“We want peace, but they cannot repel us,” said Amarinder Singh.
Chandigarh:
On Friday, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh urged the Center to take a firm stand on the persistent border deadlock with China if the neighboring country does not respond to diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem.
The problem must be resolved through negotiation and diplomacy, but “we cannot turn our backs on the threat posed by China’s aggressive border movements,” said Captain Singh.
As sovereign nations, the two countries should find a diplomatic solution to the problem, said Captain Singh, adding that India “does not want war but we will not accept intimidation from China”.
“We want peace, but they cannot push us back,” he said, saying the Chinese should be pushed out of Indian territory.
Affirming that India cannot continue to let its land disappear, the chief minister said that if the threat was not countered, China would demand more and more land in the future, which cannot be allowed at any cost.
Citing Doklam’s impasse, he said that such provocations from China were common and had “encroached on Indian territory even at Aksai Chin, and had used similar actions in the Arunachal Pradesh “.
In the past, China has attempted to claim Indian land in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, said the chief minister.
China must leave the Indian territory in which it has now moved and over which it has no rights, he said, warning that the Indian armed forces were now much more modernized and equipped than they were in 1962, and “China cannot afford to take us lightly”.
Asked about threats of disruption on the anniversary of Operation Blue Star on Saturday, the chief minister said that no one would be allowed to disrupt the peace in Punjab.
