India’s favorite candidate to be next prime minister, Narendra Modi, advised China to abandon its “mindset of expansion” and declared the disputed territory of Arunachal Pradesh an integral part of India.
On Saturday during his election rally in Pasighat, located in the disputed region of Arunachal Pradesh, Modi seemed like hinted at his would be foreign policy. He said that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will always remain so and that no power can snatch it from India.
“China needs to change its stand. China should shed its expansionist mindset and adopt the plank of development. Focus is on the development all over the world,” Modi said, according to media reports.
Arunachal Pradesh, located in the remote north-eastern Himalayan stretch, is administered as a part of India since the beginning, while China has been making illegitimate claims to the territory by calling it South Tibet.
“I swear in the name of this soil that I will never allow the state to disappear, breakdown, and to bow down,” he said while addressing the huge crowd of people gathered to attend his rally near the mighty Siang River.
During his speech, he credited the locals for their true patriotic nature because of which the state remains safeguarded, even when China never leaves any opportunity to sneak in to prove its legitimacy over the Indian territory.
The two nuclear power giants share the Line of Actual Control (LoC) or the de facto border that could never be demarcated till date. Both nations were engaged in the border war and bloodshed over the disputed Arunachal Pradesh in the year 1962, and then signed a pact ensuring no future border confrontation takes place.
Earlier in the year 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to visit Arunachal Pradesh when China objected and raised questions. Similarly, in 2012, the communist nation again raised objections and said “it would complicate the border issue” when Indian Defense Minister AK Antony was to visit the state. At the same time, there have been many incidents when China has issued stapled visas to the citizens of Arunachal Pradesh in way to declare the ownership of the state.
The issue stood up yet again in April last year, when Chinese troops intruded deep into Indian territory, leading to a three-week stand-off. The two neighbors have since held talks and meetings to check peace and stability on the border.
