ONLY GIVEN, NOT TAKEN: RAHUL

Gandhi rips into defence minister’s statement on disengagement with China

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday ripped through Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's statement in Parliament a day earlier on the border dispute with China, claiming it only shows the Prime Minister is a coward who cannot stand up to the Chinese and is instead spitting on the sacrifice of the Indian Army.

He said that "while our Army is prepared to stand up against China and so is the Air Force and the Navy, the Prime Minister is not prepared" and that is why he has ceded India’s holy land to the Chinese.

"This is absolute 100% cowardice. There is no strategic advantage to India in the disengagement and the government has forgotten the negotiated position of status-quo-ante in April 2020," he said, rejecting the defence minister's claim of gains accruing to India. This was even more so considering that the Chinese forces have not withdrawn from more important strategic area of Depsang Plains as also Gogra and Hot Springs and the tract stretching from Finger 4 to Finger 3.

The Indian troops are now going to be stationed at Finger 3, instead of Finger-4, which is Indian Territory and where the Indian post used to be, Rahul pointed out. But why has this happened – the movement from Finger-4 to Finger-3 -- and why has the Prime Minister given up Indian Territory to the Chinese, he demanded.