- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE shadow of the border tension between India and China has impacted the Winter Olympics 2022 with the former saying on Thursday (3) that its chargé d’affaires in the Indian embassy in Beijing will not attend the opening ceremony of the sporting event over China honouring a military commander involved in the Galwan Valley clashes in the Ladakh region as its torchbearer for the tournament.
The Olympics will begin on Friday (4) and continue till February 20.
Reacting to the Chinese action at a media briefing, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Indian external affairs ministry, said it was “regrettable”.
ALSO READ: Chinese tortured abducted Arunachal teen, says his father
He added that India’s chargé d’affaires in the Beijing embassy will not take part in the opening or closing ceremony of the Olympics.
India and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 in which people on both sides died. The border row between the two nuclear neighbours in eastern Ladakh escalated after the clashes.
After India announced the diplomatic boycott of the opening and closing ceremonies, India’s national broadcaster Doordarshan also decided against live-telecasting the same.
India has sent a sole contestant at the Olympics and it is in the discipline of Alpine skiing.
Meanwhile, New Delhi on Thursday said that it has taken up with Beijing the issue of alleged torture of a teenager from the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh when he was in the custody of the People’s Liberation Army.
“We have taken up the matter with the Chinese side,” Bagchi said.
Seventeen-year-old Miram Taron was allegedly abducted by the Chinese army on January 18 from Lungta Jor area near the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh when he was on a hunting trip with his friend Johny Yaying.
Yaying escaped from the scene and reported the matter to the authorities.
The Chinese army handed over Miram to the Indian Army on January 27 at the Wacha-Damai interaction point at Kibithu in Anjaw district.
Miram’s father Opang Taron had said then that his son was tied and blindfolded while in the custody of the Chinese and that he was kicked and even given mild electric shock.
