I’m from the Northeast - so when I say this, I mean it with heart and history.

Prema Thongdok (originally from Rupa, West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh) was en route from London to Japan, transiting via Shanghai, when she was held 18 hours by Chinese authorities simply because her Indian passport listed Arunachal Pradesh as her birthplace.

They told her: “Arunachal Pradesh is part of China - your passport is invalid.” They even mocked her: “You should get a Chinese passport.”

Here’s the deal:
•Arunachal Pradesh is undeniably Indian territory and Indian citizens born there have full right to Indian passports

•And it undermines the very “normalcy” Beijing claims to want at LAC.

•Chinese interference in civilian transit and identity is not diplomacy - it’s intimidation.

•India lodged a strong demarche in Beijing & Delhi - reminding China that this detention was baseless and breached the Chicago Convention & Montreal Convention on civil aviation.

When a citizen from our Northeast is singled out just for their birthplace - that’s not foreign policy. That’s erasure.

Northeast Indians are not bargaining chips, transit tokens or second-class travellers. We are India - in identity, in territory, in dignity.

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