#ICYMITheTribuneOpinion: India navigates a tightrope between US, China & Pakistan

The war-like situations across the globe have eased for the moment. However, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit brought China to the centre stage vis-à-vis India. Though the Elephant and the Dragon are in the same room, they are circling each other, attempting to assess the other’s intentions and designs, writes former Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale in his Edit piece India-China tango remains elusive. With mutual respect as the baseline, his advice is not to be over-enthusiastic about China. Instead, India needs to progress economically and manufacture its own products which are denied by China.

Dwelling further on the issue, The Tribune Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra writes in her Edit piece Test for India in a quid pro quo world that the China-Pakistan bond is fast becoming a reality that is staring India in the face, wherever it turns to look. To add to India’s woes is the fact that China’s key adversary, the US, is also warming up towards our belligerent neighbour. In this context, if New Delhi gets away without opening up its agricultural basket, it would be a big triumph. It might also be seen by the US as a quid pro quo on expanding ties with Pakistan, she writes.

Not to miss that EAM S Jaishankar, who has unparalleled firsthand experience of the US system, initially failed to realise that Trump 2.0 was politically and diplomatically very different from his earlier avatar, writes former MEA Secretary Vivek Katju in his Op-ed article How far will Modi go to oblige Trump. To add to the worry is China’s desire to develop a multilateral format with Pakistani and Bangladeshi assistance sans India, he writes. However, with his five-nation tour, PM Modi is trying to project India’s Global South credentials.

Talking of the US, after the Senate turned down Democrat Tim Kaine’s push to pass the War Powers Act which would have barred Donald Trump from initiating further military action in Iran, we are left wondering that no such arrangement exists in India. Giving a backgrounder of the War Powers Act, Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari, in his Edit piece War powers must have no grey area raises an obvious question: From a constitutional standpoint, in India who has the power to declare war? Is it the President as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces or Parliament or none of these entities? The answer seems to be “none”. In today’s “interesting” times, it could be a hybrid like Article 352, whereby the proclamation is issued by the executive but ratified by Parliament within a month, he suggests.

Coming back to issues affecting our nation, a year after the implementation of new criminal laws (NCLs) like the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), among others, it is time to take note of the early warning signs, writes former Haryana DGP KP Singh in Edit piece Iron out flaws in new criminal laws. The application of Section 152 of the BNS, criminalising acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, has already been a subject of controversy. The software required to make NCLs fully operational is still in a nascent stage and the timelines for some of the court proceedings which were fixed are hardly being adhered to, he writes.

Another contentious issue that rocked the political landscape of India is the Election Commission announcing a sudden revision of Bihar electoral rolls called special intensive revision (SIR). Questions have been raised regarding the timing and the intent of the decision. SIRs have been carried out earlier too but not at such a short notice, with the Bihar Assembly polls a few months away. The lurking fear of many marginalised sections being left out of the electoral process and the huge paperwork involved in the whole exercise cannot be overlooked, writes former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi in his Edit article ‘The unsettling urgency of revising Bihar poll rolls’.

Talking of Bihar’s neighbouring state Uttar Pradesh, Ajay K Mehra, Visiting Senior Fellow, Centre for Multilevel Federalism, writes in his Edit piece Politics & optics of govt recruitment in Uttar Pradesh how the UP chief minister and the union home minister did not miss a chance at amplification of its recruitment drive. They gave away appointment letters to over 60,000 police constables which gave the impression that the appointments were endowments from the ruling party. Though the initiative is laudable, the intention was the police personnel from top to bottom must consider it as a favour bestowed by the government, he writes.

Away from the noise of national and international events is this heart-touching Oped piece Col Nayar’s legacy and India’s role in the Korean War in which the writer Col DPK Pillay (retd) shares this amazing story of gratitude of Koreans for India. Col MK Unni Nayar while serving as a UN delegate in Korea was killed in a landmine blast. For 75 years, the people of Korea have actively cherished Col Nayar. They have raised a memorial in one of the most-visited parks, Beomeo Park in Daegu, and frequently share his story in local communities and schools.

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