India should allow stapled visa for Arunachal to China

On the eve of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to India, a former BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh has said that the Indian government should allow people from the State to visit China on ‘stapled visas’ without compromising its position on sovereignty over the border region. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Kiren Rijiju (BJP MP) has argued that allowing the State’s residents to travel to China on stapled visas — something New Delhi has been objecting to — would not only “downgrade the status of Arunachal Pradesh to a less confrontational one” but also help the people of the State participate in important international events in China.

Mr. Rijiju maintained that by issuing stapled visas to Arunachalis instead of its earlier policy of denying them visas altogether, the Chinese government has “softened” its position and has virtually conceded that Arunachal Pradesh is a “dispute.” Mr. Rijiju has also suggested that all traditional and ancient trade routes along the McMahon Line and other points on the India-China border be re-opened as trading points rather than just using these places as only as meeting points for the militaries of the two countries.

Hoping that the visit of the Chinese Premier — his first abroad since taking office in March — would be a landmark one, Mr. Rijiju said that if India fails to strike any concrete settlement with China, Arunachal will forever remain a disputed area to Beijing. Since at least early 2011, China has been issuing stapled visas for Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh. Before that, officials say, China altogether refused to issue any visas, arguing that the State was part of China according to its territorial claims.

India’s stand on stapled visas prevented travel:- In the past, foreign policy experts had voiced opinions similar to that of Mr. Rijiju, who has asked that India accept China’s stapled visas to Arunachalese. Analysts — even in Beijing — have seen stapled visas as somewhat of a dilution of China’s stand, as it implied that Beijing recognised that the State was indeed disputed.

China’s stapled visa policy has, however, prevented Arunachal residents from travelling to China, even as part of official delegations, with India taking the view that the Chinese side could not issue different kinds of visas to Indian citizens based on which State they were from.

In 2011, two sports officials who were issued stapled visas were stopped at immigration in New Delhi and were unable to attend a weightlifting tournament. Later that year, the issuing of stapled visas to a karate team from the State angered the Arunachal Pradesh government, when the delegation was unable to travel to China.

Last year, a high-profile visit by a 100-member youth delegation, under an initiative to promote youth exchanges championed by the then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, was shrouded in some controversy after a student from Arunachal Pradesh had to drop out at the last minute. The student had been issued a stapled visa by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi. This year, however, India decided to not include any representative from the State when a 100-member youth delegation travelled to Beijing earlier this month. The delegation, which is on a nine-day tour of China, met Premier Li in Beijing.

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Arunachal Pradesh goes missing from Geography Textbooks

Arunachal Pradesh goes 'missing' from geography textbook

The decades-old India-China border dispute over Arunachal Pradesh has cast its shadow on the geography textbook for 10th grade in Maharashtra. In a major gaffe, the north-eastern State, which China says is part of its territory, has been omitted from the map of India in the textbook, printed by Balbharti, bureau of textbook production, and used by more than 15 lakh students affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board.

The erroneous map shows Arunachal Pradesh as not only “missing” from the country’s territorial domain but also as being part of Chinese territory. Taking a serious note of the lapse, the State government sought a clarification from the Chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. Minister for School Education Rajendra Darda said that, the government has sought a clarification from the Board Chairman asking him to explain how this error came about. Officials of the Board of Secondary and Higher Education were unavailable for comments.

Interestingly, Maharashtra is being ruled by Congress government.

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India should allow stapled visa for Arunachal to China

China's first 'blue book' on India

            The first ever ‘blue book’ on India released in China by a prominent official Beijing publisher has portrayed a government in “serious crisis,” but expressed the belief that India would likely emerge as a stronger country by conquering its current obstacles. Chinese think tanks release ‘blue books’ every year on a number of issues. While not representing the government’s view, the books are put together by official think tanks and the projects are understood to be given tacit backing by the government.

The first ever blue book on India was released on Beijing by the Social Sciences Academy Press, detailing political, economic, foreign policy and defence issues for the year 2011-12. The book runs into more than 300 pages, and was compiled by Yunnan University, which has one of China’s biggest South Asia programmes. According to a brief summary, the book sees India as weighed down by a number of crises — particularly corruption scandals — but also details India’s rising military strength, which it sees as being partly directed at China.

It ultimately expresses the optimistic view that India would emerge stronger from the current period of difficulty. “The Chinese saying which says ‘many difficulties can make a country prosperous’ reflects India’s problems and hope,” the book concludes.

The book, however, sees India today as a country beset with numerous challenges, saying the current Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was facing its most serious crisis since it came to power in 2009. It pointed to frequent corruption scandals, divisions within the UPA and public anger at the economic situation as leaving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government with a tarnished image amid declining public trust. It saw the year 2011-12, which the report covers, as among the worst since India’s “remarkable achievements” after reforms in 1991. The book estimates that by 2030, India’s population will exceed that of China’s.

On the foreign policy front, the blue book notes that India has focused on boosting relations with its neighbours in South Asia, pushed forward peace with Pakistan and developed strategic relations with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal — countries with which China has also recently deepened economic ties. It sees the United States “pivot” to Asia and strengthening of alliances in the region — viewed by most analysts in China as being directed to “contain” Beijing — as accelerating India’s “Look East” policy, observing that India’s defence cooperation with the U.S., Japan, Vietnam and Australia has warmed.

On military strategy, it argues that India’s defence policy has undergone an adjustment from focusing on Pakistan to a dual focus on China and Pakistan, including a consideration of the possibility of a limited two-front war. To this end, the book says, India has expanded military forces on the border with China and also expanded its naval power towards the east.

Chinese troops erect another tent at Ladakh

Chinese troops have erected another tent in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in Ladakh raising the number of such structures in the area of incursion to five, as the standoff between India and China entered the third week.

With China showing no signs of withdrawing its troops from the Indian territory, sources said efforts to break the impasse over the incursion yielded no results because of its insistence that some bunkers constructed by India at a key vantage point be dismantled.

China laid down this condition for pulling back from the place 19 km inside the Indian territory in DBO, where around 50 troops have been camping for the last over two weeks, sources said.

The government seized this issue at the meetings of the China Study Group, headed by the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and including secretaries of key Ministries such as Defence, Home and External Affairs. The rigidity shown by the Chinese over its demand is also one of the reasons behind more flag meetings between the two sides not being held for over a week.

Sources said the vantage point is at a junction between two mountains in Ladakh area from where the Indian troops could remain unseen and oversee the activities of the Chinese troops in that area.

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UPA government doing nothing on Chinese incursions