It must be a matter of satisfaction for the people of Arunachal Pradesh that despite a truncated monsoon session of the parliament which robbed much of the necessary time for discussion on vital matters of national importance, the issue of Chinese encroachment of the state’s territories has been raised by LS MP Tapir Gao. The MP while drawing attention to the house has made a constructive and pertinent suggestion that it’s high time to make a proper assessment of how much area of Arunachal have been silently snatched away by territory-hungry China. The issue has been raised earlier on several occasions in the past by him, both in parliament and outside which was given importance by the national media also. While it's observable that not much noise on a national scale was generated subsequent to these appeals, it’s now almost impossible to ignore it as the situation is much volatile and the country has just tasted a fresh bout of Chinese aggression. The demand for formation of a committee under chairmanship of LS Speaker to measure what actually the current situation is across the state’s border with China is thus legitimate and in a way a further reminder to the Central government to show more seriousness.

No technical analysis is needed to explain why the unfortunate case of abduction of five youths of Nacho bordering China in Upper Subansiri district happened. There is no tangible demarcation of the McMahon line separating the two countries and it’s impossible to be sure on which side one is treading and stepping into. This is a practical difficulty which over the seven decades of independence has brought a double-edged negative impact on Arunachal’s territorial status quo. Innocent civilians of the state who venture out for livelihood necessities are the first-hand victims and the most-recent case should not be concluded as the last one as under such indistinct boundary mechanism many such more crossovers are sure to happen. It is rather paradoxical to find that when there are repeated ceremonial assertions to protect the territorial integrity of the country, an unexplained apathy simultaneously exists over devising a permanent wayout that would ensure a reasonable protective wall for the state’s long border with the hostile neighbour. It must be recalled that the Defence Minister had himself admitted that China is eyeing 90,000 square km of Arunachal which is besides the 38,000 square km of Indian land it had already occupied. Exactly last week ago there was the news that the process of increasing military presence had been started by China which is an indication that the state might be more vulnerable.

The process of assessment of ‘lost land’ of Arunachal, if any, must be initiated at once, followed by a reclaim and a permanent demarcation.