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Arunachal is India's, EAM repeats in House
Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee refuses a demand on fresh resolution, report Jay Raina and Aloke Tikku.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday made it clear in the Lok Sabha that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India and its status was "not debatable."
Reiterating its stand, the government refused to give in to the Opposition’s demand for a fresh parliamentary resolution on the issue, saying the government was bound by an earlier resolution passed unanimously by both Houses.
Replying to an hour-long debate in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour, Mukherjee said, "As far as the status of Arunachal Pradesh is concerned, there is no debate. A resolution is already there."
The Opposition had raised the issue in both Houses during the Zero Hour on Friday, taking the government to task for remaining silent on Chinese ambassador Sun Yuxi’s remark that the whole of Arunachal Pradesh belonged to China. The comment was made just ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit.
Minister of state for External Affairs Anand Sharma and Parliamentary Affairs’ minister Suresh Pachauri also made similar assertions in the Rajya Sabha amid concern over China’s remarks. The issue was raised in Lok Sabha by leader of the Opposition LK Advani and his counterpart in Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh.
The debate in the Upper House was marred by two adjournments following verbal skirmishes between the BJP and the Marxists, while the clash of opinions between the warring Right and the Left was "deftly managed" by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the Lok Sabha. The Left leaders, who had observed that "if Arunachal’s status was disputed by the Chinese, there was nothing wrong to go for talks over such conflicting claims”, later announced their "commitment to Arunachal’s status as an integral part of the country" in both Houses.
In the rather acrimonious debate in Rajya Sabha, leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh charged that the “Left had always felt shy of calling China an aggressor”. In his riposte, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury alleged that Singh’s accusations were just a slur on the Left parties’ position. “We stand by the fact that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. However, since another country was also staking claim, his party’s stand has been to find a way out through talks, and not war," Yechury said. Similar sentiments were also expressed in the Lok Sabha by CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and his CPI(M) colleague Mohammed Salim.
Email Jay Raina: jaina@hindustantimes.com
Email Aloke Tikku: atikku@hindustantimes.com
