oppn parties Indo-Chinese Relations: Reiterating Known Positions

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Indo-Chinese Relations: Reiterating Known Positions

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-03-26 06:58:36

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited India neither to bring a special message on ending the LAC standoff nor to press the reset button in Indo-Chinese relations. Indeed, the main purpose of his visit seems to have been to invite Prime Minister Modi to the Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) Summit to be held in Beijing later this year. For all the Chinese overtures for 'normalizing relations' with India, the fact remains that they want such normalization to happen despite the present conflicting situation at the LAC which is definitely to India's disadvantage.

India can never agree to that. Foreign minister S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval did well to tell Wang that unless there was de-escalation and disengagement of troops at the LAC (with restoration of status quo as it existed in April 2020), there cannot be any normalization of relations. The Chinese side says they respect India's traditional role in Asia but they are doing everything to undermine it. They want India to agree to the tiff at the LAC as just another friction point in bilateral relations and work for a broader resolution. But India has always maintained that all other issues must be taken up only after the present conflict, which happened due to illegal Chinese ingression, is resolved.

China must show the intention of resolving the current standoff at the LAC by retreating to positions it held prior to April 2020. Any process to normalize relations, including a civilization dialogue as proposed by them, can only happen if both sides are free from pressure. At present, the pressure is on India due to the Chinese ingression in Ladakh. This is not the right time to have a broader discussion on bilateral relations with the thorn of the conflict at the LAC pricking India. Since his visit was the first high level in-person interaction between the two countries, it was expected that something, however little, positive might emerge from it. But Wang Yi's visit served no other purpose than both sides reiterating their known positions.