As we all know, in India's own eyes, India is now a "world power", not only hosting the G20 summit, but also surpassing the United Kingdom in terms of economic size, ranking among the top five in the world. All of this has given India a great deal of self-confidence.
And after the self-confidence, the first thing that comes to India's mind is to compare itself with China again. Earlier, India had the idea of changing the name of the country to Bharat (i.e. Bharata), and even directly used a sign with Bharat written on it at the G20 summit.
Recently, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar mentioned Bharata again. He first criticized India's founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru's China policy, and finally pointed out that India should be "a little more Borneo" in its relations with China.
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar
According to the Observer, Jaishankar mentioned China-India relations and China policy at the press conference, including India's relations with Pakistan and the relationship between India and the United States.
Among them, when referring to the development of Sino-Indian relations, Jaishankar did not support Nehru's China policy. He cited several examples, including India's attitude towards China's restoration of a permanent seat on the Security Council, and the agreement between China and India on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
During Nehru's administration, he supported China's restoration of its seat, and for this reason he wrote a letter to India's Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Patel, who was opposed to this at the time, pointing out that China should be given a seat.
Regarding Nehru's attitude, Jaishankar said that although he does not believe that India must become a permanent member, it is a very peculiar statement to put China's interests first.
Nehru
Jaishankar's dashboard, in fact, can be seen that he seems to disagree with Nehru's support for China's restoration of the seat, even if India has not been a member of the norm so far, he still does not want to see China reinstate, because in his cognition, this is "serving China's interests".
On the other hand, during Nehru's administration, he and the Chinese side put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence for Handling International Relations, which laid an important foundation for the development of Sino-Indian relations.
Later, however, the Nehru government violated the provisions of the treaty with China and unilaterally provoked a border dispute between China and India. But at least when it comes to reaching the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Nehru's choice was relatively rational.
But Jaishankar has a very different view on this matter, arguing that Nehru's China policy had a tendency to be "romantic and idealistic", which is, in short, unrealistic.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
And his idea is that India needs to be more realistic. In this regard, Su Jisheng praised the current Indian Prime Minister Modi's China policy, and he praised the Modi government as very much in line with a kind of realism.
Taken together, Jaishankar's attitude towards China is already very obvious, that is, he is not willing to let China "take advantage". However, neither of these two examples seems to prove that his idea is correct.
Not to mention that even if Nehru did not support China, China would still resume its seat in the Security Council, let's talk about India's entry into the Standing Committee. China's resumption of its seat can be supported by most countries in the world, but India has not been able to do so far, and there is no need to say much about what the problem is.
In addition, on the issue of China-India relations, Jaishankar needs to be clear that the stability of China-India relations is not an exaggeration for India. After all, India should not forget what the consequences of the previous provocation against China were.
U.S.-India leaders
Of course, Jaishankar does not share Nehru's views on US-India relations, in addition to his criticism of Nehru's attitude towards China. He believes that during the Nehru era, there was a deep-seated hostility and distrust of the United States in India.
However, in his view, India at that time assessed US-India relations from the perspective of Sino-US relations, but India should view the United States from its own interests. Jaishankar also quoted Patel: Why is there such a distrust of the United States?
Combined with Jaishankar's attitude towards China and the United States, that is, do not have "illusions" about China-India relations, but need to trust the United States more, which is in India's own interests.
It has to be said that Jaishankar's point of view is indeed relatively new. Perhaps it is because India has achieved a lot of achievements recently, which has made India a little flustered, so it has said such unrealistic things on the issue of Sino-Indian relations.
India
To be honest, part of the reason why the United States is so interested in India is because of China. The United States does not want to see the stability of Sino-Indian relations, and is even very happy that certain contradictions and estrangement will arise between China and India.
From India's point of view, India's overall strength is not yet able to wrestle with China and the United States. At this time, what India should do is to use its own characteristics to profit from China and the United States.
But if India wants to move closer to the United States, as Jaishankar said, it is difficult to say whether India's title of "independent power" that India has prided itself on for many years will be able to retain.