The only conclusion that can be drawn from the Government of India’s latest White paper on China is that Mr. Chou En-lai’s visit to India in last April has not made the slightest difference to the strained Sino- India relations. There have been as many as 52 instances of Chinese violation of India air space, one instance of armed Chinese troops crossing the McMahon line and several cases of minor intrusions. The Chinese for their past , have denied that their aircraft violated Indian air space, and as regards the illegal entry of Chinese troops into Indian territory, the Chinese note claims that it was a case of bamboo cutters inadvertently straying across the line. But the fact remains that these intrusions, not all of them accidental occurrences, are calculated to keep the situation on the India-China border in a hypersensitive state which may lead to very serious and dangerous incidents on the border. This hostility towards India is not confined to a purely military plane. The harassment of Indian traders in Tibet, the persecution of Kashmiri Muslims and the Chinese refusal to allow the Indian nationals to return to their homeland on the flimsy plea that they had renounced their Indian citizenship and had become Chinese nationals are clear indications of the extent to which the Chinese have gone to antagonize and even provoke India, in the last few months. While there is nothing surprising or shocking about the unfriendly acts of China against India, it is depressing to note the lassitude underlying Shri Nehru’s approach to the various questions arising out of the White paper. He almost took the sting out of the White paper when he suggested in the Lok Sabha that there was no way of telling precisely whose planes violated Indian air-space because they flew very high. In effect Shri Nehru appeared to scout the very charge his Government had made against Peking. In this comment that the recent incursions were but instances of “misbehaviour” by local patrols, he seemed to suggest that there was no need to get excited about the White paper and that the document was prepared only to fulfil a formality.
16th November, 1960
