Cautious Congress welcomes border move, assesses situation

New Delhi: Congress has positioned cautiously and welcomed the announcement of governments of India and China on disengaging troops from faceoff sectors on LAC. Senior party leaders are monitoring developments to see if the agreement would lead to substantial de-escalation and early pull back of China’s PLA from all areas where it intruded recently — the Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Finger 4 and Hot Springs — and restore status quo ante of mid-April or whether this was more of semantics while there was little progress on the ground.

Welcoming the announcement and saluting the Indian soldiers, AICC said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must at least now apologise for his earlier remark ‘that there was no intrusion’ and explain how far PLA had come into India and how much Indian territory they still occupied.

“Reports of Chinese troops withdrawal from Galwan Valley is a positive development. Disengagement and de-escalation on LAC is a priority. India must insist for pullback in Pangong Tso. There is need for eternal vigil. China needs to realise that stability and peace at borders and restoration of status quo ante is a must to rebuild trust. Proud of our Army for standing firm in Nations defence,” tweeted CWC member Anand Sharma.

Playing it safe, party leader Rahul Gandhi, whose almost gleeful daily twitter attacks on the PM over the Chinese intrusion had discomforted even sections of cautious and experienced Congress leaders, chose not to tweet either on Chinese intrusion or the agreement on disengagement.
Congress leaders feel if the agreement leads to restoration of status quo ante of mid-April, it will be a major victory for both India and the Modi government — with implication in domestic politics — but anything short of it would be short-lived euphoria.

AICC spokesperson Pawan Khera said: “Our brave Army has been trying to push the Chinese PLA back and we are very happy to see these reports that we have succeeded. We are proud of our Army. We never had any doubt about the ability of our Army... The prime minister should use this opportunity to take the country into confidence, apologise... say that, yes, I went wrong. I misled…The PM should also tell the nation the Chinese have withdrawn by ‘X kilometres’ and clarify how much of our territory is still under their occupation.”