The Congress on Monday demanded a white paper on the situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) border with China and a comprehensive debate on the India-China border dispute in Parliament.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress chief spokesperson Manish Tewari said that three years ago on June 19, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told an all-party meeting after the Galwan clashes that “no one has entered our border, nor is any post in the possession of others.”
Tewari said Modi’s remarks contradicted a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs a day earlier, which made it clear that the Galwan incident occurred because Chinese troops tried to intrude and set up tents on the Indian side of the border.
“As a responsible opposition, we demand a comprehensive discussion on the India-China border dispute. We also demand that a white paper be released on what is the truth about the developments that have taken place in the LAC in the last three years,” the Congress leader said.
“After Prime Minister’s clean submission to China on June 19, 2020, 2000 square kilometers of Indian territory is under Chinese occupation and we are unable to get it back? Pure chit actually undermined and subverted India’s national interests. We expect the government to issue a responsible statement to China,” he added. Tewari asked if it was true that the Indian Army had lost control of 26 of the 65 patrol points on the LAC.
“Is it true that buffer zones have been created within our borders? What has the Indian government done to stop China’s transgressions on the LAC? Why was China never once discussed in Parliament or in the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Defense? he asked, asking why the Parliament Secretariat was not admitting questions related to the LAC.
On September 5, 2020, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh held a two-and-a-half-hour discussion with his Chinese counterpart during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Moscow, Tewari said, adding that during the Russia-India-China trilateral talks in Moscow on 11 .September 2020, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also discussed the situation in LAC with the Chinese Foreign Minister.
“Over the past three years, 18 negotiations have taken place at the border level. If there was no intrusion, then what is the truth about continuous discussions for three years? he asked.
When asked whether the Congress will raise the China issue during the monsoon session of Parliament, even as the government denies the discussion, Tewari said as of September 2020, the Opposition, individually and collectively, has been demanding a discussion on China and leaders have raised the issue before the Trade Advisory Committee in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha , “but the government stumped us”.
“Therefore, under these circumstances, since the 36-month deadline has passed and the opposition has given the government a fair amount of freedom, the time has come when we will strongly demand a tricky discussion on the situation in LAK in the coming period. Monsoon Session of Parliament. And as for how we intend to enforce that demand, we will have to wait until the session of Parliament begins,” he said.
Tewari also said that the Congress does not want to make the issue of national security a “political football”, “but what is important is that the county needs to know about the actual situation in LAC”.
“We expect the government to clearly take the country into confidence and point out the truth. There should be no compromise with the territorial integrity of India. This message will have to come out clearly,” he said.
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