New Delhi: India on Tuesday rejected China’s objection to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying it did not stand to reason, and would not change reality.
Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said: “We completely reject the comments made by the Chinese Official Spokesperson. Indian leaders routinely travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India. Arunachal was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. Objecting to such visits does not stand to reason and will not change the above reality.”
Amit Shah visited the state on 10 and 11 to flag off the government’s ‘vibrant villages programme’ at Kibithoo – a small village located near the India-China border.
The initiative is part of the Centre’s efforts to connect and to raise the standard of living in border villages, specifically those which share the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
Responding to a question on Shah’s visit, Chinese spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday that Zangnan (China’s name for Arunachal Pradesh was the country’s territory.”The Indian official’s visit to Zangnan violates China’s territorial sovereignty, and is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the border situation,” Wenbin added.
#FMsays China firmly opposes the Indian official's visit to Zangnan as Zangnan is China's territory and the visit violated China's territorial sovereignty, and is not conducive to peace and tranquility in the border region, FM spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday. pic.twitter.com/YrTQB5EYbn
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) April 10, 2023
Ignoring China’s objections, Shah said a few hours later that no one could dare cast an evil eye on India’s territorial integrity and encroach even an “inch of our land”.
Inaugurating nine micro-hydel projects, Shah said the Narendra Modi government’s policy was to maintain peace with all countries, but would not tolerate if anyone tried to occupy even an inch of India’s land.
“The era is gone when anyone could encroach on our lands. Now, not even land equal to ‘sui ki noke’ (the tip of a needle) can be encroached…,” Shah, who was on his first visit to the northeastern state as home minister, said at a public function.
His remarks come amid a three-year-long India-China border standoff in eastern Ladakh, and days after a recent attempt by China to rename 11 places in the state which it claims as the “southern part of Tibet”.
Shah added that the main objective of the “vibrant villages programme” was to stop the exodus of people from border villages, develop them as tourist attractions, bring jobs and all-round development.
Under this centrally-sponsored scheme, 2,967 villages in 19 districts — abutting the northern border in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh — have been identified for comprehensive development. In the first phase, 662 villages will be given priority, which includes 455 in Arunachal Pradesh.
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