Pune. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, India’s budget for building infrastructure along the border with China has increased significantly. He said that when Modi became Prime Minister, the budget for infrastructure along the border with China was Rs 3,500 crore but today it is Rs 14,500 crore.
He claimed that India should have learned lessons from the 1962 war but there was no progress in developing border infrastructure till 2014. He said that the Modi government increased the budget for this from Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 14,500 crore.
Jaishankar, while interacting with the youth at an event here on the theme ‘Why India Matters: Opportunities for Youth and Participation in the Global Scenario’, said that India should have a ‘realistic, grounded and practical policy’ with China.
The Foreign Minister said, ‘China is our neighbor and whether it is China or any other neighbor, border resolution is a kind of challenge. I would like to focus on history here because if we do not learn lessons from history, we will keep making mistakes again and again.
Jaishankar said that China had occupied Tibet in 1950 and the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had written a letter to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru saying that he was very upset with India’s policy towards China.
He claimed that Patel cautioned that India should not take China’s assurances lightly but Nehru dismissed his concerns and said that the Chinese were Asian people and bore no ill will towards India.
Jaishankar said, ‘He (Nehru) said that the Chinese really want friendship with India and claimed that it is impossible that China will cross the Himalayas to attack India.’ He said that while Patel was a practical, down-to-earth and realistic person, Nehru was an idealist and a man of leftist ideology.
Jaishankar said, ‘I am talking about history because with China we will have to have a realistic, grounded and practical policy every time. I am moving the clock forward a little because seven to eight years later China was found building a road through Aksai Chin. When India realized that they were building a road in our territory, India lodged a protest but later they claimed that it was their land.
He said that from 1957 to 1962, when the Chinese were building roads and preparing for war, the Indian government was busy thinking that India is a non-aligned country and China is a non-Western country and there are ideological relations between the two countries. He said that in the last few years, new tunnels, roads and bridges have been built on the border with China. The Foreign Minister said that the Sela Tunnel was built where the Chinese had reached in 1962.
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Tags: China border, EAM S Jaishankar, Pune
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 12, 2024, 23:53 IST