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'Modi govt's strategy summed up with DDLJ': Jairam Ramesh's response to EAM's remarks

EAM had said that some people deliberately spread wrong news about China for politics

Jairam Ramesh Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh | Salil Bera

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday, in a response to the recent External Affairs Minister's remarks, alleged that since May 2020, the Narendra Modi government's preferred strategy to deal with the Chinese incursions in Ladakh has been summed up with DDLJ--Deny, Distract, Lie, Justify.

He also added that since May, India has lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points in Ladakh.

Recently EAM S. Jaishankar in Pune had said that some people are deliberately spread wrong news about China issue knowingly its not true for politics. Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, EAM said that the land which was taken by China in 1962 is referred to as if it has happened recently.

"S Jaishankar's recent remarks attacking the Congress party are simply the latest attempt to divert attention from Modi government failed China policy," Ramesh said in a statement.

"The fact that there is no comparison between 1962, when India went to war with China to defend its territory, and 2020 after which India acquiesced to Chinese aggression with denials followed by 'disengagements' in which India has lost access to thousands of square kilometres of territory," Ramesh said in a statement.

He also said that Jaishankar's implied cheap shot at Rahul Gandhi for meeting the Chinese ambassador in 2017 is ironic to say the least coming from someone who ambassador to the US during the Obama administration presumably met with leading Republicans.

"Are opposition leaders not entitled to meet diplomats from countries that are important from a trade, investment and security standpoint?" he said.

The Modi government should have been truthful from the start and taken the opposition into confidence by discussing the China crisis in parliamentary standing committees and debating the issue in Parliament, Ramesh said in the statement.

"It is extraordinary that EAM Jaishankar has admitted on several occasions that he has no idea why China has turned aggressive on the Line of Actual Control, not withstanding the unusual frequent contacts between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping and the PM's boast that he enjoys a special 'Plus One' relationship with President Xi."

Ramesh also suggested that Jaishankar and the government should spend more time trying to get Chinese troops out of Depsang and Demchok and less time on blaming opposition for their own incompetence.  

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