The Union government told an all-party meeting of MPs on Friday that Beijing was trying to extend its control further down Doklam, near the Sikkim-Bhutan-China tri-junction in an effort to gain a strategic advantage over “Chicken’s Neck” in Siliguri, West Bengal, which connects India to the rest of the Northeast.
The government assured the parliamentarians that there will be no flexing of muscles and a solution will be reached through dialogue.
The meet was held to clear doubts on the ongoing Indian Arm's standoff with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Doklam.
With the help of satellite maps, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar made a presentation to 19 MPs on the face-off.
Mr. Jaishankar told the MPs at the three-hour meeting that apart from diplomacy, “other channels” were also being explored to end the standoff and India was insisting that the pre-June 16 condition be reached in Doklam.
The meeting came days after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who met Chinese and Bhutanese envoys in Delhi, questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “silence” on the issue.
Besides the Foreign Secretary, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also briefed the MPs.
Mr. Doval will be travelling to China on July 26 to attend a scheduled meeting of NSAs of BRICS nations where he will also hold the Special Representatives talks on resolving border disputes with China.
An official who attended the meeting said, “The Foreign Secretary said that China constructing a road in Doklam will affect our strategic interests.”
The Congress asked why the crisis was taking place in 2017. The government replied that it was for China to answer. The government said the 1959 letter written by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to his counterpart Zhou Enlai was being quoted “out of context” by China. China has said that Nehru had accepted the Sino-British 1890 treaty on Sikkim.
Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party told the MPs that India should be wary of China as it was a “dhokebaaz [traitor] country.”
After the meeting, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) said the government assured them that “they’ll tackle the situation through dialogue.”
Anand Sharma of the Congress said, “National security is the priority of the Congress and we advised them to tackle the situation diplomatically, rising above politics for national interest.”
(With inputs from Suhasini Haidar)
