Good things do happen, when they do they deserve as much of a pat on the back as the rigorous finger pointing we do when things go wrong. Recently, our PM and government felt tingling in their back and discovered that it is because they have a spine!
I am talking about “enough is enough” approach the policy makers adopted vis-à-vis China. This nation is behaving is a huge kid on a mega dose of steroids. Of late, it is has been pin pricking and provoking India in a variety of a ways on a whole range of issues. It has stepped up drumbeats that Kashmir in India is unique and people from that region of India will be given separately stapled VISA which will be different from Indians.
If you think about, it is a very provocative move with almost de-facto recognition that Kashmir is not Indian. Our government tried its usual appeasement policy.
Finally, they reacted to the tingling in the back and did the following:
1. Issued a warning to China that Kashmir as much an Indian territory as Tibet is Chinese
2. Ordered our Ambassador to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, openly daring China.
That is it, within 48 hrs. China issued statements that it will no longer adopt a separate VISA policy for residents of Kashmir and issued a statement about putting all such issues behind and looking for co-operation. As far as I can recall, it is probably the only time we made China taste its own medicine…
It is not often, I get to thank our government, but is really such a rare occasion…..
True. But this Government's foreign policy is unfortunately centered around Pak/Kashmir/UNSC seat. All our leverage in wasted in pressurising other countries to issue statements against pakistan and 26/11 terror attack, which they easily oblige and walk away with Billions of $ woth contracts. The recent example is France and Germany issuing statements against Pakistan and our media and Government tout it as a big Foreign policy victory. Pakistan has been condemned N times, what do you gain if it was condemned N+1th time?
ReplyDeleteInstead of being paranoid about Pakistan, we should move on and look for other real tangible gains in foreign policy instead of being "statement" happy in return for those real big contracts. There are few more in the queue to visit India and do pakistan whipping and walk away with contracts.