Congress demands all-party meeting on Sino-India border situation

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday demanded that the government convene an all-party meeting on the Sino-India border situation and take the entire opposition into confidence.

Congress leader and senior spokesperson Manish Tewari told a press conference that it has been three years since the standoff with China began at the Line of Actual Control in May 2020 but the government has maintained silence on the issue and has not allowed any discussion on it in Parliament.

"We demand as a responsible opposition that an all-party meeting of all leaders and discuss the China situation. Three years after the standoff, the government should have taken the entire opposition in confidence and tell them on the developments of the last three years and the ongoing negotiations and give them a summary," he told reporters.

He said the government "should take the opposition into confidence and convene a meeting of senior leaders of the opposition and comprehensively brief them about the talks with China on bringing peace at the border".

Tewari also asked how and why an instrusion or transgression at multiple points take place at the LAC and why this question remain germane is because an entire infrastructure was created since 1993 to avoid conflict at the border and maintain peace there.

The Congress leader said he himself has asked 65 questions in Parliament on the conflict at the border since September 2020 when the Parliament met for the first time after the first conflict, but the same have not even been accepted.

"The government is not ready to answer any question on China and is not giving any answers. There is an opacity about what is happening at the border," he said.

To a question on China renaming several places in Arunachal Pradesh, he said it was very irresponsible on the part of the Ministry of External Affairs to say that such things keep happening in the past.

He said the last time China did something like this, the then UPA government lodged a strong protest and "we expected the government to issue a sharp statement as the action raises questions on India's integrity and should have been condemned".

Tewari also alleged that the total trade between India and China has increased from 2000 to 2022 to USD 136 billion of which imports comprise of USD 119 billion and exports to China are only USD 17.5 billion.

"Are we at some level subsiding the transgressions by China," he asked, considering that there has been a USD 100 billion trade deficit on trade with it.

With Bhutan king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck visiting India and meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tewari said there is talk of Bhutan being in advanced stages of an agreement with China and hoped that India's concerns over Doklam would be taken care of.

"Though the Bhutanese king has given an assurance, but there are doubts if any agreement on Doklam signed by it will affect India's security situation as it overlooks the sensitive chicken neck and our concerns are taken care of," Tewari said.