'We're rising, you're rising': Let's stop pretending parity with China

India's subsequent under-performance since 2010, even as China has accumulated strength and influence, has increased the power imbalance between the two 'Asian giants', writes T N Ninan

Speaking at an Indian Express Adda last week, S Jaishankar, the external affairs minister, reportedly told his audience the following about recent India-China summit meetings: “These were conversations about, we are rising, you are rising, we are going to be among the major powers of the world. We are both civilisation states which will make it into the fourth industrial revolution... And we happen to be rising approximately in the same sort of parallel timeframe.”
 
Such a storyline began three decades ago, of two Asian giants rising, and it does not need Mr Jaishankar’s caliber or knowledge of China