India-China border standoff and terror attack on Amarnath Yatra in Jammu & Kashmir were the two issues discussed in the all-party meeting, for the second consecutive day, called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in attendance.
The Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary-designate also attended the meeting with the latter giving a presentation on the twin issues.
CPI leader A Raja, who represented his party in the meeting, said that standoff with China should end by way of negotiation. He said mechanisms like 1993 agreement, meeting of special representatives, Shanghai Cooperation forum were available to both the countries to end the stalemate as he also reminded that China and India trade has gone up considerably.
later, Raja said the Government maintained there were only differences and “no tension” between the two countries. The CPI leader said the Government agreed to go by consensus.
Jaitley was asked about development of border roads and infrastructure along the India-China border to which he was quoted by Raja as saying that as the Finance Minister and Defence Minister he sees that allocation of funds “has some problems.”
Home Secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba briefed leaders of 11 political parties on the security provided to the Amarnath Yatra saying 200 additional companies of CAPFs and 3 additional battalions of Army were provided for the Yatra this year. The security arrangements have been reviewed regularly at the Centre and State level, he said.
Gauba said since the start of the Yatra on June 29 till Friday l,86,000 yatris had darshan so far and the Yatra will go on till August 7, 2017 as scheduled. last year 2.21 lakh yatris visited the shrine during the entire yatra period. After the incident, security arrangements have been reviewed again and are being closely monitored by the Centre and the State Government, he said.
All political parties condemned the attack.
leaders from Siromani Akali Dal, Rashtriya lok Samta Party, Indian National lok Dal, Janata Dal (Secular), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Communist Party of India, Sikkim Democratic Front, National People’s Party, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Bodoland People’s Front and Republican Party of India.
On Friday, leaders from the INC, AIADMK, JD(U), AITMC, TDP, Shiv Sena, TRS, CPI(M), YSR Congress Party, DMK, BSP, SP and NCP attended the all-party meeting.