India lost precious territories to China, Pakistan due to wrong policies of Congress: Rajnath Singh

Srinagar: Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that China had illegally occupied Aksai, Chin and incursions by Chinese troops in Ladakh didn’t augur well for cordial ties with Beijing.

“India wants good relations with its neighbours, but this should be reciprocated by its neighbours,” Mr Singh tweeted after addressing a rally at Leh.

At the rally and also in his tweets, Mr Singh said Ladakh and J&K’s two other ethnically distant regions, Jammu and the Valley, were close to the BJP’s heart, and it wanted evenly balanced development of all three.

“We in the BJP consider Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh extremely close to our hearts,” he said.

Mr Singh attacked the Congress for its “wrong” policies. “India lost precious territory to China and Pakistan due to the wrong policies of the Congress,” he said, adding: “The Congress lost Tibet, that acted as a ‘buffer state’, to China, and Pakistan handed over Aksai Chin to China.”

The minister said the Chinese troop incursions in Ladakh, and continued illegal occupation of Aksai Chin, “don’t augur well for maintaining cordial ties”.

Earlier this year, both New Delhi and Beijing had admitted to intrusion by the Chinese into Ladakh but both the sides sought to play it down saying the issue was resolved amicably through a flag meeting. The Home Minister Mr Singh had after reported incursion bids by the Chinese PLA in Demchok and Chumar areas along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh sector said these occur due to problem of perception about boundary.

Later on Twitter, he reiterated that Ladakh like Jammu and Kashmir Valley were close to the BJP’s heart and alleged that “on the other hand, parties like the Congress believed that Ladakh was nothing more than a cold desert”.