Till Monday evening with no information coming on the exact whereabouts of the five Arunachalee youths abducted by the Chinese PLA, tension not only remained intact, but rather escalated with a tweet reportedly by Global Times, China’s state-controlled media publication which quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson as saying that “there were no details to release.” The hotline message sent by Indian Army seeking information from PLA if the youths have been spotted or intercepted by them has also remained unanswered. Clearly, the Chinese authorities are in no mood of showing a gentleman’s gesture and will delay things either by suppressing information or by denying their involvement altogether. Such a thing has happened once more within a span of six months and taking a practical view of the ground realities, it can be said that similar incidents are bound to happen again, if certain fundamental requirements remain overlooked.

The real causes that led to the incident are pretty clear to read. The abducted youths are the residents in villages near Nacho, the tiny town near McMahon Line in Upper Subansiri district. There is a possibility they might have crossed the line unknowingly or the Chinese have wilfully sneaked well inside the Indian territory and had abducted the youths. Whatever it may be, it’s obvious that the genesis of the trouble lies in the fact that the McMahon Line is absolutely imaginary in nature and with absence of any physical structure by way of fencing or other structure, specific demarcation is highly blurred. If this is a ‘colonial ambiguity’ that has remained unsolved since the days of independence due to various reasons, the absence of minimum civic infra in these border areas is also a solid contributor to the current case. It will be shocking to learn that from Nacho township it takes two or three days to reach some villages even within the Circle itself and as there are no roads it’s only by a 10-12 days arduous trek, the potential points of trouble in the vicinity of McMahon Line can be reached. It will be undeniable how insurmountable the task of even gathering on-spot information about the abduction will be, thanks to this ‘forced remoteness’. The news instantly has received wide coverage in national media perhaps due to the prevailing high tension among the two countries and has exposed the reality how unprotected and insecure the state actually is. China is just taking advantage of these loopholes- an ill-defined border and the remoteness of Arunachal’s border areas due to eternal underdevelopment.

For a permanent solution, the approx. 1080 km porous border with China must be sealed off along with fast infra development on the inside. Else, such abductions will be regular events.

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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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