Earlier this week a violent altercation between Indian and Chinese troops at the border in eastern Ladakh had left 20 Indian Army men dead and others injured. The incident came even as the two countries had been in talks to de-escalate a border dispute.
Soon after the incident, the Ministry of External Affairs had said that the clash occurred due to an attempt by the Chinese troops to "unilaterally change" the status quo during de-escalation. The MEA had said that "the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi however created confusion, and sparked off a controversy after he claimed during an all party meeting that Chinese troops did not intrude into the Indian territory.
While the Centre later issued a clarification, seizing upon this comment China had repeated its claim that the Galwan valley of Ladakh union territory is located on the Chinese side of the LAC. This in turn led to the MEA releasing a statement countering the Chinese claims.
Following the Prime Ministers comments however, the opposition Congress has latched on to the topic, repeatedly criticising the Modi government and it's reaction to China.
On Sunday, Congress leader Kapil Sibal questioned the Prime Minister's statement, posing five queries to the Modi-government. "It is clear that the Prime Minister's statements of June 19th, 2020 is in contradiction of the statements made by the Defence Minister, our Foreign Affairs Minister and our Army Chief," he stated.
The questions as asked by Sibal are:
1. Isn't the statement of PM an affront to the valour and supreme sacrifice of Col. B. Santosh and the 19 Jawans?
2. Is it not correct that China has never claimed Galwan Valley as its territory, or that it has now committed brazen transgressions into the Valley?
3. Why is Government denying brazen Chinese transgression despite statement of security experts, army generals and satellite imagery depicting Chinese intrusion?
4. Why did the PM tell the All-Party Meeting that "no one intruded into our territory"? Why did PMO delete these words from the official statement? How were jawans killed and injured and captured if 'no one intruded into our territory'?
5. Why is PM denying his own Raksha Mantri and EAM Statement that Chi-nese have sought to "erect structure in the Galwan Valley on our side"? Why is PM refuting the statement of Raksha Mantri on "Chinese presence in large numbers" and EAM's statement that we seek to restore "status quo ante"?