'Not an inch lost': Ladakh Governor refutes Rahul Gandhi's 'China taking over land' claim

Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Brigadier BD Mishra (Retired) on Monday quashed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's claim that China has taken over large tracts of land in the cold desert. He affirmed that not an inch of land has gone to the Chinese. 

Refusing to give a counter comment on Rahul's remark, he said, "I wouldn't comment on anybody's statement but I will say what is fact because I have seen myself. There is not even one square inch of land which the Chinese have occupied in Ladakh." 

"The statement of fact is that our armed forces are prepared for any eventuality and God forbid if the balloon goes up, people will get a bloody nose from us," Ladakh Governor Brigadier BD Mishra said while speaking to reporters. 

Raking up the India-China border row, Rahul on September 25 affirmed that a large portion of Ladakh has been occupied by China and claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that not an inch of land was occupied was "absolutely false".

Ladakh: Rahul Gandhi's bike odyssey

The Congress scion embarked on his two-day Ladakh tour on August 17, which his party said was a continuation of the Bharat Jodo Yatra as his trip to the Union Territory was in fulfilment of a commitment made to a delegation from there during his country march. Later, he extended his visit to the UT till August 25, during which he travelled to multiple places on a bike adventure. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shares picture of a bike ride to Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh | Image Credit: Instagram

Targeting the Centre over failure to deal with the India-China border row, Rahul said, "I visited the whole of Ladakh on my motorcycle over the past week. Ladakh is a strategic place and when I was at Pangong Lake, one thing was clear China had taken over thousands of kilometers of Indian land." 

"Unfortunately, the prime minister...made a statement that not an inch of our land was taken away which is absolutely false," he said at a public meeting in Kargil on the last day of his nine-day tour of Ladakh.