Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on June 16 called for a strong response from the Union government to the repeated violations of Indian territory by the Chinese.
“Our soldiers are not fair game that every few days officers and men should be be killed or injured defending our borders,” a furious Captain Amarinder said, reacting to the violent clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, which led to the Indian Army losing three officers.
“It is time now for India to stand up to these repeated incursions that are a blatant violation of our territorial rights and put a stop to such attacks on our territorial integrity,” the Chief Minister said, asserting that “every sign of weakness on the part of India makes the Chinese reaction more belligerent”.
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While it was important to defuse the tensions at the border, and India was not in favour of war, Captain Amarinder said the country could not afford to show weakness at this time and needed to take a strong stand to deter the Chinese from any further intrusions and attacks on its territories and men.
‘Feigning innocence’
“Even after brutally beating an Indian Army Commanding Officer and two soldiers to death, Beijing is feigning innocence and trying to put the blame on India, accusing it of provoking the conflict through ‘unilateral actions’,” he said. Such a reaction on the part of China was “typical of its duplicity”, he said, adding that the escalation of tensions in the Ladakh sector of the Indo-China border were the direct consequence of the incursions by Chinese troops into Indian territory.
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The Chinese actions were in direct violation of all the treaties signed between the two countries and a brazen assault on Indian integrity, said Captain Amarinder, urging the Central government to take suitable steps to send out a strong message that it would not take such attacks lying down.
Referring to the rising tensions at the Indo-Pak and Indo-Nepal borders also in the recent weeks, the Chief Minister said the country was clearly surrounded by forces seeking to destabilise its peace by taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis.
