India red-faced as China gets tough

NEW DELHI/BEIJING: India appears to be a glutton for diplomatic punishment at the hands of China, particularly at a time when Beijing has clearly decided to adopt a tough posture on its claim to Arunachal Pradesh.

In what is clearly a major goof-up, India opened itself to a resounding rebuff from the Chinese, when despite knowing full well Beijing would not give a visa to anyone from Arunachal Pradesh, the government included an officer from the state in a delegation of 107 IAS officers due to travel to China on Saturday.

The result was predictable. The entire trip had to be called off and the IAS officers were asked to disperse, leaving MEA and PMO ducking for cover. The embarrassment is all the more acute as the officers were travelling to China as part of a mid-career programme that has been strongly advocated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The government will soon face a similar test — sports and youth affairs minister Mani Shankar Aiyar will be leading a 100-strong youth delegation to China, an exchange decided during Chinese leader Hu Jintao’s visit here last year. It’s not yet clear if there are any members from Arunachal Pradesh in this delegation.

According TOI reports from Beijing, the refusal to grant a visa to an Arunachal IAS officer was taken at a senior level of the Communist leadership and signifies China’s “seriousness” about its claim to the state.

Unlike the Indian reading that the Chinese focus was essentially on Tawang, the issue, as far as China is concerned, is the entire state.