New Delhi: A day after China asked the Indian Army to learn from "historical lessons", Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday said that the India of 2017 is different from the India of 1962.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

In an oblique reference to the 1962 war, China had on Thursday demanded a withdrawal of the Indian troops from the Sikkim sector as a pre-condition for a "meaningful dialogue" to resolve the current stand-off there and asked the Indian Army to learn from "historical lessons". 


Mincing no words, Jaitley, meanwhile, said at an event: "If they (China) are trying to remind us, the situation in 1962 was different, the India of today is different."


The minister added that the Bhutan government had made it clear that China was trying to claim Bhutanese land and said this was "absolutely wrong".


"After the statement of the government of Bhutan, I think the situation is absolutely clear. It is Bhutan`s land, close to the Indian border, and Bhutan and India have the arrangement to provide security.

"Bhutan itself clarified ... China is trying to alter the present status quo. After this, I think the issue is absolutely clear. To say we will come there and grab the land of some other country is what China is doing and it is absolutely wrong," the minister said.

Jaitley`s comment came amid a stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Dokala area close to the Siliguri corridor that connects the rest of India to its north-east.


The genesis of the flashpoint was China's attempts to build a road at a strategically key area of Donglong, the linking of which to the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction could give China a major military advantage over India.


The Indian Army had blocked construction of the road by China in Donglong, a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.


Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.


Official sources said China had removed an old bunker of the Indian Army in Donglong by using a bulldozer after the Indian side refused to accede to its request, which triggered the face-off.


(With Agency inputs)