It was a busy day at the Presidential Secretariat, wasn’t it? We had S. Jaishankar in one room talking about ‘Sagar Bandhu’ and Bailey bridges, and just down the hall, we had Zhao Leji—the third most powerful man in Beijing—talking about ‘long-term stability’ and the railway network.
It’s a bit like having two suitors turn up on your doorstep at the same time. One has brought a first- aid kit and a bag of groceries because your roof just blew off, and the other is offering to rebuild the entire house—provided you use his architect and his materials.
India was the ‘first responder,’ no doubt about it. They had the INS Vikrant delivering supplies before the rain had even stopped. But China isn’t just sending blankets; they’re sending a delegation of heavy hitters to discuss ‘reconstruction.’
President AKD has been very clever here. He’s thanked India for the ‘compassion’ but he’s specifically asked China for the ‘technical assistance’ to fix the railways. He’s playing both sides of the net, and so far, he hasn’t hit the tape. But as we always say on Turning Point, when you have two giants helping you rebuild your house, you have to be very careful that they don’t start arguing over who owns the front door.
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