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‘Govt is adamant’: Sonia Gandhi on Tawang clash as opposition demands discussion in Parliament
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi chaired a Parliamentary party meeting at Central Hall on Wednesday, in which, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were in attendance, among other of her party MPs.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of party MPs at which she expressed concerns over China's border aggression in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang sector on December 9, and slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for being 'adamant' in not permitting a discussion on the issue. "[The] government [is] being adamant and not holding a discussion on it. Public and House [are] unable to know [the] real situation. Why is [the] government not sending out a financial reply to Chinese transgression?” she asked.
According to news agency PTI, the meeting in Parliament's Central Hall was also attended by the party's president, Mallikarjun Kharge, and its Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
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After the meeting, Congress MPs were joined by those from other opposition parties in holding a protest in front of the Gandhi statue inside the Parliament complex. Gandhi was seen participating, as was Congress veteran and former Union minister P Chidambaram.
The Congress and other opposition parties have been consistently demanding a discussion on the India-China border row and the latest development (the Tawang transgression) since the Parliament's winter session began on December 7.
Ties between the two nations - never far from tense - have been declining since the violent clash in Ladakh's Galwan in June 2020 and have worsened further after the Tawang incident.
Opposition parties' demands forced repeated adjournments of Parliament this month; both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been stalled multiple times every day.
Meanwhile, a war of words has also broken out between the Congress and the BJP over Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi's “China preparing for war” jab. The two parties also clashed yesterday over Kharge's controversial “has even your dog died” swipe.
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Rahul Gandhi, at a press briefing in Rajasthan after his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' completed 100 days - accused the Centre of “ignoring” Chinese aggression and claimed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government “is not ready to accept the situation”. “Before I came to this press conference, I was having lunch with my friend and said, ‘I can bet that the media will not ask any question about China’… Brother, desh dekh rahe hai. Don't think the country is not seeing,” he said.
The BJP hit back via former union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, who claimed Rahul Gandhi is 'close to China'. Current union minister Pralhad Joshi declared Gandhi need not be taken seriously since 'the way our land went to China under Pandit Nehru and the Congress regime is known by all'.
On Monday, external affairs minister S Jaishankar also hit out at Rahul, telling the Lok Sabha that while the Centre had “no problem with political criticism”, one could not use words like ‘pitai’ to refer to soldiers in the Indian armed forces.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
