Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said the times now are different from 1962 and Arunachalees and the Indian Army will never fall back no matter how many times China tries to claim the region, a PTI report stated.
Khandu on Friday spoke at a programme in Bum La, a pass on the Indo-Tibet border in Arunachal Pradesh, to pay tribute to soldier Subedar Joginder Singh on his 58th death anniversary who died fighting in the 1962 India-China war. Singh was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military gallantry award in 1962.
"This is not 1962 but 2020, and things are different now. Right from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh we are fully prepared. If required the people of Arunachal will not hesitate to stand behind the Indian Army," he said.
China does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh as a state of India but as a part of southern Tibet, a claim which has been rejected outright by India, the report said.
Khandu stressed that the "development of infrastructure along the border areas of the country has received a major thrust under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
"The development of border areas, specially roads, is important. It is being done in full speed in Arunachal Pradesh and we will soon witness several such infrastructural revamps in the state," he said.
Singh, who was a subedar of the 1st battalion of the Sikh Regiment, was commanding a platoon at Bum La in the then North-East Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh. "Fighting against all odds, Subedar Singh attained martyrdom on this day during the 1962 India-China war. The people of Arunachal salute his bravery and will always remember the supreme sacrifice he made for the nation," Khandu was quoted saying in the PTI report.
