All party meet with PM: “Even at this stage we are in the dark”: Sonia Gandhi
NEW DELHI : Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday sought an assurance that status quo would be restored and China will revert back to the original position on Line of Actual Control” as she made her opening remarks this evening at the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Even at this late stage, we are still in the dark about many crucial aspects of the crisis,” the 73-year-old Congress leader was quoted as saying in an official statement as she raised several questions for the government.
In her address at the all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi to discuss the border stand-off with China, Gandhi asked pointed questions on whether there was an intelligence failure on the massive build-up of Chinese forces along the LAC.
“In fact, even at this late stage, we are still in the dark about many crucial aspects of the crisis,” Gandhi said. The meeting was attended by leaders of 20 political parties. Defence minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister S Jaishankar too were present.
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.
The all-party meeting was held this evening via video conference to discuss the India-China clash at Ladakh on Monday in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray are some of the leaders attending the meeting.
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.
Asserting that the all-party meeting with PM over India-China border issues: Congress President Sonia Gandhi said, “all party meeting should have happened much earlier. Even at this late stage we are in the dark. Congress has specific questions…”
In fact, even at this late stage, we have some specific questions, for the Government: 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?
We in the Congress Party believe that valuable time was lost between May 5 and June 6, the date on which the Corps Commanders meeting took place. Even after the June 6 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.
Congress leader was quoted as saying in an official statement as she raised several questions for the government. She urged Mr Modi to share with us all the facts and the sequence of events beginning April this year till date.
The Congress president closed her statement with the assertion that her party and the entire opposition “unitedly stand by our defence forces” and added that the entire country would like an assurance that China will revert back to the original position on Line of Actual Control.
