The ordeal of Pema Wangjom Thongdok, an Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh, during transit at China’s Shanghai Pudong airport is symptomatic of the issues plaguing bilateral relations between the two big powers in Asia. Her three-hour transit at the busy airport lasted a tense 18 hours, during an air travel from London, for the simple reason that her passport mentioned her place of birth as Arunachal Pradesh. China never accepted the historical fact that this is a full-fledged Indian state, though it had undergone a change in name in 1972 from what it was till then the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), and carried a Union Territory status until it was designated as a state in 1987. The Chinese officials at the airport argued that the landmass was China’s Zangnan. There is however nothing new to China’s claim. It kept claiming that Arunachal Pradesh belonged to it, though India kept dismissing the claim with the contempt it deserved. It is likely that others from Arunachal Pradesh passed through Chinese airports in the past, but no such issue had ever been raised by the immigration or security officials there. China has now escalated the issue to a new level. The ordeal at the airport for Pema Wangjom was terrible though China claims she was provided with stay, food and water.
Obviously, China was trying to use an opportunity to revive or reassert its claim on the Indian state and alert the international community that this bilateral dispute remains live. India responded by issuing a demarche and reasserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. It is also stressed that under international civil aviation laws, she as an Indian citizen can travel with a valid passport of the kind she carried and which showed her birthplace, rightly, as Arunachal Pradesh. India has also warned China that, by this affront, it violated the Chicago and Montreal Conventions guiding air travel rules. Pema Wangjom managed to extricate herself from the ordeal after getting in touch with the Indian consulate through a friend, leading to its intervention and her safe release late at night. Travel is conceived as a pleasant experience. A detention and provocation at an airport is among the worst experiences during such journeys. For a woman, its impact on her mind would be terrifying. Pema Wangjom is likely to approach international courts for justice and compensation. But this is small comfort.
It is likely that Indian authorities would now respond with a quid pro quo, detaining one or two Chinese nationals at one or other Indian airport citing flimsy reasons. India should also help the harried woman fight the case. India has been having uneasy ties with China for the past over 60 years after the 1962 war. China annexed large swathes of Indian land, much of which still lies with it. China kept provoking India and its other neighbours too off and on. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent attempt to effect a thaw in ties with Beijing might not necessarily be of much help, considering China’s proclivity for recurring play of mischief.
