China's Objection To Amit Shah's Arunachal Visit Not Valid
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-04-12 06:49:04
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The India Commentary view
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Finding peace with China is an elusive goal - it was difficult in the past and has become more difficult now with China not seriously interested in honouring border agreements due to its expansionist policies. China's objection to Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Arunachal Pradesh is a case in point. Despite repeated Indian statements that the state is an integral part of India, China has always tried to prove otherwise. It calls the state Zangnan and has, since 2017, given Mandarin names to 33 places in the state, including 11 places that were renamed this month. On Shah's visit to the state, China issued a statement that said that the visit violated China's territorial integrity and was not conducive to peace and tranquillity in border areas.
India, on its part, rejected the Chinese claim. Foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that "we completely reject the comments made by the Chinese official spokesperson. Indian leaders routinely travel to Arunachal Pradesh as they do to any other state of India". He added that "Arunachal was. Is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. Objecting to such visits doesn't stand to reason and will not change the reality". Amit Shah talked tough in Arunachal and said that India will not allow even a needle's point (sui ki nok) land to be encroached upon.
While China has always proclaimed that border disputes between the two countries must be settled through bilateral talks (which, incidentally, is also what India maintains), it is not serious about it. The Special Representatives for the border dialogue have not met since 2019. In the interim, the Chinese side has carried out many misadventures at the LAC, the most serious being at Doklam. For bilateral talks to succeed, aggression at the border must stop. The Special Representatives must meet regularly at pre-scheduled meetings and take things forward. Posturing is not going to help and India must tell this to China in the strongest terms.
