India-China border row: Ram Madhav says 'I will solve this dispute in my lifetime' approach won't work

Launching a book, "China Bloodies Bulletless Borders" by Colonel Anil Bhatt, VSM (retired), Ram Madhav said, "Don't be in a hurry for an (India-China border) solution...Don't be too much after legacy that it should be solved in my lifetime. It is not going to be solved, because you are not dealing with just any other country, you are dealing with civilisation, a cultural nation."

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New Delhi: The approach of 'I should solve this dispute in my lifetime' will not work in the India-China border issue, said RSS leader Ram Madhav, arguing that any "hurry" in finding a solution to the long-standing wrangling won't help in dealing with a "cultural nation" like China. Launching a book, "China Bloodies Bulletless Borders" by Colonel Anil Bhatt, VSM (retired), detailing the troubled India-China relationship since the 1962 war between the two nations, Madhav said one should not make it an "issue of legacy" as no one knows who will solve the issue eventually.

"Do you know the great border dispute between the then Soviet Union and China was solved by a thoroughly drunken leader called Boris Yeltsin (first Russian president). Now, who would have imagined that Yeltsin would finally resolve that issue? He did. It went to his credit," said Madhav on Tuesday. "Don't be in a hurry for an (India-China border) solution...Don't be too much after legacy that it should be solved in my lifetime. It is not going to be solved, because you are not dealing with just any other country, you are dealing with civilisation, a cultural nation," he added.

Yeltsin, a Soviet Union politician, became the first president (1991-99) of the Russian Federation at the end of the Cold War. Talking about China and its war tactics, which the 57-year-old RSS leader traced back to the country's ancient treatise "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, Madhav said one should not understand China by its actions but by the "thinking behind its actions".

"You have to understand China not from the incidents that you have encountered but by understanding the thinking of them -- the 'middle kingdom. "That we (China) are between the heaven and the earth, we are the middle kingdom, where you cannot be on par with me and definitely not above me," explained Madhav, who has also authored "Uneasy Neighbours: India and China after 50 Years of the War".

He also noted the differences between the traditional approach and cultures of the two countries. He argued that while Indians are trained in a very "romantic and idealistic culture" where even in war strategy we recall the single-minded focus of Arjuna (one of the five Pandava brothers in the epic Hindu Mahabharata), China on the other hand believes in having five targets in a go instead of one.

When we talk about war strategy, we recall Arjuna's single-minded focus on the eye of a bird on the branch of the tree. But Sun Tzu says: If you have a target, never make that as a single target, attack in five places. "So they will engage in building dams, they will also engage you at the border... And they will also talk to you," he said, underscoring that "proactive diplomacy together with strong ground posturing" is the way to deal with China -- just as India did during the Doklam episode and Galwan clashes.

The book launch ceremony, moderated by defence expert Maroof Raza, was also attended by Lieutenant General (retired) Vinod Bhatia, professor Ravni Thakur and author-analyst Iqbal Chand Malhotra. Published by Pentagon Press, 'China Bloodies Bulletless Borders' claims to describe with details and analysis the problematic process of bullet-less border management by the Indian Army against the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.