Arunachal Pradesh has become a stark illustration of the Modi government’s dual failure on the China frontier and at home. In late October 2026, ITBP Director General Shatrujeet Kapur publicly confirmed that face-offs between Indian and Chinese troops continued at multiple locations along the Arunachal border. Reports indicated Chinese forces had pitched tents roughly 6–7 km inside India’s perception of the Line of Actual Control near Taksing in Upper Subansiri since July, with confrontations persisting even around the time of high-level meetings. The Ministry of External Affairs later acknowledged that the border “gets disturbed” when Chinese patrolling diverges from established patterns an admission that undercuts earlier claims of restored stability after 2020. Opposition leaders have repeatedly accused the government of silence and of normalising transgressions while Chinese renaming of places in the state continues.
At the same time, the proposed 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project promoted by the Centre and the BJP-led state government as a strategic counter to China’s upstream dam plans has ignited fierce local resistance. Indigenous Adi communities fear the reservoir will submerge villages, displace tens of thousands, and destroy ancestral land, forests and river ecosystems in a highly seismic zone. A 12-hour bandh on 23 October turned violent in Pasighat: an NHPC office and police station were torched, vehicles burned, and residences linked to BJP leaders vandalised. Additional central forces were rushed in, arrests followed, and further shutdowns were called into early November. Locals demand prior consent and a halt to pre-feasibility surveys; instead they face heavy security deployments and police cases.
For a government that markets frontier infrastructure and border firmness as strengths, Arunachal exposes the costs of opacity on the LAC and development that overrides consent. The result is heightened external pressure paired with new internal fault lines hardly the picture of decisive governance.
