Published 20:06 IST, June 19th 2020
At PM’s all Party meet on LAC standoff, Sonia Gandhi poses 7 questions to the government
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi told PM Modi the all-party meeting to discuss India-China standoff should have come sooner and posed 7 questions over the crisis
The all-party meeting to discuss the standoff at the India-China border should have come sooner and immediately after the Centre was aware of Chinese intrusion on May 5, Congress president Sonia Gandhi told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. Gandhi said the country is still in the dark about many crucial aspects of the crisis and raised several questions for the government on the violent Ladakh clashes that left 20 soldiers dead and asked the PM to share the sequence of events beginning April till date.
"This meeting, in my view, should have come sooner and immediately after the government had been reportedly informed about the Chinese intrusion on May 5th, 2020 into several places in Ladakh and elsewhere. As always, the entire nation would have stood together like a rock and fully supported the government of the day in the steps required to defend the territorial integrity of the country. Alas, that was not to be," Sonia Gandhi said.
Sonia Gandhi listed a series of questions for the Modi government to answer:
- On which date did the Chinese troops intrude into our territory in Ladakh?
- When did the government find out about the Chinese transgressions into our territory?
- Was it on May 5th, as reported, or earlier?
- Does the government not receive, on a regular basis, satellite pictures of the borders of our country?
- Did our external intelligence agencies not report any unusual activity along the LAC?
- Did the Military Intelligence not alert the government about the intrusion and the build-up of massive forces along the LAC, whether on the Chinese side or on the Indian side?
- In the government’s considered view, was there a failure of intelligence?
Valuable time was lost
The Rae Bareli Congress MP said that the party believes "valuable time was lost" between May 5 and June 6, the date on which the Corps Commanders meeting took place, and after that meeting, efforts should have been made to talk directly, at the political and diplomatic levels, to the leadership of China.
"We failed to use all avenues, and the result is the loss of 20 lives as well as dozens injured. I would urge the Prime Minister to kindly share with us all the facts and the sequence of events beginning April this year till date."
What is the way forward?
Further, Sonia Gandhi questioned the government on what is the way forward in the crisis and said Indians would like an assurance that status quo ante would be restored and China will revert back to the original position on LAC.
She said the parties would also like to be briefed on the preparedness of India's defence forces to meet any threat and inquired about the current status of the Mountain Strike Corps, with two mountain infantry divisions, that was sanctioned in 2013, under the erstwhile UPA government.
Moreover, the Congress president said her party and the entire opposition unitedly stand by the country's defence forces and Indians expect the Centre "will take all Opposition Parties and the country into confidence and brief us regularly so that we may present to the world a picture of unity and solidarity".
Updated 20:06 IST, June 19th 2020