India holds back on deeper China ties

It was relatively easy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reassure the visiting Chinese special envoy, Dai Bingguo, that warming ties with the US were not directed against Beijing.

More difficult for the Prime Minister would be to nudge the reluctant Indian establishment into removing the many political barriers in the way to realising the huge potential of Sino-Indian cooperation.

If the Left parties spend even a fraction of the energy they devote to denouncing India8217;s engagement with the United States on pressing the government to change its archaic policies towards China, Sino-Indian relations would acquire unprecedented traction.

For all its rhetoric on 8220;multipolarity8221;, India8217;s approach to routine business with China is mired by decades of restrictive policies.

Take for example such a simple matter as visas. While Beijing is liberal about giving visas to Indian businessmen, New Delhi makes life difficult to Chinese entrepreneurs to come here and stay for reasonable periods.

India demands that Chinese businessmen leave the country every three months and insists that the renewal of short term visas must take place only in China.

Unlike the Indian establishment that is obsessed with 8220;reciprocity8221;, the Chinese believe business ties are about making money and it is foolish to harass businessmen on visa matters. Therefore they don8217;t do to Indian businessmen what New Delhi does to Chinese traders.

India also continues to impose a huge number of restrictions on Chinese companies that either operate or invest in sectors and regions which are classified as 8220;sensitive8221;.

Given the Indian security establishment8217;s paranoia, there is hardly any region or sector that is not sensitive. It is a miracle that trade between the two countries is clipping at an average of 40 per cent a year in the recent period.

Imagine the impact of a government in New Delhi that actually promotes business with China rather than constrains it.

The obsession with another Chinese military ingress, a la 1962, appears to have clouded India8217;s perspective on the future of the Sino-Indian frontier. New Delhi cringes at the thought of a more open border with Tibet and shuns prospects for greater trade between across the long Sino-Tibetan border.

China is all set for substantive trade at the Nathu La pass in Sikkim; India, however, has insisted that commercial exchanges be limited to a pitifully short list of local commodities.

While Beijing has unveiled a broad vision of expansive economic cooperation between Western China8212;including Yunnan, Tibet and Xinjiang8212;and the subcontinent, New Delhi is dragging its feet on sub-regional cooperation between the bordering provinces of the two nations.

A bolder Indian policy would aim at reconnecting the Kolkata port with Lhasa with a modern highway through Nathu La and re-establishing consulates in Tibet and West Bengal.

One would have imagined that the Left parties8212;with their economic interest in producing benefits for the people of West Bengal, and a political commitment to improving ties with Beijing8212;would form a natural constituency for challenging India8217;s myopic policy towards China.

But the Left parties are so dazzled by the grand themes involving the US, they apparently have no time to focus on the nuts and bolts of Sino-Indian relations. They are quite happy with an occasional rhetorical flourish from the government on 8220;Asian solidarity8221;.

In the end, it is really upto the Manmohan Singh goverment to force a new national debate on cooperation with China and the importance of altering India8217;s entrenched mind-set, in a manner similar to the on-going talk-fest on the United States.