India, China Do Not Deny ‘Standoff’ in Arunachal; What’s the Point of Going Inside (Parliament) Says Absent Amit Shah; Captain of Turbulent Air-India Flight Tests Positive for Marijuana
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Snapshot of the day
August 12, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
When asked yesterday about the alleged ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh’s Taksing, the external affairs ministry spokesperson notably did not deny it, and reading between the lines of what he said suggests that “something definitely is up” in the area, journalist Ananth Krishnan writes. This region is one where “historically different perceptions of the Line of Actual Control” have prevailed, notes Krishnan, adding that New Delhi’s move to standardise 27 place names in Arunachal (which triggered a diplomatic spat between the two sides) appears to have been a response to “whatever has been unfolding in this sector in the past few weeks”, official details of which are few. (Officials are also working to scrub social media posts about the ‘standoff’ – a familiar Modi-government reflex.) China has not explicitly denied reports of a standoff either.
Now, weeks after the Arunachal-based Nah Welfare Society tribal body alleged that the Chinese Army was encroaching upon lands traditionally used by locals - something the Indian Army denied in late June – a fact-finding team formed by the People’s Party of Arunachal has said that Chinese troops have effectively denied access to Indian forces to key patrolling points in Taksing, in addition to taking control of Indian grazing and hunting grounds along the LAC. “This restriction,” the committee noted, “has given the PLA greater freedom to push forward. The nature of the intrusions is well calculated, gradual and persistent, following a familiar pattern seen over several years.”
Reacting to the reports, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi was quick to call the situation “unacceptable” and demanded clarity from the Modi government over the issue.
The South China Morning Post, meanwhile, reports that even as Beijing and New Delhi pursue a diplomatic thaw, China has a problem: the Indian public has not followed along. Chinese researchers describe Beijing’s outreach in India as “weak and lacking long-term planning”, point to a “massive cognitive gap” between the two populations, and urge more bottom-up efforts to shape Indian opinion. The irony is hard to miss. With fresh questions over Chinese activity in Taksing, the Modi government would prefer the border to remain a technical footnote even as Beijing treats perception management as a strategic priority.
While home minister Amit Shah, in his first statement since the July 20 crackdown on the Cockroach Janata Party’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, asked the Opposition to submit a letter seeking a debate, he eventually wrote one himself to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The catch: he sought a discussion on the NEET paper leak, not on the Delhi police’s violence the Opposition has been demanding answers for about three weeks. Shah’s intervention comes days after parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said the government was ready to discuss the student protests.
The timing invites an obvious question:
