Even land at needle’s tip can’t be taken from India: Amit Shah in Arunachal

The era is gone when someone could encroach upon Indian territory, and not even the soil at the tip of a needle can now be taken from India’s land, Home Minister Amit Shah said in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday (April 10).

Shah was launching the Vibrant Villages programme in the border village of Kibithoo in Arunachal’s Anjaw district, India’s easternmost place, when he made the remark. He added that the valour of the Army and ITBP personnel ensures that no one can encroach upon even an inch of India’s land.

“Borders are govt’s top priority”

He said border areas are the Modi government’s top priority, pointing to the infrastructure and other development works carried out in the Northeast. “The era is gone when anyone could encroach upon our lands. Now, not even land equal to sui ki noke (the tip of a needle) can be encroached upon…,” the minister said.

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The Home Minister said that earlier, people who returned from border areas used to say that they had visited the last village of India. But the Modi government has changed this narrative so that people now say that they have visited the “first village of India”.

Homage to martyrs

Paying homage to the martyrs of Kibithoo who laid down their lives during the 1962 Sino-Indian war, Shah said they fought with indomitable spirit despite the lack of resources.

Shah added that no one in Arunachal Pradesh greets people with namaste but with “Jai Hind,” which “fills our hearts with patriotism”. “It is because of this attitude of Arunachalis that China, which had come to occupy it, had to retreat,” Shah said.

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“Before 2014, the entire north-eastern region was seen as a disturbed area, but because of the Look East policy, it is now known for its prosperity and development,” Shah said.

(With agency inputs)