'Bluster and bluff': Owaisi on Jaishankar's 'who sent Army to LAC' comment
Owaisi said Jaishankar took the line of PM Modi on LAC that '…na koi ghusa hai…' “The government has lost control of territory in Ladakh and failed to restore the status quo as it existed three years ago,” Owaisi said.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday called foreign minister S Jaishankar's claims over the Line of Actual Control in an interview with ANI editor Smita Prakash 'blusteR and bluff' that will not solve the border crisis with China. If the government has nothing t hide, then why it is "running away" from a debate in Parliament, Owaisi who has been consistently attacking the government on this issue asked. Read | 'Jaishankar's father said...': Trinamool MP Jawhar Sircar asks if foreign minister has amnesia

"If the government has nothing to hide on the China border crisis, Mr Jaishankar, @DrSJaishankar why is it running away from a debate and discussion in Parliament? Why are my questions on the subject denied? Why is media not being taken there?" Owaisi tweeted. Read | PM Modi sent Army to LAC, Rahul didn't, says Jaishankar
Terming Jaishankar's argument facetious and irrelevant, Owaisi said Jaishankar is following the PM's line of 'na koi ghusa hai..'
"The government has lost control of territory in Ladakh and failed to restore the status quo as it existed three years ago. Is that not the least that is expected from the government? They can’t even get China to discuss Depsang and Demchok," Owaisi said.
The government is scared of the truth -- be it on the Gujarat riots of the "Ladakh crisis with China", Owaisi said. "Bluster and bluff from the EAM will not solve the border crisis with China. It needs honesty and a willingness to accept the truth. The minister has again shown today that the Modi government is scared of the truth, whether on 2002 Gujrat pogrom or on Ladakh crisis with China," Owaisi added.
In his interview on Tuesday, Jaishankar countered the Congress's criticism on the China issue and said the Congress leaders must have some problem understanding the word beginning with 'C'. "When did that area actually come under Chinese control? They (Congress) must have some problem understanding words beginning with 'C'. I think they are deliberately misrepresenting the situation. The Chinese first came there in 1958 and the Chinese captured it in October 1962. Now you are going to blame the Modi government in 2023 for a bridge which the Chinese captured in 1962 and you don't have the honesty to say that it is where it happened," Jaishankar said.
Narendra Modi sent the Army to the LAC and not Rahul Gandhi, Jaishankar said adding, ""If I would have to sum up this China thing, please do not buy this narrative that somewhere the government is on the defensive...somewhere we are being accommodative. I ask people if we were being accommodative who sent the Indian Army to the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Rahul Gandhi did not send them. Narendra Modi sent them. We have today the largest peacetime deployment in our history on the China border. We are keeping troops there at a huge cost with great effort. We have increased our infrastructure spending on the border five times in this government. Now tell me who is the defensive and accommodative person? Who is actually telling the truth? Who is depicting things accurately? Who is playing footsie with history?"
ABOUT THE AUTHORPoulomi GhoshPoulomi Ghosh is a journalist with Hindustan Times, New Delhi.

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