New Delhi: The Congress on Monday questioned the Centre’s China policy, demanded a two-day debate over the alleged land-grab along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh during the Parliament’s Monsoon Session starting July 18 and urged PM Modi to come clean over the issue.
“We want a two-day debate over the China border situation during the coming session. The PM must stop appeasing China to protect his image. We demand that the PM takes the nation into confidence about the Chinese threat,” Congress spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi said.
“Speaking at an all-party meet on 19 June 2020, only four days after we lost 20 brave Indian soldiers in Galwan, the PM gave China a clean chit, saying. Yet somehow India has lost control of 1,000 square kilometres of territory where our troops could earlier patrol but are now either blocked by Chinese troops or are no longer able to enter because of disengagement agreements,” he said.
The Congress leader also demanded that the Centre should come out with a white paper on the China situation and hold a dedicated briefing over the confrontation to the Parliament standing committee on defence. Gogoi, a Lok Sabha member, said the Congress took China’s expansionism in India’s north-east, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh very seriously and noted that Centre’s “approach has been extremely weak and it remains a passive spectator.”
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“No surprise then that the latest round of talks on 7 July 2022 between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi failed to show any results. While the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement following the meeting called on China “to complete the disengagement from all remaining areas”, the Chinese statement made no reference to Ladakh whatsoever, instead, discussing Chinese concerns over Ukraine. We have reached such a sorry situation that the Chinese don’t even bother to acknowledge India’s demands,” he said.
The previous Congress governments had a clear policy to repel Chinese intrusions, a quick, focused counter that creates bargaining space and facilitates Chinese withdrawal, said Gogoi. “This was done in Nathu La (1967), Sumdurong Chu (1986) and Chumar (2013) — leading in the third case to a Chinese pull-out from Depsang after three weeks,” he said.
“The PM’s need to protect his image is tying the government in knots too” Gogoi said, adding that “the Ministry of Defence in August 2020 was forced to take down a document on its website that directly contradicted the PM and admitted that “the Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and the north bank of Pangong Tso lake”,” said Gogoi.
“In November 2020 the Ministry of External Affairs “took note” of a US report that China had built a 100-home village in disputed territory in Arunachal Pradesh, and that it would never accept China’s “illegal occupation” of our territory. However, the then Chief of Defence Staff contradicted this stance and denied any Chinese construction on our side,” he said.
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Further, the Congress pressed for the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff as the key post has been lying vacant for seven months after the passing away of Gen Bipin Rawat. The Congress also demanded a roll back of the Agnipath defence jobs scheme. “At this point when we are engaged in this conflict with China, India cannot afford to take any step which will destabilize the morale of our troops,” said Gogoi explaining his party’s opposition to the Agnipath scheme.
Separately, Congress Rajya Sabha member Shakti Sinh Gohil submitted a dissent note before the parliamentary consultative committee for the ministry of defence over the Agnipath scheme saying the party was not satisfied with the government note explaining the policy. “I have read the government note on the Agnipath scheme and I am convinced that it should be immediately taken back" Gogoi said.
"If the government wants to go ahead over the issue it should discuss the policy in parliament and hold a pilot project. The government should give regular jobs in the armed forces to all the youth who had been waiting for the past three years. As it is, the youth are very agitated over the Agnipath scheme,” the letter Gogoi wrote to defence minister Rajnath Singh said.
