Congress accuses PM of ceding territory to China in Ladakh

new delhi: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ceding 1,000 sq kms of Indian territory to China "without a fight," the Congress on Wednesday asked that when will the government restore the status quo ante of April 2020.

The opposition party's attack came after Indian and Chinese armies carried out a joint verification of the disengagement process at Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh after withdrawing their troops and dismantling temporary infrastructure from the friction point.

Both sides completed the disengagement in a phased and coordinated manner, according to people familiar with the development.

Attacking the government, Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, said, "China has refused to accept India's demand of restoring the status quo of April 2020. The PM has given 1,000 sq kms of territory to China without a fight. Can the government of India explain how this territory will be retrieved?"

While addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that this is not the first time that "we are disengaging and creating buffer zones" out of destinations where the Indian side was patrolling up to.

"First it happened in Galwan, then it happened in Gogra and now it is happening in Hotsprings. Why is our army being made to push back, why is our army being to give up patrolling points where we had been patrolling up until now," Shrinate said.

Raising the issue of status quo ante as in April 2020, Shrinate said that the prime minister had promised this country "we will go to status quo ante". Why is there no status quo ante as far as April 2020 is concerned, she asked.

"We also want to know that with cheap publicity and cheap popularity with domestic audiences, why is our foreign security and foreign policy being compromised," she said.

Shrinate further said, "There has been tension on the border with China for the last 31 months, but the Modi government has not done anything decisive to ensure that India's national security is not compromised."

"It almost seems China is playing out a script, they come, they acquire a portion of our land, they stay there and then push us back from our patrolling points and our patrolling points get into buffer zones," she said.