Arunachal Governor calls for matching infrastructure in north east to counter China

By building matching infrastructure, the northeastern states can redress the balance of what China has done in Tibet, said Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt. Gen. (retired) Nirbhay Sharma at a seminar that he particpated in recently.

During the seminar on 'Issues in Sino-Indian Relations and Leadership Change in China' that was held in Kolkata, and organised by the Kolkata chapter of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Lt. Gen. (retired) Sharma said connectivity is still one of the major problems afflicting north east India.

Other than Assam, the rest of the region has only 66-kilometers of railway line, which by any standards is abysmal, he said.

Reiterating that India has to look at China pragmatically because of the wide gap in the capabilities between the two countries, the governor said there is still huge scope for development intiatives

He said that it should be considered a big achievement that not asingle shot has been fired between Indian and Chinese troops since 1967.

Dr. C. Raja Mohan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF delivered his talk on 'India's China Policy', while Dr. Manoj Joshi, Defence Analyst and Distinguished Fellow, ORF spoke on 'China-India Border Issues'.

Professor Sobhanlal Dutta Gupta, Professor of Political Science, Calcutta University delivered lecture on the topic 'Leadership Change in China and Its Implications', a communique from the Governor's office said.