Beijing 2008: China invites Sonia, not PM or Prez-India-The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Eighty heads of state and government will grace the Beijing Olympics in August but PM Manmohan Singh will not be among them.
Not because he is too busy, but because he was not invited. In fact, neither India's head of state nor government have been invited, with the invitation going to its most important politician, Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress chief is unlikely to attend, leaving that job to sports minister M S Gill. But even if you are really charitable, it can't be denied that it's yet another Chinese snub of pretty large proportions, and no amount of earnest protestations from government functionaries about the wonderful state of Sino-Indian relations will change that.
In October 2007, when Sonia visited Beijing, she received a welcome fit for a head of state. It raised eyebrows in India because it showed where the Chinese government was focusing its attention. It was then that the Chinese leadership first extended an invitation to her to attend the Bejing Olympic Games.
Although the government was the first to deny it, the scale of Sonia's visit prompted a delay in the prime minister's visit to Beijing. He was initially supposed to make his summit visit at the end of 2007, but this had to be pushed to the new calendar year. In 2008, the Beijing Olympics acquiring a distinct political hue with the Tibetan protests. Consequently, India-China ties took on a strained look, made worse by China's repeated incursions in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
China's internal troubles did not stop it from keeping the Indian government is a state of permanent squirm — first with repeated claims to Arunachal and then by incursions into Sikkim. In fact, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee was faced with a sudden cancellation of his meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.
Also by this time, China had invited pretty much every world leader to the Olympics, but maintained a silence on India. India wasn't on the first list, or the second. While the Chinese government has invited the who's who in terms of heads of government to the Games, in the case of India, it made a clear distinction between the head of government and the most powerful political leader in the ruling combine. When Mukherjee visited Beijing in June, the formal invitation was finally made — to Sonia. Officials, when questioned, evaded the issue.
The PM would not have gone, said officials trying to defend the lack of an invitation. In October, Singh will be in Beijing for the ASEM summit, which officials say will be his second visit there this year. So a third visit during the Olympics was not on his radar. But as with much of India-China thorny issues, this too is looking more and more like a post-facto justification. Sources requesting anonymity said the Chinese leadership, which also derives its strength from the party, merely looked at the Indian leadership through that perspective.
However, seen in almost any light, the Chinese decision is little short of a snub to the PM personally and his office.
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This is interesting.
Great, the Chinese are giving us more and more reasons to dislike them. They shouldn't be surprised then if India sides with the US, Japan and Australia in a "quadrilateral security initiative" or whatever they called it (most called it an alliance of democracies). If they want to deliver snubs and insults every now and then, there's no reason at all why the Indian government should be friendly or co-operative towards them.
Isn't Sonia the actual leader( or most powerful one) of India ? So I don't think the Chinese government invited the wrong one.Originally Posted by gamercube
Great, the Chinese are giving us more and more reasons to dislike them. They shouldn't be surprised then if India sides with the US, Japan and Australia in a "quadrilateral security initiative" or whatever they called it (most called it an alliance of democracies). If they want to deliver snubs and insults every now and then, there's no reason at all why the Indian government should be friendly or co-operative towards them.
Define "most powerful" or "actual leader". Sonia Gandhi can change the PM if she wants, but that's all she can do. She's the head of the ruling party and an MP. The head of the government is still the PM, and everyone takes orders from him, not from Sonia Gandhi.Isn't Sonia the actual leader( or most powerful one) of India ? So I don't think the Chinese government invited the wrong one.
Your logic and the commies who run your country as well is getting stupider by the minute. If you dont know about India or the leaders running it, better shut up and read. Any village idiot who can google can say, Dr.Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister and Pratibha Patil is the President. Where does the "actual" leader and most "powerful" leader fits in?
Next time read this before blabbering something out...
Prime Minister of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anyway, who is the "actual" and most "powerful" leader in the "Peoples" rebublic of China?
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!
No she is not, neither is she the most popular one.
She is the leader of one of the largest political parties in India.
This has to be a protocol mix up.
In a multi party democratic set up there are no such things as the most important or the most powerful leaders.
Why, till now Prakash Karat held a lot more power than Sonia Gandhi.
A sad mistake by the comunists in china, however with the communists back stabbing, and such symbolic moves should be expected.
cheers
Comrade, your really spend a lot of time looking up articles on India, don't you?
In case you actually didn't know she is the leader of the largest party in Parliament. As such she and the leader of the opposition are important representatives of the country. Still the PM is the head of the government and the President the head of state. So the Chinese gesture would be a snub. Not that it really comes as a surprise any more.
I'm not sure what posting this article was supposed to achieve though. What is it that you found interesting?
Last edited by chankya; 15 Jul 08, at 22:58.
"Of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most." - Thucydides
Next time, invite the Chinese dissidents on an official trip or the Taiwan President and declare Taiwan as an independent country.
I think the Indian soldiers have another recon mission at night to carry out, on the northern side of the Indo-Sino border.
Why is everyone being so hostile? Does it really offend that much? Sonia was named the third most powerful women in the world by Forbes, remember?:P Still holds the 6th spot on that list at present. I guess the Chinese got a little confused.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.
Sonia Gandhi is not the head of the state, neither the head of the government. More than the snubbing, in defence of the commies OP said she is the "actual" and "powerful" leader of India..WTF??
As Blade says, may be we should include some Dalai "Cliques" in the Indian Olympic Team or better yet MM Singh should invite Dalai Lama the "actual" and "powerful" leader of the Chinese (as they say, Tibet is a part of China) for a lunchon during Olympics.
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!
They do. Who do you think has been peeing on Chinese snow?
Chimo
)
What the Chinese have done indicate the great culture they have.
It does show how civilised they are. Can't expect niceties from those who have been ruled by the Manchus. Something always rubs off.
India has been ruled by the British and so gentlemanly behaviour has rubbed off on us.
I don't think it is a snub. It could be that some Yi chap (one of those who still have not assimilated Han culture and still rebelling and classified as ''barbarian'' in the Han culture) was there, who does not know Mandarin and so he mixed up the characters of the Chinese lexicography! Yes, the Yis of South China are still maintaining their distinctiveness and refusing to accept the Han culture!
Not visiting the Olympics is not apparently a life and death concern. Even those who have been invited are declining! And see the Chinese pique when they decline!
I am sure it would be a relief for those who are not going that they have to share the pew with such glorious murderer like Mugabwe, which is the Chinese standard of ''class''!
However, Chinese are a devious lot. Given India's political crisis where the Indian Communists (proxy of the Chinese Communist) have been kicked out, China is ensuring that Sonia Gandhi is disliked and hence the Congress Party by Indians if she accepts the invitation where it indicates that she is greater than the PM or the President and thereby the Congress gets a hammering at the polls that may happen if the govt falls. And anyway, the elections are as it is due shortly.
One cannot beat the Chinese Communists in deviousness! Not a straight bone in their body. All crooked!
Last edited by Ray; 16 Jul 08, at 04:04.
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
I was hoping you would catch my meaning.
Just be advised that is all India's complaints are. That the CAPF is peeing on Indian snow.
Chimo
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