New Delhi: A day after China voiced objections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Arunachal Pradesh, India dismissed the remarks on Tuesday, reaffirming that Indian leaders have the right to regularly visit any corner of the nation.
The Indian PM had visited Arunachal Pradesh to inaugurate Sela tunnel and other projects virtually from an event at the state capital on March 9.
Two days later, the Chinese foreign ministry’s daily briefing was the occasion for Beijing to express its protest.
Stating that China has submitted a protest to India, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Beijing “strongly deplores and firmly opposes the Indian leader’s visit to the East Section of the China-India boundary”.
He claimed that Indian moves would “only complicate the boundary question and disrupt the situation in the border areas between the two countries”.
Using the Chinese name for the Indian province, Wang said, “area of Zangnan is Chinese territory”.
“The Chinese government has never recognized the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India and firmly opposes it. The China-India boundary question has yet to be solved. India has no right to arbitrarily develop the area of Zangnan in China,” he stated.
In response, the MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal rejected the comments and noted that “Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other States of India”.
“Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason. Further, it will not change the reality that the State of Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. The Chinese side has been made aware of this consistent position on several occasions,” he said on Tuesday.
As the MEA statement observed, Indian leaders have been consistently visiting Arunachal Pradesh over the decades, which is always followed by a Chinese protest.
China claims the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh, terming it South Tibet. It has never recognised the McMohan line of 1914 which was signed by British and Tibetan authorities and inherited by the Indian government after Independence.
