As of now, while writing this – on
September 18, 2014
Owing to the checkered history of India-China bilateral
ties, there have been very few state-level visits. Now with initiatives of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, there is a sense of optimism
that the process to set the relation back of track can begin now. While
searching for information in the context of Xi’s visit to India from the
concerned government platform, the Ministry of External Affairs, I came across
this interesting anomaly.
The link http://www.mea.gov.in/foreign-relations.htm
has sub-links to ‘the Briefs on India’s
Bilateral Relations’. Clicking on each country’s name opens a PDF file with a
primer on information pertaining to the bilateral relations between India and that particular
country. The format usually categorizes information in sections like Political
Relations, Visits of Heads of States/Heads of Governments, Other High Level
Visits, Major Dialogue Mechanisms, Commercial and Economic Relations, Defence
Relations, Cultural Relations and Education Relations.
The information packets hosted here, being on the official
gateway of India’s
foreign relations, are expected to reflect every major milestone in the
bilateral relations, and need to be updated scrupulously.
With this thought in mind, I clicked the sub-link to the
file on China.
And the sub-link http://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/China_September_2014.pdf
indeed had a good file with neatly packed information to serve as a useful
primer. And the link told me it was updated this month only (China_September_2014).
But while going through it, I came across a serious flaw.
I thought it would be rectified soon as the Chinese
President was come calling on Wednesday and China-related information on
official platforms would be looked into and updated. But it wasn’t. I visited the
link and the file on September 15, on September 16, on September 17, and today,
on September 18. But the missing information has not been updated in this basic
file and Mr. Xi Jinping is leaving tomorrow.
Here are the screen shots of the file that I captured
yesterday (and which don’t show the expected changes yet).
The file has no mention of the visit of Jiang Zemin, the
first visit by a Chinese President/Head of the State to India. Even the
visit of President R. Venkataraman to China in 1992 doesn’t figure in the
file. This is when it was indeed a milestone making visit of a President of the
People’s Republic of China who is referred to as the Paramount Leader of China;
someone who is described as the core of the third generation of the Communist party
leaders.
Here are the screen shots.
India-China Bilateral Relations >> Political
Relations
India-China Bilateral Relations >> Political
Relations
The old files have the information but it cannot account
for the missing piece in updated, direct links. I am going to inform them, the Ministry people.
Let’s see what happens.