India shouldn’t budge an inch till status quo ante restored at India-China border: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. File

Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on July 7 said the retreat of the Chinese Army in Ladakh vindicated the argument that intrusions had indeed taken place on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and asserted “we will not budge an inch” before status quo ante is restored at the border.

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The senior Congress leader had earlier asked the Modi government not to be in “denial” over the incursion by the Chinese military into Indian territory.

“Unlike Indian Army, Chinese forces are not accustomed to withstand harsh & inhospitable glacial weather of Himalayan mountain which may trigger to the extent of the retreat of the Chinese Army, that too again vindicates our arguments that huge intrusions occurred into our territory,” Mr. Chowdhury said in a tweet.

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“They may try to leave other occupied strategic areas as a fait accompli. But we won’t budge an inch till the status quo ante is restored,” he wrote on Twitter.

In the first signs of easing tensions, the Chinese military on July 6 began a limited pull-back from a number of friction points in eastern Ladakh, a day after NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on completing the ongoing disengagement process along the LAC “expeditiously”, government sources had said.

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Mr. Doval and Mr. Wang, who are designated Special Representatives on Sino-India boundary question, held a telephonic conversation on July 5 during which they had a “frank and in-depth exchange” of views and agreed that a “complete disengagement” of troops at the “earliest” was necessary for full restoration of peace in the border areas, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on July 6.

Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in hand to hand combat in the Galwan Valley during the violent face-off last month on the normally peaceful border. There were military casualties on the Chinese side as well.