The message of a salute
It did not behove India to play the defeated victim, and hence it did not observe any anniversary of the 1962 border conflict with China. But this year, on the 50th anniversary of the Chinese invasion on October 20, an official function was held for the first time to pay homage to the 3,000 Indian soldiers who fell fighting the invaders who came in human waves, overwhelming the ill-prepared Indian defences. So, what has changed?
It is quite possible that with the rancour abating, and shame being replaced by national pride with India’s place in the world looking more assured, the government has chosen to advertise that India is no longer a pushover in military and technological terms, and that it can now summon the courage to recall the past without being self-conscious. Speaking on the anniversary, defence minister A.K. Antony observed that the principal lesson of ’62 was that we must always be ready, be equipped and be capable of seeing off any enemy, and assured us that we are.
But two important political considerations work to our disadvantage. One, unlike 1962, Pakistan is now strongly aligned on the Chinese side. Two, the Tibet issue, seen as possibly the main reason for the irredentist Chinese action of ’62, still makes Beijing jumpy. Being the aggressor, China avoids talking about that past, but it is no shrinking violet.
We should always judge Beijing by what it can do for military or political reasons.
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