Ashok Gehlot asks PM Modi to withdraw statement on Galwan valley face-off

Addressing reporters via video conferencing, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw his statement, made at an all-party meeting on June 19, in which he had claimed that China did not intrude Indian territories.

Jaipur (Rajasthan): Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw his statement, made at an all-party meeting on June 19, in which he said that "neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured".

"At Opposition's meeting, the Prime Minister said that China did not intrude into our land and capture any post. He has done a blunder. He knowingly or unknowingly gave a certificate to China, which it wanted. This was not required. He should withdraw his statement," Gehlot said in a video conference on Sunday while commenting the violent face-off between troops of India and China. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the clash.

"He is the only Prime Minister whose statement is being welcomed by China," the Chief Minister claimed.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister had said: "Neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured."

The Chief Minister said that the government should tell the nation about the situation on LAC. It is the right of the countrymen. "Isn't it a moral responsibility of the Prime Minister to take the people of the country in confidence and clarify the status on the LAC," he said.

Gehlot said that the Prime Minister went to China four times as a Chief Mand five times as a Prime Minister and in general met the Chinese premier 18 times.

"In Ahmedabad, they enjoyed swings with Chinese leadership while there was a conflict on the border. The Prime Minister should have understood his intentions," he said.

The Indian and Chinese armies locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan valley on June 15.

The clash in Galwan Valley is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while the death toll on the Chinese side was over 300.

The two armies were engaged in a standoff in Galwan and several other areas of the eastern Ladakh since May 5 when the two sides clashed on the bank of the Pangong Tso.

After the standoff began, the Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach in dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.

The trigger for the face-off was China's stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.

ANI report