Lucknow:
As the stand-off between India and China continues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said that the Central government is afraid to take action against China.
"The country is in crisis. There is unemployment, price rise and corruption. And now, danger is looming large at the borders. Why is the government afraid? India is China's target. I have been warning for the past eight years. What were our intelligence agencies and foreign minister doing?" Mr Yadav said today in Lucknow.
"The government does not have the courage to force China back. Now one minister will go to beg with them. The Indian Army is not weak. I cannot understand why the Indian government is hesitant to act," the SP chief said.
The current border stalemate began on April 15 when a Chinese platoon set up camp 10 kilometres inside Indian territory in the Depsang Valley in Ladakh.
Two flag meetings in the last 10 days have yielded no results and the possibility of a third one that was scheduled to happen today, looks remote.
The Army assesses that the stand-off might continue for weeks without either side blinking and, importantly, without further escalation. Sources have ruled out any sort of military response to the incursion, but the Indian Army has ordered a re-assessment of vulnerable areas.
China reiterated yesterday that it has not provoked the flare-up. "China's troops have never crossed the (LAC) line. China and India are neighbours and the boundary is not demarcated yet," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.
Despite the tension at the disputed border, the worst in years, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has confirmed he will visit China on May 9. Mr Khurshid has tried to play down the tension, saying, "The important thing from both sides is that it is and must remain an isolated incident and should not spill over into the larger spectrum of our relationship with China."