Ladakhis Complain About Lost Grazing Land, Despite PM Modi’s Claim That Not An Inch Of Land Was Taken By China: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi, the head of the Congress, said on Sunday that Ladakhis have protested to him about Chinese soldiers occupying their grazing grounds, refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that not even an inch of Indian territory has been stolen by China.

In Eastern Ladakh, India and China have been engaged in a military stalemate for more than three years. As negotiations to end the problems continue at different levels, some 50–60,000 soldiers from both sides are still present in the area along with fighting and war-waging equipment.

Rahul and the Congress party have consistently criticized Modi and the government of India for how they have handled crises. Rahul is now in Ladakh on vacation.

“Everyone (in Ladakh) says the Chinese Army has intruded and taken over our grazing land, and they (people) cannot go there now,” Rahul told the reporters. Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims that not a single inch of land was taken over, this is what they are obviously stating.

During his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul said he had intended to go to Ladakh, but had to scrap the idea for “logistical reasons.” The Yatra started at Kanniyakumari and ended in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar. A large number of normal people, celebrities, and representatives of civil society participated in the Yatra, which was intended to reinvigorate the Congress party.

Rahul said, “I decided let me come and undertake a thorough tour of Ladakh. I traveled to Pangong and will now go to Kargil and Nubra. The goal is to pay attention to what the people are saying and what worries them. The (grazing) land that China has seized in this area is the cause for worry. The invasion of the people’s grazing pastures has had a significant impact on them. The people’s lack of cellphone access is another worry.

Everyone in the area, according to Rahul, who spoke to PTI, would tell you that the grazing field has been “taken over by the Chinese Army.”

Chinese forces invaded Ladakh in the beginning of 2020 and engaged in combat with Indian personnel. As a result, there were intense tensions and the deployment of 68,000 soldiers and military hardware including tanks, artillery, and fighter jets in the area. Then, on June 15, 2020, India-China ties took a turn for the worse when a confrontation in Eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley claimed the lives of 20 Indian troops and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers. After the fighting in the Galwan Valley, Modi said that “not an inch of land has been taken.”

“Neither have they crossed our border, nor have they (China) occupied any posts.We now have the capacity to prevent anybody from seeing even a single inch of our property. After the fighting in the Galwan Valley, according to the Hindustan Times, Modi said that India’s military forces were capable of entering many regions at once.

India and China have spoken at various military, official, and leader levels since the crisis started. According to India, the relationship between the two nations is at its lowest point since 1962, when they fought a war that India lost, as a result of Chinese aggression near the border that sparked the Ladakh stalemate. China has attempted to separate the border issue from the greater bilateral relationship, but New Delhi has emphasized that the larger bilateral relationship is based on the peace and quiet along the border.

A government statement quoted National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval as saying that the situation at the border “eroded strategic trust” and the public and political basis of the relationship when he met with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on July 24 outside of the BRICS meeting in South Africa. In order to eliminate obstacles to the restoration of normality in bilateral relations, the statement further stressed the necessity of continuing efforts to properly settle the issue and restore peace and tranquility in the border regions, according to PTI. At a meal held at the G-20 conference in Indonesia last year, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the need to stabilize bilateral ties, according to information released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last month. Up until the MEA statement from last month, the meeting was not mentioned.

The disengagement process between India and China was finally completed in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra region as a result of negotiations, although certain sites of contention still exist, such as the Depsang region.

Rahul celebrated his father Rajiv Gandhi’s birthday on the shores of the lake on Sunday morning as he traveled from Leh to Pangong on motorbikes with a number of his friends. According to Leh-based Congress Spokesperson Tsering Namgyal, Rahul was joined in paying tribute to Rajiv by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) In-Charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Rajni Patel, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Vikar Rasool Wani, and former minister Nawang Rigzin Jora.

Later, according to Namgyal, Rahul and a number of Congressmen departed for Nubra Valley, where he would spend the night before traveling back to Leh.

Rahul arrived in Leh on Thursday, according to Namgyal, and is expected to go to Kargil on Monday or Tuesday, depending on his obligations in Leh.