Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that no country could “encroach on our land” and similkarly, question India’s “territorial integrity”.
Shah's comments came as he was paying a visit to the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh on Monday, in the wake of a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Beijing over the latter's decision to “rename” 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, the third such list issued by Chinese authorities since 2017.
"We are saying this with pride that gone are the days when anybody could encroach on India's land. Today, no one can encroach on our land because Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Indian Army are present at our borders. I salute the sacrifices of all the soldiers. Whosoever came to encroach the land here in 1962 had to return because of your patriotism," Shah stated.
According to a statement from the home ministry, close to 3,000 villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh as well as the Union Territory of Ladakh have been identified for infrastructure development under the new scheme.
All the villages lie along India's eastern border.
“The programme will help in improving the quality of life of people living in identified border villages and encourage people to stay in their native locations thereby reversing the migration from these villages and adding to security of the border,” the statement said.
New Delhi has rejected the Chinese list of “invented” names, stating that Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral and inalienable” part of India.
China Slams Shah’s Visit to Arunachal Pradesh
The Chinese foreign ministry has criticized the Indian home minister for undertaking the trip, with the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson saying that “Zangnan” (the set of 11 locations in Arunachal Pradesh) was 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,” Wang told a media briefing on Monday.
Besides the longstanding dispute over the sovereignty of Arunachal Pradesh, India and China have been involved in a military standoff in the eastern Ladakh region, on the western section of the border, since April-May 2020.
While progress has been achieved in disengaging the troops and de-escalating the situation at several locations, over 60,000 troops from both sides remain along the Sino-Indian border.
Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar has called the current state of bilateral ties as “abnormal” owing to massive military deployments at the border.