Chinese whispers

Perhaps the Left should take note of how China views South Asia. Here’s an insight shared by a former Indian prime minister recently. A little over a decade ago, when he was an MP, he had travelled to China as a member of a parliamentary delegation. Among his companions was a senior leader who too went on to become the PM. During a high-level interaction with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the former PM wanted to know why China persisted with supporting military dictatorships or army-backed regimes in India’s neighbourhood. The reply was terse and simple: “We think the military is the most stabilising institution in South Asia.” The remark left the delegation flabbergasted, if more wiser about the inscrutable Chinese.