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Chinas Migraine is Indias K Valley Balm

The New Indian Express, July 18, 2009 R. Vaidyanathan Professor of Finance Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
The ex-secretary of State of USA, Madeline Albright correctly called Pakistan as the international migraine. But she did that recently much after her official tenure. She was not wrong in calling Pakistan by that name, except she was very late. These are the war veterans namely Wise After Retirement.

Now China is having its migraine in the form of its The Xinjiang [Uyghur] Autonomous province where significant level of violence has been reported with more than 150 deaths. The issue is the conflict between Uyghurs who are followers of some sort of Sufi Islam but getting radicalized and the Hun Chinese .The area in the western part of China is rich in minerals and oil and China is setting up large factories and other projects. The original population proportion in the fifties-- of 70 to 30 in favor of Uyghur has changed to 30 to 70 recently due to the encouragement given by the Chinese Politbureau to Hun Chinese to move in to this province. There are very many smaller ethnic groupings in that province but there is resentment against Hun Chinese since they are perceived to be dominating.

The Uyghurs originally had the East Turkistan province and it was merged with China after Chinese revolution. Actually there was supposed to have been a meeting of East Turkistan leaders and Mao but the plane they travelled to Beijing met with an accident and the leaders perished. It could have been engineered by Beijing! Anyhow China integrated the province after some local Uyghur leaders warmly welcomed it. Of course China was happy to consider it as a autonomous province as long as it was as per Chinese idea of autonomy. Last few years the Uyghurs are having their resentment in the open and of course encouraged by USA as part of its China Containment policy- have also started to talk about East Turkistan.

Chinese have been dealing with any dissidence in its provinces like Tibet by hitting them hatd, hitting them longer and hitting them stronger. China is not sophisticated in dealing with its restive provinces. Just send the Army and hit the splitters or terrorists as they are called. Uyghur issue is variously described as ethnic issue and also as radical Islam in conflict with Communist China. Pakistan which prides itself as the beacon light of global Islam has been very prompt in handing over Uyghur leaders to China which has promptly executed them. The same Pakistan is so reluctant to deal with terrorists who ravaged Mumbai from its soil!

Now the jeans clad jihadis in Kashmir valley-- also originally talked about ethnic upraising encompassing all communities but very soon it has become the hot bed of radical Islam. Uyghur could become radicalized and then it will be war between radical Islam and Communist china. History repeats. When Hitler invaded Russia Fascism met with Stalinism. West got saved. Let it be noted that the future of India as a civilization is dependent on the war between radical Islam and Maos China.

This will be encouraged by USA similar to Jihadis trained and funded by the USA against Russia. The local left in India [which is currently only active in JNU canteen] will suddenly find lots of problems with radical Islam-same way the imperialist war became peoples war after Hitler attacked Russia. Pakistan Army [which has a country] will be caught between eternal friend and loyalty to Ummah.

Few years before-- President Musharaff addressing a conclave in Delhi-- through Video conference mode-- answered a question on Taliban. He claimed they are religious and pious people. Then USA and Pakistan has talked about Good Taliban and Bad Taliban. Now the whole thing is coming home to roost for Pakistan. It has a civil war in hand and it has to deal with China issue. Of course it has constructed with Chinese help a long road from Xing kiang to Karakorum in the portion of Kashmir donated by Pakistan to China The result of the Uyghur upraising is going to be drastic on Chinas views on Kashmir Valley. It will also have drastic impact on our local red. India should play a double game.

India should of course encourage Uygurs and also resettle large number of peasants from UP and Bihar in to Kashmir valley following the illustrious example of the world revolutionary leader namely China. India should form a grouping with Turkey and all the Central Asian countries -ending with Stan-- and encourage East Turkistan and its Sufi Islam. India should fund the studies of students from these countries in India. On the north of China India should try to foment problems through Mongolia for China. So China will have splitters in the South [Tibet] and West [Uyghurs] and the North [Mongols] The graver the situation in Xingkiang the better for India unless USA tries to bring all Taliban together and hand over Pakistan to them to contain China. It is important to note that USA adopts a use and throw attitude to other countries. Not like Condoms more like Toilet papers since the former is treated well before use but the latter is treated badly both before and after use. It is not going to be worried if Taliban rules Pakistan or Afghanistan as long as USA is not having any terror attacks. In any case Pakistan as we know today will not be there in the next few years since it is going to a Mirdangam situation of getting hit on both sides by China and US supported good Taliban [or Bad Taliban]. When Pakistan disappears as it exists today then the jean clad Jihadis in K valley will suddenly find that keeping Jeans is more important than Azadi. The only negative possibility for India is a deal by which USA tries to hand over Pakistan along with K valley to good Taliban. But in such a situation we can always join with China to hit hard hit long and hit strong the splitters. Any which way the Chinese migraine is balm to our Valley. ___________________ The author is Professor of Finance, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, and can be contacted at vaidya@iimb.ernet.in. The views are personal and do not reflect that of his organization.