Sunday, October 4, 2009

How prepared is India along China border?

For the last two weeks or so, Google maps, particularly, google earth, showed Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China. This was shocking. It showed it as not part of India. When Indian govt questioned, google rectified and now shows Aksai chin as disputed border in addition to Arunachal. Now, why should chinese version show up in Google maps and not the Indian version? This is THE SECOND TIME GOOGLE HAS DONE THIS BLUNDER AND IT CAN'T BE A MISTAKE...Earlier, in 2000 it did the same and then the NDA govt asked Google to quickly rectify it and so it did.


Version before Google accepted apology:
Version after google accepted the goof-up:

How can a private company like google do it twice? Any country's borders are a very sensitive issue and maps published serve a great deal of information and they should be free of such blunders.

It was very funny and embarrassing when Congress spokesperson said on NDTV's Big Fight-"I dont think the Govt is ignorant about this and would have conveyed it to the concerned people". He is not even informed of it despite the fact he works in the Govt. This is the height of ignorance. And why is the govt wanting to say that these border talks must go on. Is it serving any purpose? Is govt doing enough to solve the problem or just do the meetings? The spokesperson also said - "This must go on" and when asked why aren't 60 years enough he remarked - "They must go on"

Look at what China is doing? The picture below explains clearly(Courtesy: Telegraph).

China has well gone inside LAC - Line of Actual Control because it doesn't recognize this. The fact is Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and there is no doubt about it. But if China is so much interested in claiming that India is the agressor then why can't it build infrastructure within LAC? Why should it violate LAC? Is China not the agressor?

India continues to neglect Arunachal and yet there are not motorable roads. If a war emerges, China would take minutes to deploy its troops while India would take days. This brings us back to 1962 war situation. Let's see what PM Manmohan Singh promised (for the first time in 60 years and I am happy, but not satisfied till completed)

Target: 2013
Things to execute:

1)1500 km Trans-Arunachal Highway running through the middle of the state - The Trans Arunachal Highway will start from Tawang on the Sino-Indian border and pass through Seppa, Sagalee, Hoj, Ziro, Daporizo, Aalo, Pasighat, Roing, Khongsa and Changlang with a link with Saikhowaghat in Assam
2) Rs.156 crore rail link connecting Itanagar (capital) to Harbuti in Assam
3)3000 MW Dibang project for electrcity (forget dams, let's consider roads first)

Of these, the best part is Border Roads Organization is incharge of most of the roads. They have been doing a good job despite extreme weather - the same extreme weather which made the Chinese withdraw in 1962. Below is the picture of a road(LOHIT bridge over Parasuram river) inaugurated in 2006 which connects China and it has changed the lives of people in that area and their earnings have never been so good in the last 50 years.

The impact of this single road: more than 300 shops from 30, with many of them selling luxury goods. A population of about 100,000 has 5,000 cellphones and schools. A journalist from The HINDU newspaper further reports -
There are professional coaching institutes, automated teller machines (ATMs), Internet cafes and many restaurants.

"Subsistence agriculture has been replaced by orange and apple orchards and cardamom plantations. There is electricity round the clock at Dirak, where one enters the district from Assam, and all the way beyond Walong, until the border with Tibet 280 km away. The long road that connects sparsely populated villages is always busy with taxis, trucks, buses and motorcycles plying up and down. The road is being improved with several concrete bridges. And along the river many mini hydroelectric projects are coming up."


There are 8 strategic roads along the border which are critical and 4 of them are complete - All by Border Roads Organization (BRO). The PM has declared the project as "The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North-East (SARDP-NE) " - divided into two phases: The first phase involving 1,300 km of roads primarily in the North-East State to be completed by this year-end and the second phase involved 5,700 km with the 2013 deadline.

In addition, there are various roads under construction in HP, Uttarakhand, sikkim and J&K.

India has to build roads, secure those conflicting points. It is not enough that we strengthen our navy, army and air force. We have to build roads along the border. There are no people like the Chinese when it comes to strategy and planning. They carefully plan, silently execute and loudly speak only after preparation. It is this tactical planning that always ensured China is ahead of India in every aspect. The Chinese have built 6 lane highways in Tibetian border and connected Lhasa with Bejing through a high speed link.

As far as Congress govt is concerned, it was only Narasimha Rao who tactfully followed the policy of Look East by which he started contacting other countries in East Asia who are not friendly with China to ensure diplocatic pressure on China remained always. On the other a significant breakthrough was acheived when Vajpayee visited China. This meeting settled the Sikkim and Tibet issue once for all. For almost 55 years, China claimed Sikkim and theirs, but Vajpayee's dilpomacy ensured Sikkim be accepted as India's. However, Chinese as shrewd as no one can be, backtracked a year ago on claiming Sikkim too. Now, they stopped Sikkim and restarted the claim of Arunachal.

What is needed: Speedy completion of roads and enhancing air fields along Ladakh border (already many are opened last year)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

this is very interesting article. recently i read aritcle in deccanherald i think and i saw a video clip showing chinese trying to do something in india's territory.
indian govt should act now and protect our neglected borders.