Harish Rawat confirms Chinese troops' presence in Chamoli, Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Harish Rawat confirmed the presence of Chinese troops in Indian territory.

The Indian Express reported that the incursion happened in Chamoli district of the state. However Rawat said that the Chinese troops didn’t touch the “important canal” in Chamoli and assured that the Center will take ‘cognizance of the issue’. However, such an incursion by the Chinese troops on Indian soil is not a new phenomenon. According to an earlier Firstpost report, China has on many occasions “transgressed” into the Indian borders. According to a BBC report, the Home Ministry claims that there have been “334 transgressions by Chinese troops over the Indian border” in 2014 alone. Uttarakhand which shares a 350 kilometer boundary with China, last year saw the word ‘China’ scribbled on a rock in Mana Pass in Chamoli. On the infiltration issue, Kiran Rijiju said that the Center needs to investigate whether it was actually an infiltration bid by the Chinese troops. According to Harsh V Pant of BBC, such incursions tend to take place before or during major India-China meets. One need only look as far back as 2013 and the Depsang incursion just before Prime Minister Li Keqiang’s visit to India. Indian officials have in the past reasoned China’s incursions as a “result of differing perceptions about line of truth,” according to Brahma Chellaney in The Sunday Guardian. However, he says that in the Indo-Chinese disputes, India has “always been on the defensive” and that Beijing’s “public language” signals Premier Zhou Enlai’s words, “to teach India a lesson..”