Questions remain, govt must take people into confidence on agreement with China on patrolling: Congress

The Modi government’s approach to the entire crisis could be described as DDLJ: Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify, says Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

Days after India and China firmed up an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the Congress on Wednesday (October 23, 2024) said it expects that the disengagement will restore the status quo ante as it existed in March 2020 and asked the government to take the people of India into confidence on the matter.

The Opposition party's assertion comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping's bilateral talks on the margins of the BRICS summit in Russia.

The live updates of the BRICS summit here

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said many questions remain about the Modi government’s announcement that an agreement has been reached with China on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"The Foreign Secretary has said that this is 'leading to disengagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020'. We hope that India’s worst foreign policy setback in decades is being honourably resolved," he said in a statement.

"We expect that the disengagement will restore the status quo ante as it existed in March 2020," he said.

Mr. Ramesh alleged that "this sorry saga is a complete indictment" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gullibility and naiveté regarding China.

Recalling PM Modi's June 19, 2020 statement saying 'Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai' (no one has infiltrated into India and no one is inside our territory), Mr. Ramesh said, "India's standing hit its lowest point on 19 June, 2020 when the PM gave his infamous clean chit to China".

"This statement was made only four days after the clash in Galwan in which 20 of our brave soldiers made the supreme sacrifice. A profound insult to our fallen soldiers, it also legitimised China's aggression and thereby impeded the timely resolution of the standoff at the LAC," the Congress general secretary alleged.

"The Modi government’s approach to the entire crisis could be described as DDLJ: Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify," Mr. Ramesh said.

Having reached this agreement with the Chinese, the government must take the people of India into confidence, the Congress leader said and demanded answers to important questions such as whether Indian troops be able to patrol up to our claim line in Depsang to five patrolling points past the Bottleneck junction as they were able to earlier.

Will our troops be able to reach the three patrolling points in Demchok that have remained out of bounds for more than four years, he asked.

"Will our soldiers continue to be restricted to Finger 3 in Pangong Tso when earlier they could go as far as Finger 8? Are our patrols permitted to access the three patrolling points in the Gogra-Hot Springs area that they could earlier go up to?" Ramesh said.

Will Indian graziers once again be given the right to access traditional grazing grounds in Helmet Top, Mukpa Re, Rezang La, Rinchen La, Table Top and Gurung Hill in Chushul, he asked.

"Are the 'buffer zones' that our government ceded to the Chinese, which included the site of a memorial in Rezang La to war hero and posthumous Param Vir Chakra awardee Major Shaitan Singh, now a thing of the past?" he said.

India and China on Monday firmed up an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough to end the over four-year standoff.

The Congress leader also said that Parliament has been denied an opportunity to debate and discuss the country's collective resolve to address the border challenge, as had been the convention in the past.

"The Modi government's pusillanimous stance was underlined by the statement by the External Affairs Minister in response to a question about its approach to China's incursions: 'Look, they are the bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with the bigger economy'?" he noted.

Mr. Ramesh said India's economic dependency on the "bigger economy" has increased under the shadow of Chinese aggression.

Chinese exports to India jumped from $70 billion in 2018-19 to a record $101 billion in 2023-24, even as Indian exports to China stagnated at $16 billion.

China is the top supplier to critical industrial sectors like electronics, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and textiles and India's MSMEs continue to suffer under the onslaught of cheap Chinese imports, he alleged.

Published - October 23, 2024 03:56 pm IST