The Arunachal Pradesh government is planning to hold a sunrise festival on january 1, 2026, at Tong village near the India-China-Myanmar border. The festival has strategic importance as part of India's efforts to assert its presence near the eastern border. It is seen as India's silent response to China, which claims parts of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. Arunachal Pradesh Tourism Secretary Ranbho Ngoa said that the sunrise festival was approved in the state cabinet meeting held on the 13th. The cabinet meeting attracted attention as it was held at the Forward Military Post Kibithu, which faces the Chinese border.

The Sunrise festival, set against the backdrop of the eastern himalayas near the border, is scheduled to be held from december 29, 2025, to january 3, 2026. music by local bands, water sports, and trekking, along with a grand surya Namaskar on New Year's Day, will be the highlights, he said. Lt Gen (retd) Rana Pratap Kalita said holding a cabinet meeting in Kibithu and proposing a festival in a border village was important to send a strategic message to China.

In 2017, the Chinese army tried to approach the less secure siliguri Pass, also known as the chicken Neck. This was a major concern for the central government. This narrow stretch of land, about 22 km long in North Bengal, is the only land link connecting the Northeast with the rest of India. Despite China's progress in the disputed route, a strategic alternative to reduce dependence on the route has quickly begun to take shape. A key step is the sending of dredgers to the yamuna River (Bangladesh's name for the Brahmaputra). The 175-km stretch between Sirajganj and Taigawa was too shallow for cargo ship traffic. This has prompted efforts to deepen the canal and open a new trade route.
The river routes in bangladesh have never been smooth sailing from kolkata to Guwahati. With an unfriendly interim government led by Muhammad Yunus now in power in bangladesh, india was forced to pursue a plan to address the lingering impact of the siliguri route.Reports of Chinese support for the reconstruction of the British-era airbase at Lalmonirhat in bangladesh (dangerously close to Siliguri) further reinforced the need for strategic alternatives for the central government.

A week before india launched its missile strikes on Pakistan, the central government had approved the construction of a new four-laning road from Mawlyng in meghalaya (near Shillong) to Panchgram in assam (near Silchar) at an estimated cost of Rs 22,864 crore, covering 166 km. Out of which, 144 km would pass through the rugged hills of Meghalaya. It may seem unusual to plan an access-controlled highway in a region where the Shillong-Silchar road already exists in the west. But strategically it holds significant value. The new route will strengthen connectivity between guwahati and Jaiswal. And will eventually extend to the India-Myanmar border.

From the approval of the 166 km long new highway between Shillong (Meghalaya) and silchar (Assam) to the announcement of a border ceremony in Tong, all these moves reveal a quietly expanding strategic map for the Northeast. Undoubtedly, this road, port, and border festival is part of a calculated effort to secure India's northeast and counter China's growing influence in the subcontinent.
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Sowmiya Sriram

26/05/2025 11:01 AM