If we rename parts of China..?: Rajnath slams Beijing action

NAMSAI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday criticised China for renaming several places in Arunachal Pradesh, and wondered whether a similar attempt by India will result in those areas of the neighbouring country becoming parts of our territory.

Addressing an election rally at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh East Constituency, Singh said China’s move to change the names of 30 places in the northeastern state will not change the ground reality. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, he asserted.

“I want to ask China if we change the names of various states of the neighbouring country, will those be parts of our territory? Because of such activities, the relationship between India and China will deteriorate,” Singh said. “We want to maintain good relations with all our neighbours. But if anybody tries to harm our self-respect, India can give a befitting reply,” the defence minister asserted.

India had earlier this month outrightly rejected as senseless China renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted that assigning invented names does not alter the reality that the state “is, has been, and will always be” an integral part of India.

Singh alleged that the Congress was never interested in developing the border areas and as a result, the country lost around 1000 square kilometres of its territory to the neighbouring country.

“I assure you that India will now never allow even an inch of land to be captured by its neighbour,” Singh said. He said that the grand old party used to consider every border village as the last village of the country while the Modi government considers it as the first.

“We have rectified the mistakes of the Congress since 2014 after our party came to power and initiated infrastructure projects in border areas so that our borders are secured. For the NDA government, border villages are strategic assets of the country,” he said. Singh added that the residents of the border villages immensely helped the country during the war with China in 1962.