Ministers in past didn't know names of North-East states: Kiren Rijiju

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 8

The ruling BJP on Tuesday fielded Union Culture Minister and Arunachal West MP Kiren Rijiju to defend the government’s record in the North-East (NE) amid the Opposition offensive on the Manipur violence and ongoing LAC tensions with China.

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Intervening in the debate on the no-confidence motion (held from 12 noon to 6 PM today), Rijiju dared Congress MPs to come with him to Arunachal Pradesh, where, he said, not an inch of Indian land had been transgressed. The minister said the Opposition would regret bringing the motion at the “wrong time when PM Narendra Modi’s global popularity is soaring, and in a wrong manner”.

“Come with me to Arunachal and I will show you inch by inch.... Don’t believe what someone mischievously writes... China is setting up villages in the area which the Congress gave away to it,” said Rijiju questioning former PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s China policy.

In a dig at the former Congress-led UPA government, Rijiju said when he first became a Lok Sabha MP in 2004, people in Delhi didn’t know where Arunachal was located and “Union ministers did not know the names of states in NE, the story changed after 2014”, Rijiju said in a caustic remark seeking to puncture the Opposition’s attack on Manipur violence.

Stressing the government line that developed borders were aiding improved Indian troop deployment against China, the minister said border infrastructure along the LAC from Arunachal to J&K and Ladakh had been strengthened post 2014.

“Today there is no major area along the LAC where a car does not go. Pre-2014 we had to walk all the way. Today the Border Roads Organisation has constructed a large number of bridges and roads, each district headquarter has a double lane road,” said Rijiju.

He said PM Narendra Modi had developed border villages that the past governments neglected for over 60 years, adding: “When our government was formed, in the first Cabinet meeting, the PM said every 15 days, five Cabinet ministers and seven ministers of state must tour the NE. It is going on, all ministers sitting here have toured the NE.”

The minister added before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, all N-E villages along the border with China up to JK and Ladakh would have 100 % 4G connectivity.

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