- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian home minister Amit Shah on Monday (10) issued an indirect warning to China saying the era when anyone could encroach India’s borderlands has passed and no one can dare cast an evil eye on its territorial integrity.
Shah, who is the second-most powerful leader in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said during a two-day visit to the northeastern-most state of Arunachal Pradesh where he launched the ‘Vibrant Village’ programme which aims at enhancing the standard of living for those residing in designated border communities and motivating local residents to remain in their hometowns, hence reversing emigration from the villages to enhance security at the borders.
Shah launched the programme in Kibithoo village which is located in the easternmost part of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China.
The minister also said that the valour of the Indian Army and Indo Tibetan Border Police forces ensures that no one can encroach even an inch of India’s land.
Shah also said that border areas are the top priority of the Narendra Modi government, pointing to the infrastructure and other development work carried out by it in the northeast.
“The era is gone when anyone could encroach on our lands. Now, not even land equal to ‘sui ki noke’ (soil that fits into a needle point) can be encroached…,” the minister said.
He also referred to the 1962 India-China war saying, “In 1962, whoever came to encroach this land had to return because of the patriotic people living here.”
India faced a humiliating defeat in that conflict.
He called this frontier location the “first village of India” and not the last, saying the Modi government has brought about a “conceptual” policy change to develop these areas and help the locals living here by providing basic amenities to them.
Earlier, people who returned from border areas used to say that they visited the last village of India but the Modi government has changed this narrative with people now saying that they visited the first village of India, Shah said.
“Before 2014, the entire northeastern region was seen as a disturbed area but because of the Look East policy, it is now known for its prosperity and development,” Shah said.
Shah said no one says ‘Namaste’ in Arunachal Pradesh as people greet each other with ‘Jai Hind’ that “fills our hearts with patriotism”.
“It is because of this attitude of the Arunachalis that China which had come to occupy it had to retreat,” Shah said.
Echoing Shah’s words, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday (11) said India today is not what it was in 1962 but a country that belongs to Modi and Shah.
Khandu, who was speaking in the presence of the home minister, said perhaps for the first time that an Indian home minister came to a place located so close to the border with China.
China had, on Monday, objected to Shah’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh saying it was not conducive to peace.
But the Indian side was unfazed.
“It is not the India of 1962. Today, it is Narendra Modi’s India, it is Amit Shah’s India,” Khandu, who heads Arunachal’s Bharatiya Janata Party government, said amid applause from the audience that mostly consisted of those living close to the Sino-Indian border.
India had faced Chinese aggression in 1962 and Kibithoo and neighbouring Walong had witnessed a fierce battle between the Indian Army and the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Khandu’s remarks also bear significance as they came days after Beijing announced Chinese names for 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which the neighbouring country claims as the southern part of Tibet.
The Indian external affairs ministry dismissed China’s act saying Arunachal is an integral part of India.
(With PTI inputs)
