An uncommon RSVP

Every now and then there arise issues which must be non-negotiable,especially for a sovereign and democratic state. The government deserves to be loudly congratulated for gathering its courage to categorically state that India will be represented in the attendance in Oslo when the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 is formally awarded. The government needed to convey the unambiguous message that India’s policy cannot be fine-tuned on a daily basis,and with regard to the particulars of every case. It did so amidst a debate on Chinese pressure on countries to keep their envoys away from the Oslo function,and with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao set to visit India later this month. China has been furious about the Nobel Peace Prize to its jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo; it has placed his wife and many activists under house arrest,ensuring that this will most likely be the first time the prize is not handed over to the recipient or a designated representative since 1935,when Nazi Germany prevented Carl von Ossietzky from attending.In fact,if anything must cause concern it’s that there was a debate in the first place about what India should do. In the end,the problem of whether to attend or not to attend was correctly resolved. There are clearly some elements within the system who believe that we can trade diplomatically on various issues. But as India nuances its foreign policy,amidst the rapid rise of China and the relative decline of the US,it needs to be confident of its values and to show what it stands for,in a consistent manner. During the passage of the Olympic flame through India,before the 2008 Games in Beijing,the establishment lost its nerve. The more recent refusal to interfere with the Dalai Lama’s travel itinerary and now a routine attendance at a Nobel ceremony are therefore good course corrections.No country can issue or be allowed to issue the excessively intrusive advisories that Beijing did to other sovereign states. There is,nevertheless,a new assertiveness in China and India will increasingly be challenged to show where it draws the line.