Need for bridging gap with China: Swamy

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 18 China would become `accommodative' in the border dispute, if only the Indian Government was not `ambivalent or deliberately mischievous' in its stand on the status of Tibet, the Janata Party president, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, said here.

Making a strong case for `good and strong relations' with China, to effectively deal with Pakistan, Dr. Swamy called for a `transparent policy' on Tibet.

He was speaking at the launch of his latest book India's China Perspective, which makes an impassioned plea for setting right relations between the two `sister civilisations'.

The book was first released in New Delhi recently.

The `central reason' for India's not-so-friendly ties with China was that the Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, was allowed to run a `government in exile' on the Indian soil, he said.

This was inconsistent with the India's official stand that Tibet was an integral part of China.

Unless India bridged the diplomatic gap with China, the Sino- Pakistan axis could not be broken, he insisted.

Also, he cautioned India not to fall prey to the `romantic idea' that the United States would act as a counter-balance to China, as it had its own interest in the communist state.

Releasing the book, Mr. N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, said it was a `scholarly analysis' of the Indo-China relations and came up with `bold and innovative' prescriptions for improvement of the ties between the two countries.

Dr. Swamy had the `courage of conviction' to state that the MacMohan line was ``improper and was never accepted by China'' and that the Nehru regime had committed `historical mistakes', mishandling the Tibet issue and overlooking the border dispute, he noted.

The Janata Party State president, Ms. V. S. Chandralekha, and the documentary filmmaker, Mr. S. Krishnaswamy, spoke.

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