Thiruvananthapuram:

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday accused the BJP-led Centre of failing to contain the Chinese aggression at the border. Launching an attack on the Narendra Modi-led dispensation, he said, “Unless we stop hoodwinking the people by saying that China has taken nothing and there is no change, the country is in danger of losing a significant amount of territory.”

The Thiruvananthapuram MP said the Chinese aggression issue is not just a map but a much larger problem.

“This cartographic aggression is a way for China to erase certain markers done and when they sense vulnerability, they move according to their idea of the map,” Mr Tharoor said.

He said earlier there were about 65 points where both armies used to patrol along the frontier, and there were no incidents for 45 years.

“Suddenly, on 26 of these points, the Chinese Army comes and establishes permanent positions, which means that our Army, which used to patrol, can no longer patrol,” the Congress leader said.

He claimed Indian shepherds in Ladakh can no longer graze their sheep. 

“Rahul Gandhi, who visited these herders recently, heard it from their own lips. Even a local BJP councilor said the same,” Mr Tharoor claimed.

He said the government has been talking about showing ‘Lal Aankhen’ (Red Eyes) to the Chinese, but there are no red eyes, but only red flags of the neighbour.

He said that it is now of paramount importance that the Congress and the Opposition hold the government’s feet to the fire.

Mr Tharoor said the statement of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar that Beijing had even put out such maps in the past, claiming territories that were not theirs, and that it was “an old habit” of China was not true. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)