As the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fight over the Indo-China border clashes, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday backed the Narendra Modi government saying that Galwan Valley incident can’t be labelled as the failure of the Defence Minister.
While speaking to reporters, the former Defence Minister further said that one can’t forget that China captured about 45,000 square kilometres (sq kms) of Indian land post-1962 war.
Pawar’s remarks come after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s accusation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had surrendered Indian territory to the Chinese aggression. Congress is one of the three parties in the MVA front. Recently, two senior Congress leaders had expressed displeasure over some issues with the Thackeray government.
The NCP chief said that the entire episode was “sensitive” in nature and it was China which provoked in the Galwan Valley. On June 15, nearly 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in the violent clashes with Chinese soldiers.
According to media reports, Pawar said that India was constructing a road in the Galwan Valley meant for communication purposes within its limits. He further said that the Indian Army was patrolling and one can’t say it is the failure of the Defence Minister sitting in Delhi.
“The scuffle between Indian Army and Chinese soldiers tells that the army was on alert. If they were not on patrol, they wouldn’t have released when the Chinese came and went. I don’t think it is right to make such allegations at this juncture,” Pawar said.
The matters of national security shouldn’t be politicised, he added.
Earlier, Shiv Sena had also extended support to the central government amid the border tension between India and China. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, during the all-party meeting, said that there was a need to tell China that India was ‘majboot’ (strong) and not ‘majboor’ (helpless), he added while asserting that a dialogue exchange must continue.
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