Onus on Beijing to allay India’s concerns on dam near Arunachal

THERE is no let-up in China’s strategic one-upmanship despite India’s recent efforts to reduce bilateral tensions. Beijing has initiated the construction of the $167.8-billion dam over the Brahmaputra river — locally known as Yarlung Zangbo — in Tibet, close to the Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh. Touted as the biggest infrastructure project in the world, it is expected to generate adequate electricity through five hydropower stations to meet the annual needs of over 300 million people. However, its utility goes far beyond power generation. China is showing the lower riparian countries, India and Bangladesh, who’s the boss. There is a lurking fear that in case of a conflict, the Chinese might mess around with the water flow to India’s northeastern states, particularly Arunachal, which Beijing claims as part of ‘South Tibet’ and where it has been on a name-changing spree in recent years.