The Ministry of External Affairs has said that China politicising the Olympics is regrettable after the communist country made the PLA soldier Qi Fabao who was involved in the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash one of the torchbearers ahead of Winter Olympics in Beijing.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday said that the Indian envoy will not attend the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. He also said that the India has taken the issue of the torture of Arunachal Pradesh boy who was taken in custody by the Chinese side earlier in January. The Chinese PLA handed over the young boy from Arunachal Pradesh to Indian Army at Wacha Damai in Arunachal Pradesh on Jan 27.
Following the announcement by MEA, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati took to Twitter to announce that the national broadcaster Doordarshan will also not telecast the opening and closing ceremony of the games live.
On February 2, 2021, Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who was involved in the June 2020 Galwan Valley clashes was made the torchbearer by China.
The Chinese side reportedly used lethal weapons including iron rods, batons wrapped in barbed wire and clubs embedded with nails breaking the protocol of bilateral agreement between the countries signed in 1996.