UNION Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju onThursday said border areas had been neglected in the past but were now a “top priority” of the Narendra Modi Government, as he sought to counter claims of fresh Chinese incursions in Arunachal Pradesh. Rijiju also invoked former Defence Minister A K Antony’s 2013 statement in Parliament acknowledging India’s historical policy of keeping border areas underdeveloped, though Antony had then said that the approach had been discarded by successive Governments much before the UPA came to power. The remarks by Rijiju, who represents Arunachal West in the Lok Sabha, come amid renewed concerns over Chinese military activity in the Upper Subansiri region of Arunachal Pradesh. “Some people casually commented on border. Border areas are tough but @narendramodi Govt is committed to border development. I went to Maza, Galemo, Taksingareas in Arunachal Pradesh to speed up infrastructure works.

 

Borders were neglected in the past but it’s top priority now,” Rijiju said in a post on X. In a separate post, he targeted the Congress over its record on border infrastructure. “Amongst the Congress leaders, A.K. Anthony Ji is very honest. As Defence Minister he admitted the Congress Govt’s policy of not making border infrastructure on the floor of the Parliament,” he said. Rijiju was referring to Antony’s remarks in the Lok Sabha on September 6, 2013, when the then defence Minister acknowledged that China had built significantly better infrastructure along the border and attributed India’s lag to a policy followed for decades after Independence. Explaining the historical thinking behind the policy, Antony had said, “The independent India had a policy for many years that the best defence is not to develop the border. Undeveloped borders are safer than developed borders. So, for many years, there was no construction of roads or air fields on the border areas.”