Arunachal Pradesh MP Tapir Gao underscores the critical importance of heeding local warnings regarding alleged Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control, amidst ongoing border tensions and official denials.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has stated his government will verify reports of alleged Chinese incursions in the Taksing sector of Upper Subansiri district. The claims, made by the Nah Welfare Society, suggest Chinese PLA personnel entered areas near villages close to the Line of Actual Control. Khandu plans to consult with the Indian Army and local bodies before drawing conclusions, while the Army previously rejected similar allegations from the NWS.
In the 15-year dataset, the researchers noted an average of 7.8 incursions per year even though the Indian government's estimates are much higher.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday said there has been no increase in the incidents of Chinese incursions recently and there are set mechanisms to deal with such disputes. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said there was bound to be confusion but "there is nothing to be unduly alarmed about." "There has been no increase in the incidents of incursions in the recent past," he asserted.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that the media was playing up the reports of Chinese incursions across the border out of proportions.
Against the backdrop of sharp attack by Samajwadi Party on the government over the Chinese incursion, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday briefed its party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav about the government's stand and strategy to deal with the issue.
Chief of Army staff General Deepak Kapoor said on Saturday that there has been no increase in Chinese incursions along the Sino-Indian border.
Congress and other parties kept insisting on their demand for suspension of business so the issue could be taken up.
Official sources have said that Chinese troops entered nearly 1.5 km into the Indian territory near Mount Gya, recognised as the international border by India and China, and painted the word 'China' in Cantonese on the boulders and rocks there with red spray paint.
The Chinese incursions sparked sharp reactions from Indian political parties on Thursday with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam saying India needed a government with "steel in its spine and not jelly" so that it does not become a "punching bag", while the Samajwadi Party demanded to know the country's military preparedness.
Parliamentarians of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Friday met President Pranab Mukherjee to express concern over Chinese incursions into Ladakh and the manner in which the case of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was handled by the government.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad has demanded that the government should come up with a white paper on the recent Chinese incursions.
"Even though the first Sino-Indian war took place in 1962, the Chinese incursion had started taking place in 1957. The government knew it but it did not inform the public. After five decades, the same thing is happening as the Chinese incursion has been taking in Aksai Chin for long, but we have woken up now," said Ram Pradhan, former Union home secretary and former governor of Arunachal Pradesh.
The US provided crucial intelligence to the Indian military last year that helped it successfully tackle the Chinese "incursions".
Given that public memory is short, we felt it was the right time to go back a little in history and test your memory about who said what and when about China with a little quiz. Enjoy!
At least 37 incursions of Chinese forces have been reported during the last five years in Uttarakhand, which has a 350 kilometer long border with China, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said on Monday.
'We have not had one discussion on the border incursions or the subsequent report of the building of Chinese villages on Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh.'
Apparently concerned over repeated incursions by Chinese troops, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has convened a meeting of top officials including Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and Secretaries of Defence, Home and Foreign Ministries.
Xi's bilateral meeting with Modi was substantial and readouts from both sides gave indications of rapprochement, if not a reset of bilateral relations between India and China, notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
India has denied seeking any assistance from the United States on the Chinese border incursions in Ladakh, asserting that New Delhi is capable enough to take care of its own territorial integrity.
Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh, who arrived on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, briefed Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah about the recent reports of Chinese army incursions in Ladakh.
Sibal asked Modi to stop doing the politics of "illusion and delusion" and showing "red eyes" to China, and protect Indian territory.
Conceding that people in the bordering areas do move into the neighbouring nation's territory at times, he termed it a common phenomenon on borders and said, "There is no danger from such movement."
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday denied any incursion by China's People's Liberation Army in Taksing area of Arunachal Pradesh in recent times.
Notwithstanding the incidents of Chinese aggression, the ministry of external affairs on Monday described as "most peaceful" the boundary with China and said these "incursions" will be certainly sorted out.
The incident regarding Chinese troops entering the border district of Chamoli in Uttarakhand is that of "transgression" and not "incursion", the government said on Thursdy.
The Indian Army bravely prevented the Chinese PLA's attempts to unilaterally change the status in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang sector on December 9 and confronted it with firmness, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.
Chinese People's Liberation Army recently made a two-pronged simultaneous incursion by sending its troops into Indian waters in the Pangong lake as well as five km deep into Indian territory through the land route in the same area, according to reports.
"The Chinese government, you see, never wants to accept that this is the existing sort of borderline (between India and China in Ladakh sector) and also in Arunachal Pradesh", he told media persons on the sidelines of a photo exhibition about a Buddhist site in J-K's Akhnoor belt
Army was "handling" the situation arising out of the latest incursion in Ladakh, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Monday after Chinese troops prevented Indians from patrolling up to LAC in Finger-VIII area where they have built a road inside Indian territory.
Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Cabinet Committee on Security on the incursion by Chinese troops in Ladakh. "The CCS met today and the army chief briefed us on the Ladakh situation," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting.
A group of shepherds were asked to vacate the land by troops of the PLA.
Accusing the United Progressive Alliance government for its weak policies on border issues, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for terming the Chinese incursion in Ladakh as a localised one and said such statements pose a threat to national security.
Three months after the 21-day stand-off in Depsang valley in Ladakh, Chinese troops again came deep inside the Indian territory in that area last week to reach upto 2 kms close to Indian posts, in one of five such incursions in the recent past.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of Chinese incursions with the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on Wednesday night.
The issue was raised by Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia after Chinese troops entered Chamoli district of Uttarkhand.
For the foreseeable future, the most likely outcome remains continuation of the status quo. Taiwan will remain self-governing without formally declaring independence, while China continues to apply sustained pressure short of war, predict Krishnan Srinivasan and Manoj Mohanka.
Khandu reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and people of the state would never give up their territorial rights.
The document, which was uploaded on the defence ministry's website, was removed on Thursday morning following publication of a media report based on it.
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party has frequently raised the issue of Chinese incursions in Parliament, Nabam Rebia was the first MP from the ruling Congress party to support the allegation.
