Chinese village in Arunachal Pradesh claim: Congress left red-faced after AK Antony clip goes viral

Union Law Minister Rijiju said that Congress and a section of the media were questioning the credibility of the government and the strength of the country's armed forces.

The Congress party was left red-faced once again after a September 2013 video of the then defence minister AK Antony emerged on social media which he is heard saying that the Chinese were way ahead of India when it comes to border infrastructure. The video was shared by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju as a rebuttal to the Grand Old Party over its criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with regard to media reports that claimed that China had built a village inside Indian territory.

The Congress party took to Twitter to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the matter. The party claimed that the village built by the Chinese in Arunachal Pradesh could act as a military base and that this was one among the several such villages across the Line of Actual Control. However, the media report, which the Congress went to town with, also mentioned that even though the territory upon which the village of 101 homes is Indian, it had been under Chinese control since 1959. To note, Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister of the country in this period.

Responding to the Congress party's claim on the micro-blogging site, Union Law Minister Rijiju said that Congress and a section of the media were questioning the credibility of the government and the strength of the country's armed forces. He called the latest claims a malicious attempt to demoralize the nation.

The minister also shared a clip of the UPA government's defence minister AK Antony who, while making a statement in the Lok Sabha on September 6, 2013, is heard saying that independent India had a policy for many years was that the best defence of the country's border is not to develop the border. Undeveloped borders are safer than developed borders, Antony said, adding that for many years there was no construction of airfields and roads along the border areas. The then defence minister further said that the Chinese did exactly the opposite and had gone way ahead of India in this regard.

The Narendra Modi government has been on an overdrive to bridge this infrastructural gap with China along the border areas. Projects worth crores are in the works to upgrade border villages in terms of communication and road access not just to facilitate the rapid movement of men and materials to the frontlines but also to ensure economic development of the region and of the people residing along the border areas.