MOD statement on LAC taken down, row erupts
A political row erupted on Thursday over a defence ministry statement on Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh — uploaded on the ministry’s official website but later removed — in which government acknowledged that PLA had transgressed into multiple areas in the sensitive sector, with the Congress accusing the Prime Minister of lying on the Chinese intrusions.
The statement, posted online on August 4 but removed two days later without any explanation, said Chinese aggression along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) had gone up and the ongoing border standoff was expected to be prolonged.
It described the situation in the Ladakh sector as sensitive.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi mounted an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the statement, which summed up the major activities of the department of defence in June, was unexpectedly removed from the website. “Forget standing up to China, India’s PM lacks the courage even to name them. Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites won’t change the facts,” Gandhi tweeted.
The defence ministry refused to comment on the statement or why it was removed, although it was widely seen as a belated move to skirt controversy.
In a previous tweet and later addressing a virtual meet of party workers from Bihar, Gandhi accused the PM of lying on Chinese intrusions. At an all-party meeting to discuss the situation along the India-china border on June 19, the PM said there was no intrusion into Indian territory.
“Our soldiers have sacrificed their lives and the PM is saying that China has not entered our territory. Who will tell the family members of the soldiers how they were martyred? If Chinese forces had not intruded into our territory does that mean our soldiers had crossed over to China?” a senior Congress leader quoted Gandhi as saying during the virtual meeting. Gandhi was referring to the Galwan Valley skirmish on June 15, in which 20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed.