That Congress president Sonia Gandhi is heading to China later this week is good news. But her long delayed Chinese sojourn could not have come at a more unfortunate political moment. Although not planned this way, Sonia Gandhi’s necessary engagement with the Chinese Communists comes after her unexpected kow-tow to Indian Communists on the nuclear deal.

To be sure, Chinese leaders value old friends and will shower affection on Sonia Gandhi. Chinese respect, however, is reserved for those who are capable of taking bold decisions and have an appetite for hard power politics.

No wonder the Chinese establishment has great regard for the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who surprised them in 1986 with his apparent readiness for military confrontation on the border and for having the political courage to rewrite India’s China policy when he travelled to Beijing at the end of 1988. Sonia Gandhi who accompanied her husband to Beijing would recall how difficult it was for Rajiv Gandhi to overcome the widespread opposition within the Congress Party to that path-breaking visit. Party elders like P.V. Narasimha Rao, then foreign minister, were upset at Rajiv’s seeming readiness to forget the political humiliation China had heaped on Jawaharlal Nehru.

Recognising the urgency of normalising relations with China, Rajiv Gandhi was not prepared to elevate personal sentiment above national interest. He was prepared to break the Congress mould on foreign policy not just on China, but also on the US, Pakistan and Israel.

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