Continuing its provocations, China on Monday termed the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Arunachal Pradesh as violating Beijing’s “territorial sovereignty” and “not conducive to peace and tranquility” in the border areas.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, responding to a question on Amit Shah’s visit, said: “Zangnan (or South Tibet as Beijing refers to Arunachal Pradesh) is 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.”
On Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP) at Kibithoo – a border village in Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China.
Shah also inaugurated nine micro hydel projects of the Arunachal Government and 14 infrastructure projects of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) worth Rs 120 crore in presence of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Union Home Secretary, ITBP Director General and other dignitaries, official sources said.
In his address, the Home Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed people’s approach towards border villages; now people visiting border areas know it not as last village but as the first village of India.
“Border areas are the priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The security of the border is the security of the nation and this is the reason that the government led by PM Modi is continuously working to increase the border infrastructure,” he said.
On April 4, India had in a statement rejected outright China’s attempt at “renaming” 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls southern Tibet, and stated that Arunachal Pradesh has been and will always remain an inalienable part of India.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in a statement, had also said that attempts by China to “assign invented names will not alter this reality” of Arunachal Pradesh being an integral part of India.
The statement read:
“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an attempt. We reject this outright.
Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Attempts to assign invented names will not alter this reality.”
The response came after China came up with a third set of names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it referred to as “Zangnan, the southern part of Tibet”.
