Centre must take people into confidence on China border row: Congress

Days after India and China firmed up an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the Congress on Wednesday said it expects that the disengagement will restore the status quo ante as it existed in March 2020 and asked the government to take the people of India into confidence on the matter.

The opposition party's assertion comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping's bilateral talks on the margins of the BRICS summit in Russia.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said many questions remain about the Modi government's announcement that an agreement has been reached with China on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"The Foreign Secretary has said that this is 'leading to disengagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020'. We hope that India's worst foreign policy setback in decades is being honourably resolved," he said in a statement.

"We expect that the disengagement will restore the status quo ante as it existed in March 2020," he said.

Ramesh alleged that "this sorry saga is a complete indictment" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gullibility and naivet regarding China.

"The Modi government's approach to the entire crisis could be described as DDLJ: Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify," Ramesh said.

Having reached this agreement with the Chinese, the government must take the people of India into confidence, the Congress leader said and demanded answers to important questions such as whether Indian troops be able to patrol up to our claim line in Depsang to five patrolling points past the Bottleneck junction as they were able to earlier.

Will our troops be able to reach the three patrolling points in Demchok that have remained out of bounds for more than four years, he asked.

"Will our soldiers continue to be restricted to Finger 3 in Pangong Tso when earlier they could go as far as Finger 8? Are our patrols permitted to access the three patrolling points in the Gogra-Hot Springs area that they could earlier go up to?" Ramesh said.

Will Indian graziers once again be given the right to access traditional grazing grounds in Helmet Top, Mukpa Re, Rezang La, Rinchen La, Table Top and Gurung Hill in Chushul, he asked.

"Are the 'buffer zones' that our government ceded to the Chinese, which included the site of a memorial in Rezang La to war hero and posthumous Param Vir Chakra awardee Major Shaitan Singh, now a thing of the past?" he said.

India and China on Monday firmed up an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough to end the over four-year standoff.