Editorial: Securing the borders

The ‘Vibrant Villages’ programme is a significant counter-move by India, with strategic and military implications

Hyderabad: The launch of the ‘Vibrant Villages’ project in Arunachal Pradesh’s border village of Kibithoo is an important demonstration of India’s resolve to counter China’s territorial aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The central scheme, aimed at creating comprehensive infrastructure, connectivity and employment opportunities in the remote border areas, plans to cover 2,967 villages in 19 districts abutting the northern border in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the union Territory of Ladakh. The no-holds-barred infrastructure push by Beijing is forcing India to react. Since the Galwan Valley clash, China has been busy establishing new settlements or augmenting facilities in the existing ones. The ‘Vibrant Villages’ programme, launched by union Home Minister Amit Shah, is a significant counter-move by India, with strategic and military implications. The choice of Kibithoo village for the launch holds symbolic value. This was one of the major theatres of the 1962 India-China war. After it fell to Chinese forces, many Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives before reclaiming it. In the first phase of the ‘Vibrant Village’ scheme, 692 villages have been identified for priority coverage including 455 in Arunachal Pradesh. The timing of the Home Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh is also of significance as it comes days after Beijing renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as the “southern part of Tibet”. According to a US Department of Defence report published in 2021, Beijing has constructed 628 villages along the 3,488-km LAC, stretching from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. Construction of bases, including new dual-use airports, has also gathered pace ever since the Ladakh stand-off in May 2020.

The attempted Chinese incursion in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh last December has once again highlighted the urgency for augmenting the border infrastructure. With the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deciding when and where to cause pain to India along the disputed border, New Delhi does not have the luxury of time. The PLA appears to be keen to drive home the message that they can intrude at will anywhere along the LAC, despite the high-level all-weather deployment of the Indian Army. Building “vibrant” villages and developing infrastructure on the border are important, and convey politically that the government is seized of the urgency of the situation on the border, but by themselves, they may not be sufficient. They have to be part of a broader defence strategy which should include modernisation of the forces. India has a long way to go if it has to catch up with China on border infrastructure. Beijing has long coveted Arunachal Pradesh, the largest State in the northeast. Its location — sharing international borders with Tibet to the north and northwest, Bhutan towards the west and Myanmar to the east — makes it like a protective shield to the northeast.

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