Will Request Centre for Presentation on Situation on India-China Border, Says Sharad Pawar

NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday said there should be a presentation by the government on what is happening on the India-China border, particularly in Ladakh, where the armies of the two countries are involved in a face-off.

Pawar, who is in the national capital to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, said there are other defence-related issues on the table for discussion, but he will make a request that a presentation is made on it.

“Today, we are all worried about what is happening on the India-China border, particularly in the Ladakh region.

“There are different defence-related issues that will be discussed in the meeting. I am going to make a request that a presentation on the ground situation should be made,” Pawar, who served as the defence minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, said.

Replying to a media query on whether the government is hiding anything regarding this matter, the former Maharashtra chief minister said he is not going to make any allegations as he does not have any such information.

The ongoing tension on the India-China border is a very sensitive issue involving national security and nobody should indulge in any kind of blame game, he said.

Instead, the thrust should be on how the morale of the armed forces can be boosted and the aggressive acts of the neighbouring country be repulsed, Pawar added.

The Congress, particularly Rahul Gandhi, has been attacking the government over the handling of the situation.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi tweeted, “The Chinese have taken our land. When exactly is GOI planning to get it back? Or is that also going to be left to an ‘Act of God’?”

Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

On September 3, Pawar, along with party MPs, met former foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, an expert on China, and retired Air Marshal Bhushan Gohakle, and discussed issues related to the neighbouring country.

“I highlighted the fact that the Chinese are surreptitiously encircling the Indian Sub-Continent from all directions and also expressed my concern over their presence in the South China Sea.

“I hinted at the need to keep a close watch on affairs of Sri Lanka and Nepal and also the Chinese interventions in general,” the NCP chief had tweeted.