Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented on the India-China border dispute in an interview with Newsweek magazine, the Congress party on Thursday lashed out at him calling his statement "cowardly worst" and his response "feeble and ineffective". During an interview with the magazine, PM Modi laid emhasis on the importance of "urgently addressing" the border dispute between India and China.
Reacting to the remarks, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that PM Modi had a chance to send a powerful message to China but his ineffective and feeble response is likely to only encourage China further in asserting its claim on Indian territory.
Ramesh took to his X and said, "In his interview with Newsweek, a US magazine, the Prime Minister was at his cowardly worst. His only comment on China’s repeated infringements on Indian sovereignty was that the India-China border situation needs to be addressed urgently to resolve the 'abnormality' in the bilateral interactions."
"The Prime Minister had a chance to send a powerful message to China. However, his ineffective and feeble response is likely to only encourage China further in asserting its claim on Indian territory," Ramesh alleged in his long X post.
The Congress leader said that the Prime Minister’s remarks were just not only ‘disgraceful’ but also ‘disrespectful’ towards the soldiers martyred while defending the India-China border. He demanded that “Prime Minister should apologise to 140 crore Indians for his June 2020 statement that no one has entered India nor has anyone occupied any post”.
"The Prime Minister should apologise to the 140 crore Indians for deceiving them on national television on June 19th, 2020, with his statement ‘Na Koi Ghusa Hai, Na Hi Koi Ghus Aaya Hai’ (nobody entered India and nobody has entered any post) and keeping the nation in dark about his failures in protecting the borders with China," Ramesh said on X.
During the interview, PM Modi expressed hope that both countries will be able to restore and sustain peace and tranquillity at their borders through positive and constructive bilateral engagement at the diplomatic and military levels. Notably, India and China have been involved in a nearly four-year dispute at certain friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since the clashes in Galwan Valley in June 2020.
Despite multiple rounds of diplomatic and high-level military talks, the two sides have made little progress in resolving the standoff. Both parties have agreed to maintain "peace and tranquillity" on the ground. Since the clashes in Galwan Valley in June 2020, the Indian Army has maintained a high level of combat readiness along the 3,488-kilometer-long LAC.