Ladakh standoff a full blown crisis, situation mismanaged by Centre: Sonia

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday described the India-China face-off in Ladakh as a full-blown crisis and hoped that mature diplomacy and decisive leadership will guide the government's action in protecting India's territorial integrity.

Sonia Gandhi made this remark in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, party's highest decision-making body, which met on Tuesday to discuss the India-China face-off and the issue of Nepal.

The CWC meeting started after paying homage to all the 20 Indian soldiers, who died on June 15 fighting Chinese forces in Galwan Valley. "CWC pays homage to Colonel B. Santosh Babu and our brave jawans (soldiers), who laid down their lives by making the supreme sacrifice. All CWC members rise to observe two minutes silence in their memory," Congress national media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a tweet.

Addressing the CWC members, Sonia Gandhi said, "Now, we have a full-blown crisis on the LAC with China... The future is yet to unfold but we hope that mature diplomacy and decisive leadership will guide the government's actions in protecting our territorial integrity."

At least 20 Indian soldiers including an officer were killed in an unprecedented attack by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15.

She also noted that the "mismanagement" of the Covid-19 pandemic will be recorded as one of the "most disastrous failures" of the Narendra Modi government.  Sonia Gandhi also said that the need of hour is a massive fiscal stimulus, putting money directly in the hands of the poor, protecting and nurturing the MSMEs and stimulating demand.

Slamming the government over the Rs 20 lakh crore financial package, the Congress president said, "Instead, the government announced a hollow financial package that had a fiscal component of less than 1 per cent of GDP."

She also raised the issue of continuous fuel price hike in the last 17 days and said, "The government has added insult to injury by mercilessly raising petrol and diesel prices for 17 consecutive days, at a time when world prices of crude have fallen.