Indian effort to outsmart China, issues visa to Uyghur nationals!
-Dr. Abdul Ruff
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In a way to showcase its regional super power status as the only economic giant of South Asia against all weak and failing nations around, including its arch nuclear rival Pakistan, India has made an effort to outsmart Asian super power China in a flash fashion by a visa action that would offend Beijing. New Delhi has issued visas to Chinese Uyghur nationals (Muslims) to visit India whom Beijing considers as ‘terrorists’ for seeking freedoms, in protest against China’s defense at UN of Masood Azhar, a supposed terrorist in Indian state list.

In a move that is certain to rile China, India has issued visas to at least four Uyghur nationals—all of them deemed dissidents and at least one ‘a terrorist’ by Beijing—to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, next week. The Indian move comes against the immediate backdrop of China putting a ‘technical hold’ on India’s efforts to get Pakistan-based Islamist militant leader Maulana Masood Azhar designated a terrorist by the United Nations (UN) last month.

The matter of fact is New Delhi is wary of the all-weather friendship between China and India’s arch rival Pakistan with which it has fought four wars, three of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, that both countries claim in full and administer in parts. Beijing is wary of India's warming relations with the USA by promoting the Asia Pivot agenda of President Obama targeting both China and Russia, and the Washington's efforts to draw New Delhi into future defense architecture of the Asian Pacific region.

Already, the Indian government is upset about Chinese plans to build a $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor announced last April making India, eager to see a weak and destabilized Pakistan, go nervous as China is making a ‘terrorist Pakistan’ strong. China shares a part of Kashmir that was “gifted” by Pakistan and in turn China assists Islamabad with economic projects. The corridor, a network of roads, railways and pipelines, will start in Kashgar in the troubled Chinese Xinjiang province and run through Pakistan-administered Kashmir before ending in Karachi.

India accuses Pakistan of sheltering ‘Islamist militants’ like Masood Azhar and New Delhi suspects that the ‘technical hold’ or block put on designating Azhar a ‘terrorist’ by the UN was done by China at Pakistan’s behest. Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group is blamed by for the 2 January ‘attack’ on the Pathankot airbase in Punjab, though it appears to be a purely Indian effort to demonize Islamabad and gain surplus help from USA.

India has raised the issues with China, but with seemingly very little effect. The Tibetan spiritual leader is to receive Isa and other Uyghur leaders in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile in India. As China repeatedly justifies blocking New Delhi's proposal at the UN to designate Pakistan-based Masood Azhar a terrorist, India has angered Beijing by granting visa to a prominent Chinese dissident leader it accuses of being a ‘terrorist’.

China has been battling Uyghur ‘Islamic extremism’ in the Xinjiang province since the 1990s. On its part, China has long been suspicious of India granting asylum and continuous support to the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising. The India-China war of 1962 was sparked by Chinese anger towards India following the grant of asylum to the Tibetan spiritual leader. China has protested against the Dalai Lama’s activities in India but New Delhi says that it regards the Tibetan spiritual leader as an honored guest and does not encourage any ‘political activity’ by the Dalai Lama “that could affect relations” between India and China.
Dolkun Isa has been a German citizen since 2006, and has been in the forefront of the movement for democracy, often speaking out against the human rights abuse by Chinese authorities. He is the chairman of the World Uyghur Congress.

The Uyghurs are the largest Turkic ethnic group living in Xinjiang. Isa has denied the Chinese charges that declare him as a terrorist. According to Dolkun Isa, chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and the one branded as a ‘terrorist’ by China, India has kindly issued a “visa to four of us.” This was separately confirmed by a high official familiar with developments in New Delhi. Dolkun Isa is a Germany-based Uyghur activist. China accuses him of terror activities in the remote Xinjiang region where there is frequent violence between the local Uyghur population and government forces. Isa, who hails from the restive Chinese Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China, added on the phone from Germany that the delegation was travelling to India for a conference which was to be addressed by the Dalai Lama, who is viewed by China as a “violent separatist.”

Isa told the media said he had an electronic visa to come to India next week for a pro-democracy conference to be held in Dharamsala, which the Dalai Lama is also expected to attend. "I haven't decided yet on whether to come to India.. The Chinese government is not happy, India should guarantee my security and free movement", he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has referred to an Interpol red corner notice against Isa and said: "Bringing him to justice is a due obligation of relevant countries." Isa said: "China has put me on Interpol list since 1997. Most countries have just ignored it. India is a democracy. I don't think I'll be arrested but I don't want any difficulties either." Isa was given asylum in Germany in the 1990s.

According to Isa, the conference he and others are to attend will start on 28 April. “But I still have to make up my mind about coming to India,” Isa said, adding this was because of an Interpol Red Corner notice against him. A Red Corner notice means an international alert against a person “to seek the location and arrest...with a view to extradition or similar lawful action”, according to the Interpol website. Isa said his caution stemmed from his detention in Seoul in 2009 at the instance of China due to the Red Corner notice. “I was sent back to Germany after three days,” he said, adding that he became a German citizen in 2006 after fleeing China in 1997, following repeated prison terms for his alleged ‘activism’.

India has been home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and the capital of the Tibetan government-in-exile. India has upped the ante with China by issuing visas to World Uyghur Congress leader Dolkun Isa and three others, and by allowing them to visit India for a conference in Dharamsala

Though the plan to allow the conference to be held with the Chinese dissidents was taken months before China's refusal in the UN, this could be PM Narendra Modi's muscular foreign policy in action. Although much has been made of the new aggressive foreign policy of the NDA government, the Prime Minister's record in external relations so far has been good. He has shown no aggression, and has carried on the UPA policy, albeit with much more vigor and determination.

Not only RSS-BJP duo but even Congress party also enjoys the emerging duel. They want India to act as a strong power, notwithstanding the fact that New Delhi lacks both China's economic clout and its defense, diplomatic capabilities. Many hawks in the Indian establishment have welcomed the government's move. "China has for a long time got away scot-free – whether it is claiming Arunachal as its own, or the Masood Azhar case, where China twice bailed out Pakistan at the UN. If India continues to take all this then it creates the impression that China is strong, while we (India) swallow everything it throws at us," said Cabinet Secretary Chandra, who was also India's ambassador in Washington. He thinks that India should not be seen as docile towards China.

Whether Dolkun Isa eventually comes to India for the conference, or if he sends his colleagues instead is not the point. Beijing is angry with India's move to grant them visas, thereby directly opposing the Chinese views.

In recent days, India has raised the issue of China's stand on Masood Azhar at the highest levels. Having found no response, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Manohar Parrikar took it up directly with the Chinese leadership this week. “India does not consider Uyghurs terrorists,” said Kanwal Sibal, former foreign secretary, adding that he “would personally applaud the Indian government for its move” to grant visas to the Uyghur delegation. “If China views certain Uyghurs as ‘terrorists’, then that’s between them and China,” he said, pointing out that China had made a similar argument in Masood Azhar’s case. “China is not sensitive to our concerns on terrorism,” he said.

China stresses its right to defend its foreign policy and to work against Indo US pivot in Asia.

India has been successful against Pakistan and Kashmir, but continuously failing against formidable China with veto handle. The brief border war between India and China – when the PLA troops rolled into Arunachal as an ill prepared Indian army beat a hasty retreat, left a psychological blow on India. Suspicion of China is pervasive in the Indian establishment. The good news is that despite the irritants, both countries are pragmatic enough to ensure that the situation does not get out of hand. As officials on both sides keep pointing out that the border between the two countries continues to be peaceful, not a shot has been fired here.

Maybe another cold war is in the making in Asia which may have repercussion in other regions in Asian continent. Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee is slated to visit China at the end of May. Hopefully, by then the two sides will get over this latest blip. The initial euphoria of improved ties between the two Asian giants, following President Xi Jinping's visit to India and Prime Minister Modi's subsequent return trip to China, will fade quickly and the relations will continue to be lukewarm at best.