Indian officer's remarks at odds with consensus

The mistrust and misgivings harbored by high-ranking Indian officials toward China have more often than not only helped to fan an aggressive patriotism in India, which has done a disservice to the efforts of the two countries to build trust and establish rapport.

This was evident once again on Friday, following the remarks made by India's Army Chief of Staff General Bipin Rawat, who, in an apparent move to beef up the Indian army's morale before India's Army Day on Monday, vowed to handle China's "assertiveness", saying China may be powerful, but India is not a weak nation.

Coming so soon after the tense more than two-month standoff that resulted after Indian troops crossed the border into Donglang in June, these remarks - and his call for India's infrastructure development on the northern border "to be speeded up" - are ill-judged by any standard, and serve only to push the sensitive border issue between the two neighbors to the fore again.