Stepping up its attack on the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the border issue with China, the Congress on Tuesday asked when the government would stop “legitimising Chinese aggression by referring to differences in perception” instead of asserting India’s claim.
In a statement, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh also asked External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar when he would unequivocally declare that the “restoration of the pre-2020 status quo at the border is our objective”.
The Congress party’s comeback followed Mr. Jaishankar’s statement in Lok Sabha on Monday where the External Affairs Minister strongly objected to the use of the term pitai(beating) by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi while referring to the India-China clash in Tawang.
Asserting that our soldiers had stood their ground in Yangtse in Arunachal Pradesh, Mr. Jaishankar had said that they should be “appreciated and honoured”.
“Why have we not been more aggressive and made counter-intrusions to compel the Chinese to withdraw as we did in 1986 and 2013...When will we stop legitimising Chinese aggression by referring to ‘differences in perception’ rather than asserting our claim,” asked Mr. Ramesh.
He said the party agreed with the Minister’s view that our jawans should be ‘respected, honoured and appreciated’ as they stood strong against adversaries. “Was it this respect that led PM Modi to say ‘Na wahaan koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai aur na hi koi ghusa hua hai‘ [neither has anyone crossed our border nor is anyone inside our territory] after 20 of our soldiers gave up their lives defending our borders on 19 June 2020,” asked the Congress leader.
If relations with China were ‘not normal,’ as stated by Mr. Jaishankar, Mr. Ramesh asked: “Then why have we never called the Chinese Ambassador and issued a demarche as is done with the Pakistan High Commissioner? Why is our trade dependence on China at a record high with imports at $95 billion in 2021-22 and the trade deficit at $74 billion? Why did our troops conduct military exercises with Chinese troops at Russia’s Vostok-22 exercise in September 2022?”
Reacting to EAM’s remarks that the Indian Army would not let China change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control ‘unilaterally,’ Mr. Ramesh said, “Has the status quo not been altered by Chinese troops 18 km deep in Depsang for the last two years? Is it not altered by the fact that our troops are unable to access 1,000 sq km of territory in eastern Ladakh that they earlier patrolled? Is it not altered by the fact that we have agreed to buffer zones that prevent our patrols from going to areas they previously could go to? When will the EAM unequivocally declare that restoration of the pre-2020 status quo is our objective?”
Meanwhile, during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, a BJP MP Prataprao Patil said the people now believed that India could retrieve the land that India lost to China during the 1962 war. Referring to a resolution passed by Parliament on November 14, 1962, Mr. Patil said, “I would request the Prime Minister to fulfil the resolution passed by Indian Parliament on November 14, 1962”.
