Need Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh be worried? No, says the Centre, as the country’s interests are ‘fully protected”. But it does so, after a stoic silence over reports of China’s People’s Liberation Army constructing a bridge on Pangong Lake in Ladakh, and that of Beijing renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh.

On Thursday, the MEA finally came forth to take on China and stated, Government has been ‘monitoring this activity closely. This bridge is being constructed in areas that have been under illegal occupation by China for around 60 years now….India has never accepted such illegal occupation”. Importantly, it sought to reassure the locals that in the “last seven years”, the Government has “increased significantly the budget for the development of border infrastructure and completed more roads and bridges than ever before… These have provided much-needed connectivity to local population and logistical support to armed forces…”

Is it so, maybe a pertinent question, in the absence of hard facts. Besides, MEA choosing to term the renaming of 15 places in AP by Beijing, as a “ridiculous exercise to support untenable territorial” and adding that AP “has always been and will always remain an inalienable part of India,” doesn’t seem to assuage fears. Predictably, the Opposition and security experts would take MEA’s statement with a pinch of salt and cautioning that it may be too little too late.

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