‘Calibrated capitulation’: Congress on PM Modi’s meeting with Xi Jinping

The Congress on Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approach to normalising relations with China was “calibrated capitulation”.

The statement by party leader Jairam Ramesh came a day after Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Delhi.

The Opposition party posed four questions to the prime minister. It asked whether Modi’s “infamous clean chit” to China about the June 2020 military stand-off in Ladakh had weakened India’s position.

Border tensions between India and China escalated in June 2020 when a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. It led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. Beijing said that the clash left four of its soldiers dead.

Amid the tensions, Modi had claimed on June 19, 2020, that Chinese soldiers had not entered Indian territory and no Indian posts had been taken over during the face-off.

The Congress on Sunday said that Modi’s statement had never been retracted. “Has this not greatly weakened our subsequent negotiating position?” it asked.

The Opposition party questioned why Modi had “allowed China’s territorial advances” in Ladakh “and now Arunachal Pradesh”, referring to reports of Chinese encroachments in the regions. It said that India’s “traditional patrolling and grazing...

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