NEW DELHI : Sharpening its attack over the alleged Chinese “transgressions,” the Congress said on Saturday that the Modi government is granting double ‘clean chits’ to expansionist China.
Referring to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s remark that “China has not occupied any Indian land,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the EAM’s statement is a “copy-paste” of PM Modi’s clean chit to China after the Galwan skirmish in 2020 when 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
In a post on X, Kharge wrote, “Wearing ‘56-inch’ long Chinese blinkers, on the ‘Laal Aankh,’ the Modi government has given a free pass to the Chinese, twice in a week.” The Congress president also took a swipe at PM Modi’s interview with the foreign press, in which the PM allegedly failed to present India’s case strongly on the global stage.
“First, Modi’s interview in the foreign press where he failed to present India’s case strongly on the global stage. Now, his Foreign Minister, handing over another clean chit to expansionist China,” he said. He alleged that for the last four years, the Opposition has been demanding the Prime Minister to take them into confidence, in Parliament and public discourse, on repeated Chinese “transgressions, illegal occupation, and building of military infrastructure near our borders,” but he has not bothered to do so.
Kharge also posed a series of questions to the government. “What were the 19 rounds of bilateral talks with your Chinese counterpart for? Was it to increase Chinese imports to India? Or to take PM CARE funds from 3000 companies having Chinese directors?” he asked.
“Why has the status quo ante, pre-2020, not returned? Why is India still denied access to areas in Depsang Plains, Demchok Nalla, and several patrolling points in Hot Springs and Gogra Post? Modi’s policy towards China is ‘M’ for ‘Meek’,” Kharge questioned.