Congress leaders speak out over border tension with China

Amid reports of Chinese build-up at the border, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday said India should force China back by all means as its arsenal is not meant for “hatching eggs”.

Several Congress leaders, including P Chidambaram, also spoke out on the issue.

Chidambaram termed as “extraordinary demand” the assertion of China’s Foreign Ministry and PLA as they again laid claim to the entire Galwan Valley and demanded that India vacate the area.

Chowdhury also noted that India is in a “catch-22 situation” and should not allow it to be cowed down by the “red army”.

“China is furtively and fervently encroaching our land in a steady manner, much to the peril of Indian security and territorial integrity. It is a catch-22 situation for us, but we cannot afford ourselves to be cowed down by the red army,” he said on Twitter.

“They are to be repulsed back by whatever means, our arsenals are not meant for hatching eggs, so strike back, drive back, force back the Chinese aggression, god will be Indian in deciding the course of conflict,” he also said in another tweet.

Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, said in spite of all endeavours to diffuse the tense situation along the Line of Actual Control which even resulted in death of 20 Army personnel, China is hell bent upon altering the status quo.

Chidambaram said that contrary to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated it was undeniable that the status quo was changed by Chinese troops in April-June 2020.

“People are watching if the Modi government will succeed in restoring the status quo ante,” he tweeted.

“Will BJP-led NDA government once again reassert India’s claim and demand that ‘status quo ante’ must be restored,” the former union minister asked.

Party spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday asked the government to give a “strong reply” to China as regular dialogues would not work, and India needed to use other means like trade to take on it.

Gogoi said India cannot afford to have another Doklam-like situation in Ladakh and needs to look at other forms of leverage like trade to have successful negotiations with China and use them to force the Chinese to go back to status quo in entirety.

“We demand that Government of India not look at what’s happening in Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh as isolated incidents. These are grand designs and these need to be responded strongly,” Gogoi said.

China needs a strong response from India as regular dialogues won’t work, he said.

There are reports of Chinese build up of troops at the border and China has made claims on the entire Galwan Valley.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam near Sikkim in 2017 after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army.