After pledging support to the Government in dealing firmly with Chinese aggression, the Opposition BJP on Sunday asked the Government to put on hold External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's visit to China until the neighbouring country withdraws its forces stationed on Indian soil.
“Despite this (incursion), our Foreign Minister is going to China on a visit. I am sorry, but I would humbly request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop the Foreign Minister. Till the time China leaves our territory in ladakh and goes back, there should not be any visit to Beijing,” Rajnath Singh said addressing the Matri Shree awards function here.
Khurshid's will be visiting Beijing from May 9 to prepare for the visit by the newly-elected Chinese Premier li Keqiang to India next month.
Stepping up pressure on the Centre to act, the BJP chief also demanded that the Indian Army be deployed in the area instead of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
“The area where China has infiltrated was under the Army till 2010. The Government pulled out the Army from there and handed it over to the ITBP, which falls under the Home Ministry. I request that without any delay, the area under the ITBP be handed back to the Army because no other force can work there. It is a very sensitive matter and our country is facing grave danger from outside,” Singh said.
The BJP chief said the way China was surrounding India from all corners was “not a recent thing” and that he had attracted the Government's attention to this five years ago.
Taking exception to the Prime Minister's remark describing the Chinese incursion as a “localised problem”, Rajya Sabha's leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said it was not a “satisfactory answer”.
“There are various options possible for a Government. I am not for a moment speaking about confrontation, but there are instruments of diplomacy available to a State,” Jaitley said.
The options could be from trade pressures to raising certain issues which may put the other side on the defensive to international pressures, Jaitley told reporters in Bangalore.
“Are we doing any of these or are we treating it as a non-issueIJ Regrettably, I get the latter impression,” he said.