New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the forward posts in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday and carried out an on-ground assessment of the operational preparedness of the armed forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
At Tawang, Singh said that there is no option but to bolster the country’s security apparatus, underlining that all efforts are being made by the government to strengthen the military prowess through indigenous production of defence equipment.
“Earlier, we used to rely on imports to upgrade our military. But today, a number of major weapons and platforms are being manufactured within the country,” he said, adding that foreign companies were now being encouraged to share technology and produce equipment in India with domestic industry.
Army chief General Manoj Pande, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Eastern Command Lt. Gen. R.P. Kalita, GOC, 4 Corps, Lt. Gen. Manish Erry and other senior Army officers accompanied the minister.
Visited the forward areas in Arunachal Pradesh on the auspicious occasion of ‘Vijaya Dashmi’. Interacted with the troops deployed in the region.
Glad to note that the morale of our armed forces personnel is extremely high. pic.twitter.com/khnoecr258
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) October 24, 2023
The minister also participated in a Shastra Puja with the troops at Tawang, where he reiterated that Dussehra signifies the victory of “good over evil.” He described the righteousness and dharma of forces as the living testament to the ethos of the festival of Dussehra.
Tawang sector hit international headlines in December 2022, when Indian and Chinese troops suffered minor injuries in a clash. “Both sides immediately disengaged from the area,” the Army had said.
Earlier in the day, Singh visited the 4 Corps Headquarters at Tezpur in Assam where he reviewed the operational readiness of the formation, which is deployed in one of the easternmost parts of the country.
He was briefed on the infrastructure development along the LAC and the “employment of cutting-edge military equipment and technology to enhance the operational efficiency of the troops deployed in the frontline”.
In 2019, China had objected to Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh. As recently as in April, China objected to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state saying it viewed his activities in the area as violating Beijing’s “territorial sovereignty.” In response, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) asserted that Arunachal Pradesh “is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India”.
Beijing is carrying on with expanding its network of model villages or ‘Xiaokang’ villages opposite the LAC in the middle and eastern sectors, The Hindu reported in May.
India has also launched the Vibrant Villages Programme at the border village of Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh. Under the programme, 2,967 villages have been identified for comprehensive development in 46 blocks of 19 districts along the northern border in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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