two sides enacted this script to perfection – upon Beijing’s insistence they tried to separate the border issue from all other aspects of their relationship. And they pulled it off quite well. The media reported that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took a “tough line on the incursion issue”, but this was merely to assuage national pride. When the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid met Li during his two-day visit to China in the second week of May, he had told reporters that he did not seek any explanation from Beijing for the incursion. Yet earlier, over a period of three weeks, New Delhi had exacerbated tensions between the two countries. Did Washington’s “pivot to Asia” strategy of isolating and containing China and its strategic partnership with New Delhi have something to do with India’s bellicosity?

India had, after all, signalled that it was considering retaliatory measures to China’s intrusion across the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates Tibet from Ladakh. At an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Army chief General Bikram Singh had reportedly presented, among other things, possible military options, though this was officially denied. The competitive politics of who is more national-chauvinist, the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party, had taken over. And, the media had turned quite hostile towards Beijing. Three weeks and three flag meetings between the Indian and Chinese sides failed to resolve matters. But then came a fourth flag meeting on 5 May and the dispute was resolved!