In response to Arunachal East MP Tapir Gao’s statement that Chinese troops had managed to make an incursion into the Indian territory last month and built a bridge over Kiomru Nullah in Chaglagam circle of Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh, Indian Army on Wednesday issued a communiqué denying the claims. Army has clarified that there has been no such incursion and the exact location of the bridge hasn't been established and to make things sure, a patrol will be sent out to verify the claims. These claims and counter claims which have surfaced and may even prolong for some time is not the issue that demands focus. What is vital from the national security point of view is the need for enhancing the infrastructural apparatus of this strategic region and more importantly, bringing speed in its implementation. This must be the core aspect of the country’s overall policy design for China, whose ‘actions and reactions’ revolving countless issues have unfailingly kept India on tenterhooks over the decades.
Relationship with China has never been easy and the great drubbing in the 1962 war has remained a deep scar for the nation till today. In spite of a steadily flowing trade relationship, bilateral scenario has never been sweet since China has so far continued with its policy of nurturing hostility towards India. It is tireless in seeking issues, however trifle they may be with the heinous intention of eventually snowballing them into newer bones on contentions. Apart from the various long-standing territorial disputes that continue to linger since decades, the recent Doklam conflict and destruction of its own three lakhs maps which hadn’t mentioned Arunachal as a ‘part’ of its territory had added to the souring of relations. It had declared Arunachal very much their part, renaming it South Tibet, which has been counted as the wildest of such territorial claims ever made by any nation. New developments in J&K that led to the emergence of Ladakh as a UT is China’s newest issue of disagreement. There had been talks before over all these contentious points and presumably will also get featured in the agenda when the two heads of states meet at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu in coming October. 
Given all these realities and simultaneous to all diplomatic initiatives, it needs to be reiterated that the process of upgradation of infrastructure along the Arunachal frontier requires to be expedited to match the silent, fast and tenacious flurries witnessed on the Chinese side. Building war-compatible roads along with basic civic infrastructures in these vantage points thus must be taken up as a strategic priority.
It’s the ‘homework’ which India shouldn’t avoid if it wants to face the Chinese test with confidence.

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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