China used Indian Left from "behind the scenes" to scuttle Indo-US Nuke deal, says a new book
New Delhi: A major controversy has been triggered following revelations that China's "first foray" into India's domestic politics came during Manmohan Singh regime and Beijing had utilised Indian communist parties to sabotage the Indo-US Nuclear deal.
“Knowing the influence that the Left parties wielded in the United Progressive Alliance government of Dr Manmohan Singh, China perhaps played on their fears about India’s tilt to the Americans.
This may have been the first example of China’s foray into domestic politics, but they were careful to remain behind the scenes,” says former foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale in his new book 'The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India'.
Some extracts of the book have appeared in a section of the media.
The media reports with some excerpts of the book have also gone viral in social media.
Notably, between 2007 and 2009, as Joint Secretary (East Asia), Gokhale was dealing with China in the Ministry of External Affairs when the deal was being negotiated and India got a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).
An articulate Gokhale served as India’s ambassador to China and is a known expert on the region having served in Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing.
During the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Gokhale was in Beijing.
Under PM Narendra Modi's government, he became India's foreign secretary In January 2018 succeeding Dr S Jaishankar, the present External Affairs Minister.
He also has penned the book, 'Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest'.
The new book 'The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India' deals with key issues like China’s formal recognition of Sikkim as a part of India on 11 April, 2005; the India–China diplomatic negotiations on the 123 Nuclear Deal in 2008; and the listing of Masood Azhar as a terrorist in the UNSC 1267 Sanctions List on 1 May 2019.
On the initial years of India's diplomacy under the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Gokhale writes: "The lapses on India’s part—the absence of wider political consultations within the Indian leadership, the overlooking of its national interest in its anxiety over the timing, and the erroneous assumption that the act of officially recognizing the People’s Republic of China was tantamount to the automatic establishment of formal diplomatic relations—led the Government of India to see the act of recognition as its only objective".
This, he says, resulted in India "unilaterally" giving up some crucial advantages it could have used in later years.
On China using the communist parties in 2007-09 period, Gokhale writes: “The Chinese appeared to operate through the Left parties and the left-leaning media in India that had an ideological problem with regard to nuclear weapons, in an effort to build domestic opposition to the Indo-US deal.
This might have been the first instance for China to operate politically in Indian domestic politics. China is becoming more sophisticated in its manipulation of Indian interest groups".
The book further notes: “…China utilized the close connections with the Left parties in India. Top leaders of the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) would travel to China for meetings or medical treatment.
“Both parties were avowedly nationalist when it came to the Boundary Question and other matters of bilateral interest, but the Chinese were aware that they had fundamental concerns about the Indo-US nuclear deal,” Gokhale writes.
Gokhale says China’s interactions with India throughout this period were in contrast to the position taken by them during the 1998 nuclear tests.
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Govt’s policy of ‘No passport’ for stonepelters unnerve Kashmir Netas
New Delhi:
Who has triggered this latest debate about stonepelters not to get passports in Jammu and Kashmir?
Or more specific question can be – how far will this debate go?
Commentators may obviously differ as to the precise results this move of the authorities would yield.
Now, the new rules framed say the passport verification for individuals should include checking of stone pelting cases.
There is little to dispute that stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir refers to stone-throwing by Kashmiri youths on the armed forces and also VIPs. This as a tool was used abundantly to throw open challenge to Indian authorities around 2016-17 and of course there was severe politicking involved in the entire saga.
Most often stone-throwing prevented security forces discharge their duties and the terrorists would either execute their plans or make escape.
It was reported that the PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti (in Nov-Dec 2017) had withdrawn 4500 cases against
so called 'first time' pelters. She also reportedly dropped about 10,000 cases 'serial stonepelters' in February 2018.
The government authorities claim there have been significant drop in stone pelting cases in last few years.
In 2021 so far, there have been only 55 cases as against 248 in 2020. Moreover, during the peak, 2808 cases of stone pelting was reported in 2016 and it came down gradually to 2361 (2017), 2280 (2018) and 2341 (2019).
And this politicking went beyond borders and hence the issue has now snowballed into a major row.
In 2017, Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor in a tweet released a video which had a song referring to stone pelting episode in Kashmir. And the song would translate – “You can snatch our eyes, but you cannot snatch our dreams”.
A new circular from J&K CID, Special Branch now directs all field units to ensure that all passport verification process should confirm that there is no involvement in stone pelting cases and other crimes. The cops can now even refer to CCTV clips and audio and photos before giving mandatory passport clearance to applicants.
“Also, digital evidence like CCTV footage, photographs, videos and audio clips, quadcopter images available in the records of the police, security forces and security agencies be also referred,” said the circular.
“All the field units of CID SB-Kashmir are hereby directed to ensure that during verification related to passport, service and any other verification related to government services/schemes, the subject's involvement in law & order, stone pelting cases and other crime prejudicial to the security of the state be specifically looked into," the order said.
Notably, this fresh move comes weeks after some J&K government officials were dismissed from service for alleged anti-state and anti-national activities.
As expected, there has been strong opposition to new passport norms from the valley politicians.
National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said, “an adverse police report” is not sufficient to deny passports and rather such ban can be imposed only if one is found guilty by a court of law.
Another former Chief Minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: “Kashmiris are considered guilty until proven innocent....”.
A satisfactory CID report is mandatory for a government job in Jammu-Kashmir.
It is compulsory for a person to “disclose whether any family member or close relative is associated with any political party or organisation, or has participated in any political activity, or has had links with a foreign mission or organisation, or any prescribed/ prohibited/ banned organisation such as the Jamaat-e-Islami.”
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