Centre responsible for China's pro-active claims: BJP

Itanagar, Feb 10 (UNI) The Arunachal Pradesh unit of the BJP has accused the Centre of adopting a ''soft approach in the ongoing Indo-Chinese bilateral talks, which is the main reason for China's pro-active claims over the state.'' ''The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has repudiated and preferred to downplay the reported Chinese intrusions taking place on the Indian soil by stating that these are merely a result of differences in perceptions,'' the BJP stated.

The party alleged that the incursions were not simply the inadvertent misadventures of lost Chinese patrols but instead pointed at the existence of a carefully designed strategy to undermine India's territorial integrity.

Stating that the efforts to bring about a thaw in Indo-Chinese relations were started when Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as the Foreign Minister in the Morarji Desai government, met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and resumed top-level dialogues that had been frozen after 1962.

Mr Vajpayee also made efforts to boost relations with China when he became the Prime Minister, the party claimed, adding that his visit to the country brought a historic and major breakthrough in the bilateral relations and gave new dimensions to trade between the two nations.

''The UPA's much-hyped breakthrough on the Indo-Chinese border understanding between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in 2005 have encouraged the Chinese to renew their claims on the Tawang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh,'' the party added.

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