There has always been a lurking fear of the dragon in North and South Blocks on Raisina Hills, from where the country is governed.  While this has been proved each time issues related to India’s border with China have come up for discussion, the usual reaction of officials in both the blocks has been to ignore that the problem even exists.

What is particularly significant is the fact that this approach has found universal acceptance across the political spectrum. While the Manmohan Singh government is in the dock for letting Chinese squat  19 km inside Indian territory, the situation is the culmination of a series of warning signals given by the ITBP, whose personnel man the India-China line of actual control (LAC).

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Sources in the ITBP point out that there were many occasions when a presentation meticulously prepared by the force on the border situation was ignored by highest  functionaries in the government. In a specific case in the NDA regime, prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and home minister LK Advani were shown the preparedness of China on its border. “(But) we were told not to touch this subject,” a senior ITBP official said.

The obvious reason for such hesitation was related to China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour on the Indian border. While China has developed highways and railway links up to the border,  ITBP troops are yet to track the hilly terrains for miles even for routine patrolling duties.

At the same time, the Chinese get irked at the sight of any patrolling on the border by the Indian army. An army major posted in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, said that the army avoids visiting those areas lest it would provoke China.

Perhaps the ostrich-like approach of the Indian establishment, irrespective of its political denomination, is the result of an assessment by foreign policymakers that such disputes would be resolved only through negotiations. Given China’s superiority in defence vis-a-vis India and the background of 1962 war, such an assessment has found larger acceptance in the establishment.

On the other hand, China has often flexed its muscles in Jammu and Kashmir region whenever the country found it convenient.  During the Kargil war, which was fought on the Ladakh side of the Himalayas, China had deployed troops, much to India’s chagrin. But India remained pacifist to the core despite all provocations. The recent incursion by Chinese army is therefore being seen as a logical extension of the approach of the Indian establishment, which has consistently refused to see elephant, nay dragon, in the room.