Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

The Indian establishment has been lax in its response to the emerging challenges in Kashmir, resulting in China flexing its interventionist muscles as a big brother to resolve the issue between India and Pakistan. This is a marked change from its earlier stand that this was a bilateral issue between Delhi and Islamabad.Delhi has a reason to take Beijing’s interventionist instincts seriously, not only that China is a bigger country with almost a superpower status but also because of its known hostilities towards India — Doklam standoff being the latest — and its friendly ties with chronic India-obsessed Pakistan. China has drawn closer to Kashmir as it has virtually colonised Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and poses a serious threat to India’s strategic Siachen glacier which Pakistan has been eyeing for decades now.China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuan on Wednesday summed up intentions of his country in 90 words vis-à-vis Kashmir in response to a question that centered on the Organisation of Islamic Conference’s condemnation of the “tense situation in the Indian administered Kashmir.” His words: “China hopes relevant parties to do more to help with regional peace and stability and refrain from escalating the tension. China stands ready to play a constructive role to improve the relations between Pakistan and India,” were an obliging statement to Islamabad’s unending calls to the international community to intervene in resolving the Kashmir issue.Pakistan would definitely be emboldened by this and Kashmiri separatists have already started dreaming of their wish being fulfilled by Beijing. Prominent separatist Shabir Shah has advised India to take “China’s words seriously” implying that Delhi should prepare itself for international intervention on the Kashmir issue, while other separatists Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have elevated the status of China as one of the “stakeholders in Kashmir”. This campaign had started in early 2000s and now it has reached a point where Beijing is suggesting openly its intervention, while it itself is guilty of intrusion from across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), especially in the Ladakh sector. It is in illegal occupation of 38,000 sq km of J&K territory.The Chinese foreign ministry’s assertive suggestion, almost sounding like a threat couched in diplomatic lexicon, has come after Chinese media hinted that the Chinese army would enter Kashmir at the “request of Pakistan.” The context should be viewed against the backdrop of intrusions and standoff along the LAC, China aggressively dictating the stoppage of development works in Ladakh as also forcibly chasing away Indian shepherds and their livestock from pastures on the Indian side of the LAC. The Indian foreign ministry has adopted a squeamish approach and never asked China to demarcate border in clear terms. This has its own pitfalls.As of now the situation is very serious because China is now openly supporting the idea of intervention, which is a nectar to the separatist sentiment in Kashmir. And, it needs to be admitted that rhetoric of “integral part” is unable to hide the grim situation in the Valley, where every symbol of India is under attack.