New Delhi: A day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Parliament that India’s relations with China were “not normal”, the Congress on Tuesday asked him why he did not call the Chinese Ambassador and issue a demarche.
“The external affairs minister claims that relations with China are "not normal". Then why have we never called the Chinese Ambassador and issued a démarche as we do with the Pakistan High Commissioner,” Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said.
The Congress leader also wondered if India-China relations were "not normal", why was China allowed to have an advantage in bilateral trade and why did the Indian troops conduct joint exercises with the Chinese soldiers in Russia.
“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,” Ramesh asked.
The Congress leader’s remarks came a day after the foreign minister slammed Rahul Gandhi for criticising him and saying that the Indian soldiers had taken a beating during the latest clash along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border, in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh on December 9.
“We agree with the external affairs minister that our jawans should be "respected, honoured and appreciated" as they stand strong against our adversaries. Was it this respect that led PM Modi to say “no one has entered our territory” on June 19, 2020 days after 20 soldiers gave up their lives defending our borders,” asked Ramesh.
The bloody clashes at Galwan Valley resulted in India-China relations taking a plunge and have not reached normalcy despite several rounds of peace talks between the army commanders of the two sides. According to Ramesh, the minister claimed that “we will not let China change the status of the LAC unilaterally” but his statement was not true.
“Has the status quo at the LAC not been altered by Chinese troops reaching 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 minister unequivocally declare that restoration of the pre-2020 status quo is our objective,” said Ramesh.
The Rajya Sabha member further slammed the foreign minister over his claims that “we are pressuring China". “Why then do we have a purely reactive stance? Why did we withdraw from our advantageous position in the Kailash range without ensuring a full restoration of the pre-2020 status quo? 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,” the Congress leader asked.
