India paid a heavy price for Nehru’s Delusion with China and the ‘Panchseel’ Agreement
- In Military & Strategic Affairs
- 10:28 PM, Oct 20, 2016
- Sona Roy
Our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has become famous for many monumental blunders that he made one after another, and each went on to weaken our country a little more than before. One such blunder was the Panchsheel Agreement.
When Communists in China acceded to power, The People's Republic of China was not recognized by most of the countries in the world and in fact West considered it a pariah state. India was the First Nation to accord diplomatic relationship under Jawaharlal Nehru. The Panchsheel pact was signed in the year 1954 and was called a landmark in the history of Sino-Indian relationship. It was meant to be The Five principles of peaceful coexistence.
- Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty
- Mutual Non-interference in each other's internal affairs
- Mutual non-aggression
- Equality and cooperation for mutual benefit
- Peaceful co-existence
In Nehru's words “If these principles were recognized in the mutual relations to all countries, then indeed there would hardly be any conflict and certainly not war". He went on to persuade UN to pass a resolution to make these five principles universally binding on all the nations.
Since the pact focused on developing bilateral trade between the two countries, through Tibet, Nehru through this pact officially recognized China's control over Tibet. Within no time it was proved that Panchsheel pact was nothing but another blunder of Nehru. The rhetoric of "Hindi-Chini bhai bhai" bombarded back very badly, the euphoria evaporated a bit too soon. Nehru failed to see the Chinese aggression and rise as a military power. Sardar Patel had warned Nehru saying, even though we regard ourselves as friends of china, the Chinese do not regard us as friends. But in his desire to become a world leader, Nehru compromised and jeopardized Indian interest over and over again. Let's not forget that India gave away the UNSC seat to China to keep up with the Hindi-Chini bhai bhai rhetoric, which was another grave blunder.
This is what Acharya Kripalani had said about the Panchsheel Pact- "The doctrine was born in sin because it was enunciated to put the seal of our approval upon the destruction of an ancient nation- Tibet, which was associated with us spiritually and culturally". To put it bluntly, Nehru actually helped China take over Tibet by gifting suzerainty of Tibet to China in Panchsheel Pact. What is not known to Indians is the fact that in 1950 India was in a strong position to defend its interests in Tibet and China could have been prevented from taking over Tibet. India had complete international support with world opinion strongly against Chinese aggression in Tibet. Had Nehru taken the lead, not only could China have been stopped but Pakistan would also have disappeared from the radar screen of world focus.
Why did Nehru decide to give away all its geopolitical and geo-strategic interests and assets in Tibet, without even settling the border?
Nehru refused to support Tibetan cause in the United Nations. The Indian delegation in the United Nations in fact blocked the proposal to censure China when Chinese forces were on their way to Lhasa. India rather went few steps further and gave passage to Chinese supplies to its troops near Yatung to pass through Kolkata and Gangtok. Chou En Lai the first premier of The People's Republic of China, knew that it wasn't the appropriate time to discuss border issues with India, as it may create problems with their position in occupying Tibet, hence he diverted to border trade.
India accepted to transport and supply rice to Tibet despite knowing that it was meant to feed the Chinese troops there in Tibet; this was a major blunder committed by Nehru. Not only that, India also withdrew its military and diplomatic missions from Tibet. With Panchsheel Pact India actually gave up its rights in Tibet. Interestingly though, in 1948 Nehru was strongly advised to keep Tibet independent both by Britain and Sardar Patel. The Panchsheel pact was initially agreed upon economic policies but was eventually utilised for political reasons favouring China. Nehru believed China will never engage in war and this pact along with UNSC seat was his way of keeping the dragon pampered. But overnight, what was the Indo-Tibetan border stretching along the Himalayan range, became Sino-Indian border.
Issue which Nehru shouldn't have taken to UN, but took- Kashmir, and the issue which he should have supported in UN but didn't- Tibet.
Blunders didn't stop at Tibet, Nehru accepted Aksai Chin, Arunachal Pradesh and McMohan Line as "disputed". It was barely three weeks of signing the Panchsheel pact that Chinese incursion started on Indian frontiers, thus violating the treaty. China put all its resources in constructing roads and highways covering its borders south to India and connect them directly to mainland china, while India kept silent. When India finally woke up and started focusing on building border roads, it was pretty late. China had its blue print ready to include Ladakh, Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. Chou En Lai started stressing on defining the Sino-Indian border and rejecting the existing border, calling it a scar left by Britain. The McMahon line was agreed and signed on by the British and Tibetan delegates in 1914 (Shimla Accord Treaty of 1914) and India still stands by it.
"The Panchsheel pact is India's endorsement of militarily altered china centric geopolitical and geo-strategic balance of power on India's northern borders, a dark legacy bequeathed by Nehru to India".
We have always been told that Chinese incursion in Aksai Chin was a stab in the back. Truth is, General Thimayya had informed about Chinese activities in Aksai Chin to Nehru and Krishna Menon, many years before. Gen Thimayya deputed an English mountaineer Sydney Wignall as a spy to the region of Aksai Chin. Although was captured by Chinese but later released and reached India. He provided Gen Thimayya the much needed proof about Chinese activities in that area. But when Gen Thimayya presented this proof to the Govt of India, Krishna Menon laughed and dismissed it saying he was lapping up CIA propaganda. All these reports were never made public to keep Nehru's rhetoric of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai alive and successful; this resulted massive cover up of a blunder. Aksai Chin was of more strategic importance to China than too India, it was also expensive to maintain and hard to supply. What Nehru could have probably done, in my opinion is, brought that on bargain table and asked for access to Kailash and Mansarovar, giving them access to Aksai Chin in return.
"With abandonment of Tibet and sponsorship of China with nothing to show in return, Nehru deceived Indians in his pursuit of international glory through Panchsheel Pact"
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