So it was not surprising that the decision of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) in the first week of February to boycott the cheap and shoddy Chinese goods flooding Arunachal markets went almost unnoticed in the rest of India and so was its follow-up action.

The students made a bonfire of Chinese goods - soft toys, garments and electronic gadgets - on February 8, raising slogans like “Buy Indian, be Indian”, “We are born Indians, we will die Indians”, “Jalao, jalao, Chinese maal jalao” “Chinese dragon hai hai” and “Bachao, bachao, Arunachal ko bachao.” They also burnt effigies of Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao on the streets of Itanagar. A huge crowd witnessed the students venting their anger on the Chinese rulers for their designs on Arunachal.

The call for boycott was the result of a growing feeling that New Delhi is not doing all that is necessary to protect Arunachal's security and even to provide protection to its citizens. AAPSU recently drew attention once more to the alleged kidnap of Chabe Chader, a villager of Gumsing Taying under Taksing Circle of Upper Subansiri district by the Chinese army personnel from near the Asaphila border. He went missing on August 18, 2007, and is still untraced.

The issue was taken up by the AAPSU in New Delhi at the Home Ministry level. Later, the then Arunachal MP, Mr. Kiren Rijiju, raised the matter in the Lok Sabha. He was later assured by the External Affairs Ministry officials that Chader's case would be taken up with the Chinese “through diplomatic channels, through flag meetings at the border and through the hotline at Bumla.” However, precious little was done to get him back from Chinese custody, alleges Mr. Takam Tatung, general secretary of AAPSU.

Arunachal directly faces China and remains vulnerable even almost half a century after the 1962 war. China is literally breathing down Arunachal's neck and making strident claims on this Indian State which stretches from Myanmar in the East to Bhutan on the West and has an area of nearly 64,000 square kilometres.

The Chinese have been vigorously developing its infrastructure and logistical build-up for a long time on their side of the international border with no matching response from our side. It has been nibbling away our territory while New Delhi is busy playing down the threat all the time and pretending everything is fine.

It is only recently that some initial steps were taken to strengthen India's defences in Arunachal. Earlier this month, on the occasion of the test flight of LCA Tejas, Defence Minister A. K. Antony said at Bangalore that the Government was strengthening its security set-up in Arunachal to build up its deterrent capabilities. “I will tell in the open that we are strengthening security in Arunachal and I don't want to evade it,” he said. It was the first time that such a forthright statement came from a senior member of the Union Cabinet.

Even so, the response is perceived to be inadequate. Efforts have to be speeded up to make up for years of neglect. Only last June the Government announced it was raising two new divisions of fifty thousand soldiers for deployment in Arunachal. Also, a squadron of Russian-made deep penetration Sukhoi MKI aircraft (range five thousand kms) was based in Assam's Tezpur airport in mid-June, with another squadron to be later stationed at Chabua, further north.

China, on the other hand, had long ago built up its first airport at Gonggar, code-named LXA, 98 km south of capital Lhasa, at an altitude of 11,800 feet on the south bank of Yarlong Tsangpo, as the Brahmaputra is called there. The airport can handle many large types of big aircraft landing and taking off. After renovation in 2004, it has a 4000-meter long runway - the longest in China - and has an expanded parking apron that allows five A340 or seven Boeing-757 aircraft at a time. The Chinese have built several other airports on the high Himalayas in Tibet - Damxung in 1956, Chamdo Bangda in 1994, Nyingchi in 2006, to name a few.

If the feeling of the Arunachal people that India's response to the Chinese is “feeble” and New Delhi was not doing enough to send a strong message to China not to violate the border in Arunachal, a sense of despondency may give way to a sense of quiet resignation to whatever the future may bring. About a decade after the 1962 aggression, this writer asked a prominent Arunachali leader what they would do in case of a repetition of 1962. His answer was cryptic: “We are sandwiched between two big countries. Our response will depend on the actual situation prevailing at the time if another India-China war breaks out.”

What he meant to convey was that their response would depend on India's ability to defend Arunachal against China. Things have definitely improved a great deal since then. But that sense of assurance has to continue. New Delhi cannot take the people of Arunachal for granted. (IPA)