‘Several questions remain’: Congress seeks details of patrolling agreement along LAC with China

File image of an army convoy carrying military material on its way to Ladakh amid border tension with China at Manali-Leh highway. (PTI)

The Congress party on Wednesday welcomed the patrolling agreement along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border but said that serious questions remained about the pre-2020 situation.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Congress MP Manish Tewari sought a detailed report from the Centre on the current and pre-2020 situation along the LAC. The government, he said, has not elaborated on the specifics of the Chinese transgression as it never brought the matter to Parliament for discussion.

"If there has been forward movement with China, that is extremely satisfying and satisfactory. However, there are very serious questions that remain. What exactly was the pre-2020 situation? That has not been elaborated by the government because it has never really come before the Parliament for a discussion on the Chinese transgressions," Tewari said.

The remarks came two days after the Ministry of External Affairs announced that an agreement had been reached regarding patrolling arrangements along the LAC.

"The agreement is an outcome of extensive discussions over the past several weeks with Chinese interlocutors at both diplomatic and military levels," Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday.

Questioning the arrangement between the two neighbours, Tewari asked the government to specify how deep the Chinese transgressions were between April and May 2020 and which areas did it trangress into.

"Has China withdrawn from all those areas in which it had transgressed, or are there some legacy disputes that are still remaining, like Demchok and Depsang?" Tewari asked citing a paper written by a senior IUPS officer in January 2023.

Tewari claimed that paper explicitly mentioned that from Karakoram Pass to Chumar, 65 patrolling points -- India has lost access to 26 of those.

"So, have we regained access to those 26 patrolling points now that an agreement on patrolling seems to have been reached? What has been put out by the Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary is not really a complete narration of what has actually transpired," he added.

Claiming that a fair amount of opacity still remained, Tewari said it was important that the government brief the Parliament on the pre-2020 situation, the points where China transgressed and the depth of those transgressions.

Tensions between India and China escalated along the LAC in June 2020 leading to casualties on both sides. Militaries of both sides engaged in multiple rounds of talks in a bid to resolve the matter.

The Congress MP's remarks came on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. The interaction between the two leaders is the first since 2019.