India’s toxic obsession

Normalisation will remain a far cry unless India gives up its toxic obsession with Pakistan and China.

An online current affairs magazine, The Diplomat, recently published a report about China’s new nuclear-capable bomber Xian H-6K. The aircraft, according to Chinese media, has a combat range of 3,500km. And if armed with the up to 5,000km range Changjian-10K cruise missile, it can effectively reach Okinawa, Guam and even Hawaii from mainland China. A senior Indian analyst shared the report on his Facebook wall with an obsessively cynical comment, “More important is whether we can take it [the bomber] down before it reaches Mughalsarai?” For those who don’t know, Mughalsarai is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India’s fifth largest and most populous state. The comment shows India’s growing obsession with China.

This obsession stemmed from India’s drubbing in the 1962 border war with China. And it’s ceaselessly fed on China’s burgeoning military prowess, rapid economic development and its growing regional and global influence. Add the Pakistan-China relationship, and the obsession becomes toxic.

India and Pakistan are biological twins, born of the same blood. They have many things in common, but mutual distrust has bedeviled their relationship since their bloody birth. Conversely, Pakistan and China may not have many commonalities, still they managed to develop a robust, symbiotic relationship. The Indians are wary of this bond. They believe Pakistan is colluding with China to stymie India’s growth and to foster Beijing’s geopolitical strategy in South Asia. To substantiate their fears, they refer to China’s massive strategic and political investment in Pakistan.

Pakistan transferred the management of the strategically located Gwadar port to China earlier this year. The port is purely commercial. But Indian strategists believe it is a new ‘pearl’ in the so-called ‘string of pearls’ strategy associated with China. According to this hypothetical strategy, China is building and enhancing seaports in countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan, to turn them into naval bases at some point in the future in order to encircle India in a strategically disadvantageous position.

Pakistan is aware of India’s overwrought fears. And perhaps, this is what strengthens Islamabad’s belief that Delhi is fuelling the separatist insurgency in Balochistan, where the Gwadar port is located. Pakistani officials have repeatedly blamed the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, for covertly arming, training and financing Baloch separatists through Indian consulates in Afghanistan. These concerns were partly endorsed by US President Barack Obama’s special representative for the region James Dobbins. Officially, India denies the allegation. However, its former army chief, General VK Singh, reportedly admitted in a recent inquiry report that an Indian Army unit doled out money to Baloch separatists through Afghanistan.

After coming to power, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had his first official visit to China in July, where the two allies inter alia reached an array of agreements and pledged to build a trade and energy corridor from Gwadar to Kashghar, in Xinjiang. Some global powers are also out to ensure the failure of this multibillion dollar project by keeping Balochistan unstable. And Pakistan believes India is conspiring with them to scare away the Chinese from Gwadar.

The ongoing flare-up on the Line of Control and the working boundary shows that rounds and rounds of dialogue couldn’t even narrow down the trust deficit between the two states. There is no denying that an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue is the only way for the two neighbours to detoxify their relations and work towards the economic development of their peoples. Normalisation would, however, remain a far cry unless Indian officialdom gives up its toxic obsession and re-hyphenates relations with Pakistan and China.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2013.

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