RE-THINK ICHINA-MYANMAR-BANGLADESH-SRILANKA POLICY

INDIA URGED TO RE-THINK ITS CHINA-MYANMAR-BANGLADESH-SRILANKA POLICY

Mr.S.M.KRISHNA

HON’BLE UNION MINISTER FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS NEW DELHI

Respected Thiru.S.M.Krishna

Subject: Re-appraisal of India’s China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Srilanka policy sought

We from Tamilnadu and Puducherry are happy in seeing you well versed in International law and with vast experience in feeling the pulse of the people placed in the External Affairs Ministry in a juncture when India is at cross roads. We are socialists and you know why our heart beats in joy in finding you in a position to offer course corrections to India’s foreign policy. The urgent agenda, which we feel that awaits your application of mind, is the Chinese moves in each and every issue in international arena. China had been for years scheming to become the sole Super Power of Asia. Nothing wrong in any nation to aspire higher status, but that status when it tends to downsize India, it is our duty to counter Chinese dragon.

The editorial of leading English daily of India, Times of India dated 29th May of 2009 about Aung San Kyi contains a paragraph which I would like to quote:“ We have just concluded a spectacular democratic exercise and are still showing it off to the world .But unfortunately when it comes to speaking up for the defenders of democracy in Myanmar our voice drops to a whisper. To put it bluntly India’s foreign policy with regards to Myanmar is caught in a trap. We chose to play footsie with the military regime in the hope of getting access to Myanmar’s natural resources and to secure our north-east from infiltration. We have achieved a degree of understanding on border infiltration but have been well eclipsed by China as far as exerting influence in Myanmar is concerned. We have meanwhile let down the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy. If India is to make amends, this new Government must redraw India’s approach map to Myanmar. Given our aspiration towards a greater role, New Delhi under the foreign ministry would do well to recalibrate its approach towards our neighbors, especially towards ruthless dictators whom nobody in the world particularly likes”

Tamils thank Times of India. The newspaper instead of dictator or neighbor had used plural which indirectly indicates the tin-pot dictator of Srilanka. These comments open a Pandora’s Box. Indian foreign policy had let down its own citizens in past.We Indian citizens, who rediscover the past, are baffled at the statement tabled in Indian Parliament on July 23 1974 by then Indian External Affairs Minister Mr.Swaran Singh [Lok sabha debates cols 186-201] for Re-Agreement between India and Srilanka on boundary in historic waters between the two countries and related matters. India must be aware what its own representative sought before UN Sub-committee on the need to extend its maritime belt in view of thorium find in Indian territorial waters. When we had national interest to extend our maritime belt, only a nincompoop would opt for an agreement that will hand over Indian island of Katcha Tivu to Srilanka by way of this agreement.

The handing over of Coco island by the foreign policy experts of seventies to Myanmar had paved way for China obtaining its in lease from Myanmar and to build a harbour there apart from installing Russian made radars and satellites to spy on Indian Missile programme operated from Orissa, a state of India just facing Coco islands in the west of the Bay of Bengal. Sitting entrenched in Eastern side of Bay of Bengal that too just 40 nautical miles away from Indian Territory of Andaman Nicobar islands, China had established its access and control of Bay of Bengal. The intelligent foreign policy experts who had no broad vision had opened the gateway of Bay of Bengal to the Chinese dragon.

But the threats from China are not only in our border but everywhere. Unless India watches every move of China, we will fail in our patriotic duty to preserve our nation and its status among comity of nations.“India and China are now members of the Financial Stability Board, the apex institution to monitor global risks of financial crisis. Their voting shares in the International Monetary Fund will also be slightly increased through an accelerated quota reform process. However post-reform the USA will retain its defacto veto power with a 17 percent share and the US, EU and Japan will control 53 percent of IMF shares. Individually the shares of US, UK, France and Japan will still be larger than China’s share of fewer than 4 percent.” Hence China had planned a new offensive according to Professor of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Mr.Sudipto Mundle.

“Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the Chinese Central Bank on the eve of G-20 summit suggested that dollar should be replaced with SDR’s as the new reserve currency. The huge dollar reserves held by Central Banks and other global investors would be severely eroded if the dollar were to suddenly depreciate. Yet these investors cannot easily diversify away from the dollar since this itself would trigger dollar depreciation. The Chinese are particularly concerned, an estimated 1 trillion dollars of their total reserves of around 2 trillion are held in dollar asset. The SDR exchange rate is a weighted average of exchange rates of the major convertible currencies. Accordingly under Zhou’s proposals, China and other countries could convert their reserves from dollars to SDR’s at current exchange rates without any erosion in their value. Implementing such a proposal would also mark the end of the dollar as reserve currency.” This is the game plan of China which has let the cat out of its bag.

If China launches SDR missiles to strike at the Dollar regime, India had to toe Chinese line, if Indo-China-Srilanka partnership to ethnic cleansing of Tamils is a forerunner to such cooperation.

USA realizing the Chinese designs had been urging India to sign End-use Monitoring Agreement, Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum agreement, and Logistics Support Agreement. China causes grave concern for USA, hence USA urges India to sign these pacts. China had become emboldened to say to USA to concentrate on western Pacific and China will look after eastern Pacific. Pacific Command Chief Admiral Timothy J Keating had recently exposed this game.

Are we with USA or are we with China? Is USA a grave danger to the territorial integrity of India or is China, the aggressor who claims our Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh will be a threat with high magnitude?

China had encircled India with tie-ups starting from Myanmar to Srilanka, Maldives to Pakistan and Bangladesh. With harbours in all these countries carefully built from 1990, China had acquired a might India cannot challenge. If China could suggest to USA to divide Pacific Ocean as eastern zone and western zone between them, will it not say to India confine to your coast in Bay of Bengal and from Myanmar China will control half of Bay of Bengal.

Will not China with harbours in Pakistan and Maldives suffocate Indian presence in Arabic Ocean? Sitting in Srilanka’s southern tip China could block passage to Bay of Bengal and from Myanmar control Malacca Straits. India which supports Srilanka hoping it will shield its geo-political interests will cut a sorry figure in days ahead. Srilanka needed the support of India only to finish the Tamil demand for homeland. Helping Srilanka to crush Tamil freedom struggle China had succeeded in sowing distrust towards India in Tamil minds. Each and every step China plans is to establish it as Super power of Asia. It is the neo-colonial power which will colonize Myanmar and Srilanka. In Indian state of Bihar, the influx of Chinese women to marry Indians born in Buddha’s land is silently establishing a Chino-Indian population like early Anglo-Indians.

Our foreign policy must be debated in Indian Parliament. Few individuals should not decide the foreign policy of a continent like India with 100 crore population. Ours is Indian Union, though it became unitary due to the trauma of partition, it must be borne that Indian States have a right to shape India’s foreign policy. Consensus can emerge in our National Integration Council, debates in Parliament can offer constructive course corrections, and Cabinet should not be bypassed, few people should not be shouldered with crafting nation’s foreign policy, however super brains they may be. 

But seeing how China had outwitted us by encircling India, and within India opening a Red corridor from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh where Maoists rule the roost, it becomes evident that China wants India again to become a colony, this time a colony of China will only get conduct certificates from Communist parties and not from Indians with common sense.