Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh talk tough, say India won’t bow to China’s muscle-flexing

NEW DELHI: Amid a tense standoff with China, two members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) — defence minister Rajnath Singh and home minister Amit Shah — on Monday asserted that India will not give into muscle flexing by China to grab more land in the Ladakh sector.

Singh and Shah, while addressing virtual rallies of BJP workers at the interval of barely two hours, said that India will make no concessions to anyone at the cost of its national interest and national pride.

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Shah also struck a combative tone saying that India, like US and Israel, has the capability to carry out pre-emptive strikes to defend its territory as he recalled India’s strikes inside Pak territory in retaliation against terror attacks at Uri and Pulwama.

“We’ve also seen terrorist attacks like it used to happen earlier but PM Modi did not sit silent like previous PMs. He answered with airstrikes and surgical strikes by entering Pakistan and teaching them a lesson. This showed the world that India would not endure the encroachment of its borders,” Shah said while addressing the party workers of Odisha.

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Defence minister Rajnath Singh, on the other hand, asserted that any bid to hurt the dignity and sovereignty of the country will not be tolerable as India never intends to do so with other countries.

In a virtual rally addressed to the audience of Maharashtra as part of party’s “Jan Saamvad” rally on the completion of one year of the Modi 2.0, Singh said, “India’s dialogue with China is going on at military and diplomatic levels. There was a dialogue at military level on June 6, which was very positive and both the countries have agreed to continue talks to resolve the ongoing tussle.”

Defence minister further said, “We don’t hurt any country’s dignity and self respect and don’t even tolerate any such bid towards own country. I want to assure people that leadership of the country is in strong hands.”

Defence minister spoke about the ongoing border standoff by referring to Congress leaders’ continuous queries over the reported tension on the India-China border as senior opposition party leaders including Rahul Gandhi have been vocal about it and are demanding that the government should make a formal statement about the issue and make the country aware about what is happening at the border.

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“Some Congress leaders are repeatedly questioning about what is happening on the border. I want to assure people of the country that I will give a detailed information about the issue in the Parliament as we have nothing to hide from the people,” Singh said making it clear that the government is ready to respond the opposition queries as the Monsoon session of the parliament, whose dates are yet to be formally announced, is set to witness exchanges over the tension on the India-China border.

Singh recited a “punned” couplet of Mirza Ghalib to take dig at the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who also punned a Ghalib’s poem to attack the government and Shah over the border issue.

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“Hanth mein dard ho to dawa kije, “hanth hi mein dard ho to kya kije,” Singh recited, implying that if there is pain in the hand one can seek medical treatment but what to do when there is problem with the hand (Congress symbol) itself. [Agencies]