The India-China standoff on the contested tri-junction on of Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet continues, with a noticeable reduction in the emanating from Beijing. In a column in the Times of India, Kanti Bajpai averred that both parties should to an unspecified formula, enabling them to save ‘face’. He was clearly unaware that saving ‘face’ would open a can of worms. Beijing has reacted furiously to international criticism on its callous treatment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo who died of cancer last week.
Snarling attacks have been directed at the United States, Europe and Taiwan for their condemnation of his imprisonment as an advocate of human rights and his exposure of its widespread abuses across his country, foremost of which was the brutal suppression of the June 1989 massacre of student demonstrators at Beijing’s Tienanmen Square. China’s then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping acted in the way he did, in giving orders to the military to shoot to kill, was driven by an apparent loss of ‘face’. The Dalai Lama’s flight to India in April 1959 and the asylum granted him as a ‘guest’ rather as refugee by Jawaharlal Nehru was also perceived by Beijing as a loss of ‘face’.
The only acceptable exit from this hall of mirrors for Chinese rulers, as the British envoy to the Court of Chien Lung in 1793 was to discover, was the proverbial kowtow to the Chinese Emperor, which he refused to do and was promptly banished. The Dutch and Portuguese ambassadors, for whom trade transcended all else, performed the obligatory kowtow and were surprised to learn many years later that Holland and Portugal had been listed in a royal edict as China’s tributary states..
Permitting the Dalai Lama to travel to Arunachel Pradesh or inviting to an international function at Rashtrapati Bhavan by India’s president, according to a protest note, violated China’s ‘core’ interests.
This has the appearance of a karmic cycle of beginning without end. Normal international relations cannot exist in this fish bowl. India has acted, thus far, with admirable restraint in face of Chinese thunderbolts. Senior Indian ministers have conducted a valuable and informed discussion with leaders of Opposition parties and won their full support to the government to stand firm without indulging in provocation, but open to a diplomatic settlement based on reason and common sense. It takes two to tango.
War in this day and age its costs, as the United States has come belatedly to realize, following its ill-fated military interventions in Vietnam and the Middle East, yield only a harvest of sorrows. But wedded to nostrums of Manifest Destiny, it keeps careering down the avenues of folly.
China, likewise, is trapped in primordial conceits. Armed conflict with India or anybody else, would ensure not liberation from the past, but instead lead to a mountainous mortgage and an uncertain future. War with India would also send alarm bells ringing along the corridors of the Great Powers, with unforeseen consequences.
The American strategic thinker and author, Edward Luttwak, in his book, China’s ‘Rise versus the Logic of Strategy’ lays out the weaknesses of Chinese diplomacy and its failures, foremost of which have been, he says, its dealings with India and Vietnam. The latter, once a Chinese ally, is now a bitter adversary and ally of India.
Preparing for military contingencies is wise, right and proper. It is a deterrent, bringing home to a would-be belligerent the costs it might entail. A defensive posture by definition is not provocative but bespeaks the ability to translate defence into attach as the logic of war demands. Indian air power is constrained by the willful neglect and inertia of past governments and also the present one. The country’s air chiefs have been hoarse in their hitherto futile attempts to draw attention of the political leadership to the steady diminution of operational squadrons from the required 42 to the present 30. That remains an Indian constraint.
As a postscript, one may make reference to the behavior of Chinese officials at Buckingham Palace reviewing the security arrangements for President Xi Jinping’s presence at a banquet held in his honour as a State guest. Her Majesty the Queen, the soul of discretion, had no hesitation in making known publicly her distaste of the officials’ arrogant deportment. The arrogance is in-bred and of longstanding practice with disdained foreigners..Enough said.
Japanese take on Malabar drill
Janan’s Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, was visibly upbeat about the trilateral naval exercise in the Indian Ocean between India, the United States and Japan. It was, he explained to an Indian reporter in Delhi, ‘ very significantly politically and of symbolic value, that the three countries are working together to safeguard the rule of law and maritime security in the region.’
Mr Hiramatsu said his country’s relations with India were built on a solid platform ‘for safeguarding peace and security in the Indo- Pacific region,’ and that there would be further exchanges on ground and air forces.
He moved on to speak of cooperation between and Japan in Africa under the rubric of the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor initiative. India and Japan would be partners in this pilot project for African development. Indian enterprise allied to Japan’s proven technologies would work for the welfare and betterment of Africa’s peoples. Mr Hiramatsu referred to India’s great experience in East Africa as a possible gateway to the rest of the continent.
The Japanese Ambassador’s measured tones and carefully calibrated words avoided any mention of China, as one would expect of a seasoned diplomat, but only the blind and deaf could miss his subtext, China and its muscle-flexing in the South China Sea, and its parallel ambitious One Road One Belt scheme to encircle globe with an integrated land and sea transport system. India and Japan are preparing to meet the Chinese challenge noiselessly, but effectively. Game on!
Philanthropist extraordinary
A quiet man and modest to boot, is how close friends and associates describe Ajit Jain. American multi-billionaire, Warren Buffet, a legendary name in the business world, stellar philanthropist himself, Chairman of the US-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Insurance Group, swears by him. ‘If there were ever to be another Ajit and you could swap me for him, don’t hesitate. Make trade.’
Mr Jain has earned the many laurels that have come his way. He has transformed a small, largely unknown company, into one of the biggest in America and the world in the years since he joined it in 1986. More remarkable: Mr Jain, then, had no background or special knowledge of insurance.
Amidst this success, he remained true to his Indian roots and his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (West Bengal) to which, he believed, he owed much of his subsequent rise to dizzying eminence. It was at this IIT that Mr Jain graduated in mechanical engineering and then went to Harvard University for his MBA. These IITs, established in the mid-1950s, have become the crown jewels of Indian science and engineering.
In acknowledgement of his debt, Mr Jain has transferred his stock holding to the trading account of the IIT KGP US Foundation, a gesture that the Foundation has described as ‘unique’ because it is rare for an alumnus to make a donation in stocks.
IIT Kharagpur receives crores of rupees in donations from alumni every year, but Mr Jain’s contribution has been deemed ‘special.’ IIT Kharagpur Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said, ‘We are very happy and proud.’
However, the Jain story doesn’t end here. His close friend of many years, Vinod Gupta, also an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and generous donor to its coffers, says: ‘Ajit’s money will be used for many different purposes. This is just the start. He is going to give more money. Ajit is going to do a lot of big things for IIT Kharagpur. He is very charitable guy. He is not going to leave his money to his children. He is going to leave all his money to charity.’
Mr Gupta told how rich Americans were prone to making bequests to their alma mater rather than leaving their entire fortune to their children. So, too, do local American communities across the country.. They all appreciate the myriads of contributions their alma maters have made to their enrichment in education, moral purpose and awareness of social responsibilities. This is what makes America great. Quite so.
