Rahul Gandhi attacks Modi, reiterates China has snatched Indian territory

Gandhi’s comments came a day after officials said Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the border tensions and said they would direct officials to intensify efforts to de-escalate

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying to the Opposition over the India-China border situation in Ladakh while reiterating China has snatched Indian territory.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a public meeting in Kargil. (PTI)

“China has taken Indian land...thousands of square km...and ironically Indian Prime Minister said at a meeting with the Opposition that not an inch of Indian land was taken,” he said at a rally in Kargil on the last day of his nine-day visit to Ladakh.

Gandhi’s reference was to Modi’s comments in June 2020 at an all-party meeting following the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers in a clash with China’s People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. Modi told leaders of political parties that neither has anyone entered nor is anyone present in Indian territory and nor was any Indian post captured.

Gandhi said this was an outright lie. “Here, every person knows that Ladakh’s land has been taken over by China but the Prime Minister is not telling the truth.’

India and China have been involved in a series of diplomatic and military engagements. Indian and Chinese corps commanders held their 19th round of talks on the standoff along the Line of Actual Control between the two countries during August 13-14. Several rounds of talks among local commanders followed on August 18.

India and China have deployed nearly 60,000 troops each in the Ladakh sector following the 2020 clash at Galwan Valley in which at least four Chinese troops were also killed. They are yet to disengage frontline troops at friction points such as Depsang and Demchok despite diplomatic and military talks.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi rejected Gandhi’s comments as baseless and absurd. He accused the Congress of trying to weaken the country.

In his address in Kargil, Gandhi also spoke about demands of statehood, the implementation of the Constitution’s sixth schedule, which provides for the autonomous administration of tribal areas, and one Lok Sabha seat each for Leh and Kargil.

“People want political representation. Locals and their leaders told me that their voice is being suppressed. Though Ladakh became a Union Territory, your rights are not being given to you,” he said, referring to carving out of Ladakh as a federally-administered territory from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 following the scrapping of the region’s semi-autonomous status.

Gandhi said unemployment is a big issue in Ladakh while the cell phone network was also not up to the mark. “I assure you that the Congress is with you in your struggle to safeguard your land, employment, culture, and languages,” he said.

He referred to the abundance of natural resources and solar energy and said Ladakh has no dearth of it. “The BJP also knows about it and feels if you were given representation, then they would not be able to snatch your land. The entire issue is of land. The BJP wants to take your land for big projects of Adani but the benefits of those projects will not be given to the people. We will never allow this thing to happen.”