Can one-sided claims or a ‘no-compromise’ stance by either India or China guarantee peace along the LAC, much less cooperation between our two civilizational nations that can shape a new world order?, writes Sudheendra Kulkarni JUNE 2020: GALWAN VALLEY, LADAKH. DECEMBER 2022: Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. In the absence of a mutually agreed permanent boundary, every time there is a military clash at any point along the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), between India and China, the trust deficit between our two countries grows wider. The media and social media in both countries exacerbate hostility between the world’s most populous countries. Opposition parties in India train their guns on government. This does not happen in China because it doesn’t have opposition parties. Yet each time there’s a confrontation on the LAC and soldiers are killed or injured, the same two questions repeat themselves in the minds of those who want peace and cooperation between Asia’s biggest countries which co-existed in peace and harmony for 2000 years before the 1962 border war in the north-east. How long will this confrontation go on? And can the boundary dispute be settled once and for all? The second question can be answered easily. And if the second question is answered to the satisfaction of both countries, the first becomes redundant. The best opportunity to settle the dispute — in the western sector (Ladakh) and in the east (Arunachal Pradesh, formerly known as North-East Frontier Agency or NEFA) — came in 1960. China offered a workable solution, but India rejected the offer and lost a historic opportunity. Then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s weakness, vacillation and lack of foresight were to blame, but also the sustained pressure of opposition parties on the prime minister to make “no compromises” relating to territory claimed by India. This resulted in the Indo-China border war of 1962. India’s defeat in that war has left such a deep psychological scar that neither politicians nor people of India are prepared to view the boundary dispute objectively. But it’s important to state facts clearly and dispassionately. In 1960, at Nehru’s invitation, China’s premier Zhou Enlai visited India. “I have come here to seek a solution and not to repeat arguments,” he said. At that time Zhou offered a ‘package deal’ for final settlement of the boundary issue. China would accept India’s sovereignty over NEFA, which meant de jure recognition of the McMahon Line, if India accepted China’s lines drawn in Aksai Chin, Ladakh. China has always challenged the McMahon Line as illegal, because it was arbitrarily drawn by British imperialists when neither China nor India was free. Nevertheless, Zhou, obviously with the approval of Chairman Mao Zedong, agreed to accept the McMahon Line and thereby India’s claim on NEFA. “Our friendship is the most important thing,” he told R.K. Nehru, former India ambassador to China. “Non-settlement of this problem will harm us both.” Zhou spent 20 hours in talks with Nehru. But the latter rejected the package deal because opposition leaders (including Atal…
