Borderline case

A joke has it that the old slogan, Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai, will truly ring sincere when India and China have identical maps in official publications. Put the two countries’ versions of their borders one upon the other, and great blobs of territory overlap. However, it is a measure of the vast improvement in bilateral relations — and the resolve to drive mutually beneficial cooperation — that India and China have tended to focus on how to expand contact through those contentious borders. Just this year, the Nathu La post was opened on the Sikkim border. Therefore, it is unfortunate, to say the least, that the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi, Sun Yuxi, has chosen to overturn that long engagement to solve border disputes and claim the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh as his country’s. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee has correctly registered strong exception to Sun’s statement.

Sun’s claim comes just a week before his president, Hu Jintao, begins a visit to India. Given the timing of the comment — and resonance of the betrayal of 1962 it is bound to revive — it would be expected of Beijing to issue a clarification at the earliest, and at the highest level. Else, more than just Hu’s visit would be in jeopardy. Hu comes to India this month with an ambitious agenda, including gaining access for Chinese companies to invest in India. This newspaper has cautioned against paranoia in allowing FDI on fuzzy security concerns. It has also consistently applauded the measured accommodation of territorial realities, as in the formal recognition by India of the Tibetan autonomous region three years ago and the opening of the border post at Nathu La. The Chinese envoy’s remarks are therefore dangerously provocative. They threaten to undo all the cooperation of the past two decades.

This development comes at a time when parties seen to be pro-China are powerful. The Left parties have been loud in asking for a level playing field for Chinese capital. There’s now an urgent need for a Left-UPA joint statement on the border dispute. But the greater onus is on Beijing. The status of Arunachal Pradesh is often hushed at bilateral summits. But now that the Chinese envoy has raised it, his government no longer has the luxury of mere nuances.