Itanagar: Rejecting China`s claim on
Arunachal Pradesh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday
asserted that there was no question of India surrendering its
sovereign rights over the state.
"We have made it clear that there is no question of
surrendering our soveriegn rights over Arunachal. The question
does not arise. There were 11 rounds of discussions (on the
boundary question) in the last six to seven years. We
consistently said that we cannot accept China`s claim on
Arunachal," Mukherjee told a press conference here.
"India has recognised Tibet as an autonomous region of
Peoples Republic of China with which trade through traditional
routes stopped after the 1962 war.
"Please write the name of the region carefully as
Tibet Autonomous Region of Peoples Republic of China, as it
has wide international connotations," Mukherjee said.
"Elections are taking place regularly in Arunachal
which is sending two representatives to Lok Sabha," he noted.
India has consistently maintained that Arunachal is an
integral part of the country.
He was replying to a question by a local journalist
that when his forefathers traded with Tibet for centuries why
was it stopped and how China could lay claim over Arunachal?
Mukherjee said that trade through traditional routes
across the border, which stopped since the 1962 war, restarted
after many years at Likule and Sibkila when the issue was
raised by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during his
visit to China in 1988.
Subsequently, during the visit of then Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Beijing in 2003, the two sides had
decided to reopen the traditional trade through Nathula in
Sikkim.
Mukherjee was here to release the manifesto of the
ruling Congress for the October 13 state assembly elections.
Bureau Report
