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Congress demands all-party meeting over China issue; questions silence of central government on intrusions into Indian land
The Congress on Wednesday, April 5, launched a tirade against the central government over the Chinese intrusion into Indian lands.
The Grand Old Party also questioned the government’s silence over the issue. Congress also demanded an all-party meeting over the China issue.
“It’s been almost three years since Chinese troops entered Indian territory. Indian Armed Forces fought them and on many occasions, they moved the Chinese troops back. But it is concerning that the government has not responded in the last 35 months to the question of how they entered Indian territory,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said.
Tewari, who is a Lok Sabha MP from the Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency, also cited the big deficit in India’s trade with China. “Between 2014 and 2022, the import from China was $136 million. At the same time, the export to China was just $17.5 million,” Tewari said, expressing concern over the trade deficit.
Tewari said that the party has been demanding discussion on Chinese intrusion, but no discussion has been allowed.
“No question is being admitted on China in Parliament and I have raised the question over 65 times in Parliament, but all replies are stalled,” he claimed.
Commenting on a recent statement by Bhutan over Doklam, Tewari said that Bhutan and China have taken their talks to a very advanced stage over Doklam. “Bhutan King is in India and there shouldn’t be any compromise on Doklam as it can become a big concern for national security,” he said.
He also said that India had held 18 rounds of military talks with China in the last few years. “However, no details are out in the public domain over the China issue. There is an opacity. We demand an all-party meeting to discuss the India-China issue,” he said.
“A debate should have taken place in Parliament as it did in 1962. Therefore, we demand that there be an all-party meeting over the India-China issue and it should tell what happened in the last 3 years and the government must share the summary of ongoing meetings with China,” Tewari added.
When asked about China renaming several areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Tewari said, “India in 2013 strongly opposed the intrusion by Chinese, and they had to go back.”
“What happened in Arunachal Pradesh with regard to renaming several places is unfortunate. The UPA government had earlier strongly protested it when it happened during its tenure,” he added.
On the topic of NCERT removing several parts of history from textbooks, Tewari said, “This rewriting of history has been an ongoing endeavour with the RSS and the BJP. This is not the first time that this has been done. It was done in 1998 and 1999.”
“You can distort history but can’t erase it. History bears testimony to the fact that those who try to rewrite history are written off,” the Congress leader said.
