The only key

Restraint is perhaps the only key to ease the tensions on the Line of Actual Control (April 25). It is election time, and there could be some sabre-rattling by political parties. Fortunately, there is no instance of Nehruvian flamboyance like “I have ordered our army to throw out the Chinese from our territory.”

India must accept the reality that South Asia looks up to China and not India for regional stability and prosperity. This is the result of the abject failure of our foreign policy in the region. Both India and China realise that the armed forces of their countries are politically reliable and militarily adequate. It would be prudent for the two nations to dump the “border dispute” in cold storage. Restraint and not belligerence is the only way out. The top leadership of India and China should meet in a cordial environment.

Col. C.V. Venugopalan (retd.),

Palakkad

What is unacceptable is that China has refused to heed India’s repeated calls for dismantling the tents and returning to its side of the LAC to maintain the pre-April 15 status quo . India too has responded to the blatant provocation by sending personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police to camp 200 yards away from the Chinese. Understandably, New Delhi is in a catch-22 situation, where it has to choose between militarily taking on the third largest country in the world that is determined to supersede the U.S. as the next superpower or live in denial about the expansionist and hegemonic designs of China.

The Hindu editorial has wisely cautioned against any knee-jerk reaction from India.

Nalini Vijayaraghavan,

Thiruvananthapuram

New Delhi has been consistently following a policy of restraint with Beijing in spite of the latter’s provocative anti-India postures and actions on many sensitive issues. But there is a limit to restraint and it should not be one-sided. It cannot be at the cost of a nation’s sovereignty.

C.A.C. Murugappan,

Kothamangalam