Centre compromised on territorial integrity: Vadra
Congress MP Congress leader Priyanka Vadra Gandhi on Monday continued with her party’s attack on the Narendra Modi government in view of the latest reports which suggest that China has been fortifying its positions near the Pangong Lake.
In a post on ‘X’, Vadra charged, “China has settled its villages in Indian territory and is also building bunkers.”
She claimed India’s northern neighbour has “Occupied about 4000 sqkm of Indian land” and that “We have lost 26 of our 65 patrolling points on the LAC”.
She also charged that it has released a list of changed names of 30 places in Arunachal Pradesh.
Noting that “the media is saying all these things and this information is publicly available”, Vadra said, “But Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still saying that ‘No one had entered, nor has anyone entered’.”
She went on to ask “Under what pressure is the Modi government making so many compromises regarding India’s border security and integrity? How can China build a military base near Pangong Tso, on a land which was under Indian occupation, until May 2020?”
Incidentally, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday shared a report of a national daily titled “Satellite images show that China is digging in close to Pangong” and posted on ‘X” that the neighbouring country continues to “impinge upon our territorial integrity” even as we enter the fifth year of the PM giving it a “clean chit” in the matter.
Cong: Will PM ensure safe return of Indians fighting for Russia in war zone
As Modi reached Russia, Congress asked if he would take up the issue of Indian nationals fighting for the Russian Army in the war zone and ensure their safe return to India as soon as possible. Party leader Jairam Ramesh posed a series of questions for the prime minister in a post on X.
“India inherited a rich relationship with first the USSR and later Russia due to the astute diplomacy and strategic initiatives of various Congress governments through the decades. More recently, in his ten years as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh met Vladmir
Putin and Dmitry Medvedev (the two Presidents of Russia who served during his tenure) 16 times in India or Russia. By comparison, this is only Modi’s 11th meeting with Putin after 10 years in office,” he said. “While his propagandists make grand claims of having stopped the war between Russia and Ukraine, have ties between the two nations cooled off somewhat under Modi’s watch?” he asked.
He added between FY14 and FY23, India’s exports to Russia stagnated, falling from $3.17 billion to $3.14 billion, while the import bill surged exponentially, rising from $6.34 billion to $46.21 billion.
Such a lopsided trade relationship is unsustainable in the long-term, and has deleterious consequences for our domestic industry, Ramesh said.
“Is a rectification of this trade imbalance on the agenda for the non-biological PM’s talks with President Putin? What is his vision to improve the trade balance between the two countries?” Ramesh said.
He added, “Today, the nonbiological PM goes to Moscow while the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha heads for Assam and Manipur. Of course, the drumbeaters of the non-biological PM have claimed he stopped the Russia-Ukraine war for some time. Presumably, this Moscow trip will lead to even more bizarre claims.”