New Delhi: The Indian Defence Ministry published a document on its website a few days ago on Chinese intrusion in the Ladakh region, but it was removed on Thursday (6 August), kicking up a row. The document had confirmed Chinese intrusion in the Ladakh region, contrary to the claim of Prime Minister Modi that they had left.

India’s former home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, a key member of the main opposition party, Congress, has charged that a statement on Ladakh first published on the Defence Ministry’s website and later withdrawn exposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that “no one intruded into Indian Territory and no one is occupying Indian Territory.”

​Chidambaram said he suspected that “there is a Chinese mole in the Defence Ministry,” in an attempt to get Rajnath Singh out of the Ministry. “Otherwise, why would the @DefenceMinIndia website put out the truth about the Chinese aggression and occupation of Indian territory,” Chidambaram asked in a series of tweets on Friday.
​The former federal minister said the single statement has damaged Rajnath Singh’s image.

“Chinese aggression has been increasing along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) and more particularly in Galwan Valley since 5 May 2020. The Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and the north bank of Pangong Tso lake on 17-18 May, 2020,” reads the document, since removed from the Ministry's website. 

Prime Minister Modi during an interaction with leaders of opposition parties on 19 June, had said, “No one entered in our territory, not entered earlier, nor (were) any of our posts occupied by anyone.”

The official document of the Defence Ministry was diametrically opposite to what the Prime Minister told political leaders, four days after the bloody faceoff with Chinese Army in the Galwan Valley, which took the lives of 20 Indian soldiers and an unverified number of troops from China's People’s Liberation Army.

Chidambaram said, the document redoubles the suspicion in public mind that “the Defence Ministry and the Army had failed to act on the intelligence inputs and allowed the Chinese to bring troops and equipment and cross the LAC.”

New Delhi and Beijing have been discussing the disengagement of the army to the pre-faceoff position, but despite several rounds of talks between army commanders and diplomats of both the countries, the PLA has refused to withdraw from two friction points: Pangong Lake and Hot Spring Gogra.

India and China have unresolved border disputes over Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast and in Ladakh. Both have been engaged in dialogues to resolve the issue, but without any success so far.

India-China border covers the 3,488 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), which mainly is a land border in most regions, but in Pangong Tso in Eastern Ladakh it passes through a lake. India controls the western portion of the 45-km long lake, while the rest is under Chinese control. Most of the clashes between the two countries have taken place in the Galwan Valley.

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