Not many gains from Xi visit, says Congress

Expresses concern over increasing Chinese incursions along LAC

The Congress said here on Friday that its China policy found vindication in the Modi government’s decision to step up the bilateral engagement. At the same time, the party expressed concern over the increasing number of incursions by China along the Line of Actual Control.

Careful not to sound too critical of the Modi government vis-à-vis the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid suggested that not many gains had come India’s way despite the optics.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to turn it into an event management in a bid to cover up for the fact that not much headway was made in the bilateral engagement,” he added.

Conceding that some amount of “event management” was inevitable for a big visit like this, Mr. Khurshid wanted the government to spell out the specific gains. “Also, has the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was always running us down, realised the folly of its myopic vision or is it in their nature to change their position on issues at will,” he asked.

On the incursions, Mr. Khurshid said that what was worrying was that this time it was not just uniformed soldiers entering Indian territory but also civilians dressed in battle fatigues. While officially the Congress took a calibrated position on the visit, party workers could be heard having a dig at the government for the frequent incidents along the border with China and Pakistan, despite having come to power promising a muscular foreign policy.

The Congress found fault with the government for not including Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju in the bilateral engagements, purportedly in deference to Chinese sensitivities vis-à-vis Arunachal Pradesh. “Instead of being self-conscious about Arunachal Pradesh, the government should have sent out a strong symbolic message that it is proud of having a person from the State in the Union Council of Ministers,” Mr. Khurshid said.

Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met Mr. Xi along with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party members Karan Singh and Anand Sharma. The delegation sought to impress upon the Chinese leader that the party remained committed to bilateral engagement, though it was no longer in power.