How Corona Crisis is posing National Security Concern in North East India
On 9th April 2020, two senior doctors from Kolkata were instructed by the Government of West Bengal to meet with local health department officials in Siliguri to discuss ways to treat COVID-19 patients and those suspected to be having coronavirus. Later that day, they instructed that the patients who have symptoms of COVID-19 to be shifted to Dr. Chhang’s Super Speciality Hospital, a private nursing home at Matigara in Siliguri. It is important to note that the patients were initially being tested in North Bengal Medical College Hospital(NBMCH), and this sudden decision of treating the Patients in Dr. Chhang’s Super Speciality Hospital has caused fear and suspicion among many residents. Also, Dr. Chang’s hospital is a private hospital in Siliguri registered in the name of Anne Mermet Doris Wu and Chang Hong Wu.
This incident brings into question the decision of the Government of West Bengal to shift to patients from NBMCH to Dr. Chhang’s Hospital. It also puts into question the fragility of the national security posture of North East India during the time of Corona Virus.
How?
“I don’t have words to express my gratitude. I would like to thank all the Chinese people residing in Kolkata for extending their support,” TMC candidate Mala Roy
Ever since Mamta Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal we have seen that she has demonstrated a pro-China stance on the One Road One Belt initiative of China. The ‘One Road One Belt’ is China’s global logistics and infrastructure-building initiative that pose a national security concern for India. Also, Mamata Banerjee, highly opposed to the Central Government of India, was seeking massive Chinese investment in West Bengal. She also helped promote the Chinese manufactured e-rickshaw in North Bengal. Now, she is using the corona crisis to undermine Central Government’s efforts and taking political decsions of grave national security concern.
It is important to note that North Bengal and Siliguri Corridor is an especially important and sensitive territory for India. This small zone shares its borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and the Indian state of Sikkim that shares its borders with China. Siliguri is also the only bridge between the northeastern part of India and the rest of the country. As a sensitive area amidst three countries, the strip is heavily patrolled by the Indian Army, the Assam Rifles, the Border Security Force, and the West Bengal Police. In recent times, the area has become the focus of illegal crossings by Bangladeshi rebels in search of refuge from their country. A flourishing narcotics and weapons traffic also takes place in this region.
Let’s assess the strategic national security importance of this region!
Siliguri — Place of a Strategic National Security Concern
After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, there was massive tension between India and China due to border disputes and India’s decision to grant asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of the Line of Actual Control proclaimed by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
In 1962, war broke out between India and China, which is also referred to as the Sino-India War, and ever since, we have witnessed aggression in the borders between India and China, mainly due to border disputes over the mineral-rich Himalayan ranges.
Right after the Sino-India War, in 1967, the Naxalbari Movement began. The Naxalbari movement was a political movement started by ultra-left leader Charu Majumdar. Later, a political party, namely the ‘Communist Party of India’, was formed.
It is also given that Charu Majumdar and his associates were inspired by Mao Tse Tung’s idea of a peasant rebellion. The Chinese Communist Party Revolution under Chairman Mao, which achieved a sensational victory over the nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek through an armed peasant rebellion in 1949, had left a profound impact on Majumdar. Inspired by Mao’s success, Charu Majumdar published his famous Eight Documents in 1965, arguing that the Communist Party Leniest-Marxist should endorse the Mao’s strategy of armed rebellion against the Indian state. Naxal- Maoist insurgency in India is now a significant threat to National security. Though there is the ideological difference between Maoist and Naxals, now they are almost synonyms. Present Naxalites are mainly Maoists as they fight from the underground, and according to them, their focus group is tribal.
China using the corona crisis to its advantage in its foreign policy agenda, posing a threat to the North-East part of India.
“China has a long-standing strategic plan that’s focused on co-opting nodes and systems in which it thinks it can claim coercive power over the United States and the global system. Now that the world is shutting down, China sees its opportunity to move in much more quickly and aggressively to those nodes and systems.” — Emily de La Bruyere
In the recent Washinton Post article, the author argues that China is preparing to use the crisis to advance China’s economic strategy. Chinese government agencies and officials are talking publicly about how China can take advantage of being the first country to start recovering from the novel coronavirus (because it was the first country to contract it) to take over the industries of the future. The author highlights that China is trying to manipulate the situation to unfairly take even more control of the “sectors of the future”.
India also must be cautious and not let that happen, by dealing with the crisis without losing sight of the longer game. The security and intelligence community of India must keep an eye on the developments in the region, Chinese investment, and any movement that poses a national security concern. This should be done to mitigate another national security crisis post-corona.
