Show Of Strength

China’s aggression at Doklam is in part a test of India’s resilience, and a reflection of a struggle within

- Rekha Dixit And Namrata Biji Ahuja

Push has come to shove, literally. The visuals of Indian soldiers jousting angrily with their Chinese counterparts at Doklam, the high tension spot on the Indo-Bhutan-China border tri-junction underscores the reality that “All is not well” (to rephrase a dialogued from the movie Three Idiots, incidentally a runaway hit in China during friendlier days). Though India and China still pride themselves that not a single shot has been fired at each other in four decades, right now, each soldier’s finger is on the trigger. This snow-covered swathe of the eastern Himalayas in Sikkim is a tinder box, and people are increasingly wondering “when?” rather than “what if?”

India and China tried valiantly to put a show of friendly neighbours for external consumption. At the recent bilateral meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two discussed popular Indian exports—yoga and cinema. At multilateral outings, the two have been on the side vowing to fight terror. India’s recent induction into the Chinese-initiated multinational club, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), could be seen as another outreach of togetherness in development and fighting terror.