China Border Situation: Rahul Gandhi asks questions; govt side denies any inroads

Lok Sabha's leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that China was stopping Indian forces from patrolling in Arunachal Pradesh and asked what the prime minister and his top colleagues were doing about it.

"You know what is happening? I get information from Modiji's office. A full revolt is on. China is preventing us from patrolling our areas in Arunachal Pradesh. The prime minister, (defence minister) Rajnath Singh and (home minister) Amit Shah are all flustered. Attempts are being made to suppress this news," Gandhi alleged at a Congress event here. "What is going on, what is the PM doing," he asked.

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Referring to the 2020-21 Galwan incident, Gandhi said that time PM Narendra Modi weakened the national cause by denying any Chinese intrusion. Stating that hugging world leaders was not equal to foreign policy and reinforcing Indian interests, Gandhi said Modi was left to watch how Pakistan walked away with the mediator's role in the US-Iran conflict. Someone like former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would have leveraged on India's friendship with both the US and Iran to enhance India's role during this war, he claimed.

Urging the people not to be fearful of fighting the Modi government and BJP, Gandhi said they had "devastated" the country but were no longer very strong. "We won't let Narendra Modi and Amit Shah sleep until they resign," he said.

Gandhi said while BJP and RSS want to impose order, Congress' job is to make India express itself and break that order. Maintaining RSS has lost its original moorings, Gandhi alleged Modi completed the "corporatisation of RSS" started by the (late) Pramod Mahajan during the erstwhile Vajpayee government.

Meanwhile, government sources denied any slow encroachment in Arunachal Pradesh by China as alleged. Arunachal shares a large border with Tibet and a concerted infrastructure push in recent years has enabled enhanced patrolling and surveillance of the area, they said.

They added that due to the un-demarcated border, at times, patrols face off with each other, which is resolved through existing mechanisms and protocols in vogue. The Army and the ITBP are geared up to dominate the border, monitor and check Chinese activities, they said.