India on Friday lodged a strong protest with China over “deliberate and selective” blocking of three athletes from Arunachal Pradesh from participating in the Asian Games at Hangzhou. Three women wushu players from Arunachal Pradesh couldn’t travel to Hangzhou as they were unable to download travel documents from an official Chinese website. Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur, who was initially slated to attend the 19th Asian Games, has cancelled his visit in protest. “It is a big step by India that Sports Minister Anurag Thakur cancelled his tour of China in protest against Beijing denying entry to Wushu players from Arunachal Pradesh,” diplomatic officials told The Daily Guardian.
According to sources, senior Chinese diplomats posted in the Embassy in New Delhi are likely to be summoned over this development. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has held consultations with senior diplomats of MEA to discuss the ways to counter the Chinese agenda in future, sources said.
Meanwhile, Indian envoys in Beijing have already registered a strong protest with the Chinese government over denial of accreditation to sportspersons from the Indian state Arunachal Pradesh, an official said.
“An Indian minister cancelling China visit delivers a strong message. It marks India’s second protest in three weeks, the last one being against a controversial Chinese map,” officials said. India expects the international community to condemn China’s act of denying entry to sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.
“A strong protest has been lodged in New Delhi and Beijing against China’s deliberate and selective obstruction of some of our sportspersons,” Ministry of
External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. “Further, as a mark of our protest against the Chinese action, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports of India has cancelled his scheduled visit to China for the games,” he said. Bagchi said Chinese authorities discriminated against some Indian sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh in a “targeted and premeditated manner” by denying them accreditation and entry to the Asian Games. China’s action “violates both the spirit of the Asian Games and the rules governing their conduct, which explicitly prohibits discrimination against competitors from member states”, he said. The Indian government reserves the “right to take suitable measures to safeguard our interests”, Bagchi said, without giving details.
This was the second time in about two months that the same three players were barred by Chinese authorities from a sports event in China. “In line with our long-standing and consistent position, India firmly rejects differential treatment of Indian citizens on the basis of domicile or ethnicity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” Bagchi pointed out.