Rahul Gandhi's 'China sitting in our territory' claim is false, says Rajnath Singh
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday termed Rahul Gandhi’s claim that “China is sitting in our territory” as “false” and said that the words that the latter had attributed to Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi were not spoken by him at any point in time.
Gandhi, on Monday, while participating in a discussion on the President’s address in the Budget Session, had said, “Chinese are inside the Indian territory. The Prime Minister had denied it, the Army Chief had contradicted him (the PM). Our Chief of Army Staff said that the Chinese are inside our territory.”
Rajnath Singh posted on social media platform X, saying, “Rahul Gandhi in his speech in Parliament on February 3, 2025, made false allegations about the statement of the Army Chief on the situation on the India-China border.”
The Army Chief’s remarks – made on January 13 at a press conference – referred only to the disturbance of traditional patrolling by both sides, he said. “He (the Army Chief) also mentioned that these practices have been restored to their traditional pattern as part of the recent disengagement. The government has shared these details in Parliament,” the minister said.
“The words attributed to the Army Chief by Rahul Gandhi were never spoken by him at any time,” Rajnath Singh stated, adding that it was a “matter of deep regret that Rahul Gandhi should indulge in irresponsible politics on matters of national interest”.
Rajnath then drew on history to put blame on the Congress saying, “If at all there is Indian Territory into which China has come, it is 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin as a result of the 1962 conflict and 5,180 sq km that was illegally ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963.”
Rahul Gandhi may consider introspecting about this phase of our history, the Minister added, without mentioning that the Congress was in power when the 1962 war with China happened.
Earlier on January 13, the Indian Army Chief, on being asked about the present situation, had said, “Since April 2020, both sides have doctored the terrain on their sides, have added troops, stocked up (arms and weapons) and added troop numbers. So in these terms, there is a degree of stand-off.”
He had ruled out a reduction in troop-levels along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“Troop deployment directly depends on the trust factor (between the two armies) and the capabilities have been created on other side. The current capabilities across entail that we will need to maintain the troop levels.”