Winning back some neighbours

Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China

With 2021 drawing to a close, as themes go, Covid dominates the horizon — the administrative hits and misses in handling it, the sense of loss and emptiness, impotence, and rage.

But the other story that dominated India’s consciousness in the year past was China. What it did. And how India responded.

There are myriad ways in which China has been asserting itself. Of course, there is salami-slicing on the border, which, by the way, the Indian Parliament is yet to discuss. The government had promised a discussion in the budget session. The year is about to end but the country is