NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean on whether he has misled the nation by saying there has been no intrusion into Indian territory in Ladakh and cited reports quoting experts that China’s PLA has returned to the Galwan valley.
Addressing a joint virtual press conference, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and spokesperson Pawan Khera demanded answers from the Prime Minister on what his government was doing to secure Indian territory from Chinese incursions.
Surjewala said experts and reports, citing satellite images, say that instead of withdrawing from Indian territory the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has returned with bigger strength to the Galwan valley where 20 Indian soldiers were recently killed while protecting the country’s territorial integrity. “Did the Prime Minister mislead people in the all-party meeting?” he asked.
“Has the Chinese Army erected their tents on PP-14 point in Pangong Tso Lake area from finger 4-8? Are they trying to make fresh incursions? The Prime Minister and Raksha Mantri need to come clean and take the nation into confidence,” Surjewala said.
‘Strange bonhomie’
The Congress also asked the Prime Minister why India has not gained anything from the “strange bonhomie” which it claimed he shared with China.
Seeking to turn the tables on the ruling party, Khera said the BJP also shared bonhomie with the Communist Party of China (CPC) with several party-level exchanges taking place in the past. He sought to know whether India’s borders have become safe after these exchanges in the last many years.
The Congress leader asked what has the country gained out of these exchange delegations and why are the borders insecure despite the bonds that the two ruling parties of India and China share with each other.
“There is a strange kind of bonhomie between Narendra Modi and China, a two decade old bonhomie. Why doesn’t the country get the benefit of that bonhomie,” he asked. (PTI)
