The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Sikkim and the road to Lhasa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 10, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Sikkim and the road to Lhasa

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, MAY 9. With Sikkim ceasing to be a problem between India and China, the geopolitics of the Himalayas are ripe for a transformation. The recent publication of new official maps by China showing Sikkim as part of India provides a huge opportunity for the incoming Government here to think expansively about relations with China.

The implementation of the promise — the recognition of Sikkim as part of India — that the Chinese leadership had made to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his visit to Beijing last June, should lead to a rapid normalisation of a frontier that had remained frozen for more than four decades.

The next Government in New Delhi must quickly decide to end the military deployment on the borders of Sikkim. This border had been largely peaceful since 1967. The only reason India had maintained troops was the Chinese non-recognition of Sikkim. India can now safely hand over charge of the border to paramilitary forces. China has already done so.

The thinning down of the military infrastructure in Sikkim should be part of a larger Indian objective of making the Natu La pass once again India's gateway to Tibet for both tourists and commercial traffic.

Both Natu La and the Changu Lake a few kilometres away from the border are spectacular and can be developed for internal tourism. They could also become a way station to international travellers bound for Tibet. Situated at a little over 11,000 feet, Natu La is a perfect transit point to acclimatise travellers heading into the oxygen-sparse Tibetan plateau.

China, which has huge plans for bringing tourists into Tibet, today allows controlled movement across the border with Nepal. Sikkim's Nata La pass, which is barely 400 km from Lhasa and is well connected by an all-weather road, is better positioned to facilitate tourism into Tibet.

* * *

It is trade, however, which points to the potential transformation of the border between Sikkim and Tibet.

The implicit Chinese recognition of Sikkim as part of India during Mr. Vajpayee's visit to Beijing last year was done through a border trade agreement signed by the two sides.

But movement on the Indian side on developing the infrastructure has been rather slow. New Delhi has been far too cautious. The Sikkim Government, which had been enthusiastic about reviving the historic silk route to Tibet across Natu La, has good reasons to be frustrated.

With the new maps published by China, New Delhi should move expeditiously to put in place the physical infrastructure as well as the administrative arrangements for boosting border trade between Sikkim and Tibet.

* * *

But why limit oneself to small-time border trade when the more lucrative prospect of transit trade between India and China at Natu La presents itself? One hopes the next Prime Minsiter of India will be bold enough to push the commerce and foreign ministers to prepare for the more ambitious goal of transit trade.

Even if the two governments take a political decision on promoting transit trade, it will take some time to develop the infrastructure on the Indian side. The present Jawaharlal Nehru Marg between Gangtok and Natu La will have to be significantly upgraded to bear commercial traffic.

A good date to aim at for improving the road from Kolkata to Natu La (and on to Lhasa) would be 2007. That will be the year when China will bring its controversial rail line into Lhasa. An upgraded road to Natu La would unveil two great geopolitical developments.

One, it will restore Kolkata as the closest seaport to Lhasa. Second, and even more important, it will open up over land connectivity between India and China's heartland.

Pessimists will worry about Chinese goods swamping the Gangetic plain. Smarter businessmen, however, know that they can export Indian goods by road to Lhasa and from there by rail to the Chinese market. After all, if a train comes from Beijing to Lhasa, it will also have to go back.

* * *

Along with trade and tourism must come renewed consular links across the Himalayas between India and China. Until New Delhi snapped them somewhat peevishly in the early 1960s, India had a consulate in Lhasa, and China had a trade office in Kalimpong in north Bengal.

Sceptics on both sides of the border will shake their heads in violent disagreement. But then they were scoffing at the idea of settling the Sikkim issue when the talks started a few years ago.

0Further, a logic of regional economic integration must mean that the Himalayas must eventually become a bridge between the two nations.

Political distrust of the last four decades has resulted in profound Chinese wariness about India's political role in Tibet and New Delhi's concerns about Chinese influence south of the Himalayas.

Having come to a broad mutual understanding on Sikkim and Tibet last year, India and China are now poised to move away from the sterile geopolitics of the past to a new emphasis on geo-economics.

Opening up the Himalayas for trade and tourism will lead to rapid economic development on both sides of the border and reconnect economic and cultural spaces that were torn asunder by the Sino-Indian hostility.

This year, India and China will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1954 bilateral agreement on Tibet that proclaimed the five principles of peaceful coexistence — the Panchscheel.

What better moment than now to demilitarise the border between Sikkim and Tibet and restore trade, tourism and consular links across the Himalayas?

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