Statement issued by Shri Jairam Ramesh, MP: According to a recent news report, the Indian Armed Forces have expressed concern about a major Chinese military buildup in Amu Chu, Bhutan, close to the Doklam Plateau. The report states that the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) has built 1,000 permanent hutments and temporary sheds to house large numbers of soldiers. Amu Chu provides an alternate route towards the Jhamperi Ridge that overlooks the strategic Siliguri Corridor, also known as the Chicken’s Neck that connects eastern and north-eastern India. The Indian Army intervened in 2017 in Doklam to prevent the PLA from approaching the ridge, but the PLA appears to have adopted a different route through Bhutanese territory towards this ridge. As we pointed out on March 30, 2023, the PLA has also built an all-weather road in the Amu Chu river-basin to facilitate troop movement. These developments represent a clear threat to India’s national security.

On March 09, 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah stated that “we will not allow anyone to take even an inch” of Indian territory. Yet the reality is that China prevented our troops from accessing 2,000 square kilometres of Indian territory after May 2020. Even today, Chinese patrols block our access to numerous patrolling points in Depsang, Demchok, Hot Springs (Kungrang Nalla) and Gogra Post. The Modi government has failed for three years to restore the status quo ante on the Line of Actual Control. We request the Home Minister to restore the status quo rather than make bombastic and misleading statements inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s infamous claim that “Na koi hamariseemameinghusaayahai, na hi koi ghusahuahai.”

We are fully confident in the ability of the Indian Armed Forces to repel any Chinese misadventure, as they did in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh on December 09, 2022. But when will the Prime Minister break his eloquent silence on China, after having given it a Clean Chit in 2020? Or will his longstanding links to China, including those of his close friends the Adanis, prove too strong for him to comment at all? Wednesday, April 12, 2023