The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Ever since the 2020 India-China standoff in Galwan valley, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, the Narendra Modi government has had to face consistent attacks by the opposition forces.
On Monday (October 21), soon after the Ministry of External Affairs announced a breakthrough in the border disengagement process between the two countries, a section of opposition parties responded with great caution and hoped that the Union government divulges more information on the “breakthrough” as a confidence-building measure.
‘PM’s remarks weakened us immeasurably’
Congress’s general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh went on to even take a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his 2020 remarks, in which he had assured the nation that “no one” had trespassed Indian territory nor had taken control over any Indian post.
“…can the nation ever forget these remarks made by the non-biological PM on June 19, 2020, which weakened us immeasurably,” Ramesh said.
“While we await fuller details of the agreement reached between India and China, it is pertinent to recall that Parliament was not allowed an opportunity for a discussion on the border situation even once these past four and a half years,” he said, lashing out at the union government for not allowing the matter to be discussed in the Parliament despite consistent demands by the opposition.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, too, posted on X, demanding details of the arrangement that was agreed upon by both sides. “We await the details about the details of the arrangement that has been agreed upon with China. The foreign secretary’s language was cryptic. Let’s hope that while restoring Indian patrolling rights, it doesn’t allow the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] access to areas it was not coming to earlier (sic),” Owaisi said.
“This should not be a repeat of what we witnessed in Doklam after 2017 where the PLA gained permanent presence in the area. Unless full details are made available, it is hard to be certain of the outcome,” he said.
‘Reached an understanding that will allow patrolling’
Earlier, foreign secretary Vikram Misri announced that India and China have reached an agreement on the patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Following the Galwan clash, both countries had withdrawn the patrolling rights that each of them had along the LAC in various military posts.
“Now as a result of the discussions that have taken place over the last several weeks, an agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the line of actual control in the India-China border areas and this is leading to dis-engagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” Misri said.
Later, the Union Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar said at a media event that the “disengagement process” effectively meant a status quo ante. “There are areas which for various reasons after 2020… because they had blocked us so we had blocked them. So what has happened is we have reached an understanding which will allow the patrolling (sic),” Jaishankar said, adding that the breakthrough was achieved because of a “patient and persevering diplomacy”.
“I think the understanding to my knowledge is that we will be able to do the patrolling which we were doing in 2020,” he said.
Commenting on the development, The Wire’s founding editor and senior journalist M.K.Venu said on X, “This could pave the way for overall repair of India-China relations as de-escalation on the border takes place. Timing is interesting. Coincides with BRIC summit in Russia & the ongoing tension with Canada and US. Russia seems to have played a role.”
“What is now to be seen is how quickly the military de-induction at the border takes place to restore a full status quo ante which existed before 2019. The Chinese began massing troops after Ladakh was made a UT, which the Chinese saw as facts changing on the ground,” he added.