China invites India’s Olympic boycott

The India-China relations has come under renewed stress after New Delhi announced its decision to diplomatically boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics in response to Beijing’s move to choose a Chinese soldier involved in the Galwan incident as an Olympic torchbearer.

“It is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicize an event like the Olympics… the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of India in Beijing will not be attending the opening or the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics,” Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in New Delhi on February 3. He was responding to questions on the reports of a Chinese soldier from the Galwan clashes being chosen as the torchbearer for the games.

Beijing’s choice to pick a Chinese soldier involved in Galwan as a torchbearer for Winter Olympics is seen in New Delhi as a deliberate act of provocation and a contrived attempt to whip up anti-India nationalism.

“Earlier, India had decided to keep the Olympics out of the current India-China standoff by not joining Western nations in diplomatic boycott as it did not want to politicise the sports. But now China has done exactly done that leaving New Delhi with no choice,” said Manish Chand, Editor-in-Chief, India and the World magazine and President, Centre for Global India Insights, a think tank focused on global affairs.

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