Chinese Incursions Inside Arunachal Pradesh

(Part II)
1. Cartographic aggression takes several forms. Some overt, as in the case of Iraq, others more subtle. In 1993 I received a book titled Physical Geography of China, written by Zhao Sonqiao, published in 1986 in Beijing. On the frontispiece is a map of China. But that map, to the trained eye, looks a bit strange. Why? Because in the south, it takes from India virtually all of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, plus a piece of the state of Assam. Now this book is not a political geography of China, nor is the matter of appropriated Indian territory ever discussed in it. China's border is simply assumed to lie deep inside India, and the mountains and valleys thus claimed are discussed as though they are routinely a part of China. Make no mistake: such a map could not, in the 1980s at least have been published without official approval. It should put not just India but the whole international community on notice of a latent trouble spot.
2. When Acharya Kripalani, Ram Manohar Lohia, K.M. Munishi and others had first drawn attention to Chinese maps that showed vast swathes of Indian territory to be part of China, Panditji had replied that he had taken up the matter with the Chinese and they had said these were old, colonial, faulty maps, and, as they had just gained independence, they had not had time to correct them. Later, these very maps were used to argue that the areas had always been part of China. Mao had then declared, Tibet is the palm of China, and the Himalayan kingdoms are the fingers of that palm.
3. Did the journalists not remember any of this? One is the premise of many: India can never really be in the right: you just have to see the play Musharraf's devious formulae have got in many of our magazines the presumption is that we are in the wrong in Kashmir, and so we are the ones who must bend, and go on bending till Pakistan expresses satisfaction. This premise is compounded in the case of many others by commitment you can rely on several of our colleagues to see merit in China's stance on everything. The second variant is domestic predilection: the BJP is evil incarnate: because the BJP had raised the issue, the issue itself must be trashed. That is how the mortal danger from Bangladeshi infiltrators has been shouted out. That is how the dual faced, anti national politics of many in Kashmir has been shouted out. That is how appeasement of narrow sections for votes is routinely shouted out. That is how what is happening in Arunachal is being shouted out.
4. And then there is what has become the nature of the media: the obsession with the sound bite on the one side and with the next 'breaking news' on the other. Issues like Kashmir, the nuclear deal, the way China is translating its economic strength into military might these require more than a sound bite. The media has no time for that.
Arun Shouri
The Indian Express, 12.2.2008
Title "Shipla Shetty Trumps Arunachal again"