China is not the dragon

The recent long form podcast of PM Modi with American AI scientist Lex Fridman is perhaps his longest interview where he talks about himself and his thoughts though he leaves out many important issues like the tariff war with the trump administration but his comments on relations with china are notable. He said that India has had no history of conflict with china in the preceding centuries and that we have returned to pre 2020 situations in border disputes. Both these statements are laden with factual inconsistency and are problematic for Indian national position and foreign policy. That there was no conflict in the preceding centuries, must clarify if it includes the 20th century also, because we had a full scale war in 1962 and major border skirmishes in 1967 primarily in sikkim. The previous bjp government under Shri Vajpeyi had accepted Tibet as an integral part of china and now the PM’s denial of conflict would absolve china entirely of its aggression against India and seriously jeopardize India’s sovereignty. The second claim of return to pre 2020 status in ladakh and other borders is questionable and seems to be in continuation of his earlier statement of no one having entered the border. This is against the facts on the ground and reports from international and independent press. The external affairs minister had also said that we cannot fight against an economy 5 times our size. The china policy of the current dispensation is opaque and needs to be explained to the parliament and public alike.