The government has dismissed claims by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Arunachal Pradesh that Chinese People’s Liberation Army troops had intruded deep into their State.
It all started with an e-mail by the former BJP parliamentarian from Arunachal Pradesh, Kiran Rejiiju, who claimed that Chinese troops had “intruded deep inside Indian territory” in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh. This was followed up by a tweet from his party colleague and BJP national general secretary, Tapir Gao, who also made the same claim.
Mr. Rejiiju, who has often spoken about Chinese incursions — almost always in inaccessible difficult-to-independently-verify areas — has this time claimed PLA forces went past several unmanned posts between a place called Chaglagam and the Line of Actual Control (LAC), finally camping at the sixth post — the Plamplam check post. The Indian Army reached the location only after PLA was more than 35 km inside Indian territory.
“Locals worried”
“Now our Army is facing the Chinese force eyeball to eyeball. There are no roads or regular supply chain from our side to those areas occupied by the Chinese so the Army has to move on foot. The situation is grim and local people are worried. Why does the government of India not understand the gravity of the situation?” he said in the e-mail.
In a tweet, his party colleague Mr. Gao went further, claiming that the Chinese Army intrusion in Anjaw district was up to 65 km into Indian territory.
MEA denial
The Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the claims. “We don’t take up non-events in diplomatic practice. What has happened or not is up to the sentinels of our borders to answer. They know the factual position on this and I think they have answered that,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told newspersons here.
“There has been a rebuttal by the Army on this and we don’t want to go beyond that,” he added.
