NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju termed China’s recent overtures regarding its claims over Arunachal Pradesh as a sign of increasing nervousness in Beijing.
“China is very nervous because earlier these border areas were totally left underdeveloped during Congress time and during PM Modi’s time, all major highways, roads, bridges, all 4G networks, water supply, electricity, all basic amenities are being provided in the border areas, especially in Arunachal Pradesh which was neglected for so long,” said Rijiju in an interview with ANI.

Rijiju said the Chinese were very happy during Congress rule as they had the policy not to develop border areas.

He noted that India has emerged as a great power under PM Modi’s rule. He asserted that India will not create problems for others, however, it will respond appropriately if the country is disturbed.

“China has given some kind of names to some places in Arunachal Pradesh. But, I don’t understand why they are doing that. We are very upset and we totally reject this kind of malicious activities conducted by the Chinese government. Our government from the External Affairs Ministry has responded very appropriately.”

His remarks come after China recently released a list of 30 places in Arunachal Pradesh in a bid to assert its claim over India’s northeastern state. India has been rejecting such renaming of places by China.
“Now that border areas are seeing the light of modern development. China is reacting to it. China is feeling uncomfortable. They are raising objection why India is building so much infrastructure in the border areas. So, that is why they are resorting to this kind of unethical conduct. But, this India is not the India during Congress time. This is not the 1962 India,” he added.
According to a March 30 report in its state-run Global Times, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released a fourth list of standardised geographical names in Zangnan, the name that China uses for Arunachal Pradesh.
According to the official website of the ministry, 30 additional publicly used place names in the Zangnan region has been officially revealed, the Global times report said.

The Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry released the first list of the so -called standardised names of six places in Zangnan in 2017, while the second list of 15 places was issued in 2021 followed by another list with names for 11 places in 2023.
India has repeatedly rebuffed such attempts by China to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh. On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that changing names won’t have any effect and the northeastern state was, is and will always be India’s part.
(With inputs from agencies)