Final Settlement of Boundary Dispute!

Is it for real?

After much claim, counter claims, round of talks, claim of boundary intrusion and denials (1, 2, 3), the Central Government has finally broken their long held silence about this (Indo-China Boundary Dispute) whole issue and declared that final package settlement covering all sectors of India and China may be arrived at soon (shall I presume by the end of 11^th round or will it be just wining and dining at some exotic locales again…may be somewhere at Arunachal : p) followed by marking of boundaries and actual delineation and demarcation of boundary.

The Arunachal Times reports-

“India and China are exploring the framework of a final package settlement covering all sectors of the India-China boundary.” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

“This will be followed by the last stage, which will involve actual delineation and demarcation of the boundary on maps and ground by the civil, military and survey officials from the two sides,” he said in the upper house.

Now I wonder what this final package of settlement would be. Earlier, it was presumed that there would be east-west swap i.e., of 90,000 sq. km of land that China says is the part of their country, to India and of 38,000 sq.km of land that India says China is occupying illegally, to China. But, with the greater gameplan that China has, it doesn’t seem at all that China would be satisfied with Aksai Chin alone as was presumed earlier but would be much more interested to at least grab some part of Arunachal, if not whole of it (surely India wouldn’t part with whole of Arunachal but may part with some as hinted after 9^th round of talks, to settle once and for all this contentious boundary dispute), along with Aksai Chin in the final package for settlement. If that is what’s to be expected, then where does the credibility of Centre’s statement that Arunachal Pradesh is integral part of India lies? Aren’t we, the people of Arunachal, being duped by the Centre? Has the state government, if not we the people of Arunachal, been taken into confidence by centre about this whole issue? If not, how long would the state government remain a mute spectator to this whole issue, pretending that this state is an integral part of India, when in actuality, its territory is being challenged?

I further wonder, if some part of Arunachal is exchanged as a part of final settlement to boundary dispute then which part of Arunachal it would be. Let me try to straighten the equation. Tawang – it doesn’t seem that India would be willing to part with it; after all the sentiments of ‘62’s defeat is attached with it. May be eastern part of Arunachal i.e., Tirap, Changlang et.al., but then, would China be interested in getting involved in another boundary row with so called The Greater Nagalim? Or will it be border areas of Central Part of Arunachal, but then again, the Centre has hinted that the populated areas wouldn’t be disturbed so as to create a partition like situation. And to talk about the border, it is told that population of Arunachal are settled across the LAC also. Then what would be the final package of boundary settlement? Will it consists of entire district/districts of Arunachal Pradesh, as entire population would then be exchanged along with the territory and there would be no partition like situation?

Seems it’s too tough an equation to straighten out. So, till both the country arrives at final package of settlement of boundary dispute, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and praying that the territorial integrity of this easternmost state is not challenged in the final package of settlement, lest we may have cross-border brethren. And I’m eagerly waiting for this more than 44 years long dispute to end so that we would be sure as to where we would be waking up the next day.