Friends, few days back Rahul Gandhi while addressing a public rally said that NDA govt has allowed People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is name of Chinese army, to enter Indian territory. He further added that PLA almost came inside our territory by 1 km, and Modi govt was keeping quiet. If it had been our govt we had driven out the PLA within 15 minutes. But Rahul Gandhi conveniently forgets that it was successive and indecisive Congress govts, which has given rise to this problem of border with China, which has not been clearly defined by Congress govts, and so many times actual Line of Control (LAC) has been shifted by Chinese and India govt led by Congress did nothing.
Even in UPA II, the PLA came 19 km inside Indian territory. Although govt never admitted it, China had occupied 640 sq km of Indian territory in eastern Ladakh during the second term of UPA regime under PM Manmohan Singh.
In 2013, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who was at the time Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board (NASB) under the National Security Council of the Manmohan Singh govt, after his visit to the region had informed the govt that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) patrol had set a new Line of Actual Control (LAC), thus occupying 640 sq km of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh. The un demarcated LAC came into existence when China in 1962 occupied Aksai Chin, an uninhabited high-altitude wasteland of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, and now part of the Union Territory of Ladakh
The land grab in 2013 by the PLA happened after India had signed nine agreements, including the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), the same year in March ahead of Chinese PM’s visit to India. Incidentally, the proposal for BDCA was presented by China, which had been keen to get it signed before Chinese PM’s visit to India
Though China undermined the agreement soon after it was signed when it led an incursion in Depsang area of Ladakh in April 2013, the standoff at Doklam and now at both Eastern (Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim) and Western (Ladakh) frontiers between the two countries has left the sanctity of the BDCA in tatters.
In fact, the BDCA, like all other previous bilateral agreements signed by the two sides in 1993, 1996, 2005 and 2012, has remained ineffective in checking Chinese incursions in Ladakh. From 2010-13, China made nearly 600 incursions in Ladakh, and each time new LAC claimed by them.Over time, China has only added newer and greater claims on areas in Ladakh, in addition to the known disputed areas over which India and China fought in 1962.
In the 1950s, China had surreptitiously built a 179 km road in the Indian territory of Aksai Chin, which eventually led to a dispute and talks, followed by the 1962 war. After seven decades, from the 4,056 km disputed border between the two countries, China has slowly reduced it to merely 2,000 km in its claims. Apart from the military build-up, China has slowly invested in infrastructure in the disputed areas of Ladakh.
Even during April 2013, India was not in hurry to hold another flag meeting in Ladakh after the first two such meets on April 18 and April 23 failed to break the deadlock and ended with only charges being traded between the two armies. China, in fact, was believed to have then asked for a flag meeting but India had kept the request “pending’’ to see if diplomatic channels being worked deliver results in short time. The defence minister had said that time that he is visiting China, and will have negotiations with Chinese govt to solve this matter.
That time a parliamentary committee was set up, the Defence Secretary and officials from Ministry of Defence appeared before this committee, when the members of the committee wanted to know the actual ground situation. The meeting of the committee was cut short as the quorum was incomplete and the members present were also dissatisfied with the sketchy information provided by the officials. The members were later informed that as per established mechanism, the issue will be taken up at the at next flag meetings and through diplomatic channels to maintain status quo, which means that govt had already conceded the territory as they were asking for status quo to be maintained.
So friends, you can very well see from above what was UPA doing that time, actually they bowed down to China, and now Rahul Gandhi has guts to say that if our govt would have been there, we would have driven out PLA in 15 minutes. What a laughable statement, as Rahul thinks people and media memory is very short, but problem with him is that he is still living in the old world and thinks people and media will forget whatever has happened in the past. But in today’s world when all the past information are available on fingertips, he should think twice before opening his mouth. But problem is that in his meeting paid audience is present and they keep on clapping for him, and paid media airs the same speech and they want to project that how daring Rahul Gandhi is? In reality we have a daring PM, who straight way gives order to army to retaliate, and not afraid of China, as earlier Congress PM were.
I wanted to write on this subject because, I felt that you all must know the facts and not get charmed by Rahul Gandhi’s false claims.
Awaiting your views/feed backs/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
22nd October 2020.
R. N. Mungale.
Rahul) Gandhi is wrong as usual.