Union Home Minister Amit Shah embarked on a two-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh on Monday where he will launch the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ in Kibithoo, a village along the India-China border. The visit is a significant geo-political statement as well given Beijing’s recent provocative move to ‘rename’ parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Notably, this would also be Amit Shah’s first visit to Arunachal Pradesh as Union Home Minister. As part of the engagements, Shah will also inaugurate nine micro-hydel projects of the state government constructed under the ‘Golden Jubilee Border Illumination Programme’ in Kibithoo.
He will also inaugurate Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) projects to augment infrastructure at Likabali (Arunachal Pradesh), Chapra (Bihar), Nooranad (Kerala) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), a Home Ministry statement has said. Shah will interact with ITBP personnel at Kibithoo in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh.
On April 11, he will visit Namti field and pay homage at the Walong war memorial.
Eye on China
Beijing had last week announced Chinese names for 11 more places in Arunachal Pradesh which the neighbouring country claims as southern part of Tibet. India strongly rejected the move, asserting that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and assigning “invented” names does not alter this reality.
“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,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
This was the third batch of standardised geographical names for Arunachal Pradesh issued by China’s civil affairs ministry. The first batch of the standardised names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh was released in 2017 and the second batch of 15 places was issued in 2021. The official names of the 11 places were released on Sunday by China’s ministry of civil affairs.
It also gave precise coordinates, including two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers, and listed the category of places’ names and their subordinate administrative districts, Chinese state-run Global Times reported.
China’s renaming of the places in Arunachal Pradesh came in the midst of the lingering eastern Ladakh border standoff that began in May 2020. Following the standoff, India bolstered its overall military preparedness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Arunachal Pradesh sector as well.
Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the situation along the LAC in eastern Ladakh remained “very fragile” and is “quite dangerous” in military assessment because of close deployments of troops of both sides in some pockets, though “substantial” progress has been made in the disengagement process in many areas.
The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a nearly three-year-long confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement of troops from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.
India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.
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