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North East : Arunachal Pradesh : China claim rubbished

	November 27, 2006

The controversial statement made by Chinese Ambassador in New Delhi Sun Yuxi on the status of the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, days before Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, has generated much heat in the Indian polity. The issue has triggered a serious debate both at the national and regional level.



The North-east MPs’ Forum took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, Nov. 24 during the Parliament session and handed over a resolution adopted by the forum in a meeting on Thursday. Some of them said it was the second time that the government had given “half-hearted” explanations on Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi’s statements.



On April 1 last year, Yuxi had said Arunachal Pradesh was a disputed area, days before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the country.



A day before Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived, BJP legislators from Arunachal Pradesh, Khiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao staged a rally and handed over a memorandum to the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.



The Congress party, heading the UPA Government at the Centre, attacked the Chinese position while Opposition legislators belonging to AGP in Assam criticised the government for its “silence” on the issue.



Congress MP and working chairman of the MPs forum, Rishang Keishing, criticised the Chinese position on Arunachal Pradesh. “We can’t help but show our displeasure and anger on the untimely statement made by the Chinese Ambassador on the eve of President Hu Jintao’s visit,” he said.



Keishing further said that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inseparable part of India. He termed outbursts such as those made by the Chinese Ambassador as “immature.”



The forum appealed to the Prime Minister “to take a strong stand on this issue.”





India should be alert to Chinese designs : BJP



Terming as “too much of a coincidence” the arrival of Chinese President Hu Jintao the same day China had announced ceasefire forty-four years ago, BJP MPs from Arunachal Pradesh questioned “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s silence” on the Chinese Ambassador’s recent statement claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of Chinese territory.



“The fact that Jintao is arriving the same day when the Chinese troops quit the heights in Arunachal Pradesh in 1962, is too glaring a coincidence to be ignored and India should be alert to China’s designs,” said Rajya Sabha MP Tapir Gao.



Echoing his sentiment, Lok Sabha MP Khiren Rijiju said, “The government is sleeping as it slept in 1962.”



The issue rocked the Parliament on the opening day. Making a cautious statement, the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. Apparently not satisfied with his statement, the BJP leaders insisted Mukherjee only said that status quo had to be maintained. One of the state BJP leaders said the government should recognise reality and start talks with China even if it meant giving up Aksai Chin and altering the map of the country.



Members of the Arunachal Students Union Delhi (ASUD) assembled at Teen Murti Bhawan and tried to proceed towards the Chinese Embassy. After being denied entry, they submitted a memorandum to two embassy officials through police.



China had unilaterally declared a ceasefire on November 20 1962, to go into effect at midnight of November 21, 1962, after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defeated India at the heights of Aksai Chin in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. A war-like situation also developed in 1986 before diplomatic talks restored status quo.



Students from Arunachal Pradesh studying in Delhi University, who participated in the rally, echoed their leaders’ statements. Arjun Pani, a law faculty student said the sixth Dalai Lama was born in Tawang but that couldn’t give China right to claim the town as, according to him, the “ground level reality is different”.



Complaining about poor roads in the border areas, a BJP leader alleged that the Chinese were constructing two-lane roads along the Siang river on the Chinese side of the McMahon Line, while India shies away from developing the region.





Centre’s lacklustre approach : growing sense of alienation



Reacting to the controversy, widely believed to be deliberately created by Beijing, observers say a growing sense of alienation among the people of Arunachal Pradesh could cause worry in New Delhi if it fails to clarify its stand on the status of the state vis-a-vis the Chinese claim over it. According to an Opposition Member, Khiten Rijju of BJP, who represents the state in Parliament, if the attitude of the Central Government towards the fate of Arunachalis remains lacklustre, many patriotic people of the state will feel alienated.



Noted defence strategist Uday Bhaskar, however, has expressed the view that the Government could not afford to pass a Parliamentary resolution at this juncture. “I understand the sentiments of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. But as a strategist, I would say that we need to see the problem on a larger context of the territorial dispute between India and China. We should deal with the issue under the framework of the Special Representatives constituted to end the border dispute.”





China distancing itself on Kashmir : Pak media



China has distanced itself from committing, at least overtly, to a “substantive” and “meaningful” role that it could play towards the resolution of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, the influential Daily Times of Pakistan said on Saturday.



While the Kashmir issue has remained on the back-burner during the current visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao, sections of Pakistani media felt that Hu was not forthcoming, as it might have been hoped on the Kashmir issue where the Chinese support had been traditionally unequivocal.



Asked what role China could play in resolving the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, Hu, addressing a joint press conference with President Musharraf, said the two countries (India and Pakistan) were “China’s close neighbours and Beijing sincerely hoped to see peace and stability in the sub-continent.”



Hu told the questioner that China supported efforts by India and Pakistan to resolve their disputes through dialogue.