Rijiju absent from Xi’s state banquet

New Delhi: Absence of vocal Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home and the Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh, from the delegation-level talks and state banquet hosted by the President for his Chinese counterpart has raised many eye brows after the guest left on Friday.
Since the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh had left for Nepal early Thursday for the SAARC home ministers’ meet, it was expected that, Rijiju, the only MoS in the Home Ministry, will represent the MHA at the delegation-level talks and banquet. When contacted officials said that the number of ministers invited for the two functions was very limited even in case of cabinet ministers.
But not inviting Rijiju must be due to the dispute with China which considers the Himalayan State as part of its territory Tibet. The junior Minister has also been a vocal critic of China’s repeated transgressions into India as well as their stapled visa policy for residents of Arunachal Pradesh.
But Congress spokesman Anand Sharma expressed surprise over Rijiju’s exclusion. MoS are not excluded from the state banquet and over the years the practice has been to include the MoS of key ministries, especially if the Cabinet minister is not present.
While the Prime Minister wanted peace in the border the Chinese President did remark that the border is not yet demarcated.