India to take Arunachal to right fora

“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and the just-concluded Assembly elections there have proved that they were held under the Indian Constitution,” Mukherjee said at a news conference in Kolkata. “Just a few months ago people of the state had sent their representatives to Parliament under the Indian Constitution. It was,therefore,appropriate that the Prime Minister of the country should visit Arunachal Pradesh as leader of the Congress party for election campaign.”

“It is a proper action on our part,” Mukherjee said,adding,“India will raise the issue in appropriate forums.”

This came even as Petroleum Minister Murli Deora was told by the Chinese leadership on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet in Beijing on Wednesday that Premier Wen Jiabao was willing to meet the Indian Prime Minister on the sidelines of the East Asia summit,which kicks off on October 24 in Thailand.

India meanwhile asked Beijing to “cease” activities in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK),reacting to a report by official Chinese news agency Xinhua that quoted Chinese President Hu Jintao as saying that Beijing will support projects in PoK.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said: “We have seen the Xinhua report quoting the President of China as stating that China will continue to engage in projects with Pakistan in PoK. Pakistan has been in illegal occupation of parts of the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir since 1947.”

“The Chinese side is fully aware of India’s position and our concerns about Chinese activities in PoK. We hope that the Chinese side will take a long-term view of the India-China relations,and cease such activities in areas illegally occupied by Pakistan,” Prakash said. It is learnt that concerns have been communicated by New Delhi to Beijing through diplomatic channels as well.

According to the Xinhua report,after a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in Beijing on Tuesday,President Hu said,“We are glad to witness the smooth progress of a number of major cooperative projects under the joint efforts of both sides,such as the Neelam-Jhelum hydro-electric project and the Karakoram Highway upgrading project.”

Pakistan had in February last year given contract to two Chinese companies for $1.5 billion. India had protested to Pakistan early this year on Chinese power projects,namely the Neelam-Jhelum project (4,500 MW),the Bunji power project (7,000 MW) and the Diamir Basha power project — all in PoK.

In New Delhi,former foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon described China’s comments against the Prime Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh as “completely unnecessary”. At the launch of Chasing the Dragon,a book by Mohan Guruswamy and Zorawar Daulet Singh,Menon criticised the noises made over Chinese behaviour along the border with India as “alarmist and uninformed”.