Posted on 08/01/2005 10:32:16 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
NEW DELHI: India is livid with anger over the Sino-Bhutan border talks that took place during the second week of July. It has caused a flutter in South Block.
Hackles in the Indian military have been raised. That is why it dispatched its Director General of Military Operations, Lt Gen Madan Gopal, to Bhutan to meet the King.
And the King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, himself will arrive next Monday at New Delhi to explain what transpired between the two countries.
He will have to do some hard explaining when he meets the National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan who is also India's special representative in the Sino-Indian boundary talks and other key officials.
The latest Sino-Bhutanese talks caught India more by stealth than surprise.
Despite the absence of a diplomatic relationship, both Bhutan and China have conducted more than 17 rounds of discussions over the boundary issues that involve the eastern, middle and western sector.
Post Wen Jiabo's visit to India early this year, a meeting of this kind is sure to provoke even the doves.
"The Chinese want the Bhutanese to compromise on the Chumbi sector so they can move in", says Dr Srikanth Kondapalli, a noted China expert and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
He adds, "That the Chinese did not cross the Kinzamane in the eastern sector in 1962 though it lay slightly west off Tawang, and their current claims to Chumbi are reflective of their long-term strategy."
The Chinese have been able to gain a strategic wiggle room by reducing the disputed area with Bhutan over the years.
What started off with 1000 square kilometres has been reduced to 269 till April 2004 of Sinchu Lumpa, Shakhpoe and the Chumbi valley.
"The current bargain is for the Chumbi valley which means Indians will have a problem militarily. It appears that the Chinese will occupy large areas in the Chumbi valley", says Dr Kondapalli.
He adds, "Since this is very much linked to the border dispute, India should be concerned. The Chinese might have offered Bhutan a lucrative package to claim the Chumbi valley. That means it could thwart India's military posturing in this region.
It is not as if Bhutan and China have been discussing in a clandestine manner.
In 2004, the Bhutanese National Assembly discussed the issue of sector swapping.
What Bhutan forgot was to make India privy to these discussions for all Bhutan's border agreements and issues to India's. It is here, going by what has happened that experts feel that Bhutan might have hoodwinked India.
While recent peace initiatives have bolstered the Sino-Indian bilateral relationships on the one side, nibbling activities on the other have questioned the intent of the initiatives though not without a reason.
Which has a historical antecedent; tracing from the Chinese occupation of all the five Himalayan kingdoms of Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal though Gen Zhao Erfeng couldn't retain them in the face of 1911 revolution till the 1962 war.
Immediately after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, Bhutan sealed all its borders which meant no interaction between China and Bhutan.
Strategic as it may seem now, during the 1962 war, China neither sent forces to Bhutan nor occupied them but of late China is being criticized for sending Tibetan herdsmen and constructing sheds in high altitude areas in Bhutan.
China in the past has been accused for its nibbling activities which was part of the first talks between China and Bhutan in 1984, three years after the first Sino-Indian talks on border issues.
The Chinese embassy in India has been playing a crucial role in the talks that have happened in Thimpu.
"Going by what has transpired it looks like Bhutan will give away some land in the Chumbi valley. Because about 500 kms down, you are in what is called the Chicken's Neck or the Siliguri corridor, a narrow stretch of land that connects the northeastern states to the rest of India. "Importantly, and looming large over the Chicken's Neck is the Chumbi valley which is shouldered on the one side by the Paunhuri and the other by Chomulhari peaks that converge at the Sinchu La on the junction of China, Bhutan and India.
"This is strategic and for the Indian military it will be a cause for concern and if Bhutan concedes, which is likely, this will prove detrimental", says Dr Kondapalli.
The Indian military is aware. What the army is not aware is the ground reality, which should come from the Intelligence.
33 Core of the Indian Army is located in Sukhna to take care of West Bengal and Sikkim and its elite 3 and 4 Core in Dimapur and Tezpur respectively which should be able to repulse a pincer attack in the Chumbi valley.
More than nibbling, the Chinese are trying to establish communication and transmission links within Bhutan.
"There have been reports of increasing construction of transmission lines in Bhutan by China," say Dr Kondapalli.
He adds, "Some of these electric companies have been traced to Wuhan on the Yangtze River downstream the three gorges which is known for its defence industries including submarine building.
"Bhutan's border agreement is linked to India's border agreement and now China is egging on some position in Bhutan for an anti-Indian stance in lieu of giving some land in the eastern sector. "
There is also the fear that China might provide covert support to the insurgents in the northeast.
Intelligence agencies and China watchers say that the Chinese still transfer small arms through ISI though there has been no manifest link that has been traced the connections to organizations like ULFA.
A senior military intelligence official says, "Till recently we have seized arms that are of Chinese make." Earlier, because of the imperatives of normalization between India and China, smuggling of arms is being passed off as commercial transaction from China.
The Chumbi story has a Tibetan twist. An official at the Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibet Administration, Mcloedganj says, "It is anyway not the Chinese land that they are planning to give away to Bhutan and prior to 1951 it was part of the Bhutan-Tibet border."
A senior official in the Military Intelligence says, "We have a serious problem in hand and unless and until it is addressed at the policy level, it will be very difficult for India to contain China's nibbling activity."
India's anger seems to be justified provided King Jigme Singye Wangchuck has a different story to tell when he arrives next Monday.
More like storms of change. We are in the grips of a very devastating war soon.
"You can't always believe a yoga instructor. Remember he/she is out there to make money."
Well, if you read some of the traditional hatha yoga texts, such as Shiva Samhita, Geranda Samhita, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and so on, you will find many references that support what I said in my previous post. Of course, traditional Hatha yoga as described in those text have almost nothing to do with what is taught as Hatha yoga these days.
"Traditional yoga was always taught in Ashrams- charitable hermitages in India where you are not expected to pay anything, be it for food, medicine, accomodation, religion or yoga."
I don't pay for anything for yoga instruction beyond perhpas the price of an occassional cup of tea. Ashrams which do charitable work are good, but realistically there are probably very few there who have experienced the deeper levels of yoga because they are too busy with their service activities. The fact is that it is very hard to find a real yoga teacher whether you are in India or the U.S.
Right, but do beware of those who are making moolah out of it, especially for what they have to say about yoga, or about Hinduism, for that matter. Most are crooks.
"Spiritual yoga instructors" with private jets isn't a very new phenomenon.
"Right, but do beware of those who are making moolah out of it, especially for what they have to say about yoga, or about Hinduism, for that matter. Most are crooks."
Thanks for the advice but I've been around the block a few times having been involved with yoga for about 20 years now. I've pretty much seen it all. There are just as many naive Indians as there are Americans when it comes to this matter and hence the many so-called "yoga masters" continue to profit handsomely.
So you know. Unfortunatley, like you mentioned, many in the US, and more so in India, don't.
Unfortunatley = unfortunately. My oops.
China would claim all of the interior of India if they could. India can hope to keep their territory only by building up the economy of the interior. India needs to move as quickly as possible in this economic sphere.
Yes, the state of yoga is very sad these days. Here in the U.S. people think that yoga is about getting a tight butt and stomahce, and in India they think it is about surrendering themsevles and their money to some God-man (some in the U.S. think this too) who flies around in a jet. My personal opinion is that it is best to stay away from teachers who charge money, stay away from teachers who have more than a handful of students, stay away from teachers who encourage or even tolerate devotion to themselves, and be wary of so called swamis because very few people have reached a level where true renunciation is possible and forcing such renunciation often leads to problems of one kind or another - better to learn from someone who lives an honest, natural life, rather than some lofty swami who is headed for a fall.
I Agree.
The PRC seek to gain additional high ground. As I see it, their strategy for dealing with countries in their near abroad (as well as dealing with US bases - Diego Garcia, Okinawa, etc) is to utilize SRBM and IRBM strikes as well as the newest long range cruise missiles. While the US tend to focus (overly focus) on ICBMs, for the PRC, the IRBM is the backbone. They know the US has no IRBMs and is falling behind on cruise missile technology. In a theatre-strategic scenario, the PRC may soon achieve a net advantage. Factoring in the unknown impacts of a militarily coordinated SCO (which could theoretically bring thousands of ICBMs to the table) I would say that were I doing military planning in India (or in the ASEAN countries, or, for that matter, here in the US) I would be worried.
Indeed the are. SCO, now = The Axis in training, 1930s!
bttt
Aw shoot who cares if Bhutan hands the keys of their kingdom over to China.
aperturePriority wrote:
India is a big threat to world peace! The Indians have always considered themselves to be the heir to the former British Empire in South Asia and they have always acted aggressively to its neighbors, expecting them to bend over to the will of the new "British Empire". The result is that none of India's neighbors like India. Sri Lanka does not like India, because India supports the Tamil rebels.
Pakistan is India's archenemy and India invaded Pakistan 3 times. Talk about military expansionists! Bangladesh does not like India, because it was the former West Pakistan, which was invaded by India and dismembered. Sikkim hates India, because India swallowed up Sikkim and forced its king to exile in the US. Bhutan and Nepal fear India because they don't want to be turned into another Sikkim. And the audacious Indians even demand to control Bhutan and Nepal's defense and foreign affairs. And China does not like India.
Many people thinks China was the aggressor, and India was the victim. But the truth is the opposite. India considers itself to be the heir to the British Empire and wanted the Tibetan Dalai government to enforce those unequal treaties forced upon the Tibetans by the British, namely the "McMahon's Line". Even the Dalai Lama himself rejected the "McMahon's Line", how could the Chinese accept that? Besides, the Indians tried to annex Tibet and supported the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in 1959. It later hosted the Tibetan government in exile.
After India back-stabbed China in the late 1950s, it's natural to expect the Chinese to "teach the Indians a lesson" and make it very clear to India, that India cannot continue to behave like the old British colonialists. And India later claimed being back-stabbed by China. Talk about audacity!
And China isn't???
Pardon me but BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
oooh we have monkey communist here freepers.heheheheeh
hey monkeyboy tibet will be free.whether you like it or not.
ps:now go worship your pedophile mao.lol.........commieass
You need to be more subtle than that.. AP or should I call you chicom agent?
People on FR are too smart to buy into such crap.
Nice communist propaganda. Enjoy your police state.
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