Editorial

They Call It ‘Yarlung Zangbo’

India and its neighbouring countries have been in a some- what complicated diplomatic environment for long. Despite frictions here and there, at the UN and elsewhere the situation in the region as a whole remained more or less stable during the year 2012. In truth India’s foreign policy orientation has been a disaster since the days of Nehru. The legitimate rights of Indian people at home and abroad are hardly safeguarded even today by the system of governance India has. Non-alignment Movement that was launched with a big bang in the fifties soon became an appendage of Soviet Russia and it lost its relevance completely after the demise of ex-Soviet Union. They cannot think of better relations with Pakistan and China in the foreseeable future but they cannot improve bilateral relations with small neighbours either.

As for Bangladesh one major area of contention is river, rather sharing of river waters. Ganga has been a river of discord ever since the commissioning of Farakka barrage decades ago. The very purpose of Farakka barrage—to improve navigability of Kolkata port—has failed. Port Kolkata is dying and after the completion of East-West Metro, whatever draft Kolkata Port still has, will dwindle beyond recovery, forcing the authorities to think in terms of dry dock. Even the satellite port at Haldia which was launched in the main to export iron ore to Japan is in a stage of irreversible decline. Ganga, Teesta apart, the mighty Brahmaputra too is a source of mistrust between India and Bangladesh, the latter being a lower reparian state is always at the receiving end. But the river Brahmaputra is now an equally contentious issue between India and China. That China was planning to build three hydro-power stations on the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra or what they call ‘Yarlung Zangbo River’ was recently admitted by no less a person than a foreign ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying at a daily press briefing. Hua, however, didn’t forget to mention that they were maintaining communication and cooperation with India on the cross-border river issue. In reality Hua’s comments came in response to India’s concerns about China’s unilateral move to dam the upper reaches of Brahmaputra while depriving India of its share of waters during lean months. In other words it is the same allegation the Bangladesh has been making against India in respect of Ganga and Teesta.

For one thing China doesn’t bother about India’s concerns. After all China has grown rapidly over the years from a regional power to a global power, making its diplomacy more dynamic and assertive than its traditional norm. Whether the sultans of Delhi like it or not China now holds significant influence over Asia, with East-Asian Cooperation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as main pillars.

No doubt both India and Bangladesh have stakes in sharing waters of the Brahmaputra but they are in no position to stand in unison against China’s move that affects materially both South Asian countries. It is because New Delhi’s repeated failures to march ahead with small neighbours in the changing global context. Compared with the past, India’s surrounding environs at the movement looks more volatile and complex as strife-torn Pakistan and Bangladesh are burning and it is a cause of pessimism in the region.

Meanwhile, at the sideline of the BRICS summit in Durban Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his first meeting with new Chinese President Xi Jinping floated the idea of joint mechanism to assess the construction work in the Brahmaputra. But the Chinese president was evasive and didn’t give any assurance to Mr Singh that they would swim alongwith Indians in the Brahmaputra. Back home Mr Singh tried to downplay the Indian dimension of the problem by describing the Chinese venture as a run-of-the river projects having little impacts on the lower reparian states. But they are building hydel-power plants which are not designed to exploit the Brahmaputra seasonally or intermittently, albeit the Chinese side made no firm commitment to allay India’s fears and apprehensions by issuing a purely diplomatic policy statement that ‘the construction of the stations will not impact flood control or disaster reduction efforts, as well as ecological environment on the lower reaches’. It doesn’t matter whether damming is major or minor—it always affects the lower reaches.

The Brahmaputra originates in the glacial region of the northern Himalayas and runs 2057 km through Tibet and passes through India and Bangladesh before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. It is not known whether the Tiberans still call it Sang po or pronounce it as Zangbo the way the Chinese do it. With an average altitude of 4500 metres, the Brahmaputra is the highest river in the world. So the Chinese are not making fun in the high altitude of Tibet.
The Chinese believe the centre of gravity in world economy has shifted from west to east, implying China. In South Asia India’s adversaries are China’s friends. In other words in any international forum New Delhi is unlikely to get support from any country on the cross-border river dispute with China.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 40, Apr 14- -20, 2013

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