Recent remarks by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Director General Shatrujeet Kapur that face-offs continue between Indian and Chinese forces at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) have stirred a controversy. On Friday, the Congress sought a response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
On Thursday, while addressing his troops at a force base in Alwar, Rajasthan, Kapur said, “In the past few days, a situation arose where a face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal, and it continues.”
Sources said the ITBP chief’s statement on China was made in the context of routine force deployment and preparedness along the India-China border, and was not in reference to any specific incident or event. The force, raised in 1962, guards the 3,488-km-long LAC.
“As we have noted in the past, the situation in the India-China border areas gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns,” said spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal, at his bi-weekly media briefing.
“Both sides continue to use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” he said.
Jaiswal said the two sides have also agreed to discuss ways to improve understanding of the LAC in appropriate areas for better border management. “I would also like to emphasise that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations,” he said.
The ITBP chief added that the ITBP has raised a new combat team, the Shaurya commandos. This team displayed its skills during the “ongoing” face-off with the Chinese PLA troops at multiple places in Arunachal Pradesh, he said. Kapur said these commandos will be in every border battalion and will give the force a distinct identity. The statement comes as Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani said last month that the situation along the LAC is currently stable and gives no cause for concern.
Last week, Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar said peace and tranquillity in the border areas were essential to normalising India-China relations, stressing that any disturbance along the border would have consequences.
“If you asked me, compared to where you were in 2025, is the relationship better today? I would say yes. Compared to 2024, even more so,” Jaishankar said.
The ITBP chief said the China front was our “most difficult” border, and China was a “powerful” neighbour and India’s “biggest adversary,” requiring enhanced capabilities to “counter” it. “Drones have become a major challenge and an opportunity also. It will be difficult to compete with China using traditional methods. They have modernised and invested heavily in their PLA, but drones are such that a small country can give a befitting contest to a bigger nation,” Kapur said on Thursday.
“The role of traditional armies has changed since the drones arrived, and we must embrace drone and anti-drone systems in a big way,” he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said, “Enough clean chits to China. PM Modi must come clean before India!”
He said India’s armed forces had the people’s complete confidence, “but national security demands accountability, not diplomatic photo opportunities and Hugplomacy!”
“Instead of attacking the Opposition, PM Modi must take Parliament and the Nation into confidence,” Kharge said, posing a set of three questions on national security, economic policy and diplomatic accountability.
Noting that the ITBP DG’s confirmation of continuing face-offs in Arunachal Pradesh was “deeply alarming”, he asked whether another serious confrontation was unfolding after Doklam and Galwan.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh questioned Prime Minister Modi’s “deafening silence” on reported tensions in Arunachal.
He also questioned the outcome of the Corps commander-level talks held in September to maintain peace along the LAC. It was the first meeting at the highest military commander level in the Arunachal Pradesh sector.
On September 6, the Corps Commander-level talks were held at the Wacha-Damai border meeting point on the Indian side to address ongoing issues along the LAC in the area.