Tapir Goan, Bharatiya Janata Party member of parliament from Arunachal Pradesh, has decribed the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao as meaningless as they were not able to make any headway on the boundary issue.
"The whole country wants to know what India has gained out of the talks as far as the boundary issue is concerned. When the tiger is on your roof, you cannot talk good things inside the house and you have to first remove the tiger. Hence, India should have told the Chinese government firmly that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and there in no question of discussing it with China," Tapir Goan told rediff.com after the two sides issued a joint declaration.
According to the declaration, the two sides agreed to settle the boundary issue soon. In an interview with a private television network, the Chinese ambassador to India had staked claim over the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of Tibet Autonomous Region. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had in turn made it clear that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India.
"Though we welcome the visit by Hu Jintao, we the Arunachalis and the Indians outrightly reject the Chinese claim over our state," he said.
When reminded that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former prime minister, had during his visit to China given a green signal to Tibet Autonomous Region, Tapir said this had even been done by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
"We have nothing common with China whether culturally or otherwise. I am disappointed with the outcome of the talks," he said.
Meanwhile, Vijay Kranti, noted photo-journalist, who has visited Tibet and various provinces of China twice and has brought out books on them, said that the Chinese gained a lot from the talks between Dr Singh and Hu Jintao.
"In the joint declaration, they listed out nine points out of which four went in favour of China," Kranti said.
"They have managed to convince New Delhi to double trade in next four years from $20 to $40 billion. The Chinese are importing iron ore and other items in which they cannot compete with India and in turn they have got a licence to dump their consumer goods in India at low cost which would force many of the Indian industries involved in the manufacturing of the same consumer goods to go out business. The Chinese are now selling even fake Banarasi sarees in India by first smuggling them to Banaras and then to other parts of country," he said.
Kranti wondered what prevented India from taking up the boundrary issue with the Chinese president in a forceful manner.
"Born in 1942 during the Second World War, Hu Jintao is ruthless in his approach and was called the butcher of Lhasa after he crushed the Tibetan uprising in 1989 with tanks. The same technique was applied in Tiananmen Square six months later. He became the hero of China and suddenly emerged as a major power in Chinese politics," he said.
According to him, the claim over Arunachal Pradesh could just be tactical so that Indians do not rake up the issue of Tibet once again.
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