China’s unprovoked and malicious meddling in Arunachal Pradesh has evoked widespread protests in the country, asking China to keep off Arunachal Pradesh
NJ Thakuria from Guwahati
Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) organised a massive protest against China at Itanagar last week for its anti-India policies. In a statement it demanded China to rethink over its policy on Tibet. It may be noted that thousands of people under the banner of All- Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU), the apex student’s
organisation in the State, expressed their protest against the Beijing administration for claiming many places of the State of its own and even renaming them unilaterally.
The demonstrators took to the streets holding banners and placards and chanted patriotic slogans like Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Joy, We are Indians, Down with Beijing etc. They also burnt the effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during the demonstration.
Addressing the gathering, AAPSU president Hawa Bagang condemned the Beijing government for showing the audacity to rename six places of Arunachal Pradesh as a mark of protest against the 14th Dalai Lama’s recent visit to the frontier State and asserted that Arunachal is an integral part of India. Strongly criticising the Beijing government for its illegal occupation over Tibet and also malicious eyes on Arunachal Pradesh, the PPFA urged the Union government in New Delhi to take legitimate actions and also extend supports to the free Tibetan movement.
The forum argued that China was never an immediate neighbour to India, but Tibet, and an independent regime in Lhasa would be safer for the country as a whole. China became India’s neighbor only after occupying Tibet in late Fifties, added the PPFA statement.
“The Communist China should refrain from doing politics against a vibrant democracy like India as its
citizens are patriotic in nature and be always ready to sacrifice for their motherland. Beijing must realise that today’s India is not the same country of 1962 and there is no point to threaten Indians again and again with unwanted consequences,” said the statement.
New Delhi : A group of students from Arunachal Pradesh staged a protest right outside the Chinese Embassy in the national capital to express their anger against the Chinese government’s move to rename six places in the border state of India recently.
Along with the students of Arunachal Pradesh, under the banner of Arun Chetna Manch, several members of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad were also part of the protest rally.
With pro-India and anti-China banners in their hands, the protesters shouted slogans like Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata ki Jai. The police detained several of the protesters to keep the situation under control.
“We joined these people because the leader of the demonstration (Romjir Rakshapa) is a Delhi University cultural secretary and we support India’s
integrity “ABVP member, Himang Verma.
Rakshapa said that he belongs to Arunachal Pradesh and lives in one of the renamed towns, and that he cannot allow it. “Arunachal Pradesh is part of India… My district’s name is changed to something which I cannot even pronounce. I am a proud soul of India,” he told media persons.
“The Chinese government is also misleading people through media that inhabitants of Arunachal Pradesh
support China and want to be a part of it, which is a complete falsehood… I am an Arunachali (as the people of Arunachal Pradesh are known) and I belong to India,” he added.
The Chinese ministry of Civil Affairs announced on April 14 on its website that it had standardised in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabet names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls South Tibet.
In recent times, India and China saw some heated exchange over Arunachal Pradesh after the former gave a red carpet welcome to the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in the border state. Thereafter, China announced that it had ‘standardised’ official names for six places in the state and termed the move a ‘legitimate action’. India, on its part, opposed the latest Chinese action of renaming places.
