New Delhi [India], July 29 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday hit back at Congress over its allegations against the government in relation to China and took potshots at Rahul Gandhi over his meeting with Chinese envoy during Doklam standoff in 2017.
The minister, who was participating in the debate on Operation Sindoor in Lok Sabha, referred to some comments made by Congress member Gaurav Gogoi about government not mentioning China in the context of its support to Pakistan.
"Some mention was made about visits, including my visit. Yes, I went to China. I went to China to make our position very clear about de-escalation, about trade restrictions and about terrorism. I did not go to China for the Olympics, I did not go to China for secret agreements. The House should know that people were watching Olympics when China was issuing stapled visas to people from Arunachal and Jammu and Kashmir. This is the reality of China. Let me really tell you how is the relation with China. We heard about warning about China, caution about China and you know China is planning this and China is planning that. Sir, I want to remind this House," he said.
The over two-month Doklam crisis eruputed in 2017 following actions of Chinese Army. Rahul Gandhi is now the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
"Doklam crisis was on. The Leader of Opposition decided to get a briefing from whom? Not from the Government, not from the MEA, but from the Chinese Ambassador. He took his briefing from the Chinese Ambassador when our military was confronting the Chinese military in Doklam. This is the political thing. I spoke about the political fact, I spoke about the border fact, let me give you an economic fact. What is the economic thinking of the Congress Party about China? In 2006, the Congress Party agreed to do a regional trading arrangement with China. It was finalised during the visit of President Hu Jintao. A task force was appointed. The task force gave a positive recommendation. Through the efforts of various people, this did not happen. Let me give you the technology side. The very people today who are cautioning us on China are the people who allowed 3G and 4G to come from China. It was this Government which made sure that there was a Made in India 5G," the minister said.
Jaishankar spoke of government's efforts to ramp up border infrastructure.
"We keep speaking about the border. The border today, whether it is border with Pakistan or border with China or any other border. If our military is today able to stand its ground, the kind of massive deployment that we saw on the China border after 2020, it is because our border infrastructure budget has gone up four times, our tunnelling, our road building, our bridge building has doubled or tripled. And this is a far cry from the period the thinking was let us not develop the border because then the Chinese cannot come in. We had 60 years of the neglect of the border. Today in last 10 years, that neglect has been reversed. There is still a lot of work to be done. So I think people need to understand, and its not just in India," he said.
Jaishankar also talked of improving ties with several neighbouring countries.
"We have just come back from Maldives. When I hear comments about foreign policy, day before yesterday, the PM was the Guest of Honour at the Independence Day of Maldives. This is the country which during their time forced an Indian company to leave an airport. That country has today invited India to build two new airports. Look at Sri Lanka. If the Hambantota port was built between 2005 and 2008 and at that time it was actually justified that it has no impact on India's interest. I want the House to appreciate that the people who are claiming today to be the custodians of national security thinking, who say that they are giving warnings, let us look at their record, let us see what they did when they were in office," he added.