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India plays down Chinese claim to Finger area of Sikkim – to set up permanent post |
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Even as the BJP hit out at the UPA Government for not doing enough to check the “expansionist designs” of China, New Delhi has played down China’s claims on a small tract of land in northern Sikkim, known as Finger Area, calling it “a minor and local matter”. The matter, it has been explained, was taken up at the routine division commander level flag meeting in Nathu La and at a luncheon meeting between Indian officials and a Chinese team in Beijing recently where India said that it would not allow Chinese troops to enter the area.
China is claiming a piece of land in northern Sikkim which is called the “Finger Area” by the Indian Army. The boundary in the area is demarcated by stone cairns. The Chinese side has objected to these stone cairns boundary. India has told China that it will not allow Chinese troops into the area and that it would mean a breach of the treaty between the neighbours to maintain peace along the border.
In an attempt to thwart increasing aggressiveness by the Chinese over the control of Finger Area, India has strengthened defences and converted its positions into a permanent post to keep watch over troop movements. Military sources said, the decision to set up a permanent position came two months ago after an unusually high number of intrusions in the area and a discovery eight months ago that the alignment of a new East-West road being built by China would pass through the Finger Area. Things heated up after China “informed” India that it would need to blast some stone formations along the border to make way for the road. While construction was halted after a diplomatic complaint was lodged by New Delhi, the Indian Army, which currently holds the area, strengthened bunkers, built new vehicle tracks, repaired old roads and set up defensive positions to counter any possible threat. The stone cairns which China had threatened to destroy, have also been modified as defensive positions by the Army.
The BJP has accused the Congress-led UPA Government of a weak-kneed response to the “expansionist designs” of China. A day after China’s fresh claims and troop entry into the Finger Area in northern Sikkim were reported, the BJP, in a statement slammed the Left-backed, Congress-led UPA Government saying, “First it was Arunachal Pradesh and now it is Sikkim.” It asked the Government what it was doing to check the increasing and frequent Chinese incursions on the Indian side. Former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said the UPA Government has been supine in the face of the growing Chinese threat.
Without refuting the BJP charges, the Congress Party spokesman merely said Sikkim was an integral part of the Indian Union and it was never an outstanding issue with China which had recognized unconditionally its integration into India. “Therefore, the question of any territorial claims, if made at all, does not exist.” The Left, on its part, said both countries should not take “provocative steps” while talks on the border dispute are still under way.
Meanwhile, the 1850-km-long Trans-Arunachal Highway has been declared a National Highway through a gazette notification by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, to be called NH-52B. A Rs. 10,000 crore project will provide a two-laned connectivity right through Arunachal Pradesh and stretch out between the strategic Tawang area to Mahadeopur ending near Dibrugarh in Assam.
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