Brief Opposition leaders about China border: Congress to government

The Congress has called upon the Modi government to convene a meeting of senior Opposition leaders to apprise them of the developments on the border with China during the past 35 months as well as the progress made on the many rounds of military-level talks between the two neighbours. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the need for the government to take the Opposition leaders into confidence on the border issue was all the more important as the government has been opposing any discussion in Parliament on the matter.

Tewari, who was called back to hold the AICC briefing after a break since his association with the Congress G23 group, said that apart from the ongoing reported Chinese intrusions since mid -2020 onto the Indian side of the border, the recent developments such as the reported Chinese plans on the border with Bhutan which is of great strategic concern for India, the reported internal report presented by a senior police officer of Leh about the worrisome developments on the border and the Chinese resolve to rename some villages in Arunachal are developments that warrant the government briefing senior Opposition leaders about the border situation.

The Congress Parliamentarian also countered the government statement that China had in the past too tried to rename some villages in Arunachal Pradesh. Tewari pointed out that whenever China tried to do so during the UPA regime, the then government had strongly and firmly registered its protests with China and didn't accept such efforts. "Such action in words has not come from this government," Tewari said.


The Congress leader maintained that had the government allowed Parliament to discuss the border issue, the entire House, cutting across party lines, could have sent a strong message of India's unity on matters of national sovereignty and security. Tewari recalled how the Nehru government had allowed a Parliament discussion on the war with China in 1962 and how the then PM Indira Gandhi and her defence minister Jagjivan Ram kept Parliament informed throughout about India's war with Pakistan that culminated in the creation of Bangladesh.