Rahul Gandhi charges PM with \'surrendering\' Indian territory to China

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told an all-party meeting that neither is anyone inside India's territory nor has any of its posts been captured, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once attacked the Centre. This time, the former Congress president has hit back at the PM for allegedly "surrendering" Indian territory to Chinese aggression.

Tagging PM's remarks with his tweet, Gandhi said, "PM has surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression." "If the land was Chinese: 1. Why were our soldiers killed? 2. Where were they killed?" Gandhi said.

In a statement on the all-party meeting called by Modi on Friday to discuss the situation at the India-China border, the government said, "At the outset, prime minister clarified that neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured."

The categorical statement by the prime minister came in the wake of reports that Chinese military has transgressed into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border, in several areas of eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley.

The prime minister's assertion came even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi, at the all-party meet, questioned the government's handling of the situation, asking if there was any intelligence failure, and seeking assurance that China will "revert" to its original position.

Gandhi has aggressively been questioning the government on Twitter on the ongoing LAC standoff, ever since 20 jawans of the Indian Army were killed by the Chinese in the Galwan Valley.

On Friday, he accused senior ministers in the government of "lying" to protect the prime minister and that the Centre was "fast asleep" while martyred jawans paid the price in Ladakh.

"It's now crystal clear that: The Chinese attack in Galwan was pre-planned. GOI was fast asleep and denied the problem. The price was paid by our martyred Jawans," he said on Twitter.

He tagged a report quoting minister of state for Defence Shripad Naik, saying the attack was pre-planned by China and the Indian forces will give a befitting reply.

In another tweet, the Congress leader tagged an video interview of a military analyst and questioned the government over the soldiers being sent "unarmed to martyrdom" in Ladakh.

The former Congress chief also tagged a one-minute video of a jawan's father saying the Indian soldiers were unarmed when they were attacked by Chinese troops.

He also took on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their long silence after the incident took place, and also questioned them for their delay in paying homage to the fallen soldiers.

Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.