Modi's statement encouraged China to maintain stubborn position: Cong

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that no one has intruded into Indian territory has encouraged China to maintain its stubborn position of not retreating an inch, said the Congress party on Saturday. 

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), which met in Hyderabad, voiced its concern over security challenges in Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, and the Chinese challenge on India's northern borders. 

Briefing media on the deliberations on the draft resolution, former Union minister P Chidambaram said the Chinese were standing firm in opposition despite numerous talks at various levels. 

"The prime minister's statement at the all party meeting on 19 June, 2020 that there are no foreign troops on Indian territory and that nobody intruded encouraged China to continue its stubborn position of not retreating an inch," he said. 

"What happened to the brave words of status quo ante. Nobody speaks about status quo ante. Remember, the first few days India's demand was status quo ante. Does anyone speak about it today? On the contrary, status quo ante is being changed every day, every month to our detriment. 

"More buffer zones are being created on erstwhile Indian held territory. What does that mean? It means we are losing our territory and Chinese are commanding or holding that territory," he said. 

The CWC feels that the situation in both Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir is far from normal. 

"Manipur has been burning since 5 May. It has been burning for the last 157 days but the prime minister found no time to visit the state," Chidambaram said. 

The Congress leader pointed out that when the case relating to repeal of Article 370 was being heard by the Supreme Court, the government stated in the affidavit that Jammu and Kashmir had returned to normalcy. 

"What we see is far from normalcy," he said referring to the reported killing of a colonel, a major, a deputy SP and rifleman by militants. 

The party noted while this was happening in Kashmir, the Prime Minister and the BJP were celebrating the success of the G20 summit.