NEW DELHI: On a day when Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was censured by the Supreme Court over his "China capturing Indian territory" comments, the Congress on Monday maintained its tirade against the Modi government over the issue.
The Congress said that every patriotic Indian has sought answers on China since the 2020 Galwan incident but the Modi government has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of "DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify".
The two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih, strongly disapproved of Gandhi making what it called irresponsible statements regarding China's alleged acquisition of Indian land. The defamation complaint, filed by former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director Uday Shankar Srivastava, is pending in a Lucknow court. According to Srivastava, the alleged derogatory remarks were made by Gandhi on December 16, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The Supreme Court however granted relief to Gandhi by staying further proceedings in the defamation case and fixed the matter for further hearing after three weeks
Meanwhile, the Congress continued its tirade against the Modi government claiming that it is responsible for the biggest territorial setback India has faced since 1962, and accused it of pursuing "normalisation" with a hostile China because of its cowardice and misplaced economic priorities.
The Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said ever since 20 brave soldiers were martyred in Galwan on June 15, 2020, every patriotic Indian has sought answers.
"Yet instead of providing answers, the Modi government for the past five years has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of 'DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify'," he said.
In a post on X, Ramesh went on to ask a series of questions.
Why did the Prime Minister give a clean chit to China saying “Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai” on 19 June 2020, only four days after our soldiers heroically sacrificed their lives for the country in Galwan?
Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi has said: “We want to go back to the status quo of April 2020”. Does the withdrawal agreement of 21 October, 2024, take us back to the status quo?
Are Indian patrols not required to take Chinese concurrence to access their Patrolling Points in Depsang, Demchok, and Chumar, whereas earlier they were able to freely exercise India’s territorial rights?
Are Indian patrols not prevented from accessing their Patrolling Points in Galwan, Hot Spring, and Pangong Tso by “buffer zones” that lie predominantly within the Indian claim line?
Was it not widely reported in 2020 that 1,000 sq km of eastern Ladakh had come under Chinese control, including 900 sq km in Depsang?
Did the SP of Leh not submit a paper at the annual Director General of Police Conference, in which he stated that India had lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points in eastern Ladakh?
Is it not true that imports from China are booming, especially of electronics, electric batteries, and solar cells, and that important sectors like telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and electronics are critically dependent on Chinese imports? Is not true that the trade deficit with China reached a record $99.2 billion in 2024-25?
Is it not true that the Modi government is pursuing “normalisation” with a country that played a crucial role in Pakistan’s military operations during Operation Sindoor, supplying weapons systems such as the J-10C fighter and PL-15 air-to-air missile and providing “live inputs” into Indian military operations as stated on 4 July, 2025; by Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt General Rahul R Singh?
The fact of the matter is that the Modi government is responsible for the biggest territorial setback India has faced since 1962, and it is pursuing “normalisation” with a hostile China because of its cowardice and misplaced economic priorities, Ramesh said.