Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 11 September, once again slammed the government over the India-China standoff saying the Chinese have taken Indian land and questioned when the Centre is planning to get it back.
"The Chinese have taken our land. When exactly is GOI (Government of India) planning to get it back? Or is that also going to be left to an 'Act of God'?" Gandhi wrote in a tweet on Friday.
His reference to the 'Act of God' phrase comes days after Nirmala Sitharaman, after a GST Council meeting on 27 August, stated that the pandemic was an "Act of God, which might even result in a contraction of the economy" in the current fiscal.
Jaishankar-Wang Yi Talks Held Earlier
The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, has been critical of the Modi government's handling of the standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. Tensions along the border have persisted since May and peaked on 15 June, when 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives in the Galwan Valley clashes.
Rahul Gandhi's latest remarks came a day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held talks in Moscow on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting.
The two leaders "agreed that the current situation in the border areas is not in the interest of either side", and that "border troops of both sides should continue their dialogue, quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and ease tensions", according to a five-point joint statement issued on Friday. Tensions had mounted again between the countries recently in Eastern Ladakh, this time focused on the Pangong Tso area.
"The two ministers agreed that both sides should take guidance from the series of consensus of the leaders on developing India-China relations, including not allowing differences to become disputes... The two ministers agreed that both sides shall abide by all the existing agreements and protocol on China-India boundary affairs, maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas and avoid any action that could escalate matters," the joint statement said.
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