Ayush
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NEW DELHI: Prospects of external affairs minister Salman Khurshid visiting Beijing next week seem to be receding, with the government veering round the view that the engagement should not take place if Chinese soldiers, squatting 19km inside Indian territory, don't go back.
Sources said the Centre, now fully aligned with Congress's sensitivities about popular resentment against the Chinese muscle-flexing in eastern Ladakh, feels that Khurshid should drop his travel plan for Beijing, scheduled to begin on May 9, even if doing so casts a shadow on the New Delhi visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang from May 20.
This means it will require a dramatic de-escalation on the part of the Chinese, the prospect of which looks unlikely, at least now. For, the Chinese have dug in their heels and are defiantly denying that their troops have pitched tents on what India considers its territory.
The growing feeling in New Delhi that Khurshid should not go to China marks a dramatic shift from India's initial efforts to play down the Chinese provocation as a "localized and isolated phenomenon", an "acne" in the minister's colourful language, which should not be allowed to come in the way of the upward trajectory of bilateral ties.
Congress behind govt's rethink?
Sources attributed the change of mood to Congress's estimate that going ahead with the visit without the Chinese retreating from Ladakh will be politically damaging for the government. As it is, the UPA regime has been accused by BJP and SP of timidity vis-a-vis the tough Chinese, so any perceived indulgence of Beijing's aggressive intent will be fodder for UPA's political opponents.
The party's views, it is learnt, has been conveyed to the government in an intervention reminiscent of the "caution, danger ahead" sign party hoisted after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had acquiesced into Pakistan's pressure to put its complaint against alleged Indian meddling in Balochistan on the bilateral agenda at the 2009 NAM summit in Sharm-al-Sheikh. At that time, a peeved Congress had signaled its opposition to the PM's perceived blunder by leaving the government to fend for itself in the face of an opposition charge of a sell-out.
Chinese incursion: PLA tents must go from Ladakh for Khurshid to visit China, govt says - The Times of India
china......
Sources said the Centre, now fully aligned with Congress's sensitivities about popular resentment against the Chinese muscle-flexing in eastern Ladakh, feels that Khurshid should drop his travel plan for Beijing, scheduled to begin on May 9, even if doing so casts a shadow on the New Delhi visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang from May 20.
This means it will require a dramatic de-escalation on the part of the Chinese, the prospect of which looks unlikely, at least now. For, the Chinese have dug in their heels and are defiantly denying that their troops have pitched tents on what India considers its territory.
The growing feeling in New Delhi that Khurshid should not go to China marks a dramatic shift from India's initial efforts to play down the Chinese provocation as a "localized and isolated phenomenon", an "acne" in the minister's colourful language, which should not be allowed to come in the way of the upward trajectory of bilateral ties.
Congress behind govt's rethink?
Sources attributed the change of mood to Congress's estimate that going ahead with the visit without the Chinese retreating from Ladakh will be politically damaging for the government. As it is, the UPA regime has been accused by BJP and SP of timidity vis-a-vis the tough Chinese, so any perceived indulgence of Beijing's aggressive intent will be fodder for UPA's political opponents.
The party's views, it is learnt, has been conveyed to the government in an intervention reminiscent of the "caution, danger ahead" sign party hoisted after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had acquiesced into Pakistan's pressure to put its complaint against alleged Indian meddling in Balochistan on the bilateral agenda at the 2009 NAM summit in Sharm-al-Sheikh. At that time, a peeved Congress had signaled its opposition to the PM's perceived blunder by leaving the government to fend for itself in the face of an opposition charge of a sell-out.
Chinese incursion: PLA tents must go from Ladakh for Khurshid to visit China, govt says - The Times of India
china......
