Abhijit Bhattacharyya | Is China Silently Occupying Arunachal To Shame India?

According to the Hindu Saka calendar, the month of Bhadra (Bhado) spans August 22 to September 22. However, there’s also the possibility of these dates moving owing to shift in the lunar cycle. For believers though, the Bhadra month is best avoided when it comes to any auspicious activity. Bhadra, considered the daughter of Lord Surya and the sister of Shani (Saturn), possesses a none-too-pleasant temperament. Hence the widespread belief across India not to hold weddings, house-warming (grihapravesh), business deal signing or any important functions during this Indian month.

In tune with India’s inherent spirit of unity in diversity, the Bengali San calendar marks Bhadra mid-August to mid-September when all positive, auspicious or new work are invariably postponed or kept in abeyance.

The lines above, however, do not necessarily mean that a vast India should follow a uniform script of belief or behaviour. What’s surprising, though, is that this year’s Bhadra has brought a bewildering inventory of disturbing pan-India developments. Suddenly, India faces fresh a multi-front combination of severe internal and external turbulence. From internal politics, domestic market pressure and upheaval in the voting process to the younger generations’ mass movement on the streets, Gulf war disruptions, foreign currency volatility, rupee depreciation, a yawning foreign trade balance of payment deficit and now the several unofficial reports on Chinese army’s unusual and overactive movements leading to perceived transgression into India’s northeastern province of Arunachal Pradesh. What’s cooking?

Why local people of Arunachal are increasingly vocal about Chinese troops’ penetration into Upper Subansiri district of border state is the most intriguing question. And, too, why is the local establishment coy about sharing those details? Shouldn’t the Indian state step in to officially clarify the matter? If there’s nothing in it, announce it to the public. But, if there is any substance in the reports of the local people, take action decisively. Will it be wise to keep quiet to avoid incurring Chinese displeasure owing to the impending 18th Brics Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi because, in the foreign minister’s own eyes, China is stronger than India?

Yet should New Delhi suffer and tolerate Beijing’s brazenly illegal claim over Arunachal Pradesh which is indisputably an inalienable and integral part of India’s sovereign territory? Beijing may try and give any name like Zangnan to Indian land, but that does not give any legitimacy to licentious gunboat gangsterism to the Dragon and its ilk. China may like to quench its thirst for land and water by sending its gunboatwallahs to other smaller, weaker and proximate points, but let India take a stand and not get trapped in the repeated deception and web of false diplomacy of the Chinese dictator.

It has been our experience that whenever New Delhi takes a big step in the diplomatic arena, clandestine attempts are invariably made by China to show it in poor light. Therefore, is there a similar idea-to-implementation plan to embarrass us during the 18th Bric Summit of September 12-13 in New Delhi which also incidentally falls in the “inauspicious” month of Bhadra? In fact, India does face an uphill task of making the 18th Brics Summit a success owing to a variety of internal and external forces in play.

Let’s delve into a few (albeit known) factors which could effectively force India’s hand. Instances galore exist showing how India got trapped into territory loss, trade deficit, banking retreat and industrial decimation. The latest open-source info provided by Indian missions in Beijing/Shanghai says: “Many Indian banks had established their presence in mainland China through branches or representative offices in major cities. However, most of them have closed their ops in recent years and presently only SBI and ICICI branches function in Shanghai.”

Mark the words on Indian banks: “closed ops”. Beijing, on other hand, ensured that two of its “heavyweight” banks, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Bank of China are continuing uninterrupted business in Mumbai since, respectively, 2011 and 2018. Unlike India in China, Chinese banks have not closed in India. Some prominent Indian private players are still floating in China alright, but how much is India gaining as a nation? Should laissez faire be allowed to go berserk at the cost of the interests of a vast majority of Indians? Is it fair? Should India imitate the reckless capitalism of the United States? Shouldn’t the State assume some role and responsibility to control and keep a portion of the revenue originating from foreign countries to facilitate a better utilisation and distribution of the fruits of today’s global financial apparatus?

The Indian mission in China candidly narrated in its website a reality rarely reflected by New Delhi’s blockbuster media moguls: “Though India-China bilateral trade volumes have grown exponentially, they have also led to the biggest single trade deficit Indians have run into with any country. Our trade deficit concerns are two-pronged. One is the actual size of deficit. The second is the fact that the imbalance has been widening year on year to reach $ 112.16 billion in 2025-2026.” The Indian mission in China deserves a compliment for being truthful and precise and for not suppressing information.

However, this harsh reality faced by India is being brutally exploited by the Chinese to their advantage. There’s now all-out manipulation and manoeuvring to corner India in every sphere. Hence, the sly advance towards Arunachal’s extreme northeastern corner becomes a pressure point as India proceeds to host the 18th Brics Leaders’ Summit in the second week of September.

How sensational would be the embarrassment to the host country if it has to deal with headline grabbing news of a troubled border masterminded by one of the main participants and founding members of the Brics itself? How depressing would that be for both the defence and the diplomatic corps to have to douse the fire? How delighted would be China’s strategic partner Dhaka if it doesn’t attend the summit, given its own blackmail agenda around Sheikh Hasina?

Simultaneous salvos could also be fired from the American side to inflict a crippling blow on Iran’s Hormuz Strait during the Brics Summit as Tehran will definitely be then in New Delhi, if one is to go by the disruptive streak in US President Donald Trump, seeing as the brazen and forced entry of US oil exploration companies has just been reported in Greenland. Trump’s America today wants all the oil in the world. From Venezuela to Iran to Greenland, the US is all over the black gold wells. And now, taking the cue from Potus, what the Dragon could do is to capture land on the sly to score points during the India-hosted Brics today and strengthen its position at the diplomatic table tomorrow.