Two surprising developments have taken place in the past few days which have nothing to with either cricket or the Bharatiya Janata Party. The first development is that the Congress president Rahul Gandhi is all set to embark on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra while the second development too is related to that. The Chinese Embassy had written a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs on August 29th, this letter contained a request to the MEA for a special access pass at the IGI Airport in New Delhi for 31st of August. There is nothing wrong with the Chinese Embassy asking for a special access pass to the MEA, what should raise an eyebrow is the fact that the special access pass is being asked for so that the Chinese Counsellor of Embassy of China, Mr. Zhou Yuyun can see off the Congress president. This is not the first time that there seems to be a close tie-up between the Congress prodigy and the Chinese officials, some instances in the past too hint towards a probable link between the two.
Tensions had been on the rise after the Doklam Standoff between India and China when the Chinese forces had entered the Bhutan owned piece of land. The relation between the two fast developing countries had turned sour when both the country refused to back down from the area which has a high strategic importance. India acting on behalf of Bhutan could not back down as a Chinese dominance on Doklam would have caused significant security threat to its own borders. The Doklam standoff ended on the 28th of August 2017 after a long three months period which was being closely watched by the people and the government of both the countries. While negotiations and talks between the two countries had been raging on and tensions were on the rise on both sides, Rahul Gandhi had set off secretly to meet the Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaohui.
The Congress had gone to great lengths to downplay the meet and had also tried to negate any such meeting having taken place between its president and the Chinese ambassador to India but finally had to accept defeat as more and more facts came out in the media. This time with his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra too Rahul Gandhi has chosen the Chinese route to visit the Hindu pilgrimage site. Meeting Chinese officials and leaders from the Communist Party of China might be on the cards as Rahul sets off for his 15 day pilgrimage. It is noteworthy that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra could have easily been done through the Nepal route rather than going all the way to China. Without some other objectives in mind it is highly unlikely that such a decision would have been taken by the Congress party and its leaders.
Rahul Gandhi has time and again engaged in suspicious activities which make it feel like he has some ulterior motives, his closeness with China and the favoritism the Chinese shower him signifies there is something fishy going on between the two. Rahul Gandhi’s stature in Indian politics is dwindling on a day to day basis, by holding talks with the Chinese maybe he wants to send a message that the Congress is still relevant in the Indian political scene but there also could be some hidden, nefarious agenda behind these.