At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the incident which involved the Indian and Chinese armed forces. The incident took place in Galwan Valley in the disputed Ladakh region. This is the first deadly clash in the border area in at least 45 years.The Indian army initially said three of its soldiers had been killed, adding that both sides suffered casualties. But later on, the officials mentioned a number of critically injured soldiers had died of their wounds taking the official tally to 20.
While India's external affairs ministry has accused China of breaking an agreement struck the previous week to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley, China maintains that it were the Indians that crossed the LOC.
Soon after this, the BJP and Congress – two biggest parties in India started blaming each other for the martyrdom of soldiers. The BJP president JP Nadda had earlier this week said that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation had accepted donations from the Chinese embassy, to which former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram responded by asking if Prime Minister Narendra Modi could assure the country that China would stop the armed aggression if the RGF returned the ₹20-lakh donation.
The Congress also reminded the BJP that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited China 5 times and is the only prime minister to call his Chinese counterpart to India 3 times. The also claimed that BJP is the only party which received a delegation and held detailed consultations with the Chinese on 17 October 2008, led by the current defence minister.
While plays politics the most convenient way to go for both sides, they must stand united to ensue that we can deal with this crisis of China with our full strength. This will, for starters, ensure that the government does not hide important details about actual developments that take place due to the fear of criticism. Doing so only leads to more proliferation of rumours and fake news.
The government should also recognise that by attacking the opposition all they are during is reducing their credibility and inviting more rhetorical attacks. Dealing with Chinese aggression should be a bi partisan issue and parties must come together to deal with this. China and its ambitions is certainly a threat to India and its sphere of influence, thus India must stand together and plan for the longer term, not just the election years.
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