Author Chetan Bhagat on Saturday was trolled for his column he wrote for a leading daily in which he requests Indians to be nice to China's Xi Jinping.
Chetan Bhagat in the column, which appeared in Times of India, wrote: "If we stop insulting them and treat them as an adversary but with respect, we will have a different outcome...we can get them face in the world...In return, we will get assurance of less border conflict. This may work much better than our unchecked aggression."
According to Bhagat, "Face refers to respect, honour and social standing. You can either ‘give face’ (give people respect and social honour) or make them ‘lose face’ (make them feel ashamed socially). Chinese people will do anything to ‘keep face’."
Chetan Bhagat further wrote: "Despite China’s current diplomatic woes, the world’s dependence on China is immense. Diplomacy doesn’t work on hospitality or friendly rapport. Diplomacy works on leverage – who does what for who. China offers cheap and reliable factories for the world. India doesn’t (yet). China offers a huge market with high purchasing power."
Moving from explaining how diplomacy works, Bhagat further goes on to write about 'social connections'. “‘Guanxi’ is usually translated as ‘social connections’ or ‘relationships’. It’s simply, you scratch my back, I scratch yours (finds resonance in India too). What can we do for China? We can help their current image problems. We can occasionally take their side when the US bashes them, and not become too loyal to the US. We can make them feel less threatened about taking manufacturing away from them (many Indian manufacturing plants are Chinese JVs anyway). In return, we would want no trouble at the border – ever, and a public acknowledgement of that,” he writes in the column.
Many netizens took to Twitter and slammed Chetan Bhagat. Some asked him to stick writing novels, while some advised Bhagat to leave foreign policy to domain experts.
Here’s what netizens had to say:
Chetan Bhagat's article comes at time when India and China, two nuclear-armed Asian neighbours, are in a tense diplomatic and military stand-off following their first deadly border clash in more than 40 years.
The June 15 incident in the disputed Galwan Valley, the de facto border between the two nations, left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China has yet to officially declare its casualties.
