PM must answer on border issue in Parliament: Cong

Dausa (Rajasthan): The Congress on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "running away" from a debate in Parliament on the situation along the border with China and said he and not the defence minister must answer on this issue.

The opposition party also posed questions to the government on the Sino-India border issue, saying the nation demands and deserves answers to them. In a statement, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked after two years of a protracted "disengagement," what emboldened the Chinese to try taking over the Indian post in the Yangtse area of Tawang.

India has dominated Yangtse since PM Rajiv Gandhi deployed forces there in 1986 during the Sumdorong Chu confrontation, Ramesh said and asked how the Chinese dared to open a new front.

The opposition party also alleged that the prime minister does not utter the word "China" and asked whether the government was "silent" due to its "close ties" with that country. The attack on the government came days after Indian Army personnel clashed with Chinese soldiers in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.

At a press conference here, Ramesh said the BJP raises the 1962 war but forgets that in 1967, China and India fought a war in which China was defeated and India won, which is also part of history.

Ramesh said then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi went to China in 1988 "when we were strong at the borders and after that visit bilateral ties became stronger." But in April 2020 all this came to an end and a new chapter was opened, he claimed.

"The Prime Minister has given a clean chit to them (China) by saying 'no one has come and no one is inside our territory'. Due to this clean chit, our bargaining position has gone down," Ramesh claimed.

"Debate should take place in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and answers have to be given by the Prime Minister and not the defence minister or external affairs minister. Several former prime ministers have answered in the Parliament. He is the first prime minister who runs away from debate and he does not utter the word China," Ramesh said.

The Congress general secretary in-charge communications also raised the slogan "Pradhan Mantri ji Cheen Par Chuppi Todo, Bharat Jodo (Mr Prime Minister, break the silence on China, unite India)."

At the press conference, Congress media department head Pawan Khera said the government must answer why the mountain strike corps was put in "cold storage" after the UPA established its first division in West Bengal.