On Friday, December 29, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Jethmalani, took to X, and posed a number of questions to Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, over Rahul Gandhi avoiding Arunachal Pradesh in ‘Bharat Nyaya Yatra’. It is from January 14 to March 20, 2024, that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, after a year of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, will embark on a 6200 KM east to west ‘Bharat Nyaya Yatra’, traversing from Manipur to Mumbai.
Jethmalani tweeted, ‘Over the years, Jairam Ramesh’s views on Arunachal Pradesh make for ominous reading. It is now legion that as environment minister, he wanted a review of all existing hydel projects in the state and a halt to any new ones. He then asserted that India would not be able to construct dams on its own and should enlist Chinese expertise in its hydel projects in the state. When he was roundly criticised for his views, he wrote a letter to then PM, Dr Manmohan Singh that Arunachal Pradesh “should not become a pawn in the race between India & China”, as if the state was not an integral part of India.’
Further, referring to the accusations Jairam Ramesh had earlier made on the Modi government, regarding Arunachal Pradesh, and China’s illegal control in the northeastern state, Mahesh Jethmalani said, ‘After Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, Jairam announced in February this year, another Rahul Yatra, this time an east-west one from Pasighat in Arunachal, to Porbandar in Gujarat. In April, China “renamed” 11 places in Arunachal in a veiled assertion of sovereignty over the state. Jairam attacked PM Modi as being responsible for this Chinese action as he had “overlooked Chinese transgressions”.’
‘His charge was dismissed by an MEA spokesperson on the obvious ground that nominal assertions did not match “ground realities”. As usual, Jairam was registering a feigned protest on a non-issue. Chinese name changes in Arunachal Pradesh were a pathetically effete move.’, stated Jethmalani.
Adding that, ‘The nation had been very recently informed by Jairam that Rahul will now embark upon a Bharat Nyaya Yatra, but its route will be from Manipur to Mumbai. The Yatra will not traverse Arunachal Pradesh.’, the BJP RS MP listed ten questions in all for Jairam Ramesh, and asked, as to why the original route of the yatra, as announced by him, was changed. He also queried whether Arunachal Pradesh was wilfully excluded from the yatra’s route, in view of China’s renaming of 11 places in the state as a mark of its claim on the state.
Jethmalani further asked, ‘Since you were so agitated by China’s nominal aggression, wasn’t it all the more incumbent on the INC to commence the Yatra in, or at least, include Arunachal Pradesh, on the Yatra route, as a sign of solidarity with the people of that state?’.
He then questioned, ‘Do you agree that China fuels insurgency in the North East and funds/arms insurgency in Manipur? Has it struck you, at least as a possibility, that the Manipur violence earlier this year could have a Chinese hand in it? Did you personally have any role in the decision of the INC to enter into an MoU with the CCCP in 2008? Are you in any event aware of its contents? Does the MoU contain a clause that the INC recognises Chinese sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh?’.
Lastly, Mahesh Jethmalani asked Jairam Ramesh whether the latter believed that it was legal for an Indian political party, that was in power at the Centre in 2008, to enter into an MoU with the CCCP, which is synonymous with the Chinese State that illegally occupies, since 1962, a huge swathe of Indian territory; and whether the MoU, in any event, should be made public, on the principle of transparency.
Jairam Ramesh had earlier said that with the announcement of the ‘Bharat Nyaya Yatra’, the Congress had sounded the trumpet of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and that during the yatra, Rahul Gandhi will interact with people, to understand the livelihood issues that currently confront them, such as price rise and unemployment, and assure them of Congress party’s commitment to deliver economic justice, social justice and political justice.
