It was 1961 or 62, when I wrote a poetry for the first time after the treachery committed by China. Over the years I have not been able to change my perception about that country. Two news items appearing today again raise the same questions. Will India be able to have an amicable relation with China? Does China take its steps just for fair competition or it wants to show its supremacy and look down upon India?

The first news relates to China insisting that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China. The news reads: “A cross-border study programme for 102 IAS officials from across the country was hurriedly aborted by the Prime Minister’s Office after a bureaucrat from the Arunachal Pradesh cadre was denied a visa by the Chinese government. Beijing is understood to have granted visas to all the other Indian bureaucrats. The Chinese officials are learnt to have said that since Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, the IAS officer from the state was a confirmed Chinese citizen who did not need a visa to visit his own country. China has been consistently maintaining that 90,000 sq km of North-East India, which includes parts of Arunachal Pradesh, is part of its territory. Should it approve a visa to any resident from these parts, it would amount to accepting India’s sovereignty and losing out its claim. In keeping with this policy, the Chinese foreign office is understood to have denied the visa to the Arunachal cadre IAS officer.”

Second news comes from Bangladesh that was basically created by India and Rahul Gandhi takes pride in declaring that.

China beats India again and again in its own backyard. After stalling gas exports and stonewalling a billion-dollar transnational energy corridor to India, Dhaka has invited Beijing to develop its oil sector and build roads and pipelines that will allow China to ship out exports and import crude, respectively, through two ports in Bangladesh. It was only last month, Myanmar committed all gas to China from two offshore acreages, overlooking the fact that two state-owned Indian firms have 30% stake in the fields and have right to proportionate quantity.

How should we take these news items?