Tapir Gao, a member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), shared a video showing a bridge over the rivulet Doimru Nullah in the state’s Anjaw district. It has allegedly been built 25 km from Chaglagam village, about 70 km from the Sino-India border.
Media reports quoted him as saying that the video was recorded by a BJP activist in August while accompanying Indian Army soldiers in the area.
Gao claimed that the McMahon Line, the international boundary between India and China in the northeast, is approximately 100 kilometres from Chaglagam village.
— ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2019
The BJP lawmaker said that he was confident about the army and the government looking into the matter.
Indian Army sources said they were verifying details about the footbridge that the lawmaker from Arunachal Pradesh has reported about.
Maintaining that such bridges are built by India also to facilitate smooth movement across difficult terrain, army sources said there is no permanent presence of Chinese troops in areas which India sees as its own territory in Arunachal Pradesh.
China has never accepted India’s claim over Arunachal Pradesh, insisting that it is a part of southern Tibet, which it controls.
Since the 1962 Sino-India War, New Delhi and Beijing have had differing perceptions about the McMahon Line, the international boundary between India and China in the northeast, and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled areas in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh regions.
The BJP lawmaker’s statement came just as India and China called off a proposed visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi to attend the 22nd meeting of special representatives to resolve the protracted boundary dispute between both countries.
During Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s recent visit to Beijing, China raised objections to India withdrawing the special status granted to the state of Jammu and Kashmir nearly seven decades ago.
China was particularly concerned over New Delhi declaring Ladakh a federal administrative region by revoking Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
Jaishankar assured China that it need not be concerned about internal decisions taken by India.
Foreign Minister Wang was expected to visit New Delhi on 9 September for a meeting with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar to discuss the boundary question and the agenda for the forthcoming second “informal summit” between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India.
