New Delhi must stand firm against China and Pak making noises over India hosting G20 meet in J&K

It is Beijing’s wont to continuously needle New Delhi in every possible manner — whether it is about India hosting Dalai Lama and his followers, our claim on Arunachal Pradesh which it disputes (even as we accept Tibet as an ‘integral’ part of China and Taiwan its province), or our becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. China’s opposition to India holding the next year’s G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir should be seen in this light — dismissed with the contempt it deserves. “We have noted this latest development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a media briefing on Thursday. “China’s position on the Kashmir issue is consistent and clear-cut. The Kashmir issue, a dispute left from the past, should be peacefully and properly addressed...” India also wants the Kashmir issue to be resolved peacefully; if China is sincere in what it says, it can help us in doing that — by pressuring its vassal State Pakistan stop cross-border terrorism and begin negotiations with India. But it won’t because its intentions, as those of Pakistan’s military-jihadist complex, are not honourable. Neither the Chinese Communist Party nor the political-military elite in Islamabad and Rawalpindi is interested in peace and amity in the region.

Since China doesn’t like India holding the G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir, it is rethinking its participation in the summit. Zhao said, “We will look at whether China will attend the meeting.” It is interesting to note that he used a loaded term during the press conference — “Pakistan-occupied areas of Kashmir.” This was in response to a query regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). That seems more like a slip of the tongue than a change in Beijing’s stance over the legal ownership of the region. Meanwhile, Pakistan has already begun an international campaign against India’s plan to hold some G20 summit events in J&K; it has informed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan about this. New Delhi has to stand firm against the hue and cry China and Pakistan are likely to make about the events in J&K. Over the decades, we have done enough appeasement. For instance, India did not press war crime charges against the Pakistani Army soldiers even when they were our prisoners. We still play cricket with them. China has been playing every dirty trick against us — from encircling us and propping a rogue State (Pakistan) against us to attacking our soldiers (Galwan) dumping its goods in our markets. Our response? When Beijing’s perfidy and belligerence became blatant, New Delhi became enthusiastic about the Quad. But there are still a number of Nehruvians in the system, especially in foreign office, for whom non-alignment is an article of faith, even though it has been proved that it has caused immense harm to our national interest. Against this backdrop, it is nice to see that there are some people in our establishment who have the gumption to stand up to China’s cantankerousness.