NEW DELHI, Jul 18: Senior parliamentarians and lawmakers including Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today grilled Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on the border tension with China at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
In what was termed as “overall a satisfactory” meeting, the Foreign Secretary assured the panel headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor that India is using diplomatic channels to defuse the crisis. There is hardly any possibility of major confrontation on ground, a member of the panel said and maintained that the Foreign Secretary also ruled out the possibility of India being pushed into armed action. While China’s rhetoric has been ‘alarmist’ at times, India is preferring a slow, steady and calm approach.
“Take a deep breadth is the Indian reaction so far,” said a member of the panel. In today’s meeting, the officials also briefed the parliamentary panel that China’s approach to the stand-off at Sikkim that began last month is unusually aggressive. “They are pursuing the aggressiveness through media also,” a member remarked about Chinese modus operandi.
The Congress Vice President Mr Gandhi specifically wanted to know what could be the intent of Chinese side vis-a-vis the dispute as Bhutan is also involved. Notwithstanding criticism for delayed admission, last week, Mr Gandhi acknowledged that he had met the Chinese ambassador to India as people’s representative he had the right to ‘know’. The Congress leader reportedly also met the Bhutanese envoy. Several members including from West Bengal raised matters concerning violence in Darjeeling hills, a source said.
In October last year, the panel had met Foreign Secretary as also the Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar and questioned them on surgical strikes carried out by Indian armed forces against Pakistan. In today’s meeting, the officials also briefed the parliamentary panel that China’s approach to the stand-off at Sikkim that began last month is unusually aggressive. (UNI)
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