New Delhi: Government on Friday asserted in Parliament that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and the issue is "not debatable at all" as both Houses condemned the "uncalled for" and "objectionable" utterances of Chinese Ambassador over its status.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India's Ambassador in Beijing has told Chinese authorities that the comments that "the entire Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory" should not have come from its envoy particularly on the eve of President Hu Jintao's visit to India earlier this week.
"Let us not create a situation of unnecessarily creating tension... Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and is going to be so... It is not a debatable issue at all," Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha responding to concerns expressed by members from all parties.
Noting that a Parliament resolution emphasising that Arunachal Pradesh is part of India is already there, he said China does not recognise this "which is not acceptable to us".
Mukherjee was responding to an impromptu discussion during Zero Hour after the Leader of Opposition L K Advani raised the issue expressing "surprise" and "concern" over Chinese envoy Sun Yuxi's statement and sought to know whether government had taken up the matter with Hu.
Advani also demanded a Parliamentary resolution saying this would an appropriate reponse to the impression created by the Chinese Ambassador.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha witnessed uproarious scenes with members in one voice denouncing the Chinese Ambassador's statement and demanding a statement from the Government.
In the Rajya Sabha, slogan-shouting BJP members trooped into the well to demand a Parliamentary resolution as the Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh charged the Government with "mortgaging" its foreign policy to CPI-M.
Rejecting the demand for a resolution, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri said after Mukherjee's clarification, there was no need for a resolution.
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In the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said he would make a statement in Lok Sabha on Monday or Tuesday on Hu's visit and pointed out that the government was ready to have a discussion in the House on the Chinese envoy's comment if Speaker Somnath Chatterjee permits it under appropriate rules.
The External Affairs Minister noted that a day after the Chinese Ambassador made the remarks earlier this month, he had himself refuted Sun's claim and made it clear that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.
"It is not necessary to raise the issue in this format," he said.
Responding to BJP's attack on the government, Mukherjee reminded its members that during then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Beijing in June 2003, there had been "transgression" by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh.
After the issue was raised in Parliament (in 2003), the then External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had said that the matter had been taken up with China and that the transgression had taken place in an "area on which there are differences of perception" between the two countries, he said.
The Chinese side had then claimed that the transgression had taken place from Indian side and Beijing "does not recognise so-called Arunachal Pradesh," Mukherjee said, adding "this is not acceptable to us. We have not accepted it."
The Minister said China claims that India has "illegally occupied" 90,000 sq kms in Arunachal Pradesh.
The two countries in 2003 designated Special Representatives to work out a mechanism to resolve the boundary question. They have held eight rounds of talks.
The Minister pointed out that the dispute over Sikkim has been settled with China finally accepting it as a part of India last year. He acknowledged the groundwork done by the former Vajpayee government in this regard.
"We (India and China) have moved forward. Ice has been broken," the External Affairs Minister emphasised, adding the ties between the two countries were witnessing improvement in areas like trade and commerce.
"Let the process continue," he said.
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