Dr Jaishankar also reiterated that at present we have the largest peacetime deployment in history on the China border

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister (EAM), Dr S Jaishankar, on Tuesday, hit back at Rahul Gandhi on his frequent criticism of what he described as the government's 'defensive' China Policy.

"If I would have to sum up this China thing, please do not buy this narrative that somewhere the government is on the defensive...somewhere we are being accommodative. I ask people if we were being accommodative and who sent the Indian Army to the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Rahul Gandhi did not send them. Narendra Modi sent them," Dr Jaishankar told the news agency.

Dr Jaishankar also reiterated that at present we have the largest peacetime deployment in history on the China border.

"We are keeping troops there at a huge cost with great effort. We have increased our infrastructure spending on the border five times in this government. Now tell me who is the defensive and accommodative person? Who is actually telling the truth? Who is depicting things accurately? Who is playing footsie with history?" Dr Jaishankar questioned.

EAM further said that he would listen to Rahul only if he had 'superior knowledge and wisdom' on China.

"I think he said this somewhere in a public meeting. It is probably in the context of China. All I can say in my defence is I have been the longest-serving ambassador in China. I have been dealing with a lot of these border issues for a very long time. I am not suggesting that I am necessarily the most knowledgeable person, but I would have a fairly good self-opinion of my understanding of what is up there. If he has superior knowledge and wisdom in China, I am always willing to listen. As I said, for me life is a learning process. If that is a possibility, I have never closed my mind to anything however improbable that may be," Dr Jaishankar remarked.

On the Congress and other opposition parties slamming the government over Chinese constructions at the Pangong Lake region in Ladakh, the foreign minister said the area had been under illegal occupation of China since the 1962 war.

The Congress and its leaders "must have some problem understanding words beginning with 'C'," the minister quipped.