"Wrong To Claim China Entered 60 km Inside": Kiren Rijiju On Arunachal

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has called the latest claims of Chinese incursion in Arunachal Pradesh "incorrect". "It is wrong to claim that China has entered 60 km inside India," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister told news agency IANS in an interview.

The minister's remarks come amid reports of an alleged Chinese incursion in the Upper Subansiri district in Arunachal, with locals claiming that the Chinese troops had crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and entered areas in the Taksing circle.

Rijiju stressed that India and China share a very long border in Arunachal that is not fully and clearly demarcated on the ground. This is not a new issue, he underlined, pointing out that the "border between India and Tibet was never delineated."

Read: 'State Of Border Will Reflect State Of Ties': India Warns China On Arunachal

"Chinese activity has increased in some areas, and the concerns of villagers must be taken seriously. However, sharing false videos and claims, including from Bangladesh, is wrong. It can lower the morale of the armed forces and create confusion in the country," he warned.

The core issue, according to Rijiju, is that China had begun road construction in the border areas earlier.

"At that time, the Congress was in power. Then defence minister AK Antony had said in Parliament that India's policy was not to build infrastructure along the border. China, meanwhile, continued building roads and infrastructure," he further said.

That changed after 2014, Rijiju added, with the government accelerating border infrastructure development. He pointed out that the current government had built roads in remote border areas where no such development had taken place since 1947.

The Chinese took advantage of this delay, according to him.

Read: "Can't Change Reality": India On China's Objection To Arunachal Move

"When we failed to build a road, but China succeeded, the Chinese army occupied high-altitude areas and built border infrastructure. We are now responding by developing our own infrastructure...It is not as if they have captured one of our villages. They have set up camp on certain tracts of land because the boundary there is not demarcated," the minister added.

The villagers on the Indian side claim that their territory extends further, while those on the Chinese side claim their land extends deep inside here, Rijiju said, adding that the government takes the concerns of the villagers seriously.

He added that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) patrolling has been strengthened in the area.

India had earlier warned that the state of border affairs with China will reflect on the "state of larger bilateral ties" between the two countries. 

Earlier this month, India had identified 27 places in Arunachal by their standard names on the official map to counter Chinese attempts to rename those. China had objected to the move, but India reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is its inalienable part.