A political row erupted on Friday over Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief Shatrujeet Kapur’s purported remarks that the Shaurya platoon, an elite unit of the force, is successfully dealing with a “face-off in Arunachal Pradesh”.
There was no immediate reaction by government officials or the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There our Shaurya commando teams did really exceedingly well. Since July, there have been reports of a standoff with Chinese troops in the remote Taksin area of Upper Subansiri district. After portions of Kapur’s remarks appeared online, the Congress party sharpened its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. “While on one hand, the Prime Minister, who bows to China, continues the ongoing saga of making concessions, in the meantime, the Director General of the ITBP has commended the force’s performance in the recent clashes with the Chinese PLA within Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which is absolutely justified.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the government of remaining “silent on this grave issue”. Asked about this in a press conference in August, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the state of border affairs has ramifications for overall India-China ties, adding that the two sides have agreed to use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to “avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation” along the border. Yet, the Prime Minister and his entire apparatus remain silent on this grave issue,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a long post on X.
In his address to the troops in Rajasthan’s Alwar at a felicitation ceremony on Thursday, ITBP director general Kapur purportedly said: “In recent days, there was a situation in Arunachal Pradesh where there was a face-off at different locations, which is still continuing. Speaking at an Asia Society event in New York in late September, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said India-China ties were better today than they were a couple of years ago.
