New Delhi: India on Tuesday slammed China for objecting to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying the northeastern state is an integral and inalienable part of India and Beijing’s comments will not change the reality.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that Indian leaders routinely travel to Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other part of India.
The statement read:
“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 Pradesh 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.”
China on Monday termed the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Arunachal Pradesh as violating Beijing’s territorial sovereignty and not conducive to peace and tranquility in the border areas.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, responding to a question on Amit Shah’s visit, said: “Zangnan (or South Tibet as Beijing refers to Arunachal Pradesh) is part of China’s territory. The activity of the senior Indian official in Zangnan violates China’s territorial sovereignty and is not conducive to peace and tranquility in the border areas. We are firmly against this.”
On Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP) at Kibithoo – a border village in Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China.
Shah also inaugurated nine micro hydel projects of the Arunachal Government and 14 infrastructure projects of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) worth Rs 120 crore in presence of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Union Home Secretary, ITBP Director General and other dignitaries.
In his address, the Home Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed people’s approach towards border villages; now people visiting border areas know it not as last village but as the first village of India.
“Border areas are the priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The security of the border is the security of the nation and this is the reason that the government led by PM Modi is continuously working to increase the border infrastructure,” he said.
On April 4, India had in a statement rejected outright China’s attempt at “renaming” 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls southern Tibet, and stated that Arunachal Pradesh has been and will always remain an inalienable part of India.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in a statement, also said that attempts by China to “assign invented names will not alter this reality” of Arunachal Pradesh being an integral part of India.
The response came after China came up with a third set of names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it referred to as “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.
In October 2021, China had protested against the visit of then Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to Arunachal Pradesh. The MEA had then too strongly criticised China’s objections.
In February 2019 and earlier too, China had objected to PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
