By IANS,
Itanagar : Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s controversial stand on hiring Chinese expertise Wednesday got support from a group representing Arunachal Pradesh’s indigenous people.
“India needs foreign technical expertise in order to meet its requirements and there is nothing unusual in taking the help of the Chinese in implementing hydro-power projects in the state as its topography matched with China,” the Arunachal Indigenous People’s Union (AIPU) said in a statement.
Stating that India is one of the fastest growing countries in terms of technology and the country needs foreign technical assistance to emulate its own technological potentials, the AIPU said it was a welcome step that India would Look East in order to extend cooperation and relationship among eastern countries.
On the All Arunachal Pradesh Student Union’s (AAPSU) demand for Ramesh’s resignation for advocating Chinese expertise to implement hydrological projects in the state, the AIPU statement said: “Neither do people oppose the centre’s proposal to launch developmental projects in Arunachal nor do they support the repeated claims made by China over the state.”
In Beijing to attend a global meet on climate change, Ramesh said there was danger that cooperation with China flowing from the Copenhagen spirit would end unless New Delhi changed “a needlessly restrictive, alarmist approach” to Chinese investment in infrastructure.
The remark stunned New Delhi. Manmohan Singh telephoned Ramesh and pulled him up, making it clear that he cannot comment on the functioning of ministries outside his domain, that too on foreign soil.