Objectives:-

• To unambiguously declare all that we consider as our non-negotiable National Interests and to make it clear that we will react strongly to any threat against them.
• NOT to Surrender any of our rights, even on our territory now not in our possession, except when we gain clear and commensurate rights, territory or benefits (as we have since done with Bangladesh).
• NOT to get into any, ‘kneejerk’ covert or direct action, as this may end up in our losing much more. At least not till we are better prepared for it than we are now, and that may take a very long time.

Border Disputes:

First – the North-Western border.

China started building an all weather motorable road generally following  the ancient trade route linking Tibet to its Sinkiang province through Aksai Chin in 1956 and completed it within about 18 months using thousands of labourers. India did not object to this, perhaps because, as it claimed, it did not know about it till the announcement in the Chinese newspapers about the completion of the road. This itself indicates India’s lack of interest there. Pandit Nehru only informed the Parliament about this road in end Aug 1959.

Speaking about the Aksai Chin (the name translating as ‘desert of white stones’) area in the Parliament in Aug-Sep 1959, Pandit Nehru said – “I cannot say what parts of it may not belong to us, and what parts may. The point is, there has never been any delimitation there in that area and it has been a challenged area”.

China has since also built a major dam in POK and is now building an all weather highway from South-Western China into POK and linking it to the Pakistan Highway Network down to GWADAR port.

We can now either recognize and proclaim all this as an act against our National interests, and then react strongly, directly or even indirectly including supporting anti-Chinese movements in Tibet & other Chinese Provinces, or offer them a more mutually beneficial relationship of being willing to join them in this Project, as long as it also incorporates a link from J & K into

POK and allows us onward access to Afghanistan and South-Western China for Trade & Commerce.

This can be done by leasing our rights to the disputed Land for a long period, say 30 or even 60 years, to a joint Indo-China (perhaps even including Pakistan even if only as a user) Infrastructure Company that will undertake to build and maintain the highway and related infrastructure and, collect and share the toll on what passes over it from one locality to another.

This will have the following advantages for us;

1. It officially and internationally recognizes our rights to POK, today we seem to be alone in doing so.
2. It allows us direct land access to Afghanistan, and this may even allow for the Oil Pipe line from Iran into India, by-passing Pakistan and also allow access to the mineral resources of Afghanistan.
3. It removes conflict from that portion of J & K as that would not then be in the interest of any of the Countries involved.
4. It opens Land trade route to old ’silk route’ Countries in South-Western China and even to Central Asian Countries bordering China, and provides access to their resources (another Pipe line?) and opportunities for Trade.
5. It offers a face-saving option for China to settle its boundary disputes with India, offering both Countries a lot more than they can get by themselves.

The Seeming Disadvantages:

1. It opens access to a belligerent China in case of open hostilities. This can be countered by building in proper ‘denial of access’ measures into the road within our control in J & K. As regards the rest of the roadway, it may even allow some control thereon, which otherwise is now any way, not in our control at all.
2. Why lease out our Territory? – Because then our ‘de-jure’ claim in an adverse ‘de-facto’ situation, where we have no say on the territory, will be converted into also a ‘de-facto’ right, even if it is only in a limited way. We only gain, even if the lease does not allow us joint ownership of the Infrastructure Company, though it will of course be very much more beneficial if it does.

This would gain greater International recognition of the rights of India over this Territory than anything else done over the past 68 years, and should be a major achievement for the Country, easily ‘on par’ with the ‘Indo-US Nuclear deal’.

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