UPA government doing nothing on Chinese incursion - Opposition parties

The Opposition, along with the Samajwadi Party, which is supporting the UPA government from outside, went hammer and tongs at the government alleging it was “doing nothing” and acting in a “most cowardly” manner in dealing with the alleged intrusion by the Chinese army into Indian Territory.

They took strong objections to the proposed visit of External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid to Beijing on May 9 and sought its cancellation. Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during zero hour, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav described China as India’s “biggest enemy.”

“We have been warning that China has started occupying our territory. But government is not listening to all this.” One lakh sq km of Indian Territory had been encroached on by the Chinese, he alleged, and said though the Indian Army had said it was ready to remove all the intruders, there was no action. “This government is cowardly, incompetent and good for nothing,” Mr. Yadav said. Mr. Yadav, who spoke amid the din created by Opposition members, claimed he had raised the issue several times with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A.K. Antony, but to no avail. “I went to Dr. Singh’s chamber to talk to him. But no action was taken.”

“When the Army chief himself says the troops are ready to respond, why is the government not issuing instructions to it? They [China] insulted us in 1962. They are insulting us now in the world forums,” the SP leader noted.

After the 1962 war it was decided that till China moved away from “every inch of our land, we will not hold any talk with them. But now a Minister is going to China to hold discussions,” Mr. Yadav said. The threat from China had exceeded that from Pakistan, he opined.

In a deep incursion, a platoon of China’s Border Defence Regiment entered the Daulat Beg Oldi sector in Ladakh on April 15 and erected a tented post. In 2010, on the Home Ministry’s request, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police had begun manning the area. The DBO sector, located in north-east Ladakh, was a historic camp site and is located on the ancient silk trade route. The Government should take steps to drive out the Chinese forces and demarcate the Line of Actual Control, said Biju Janata Dal MP from Cuttack, Bhatruhari Mahtab. Unless the LAC was demarcated, such incursions and skirmishes would continue to occur, he said

Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool Congress) said “China is in a mood to attack India slowly for which we should take immediate steps.” Dr. Singh should come to the House and brief the members about the latest situation, he said.

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Chinese troops erect another tent at Ladakh

Chinese troops erect another tent at Ladakh

Chinese troops have erected another tent in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in Ladakh raising the number of such structures in the area of incursion to five, as the standoff between India and China entered the third week.

With China showing no signs of withdrawing its troops from the Indian territory, sources said efforts to break the impasse over the incursion yielded no results because of its insistence that some bunkers constructed by India at a key vantage point be dismantled.

China laid down this condition for pulling back from the place 19 km inside the Indian territory in DBO, where around 50 troops have been camping for the last over two weeks, sources said.

The government seized this issue at the meetings of the China Study Group, headed by the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and including secretaries of key Ministries such as Defence, Home and External Affairs. The rigidity shown by the Chinese over its demand is also one of the reasons behind more flag meetings between the two sides not being held for over a week.

Sources said the vantage point is at a junction between two mountains in Ladakh area from where the Indian troops could remain unseen and oversee the activities of the Chinese troops in that area.

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UPA government doing nothing on Chinese incursions