New Delhi: It is the opposition’s job to criticize the ruling dispensation in Parliament and in public. Its job is to show the mirror to the government of the day as was evident during the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address in Parliament last week.
In his reply to the motion of thanks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi castigated the opposition for relying more on political rhetoric and muckraking rather than honest facts to corner his government. This was quite evident in reply of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, leader of the Indian National Congress in Lok Sabha, when he demanded a debate on Chinese transgressions across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern sector citing a report. The same veteran Parliamentarian and Legislator in a debate on the abrogation of article 370, 35A and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir on August 6, 2019, embarrassed his own party by saying that Article 370 was not an internal matter and referred to UN monitoring since 1948, Shimla accord and Lahore Declaration to buttress his argument.
On both counts of China and Article 370, the opposition leader was challenged by Home Minister Amit Shah as clearly there were gaps in Adhir Chowdhury’s arguments and allegations. While the Opposition leader was pilloried for his article 370 statement in 2019, his reference to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru calling for an early debate in Parliament to discuss the 1962 India-China war was not the correct picture as he called upon the Modi government to discuss the Chinese transgressions on the 3488 km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Since the military friction with China is continuing after the PLA transgression in May 2020 in East Ladakh, it would be instructive to note when the Third Lok Sabha debated the China intrusions into Indian territory in the 1962 war. One must remember that then PM J L Nehru had 73 per cent of the House with members belonging to the Congress party in a Lok Sabha of 494 members. The debate took place in Lok Sabha on November 8, 1962 by which time India had lost Aksai Chin and had even abandoned the Daulet Beg Oldi post in the western sector. The Chinese were relentlessly attacking across the McMahon line in the eastern sector with loss of territory in the Tawang sector. By October 24, 1962, the Indian forces had retreated to Se La and Bomdi La and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh was under PLA control.
In the debate, while then PM Nehru said that Indian Army was making all efforts to expel the invaders, the words seemed to lack conviction and the PLA attack against began on November 17, 1962, and by the time ceasefire was declared two days later even Tezpur had been abandoned by the Indian Army in wake of sweeping PLA offensive.
While Home Minister Amit Shah pointed to Opposition leader Chowdhury about the timing of debate in 1962 by PM Nehru, fact is that there is no loss of land the East Ladakh after the May 2020 transgressions by the belligerent Chinese Army with both armies disengaging from the friction points after series of detailed dialogues between the military commanders. Even though it is the right of Parliament to debate on any issue of national and international concern and the Opposition’s job is to criticize the treasury benches, sensitive topics involving China and Pakistan should be better researched or else it works in favor of India’s principal adversaries.
