Congress demands transparency on India-China disengagement agreement

Congress has asked the Modi government to make public the details of certain aspects of the India-China agreement, especially with regard to the patrolling points of the Indian troops.

Hoping that "India's worst foreign policy setback in decades is being honourably resolved" and expecting the disengagement will restore the status quo ante as it existed in March 2020, AICC communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday put out the official queries of the Opposition party.

Congress asked the government: "Will Indian troops be able to patrol up to our claim line in Depsang to five patrolling points past the Bottleneck junction as they were able to earlier? Will our troops be able to reach the three patrolling points in Demchok that have remained out of bounds for more than four years?"


It asked whether Indian soldiers "continue to be restricted to" Finger 3 in Pangong Tso "when earlier they could go" as far as Finger 8 and whether the Indian patrols would be again permitted to access the three patrolling points in the Gogra-Hot Springs area. "Will Indian graziers once again be given the right to access traditional grazing grounds in Helmet Top, Mukpa Re, Rezang La, Rinchen La, Table Top and Gurung Hill in Chushul? Are the "buffer zones" that our government ceded to the Chinese, which included the site of a memorial in Rezang La to war hero and posthumous Param Vir Chakra awardee Major Shaitan Singh, now a thing of the past?"

Releasing these questions right ahead of the Modi-Xi meeting in Russia on the sidelines of the Brics summit, Ramesh said "the government must take the people of India into confidence on these questions."