Amit Shah Hits Back With Video of Soldier's Father as Rahul Gandhi Accuses PM of Ceding Territory to China

Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday shared the video of an injured soldier’s father to hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his allegation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ceded Indian territory to China in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

In the video, the father of a soldier who was injured in the cross-LAC clash on June 15 is seen appealing to Gandhi to not politicise the border tensions. Twenty soldiers of the Indian Army, including a Colonel, were killed by Chinese troops in the violent escalation of months-long standoff at the icy peaks.

Gandhi’s allegation came a day after Modi said at an all-party meeting that “neither is anyone inside India's territory nor has any of its posts been captured”.

Tagging PM's remarks with his tweet, Gandhi said, "PM has surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression." "If the land was Chinese: 1. Why were our soldiers killed? 2. Where were they killed?" Gandhi said.

Hitting back at Gandhi, home minister Amit Shah said the Congress leader should rise above “petty politics” and tagged a video of a soldier’s father asking Gandhi not to indulge in politics.

“A brave armyman’s father speaks and he has a very clear message for Mr. Rahul Gandhi. At a time when the entire nation is united, Mr. Rahul Gandhi should also rise above petty politics and stand in solidarity with national interest,” he said.

In a statement on the all-party meeting called by Modi on Friday to discuss the situation at the India-China border, the government said, "At the outset, prime minister clarified that neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our post captured."

The categorical statement by the prime minister came in the wake of reports that Chinese military has transgressed into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border, in several areas of eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley.

The prime minister's assertion came even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi, at the all-party meet, questioned the government's handling of the situation, asking if there was any intelligence failure, and seeking assurance that China will "revert" to its original position.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused senior ministers in the government of "lying" to protect the prime minister and that the Centre was "fast asleep" while martyred jawans paid the price in Ladakh.

The former Congress chief also tagged a one-minute video of a jawan's father saying the Indian soldiers were unarmed when they were attacked by Chinese troops.

He has been questioning the government on the LAC standoff and asking how the Chinese occupied Indian territory and why Indian soldiers were sent "unarmed to martyrdom" in Ladakh.

Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.