New Delhi: Indian and Chinese military commanders met on Monday to try to ease tensions at their disputed Himalayan border as the public mood hardened in India for a military and economic riposte following the worst clash in more than five decades.
Major Indian traders called for a boycott of Chinese goods and the state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, put three initial investment proposals from Chinese companies worth Rs50 billion ($658 million) on hold, just days after signing the agreements.
India said 20 of its soldiers were killed in a clash last Monday with Chinese troops in a major escalation of a weeks-long standoff between the nuclear-armed Asian giants in the western Himalayas.
An Indian government source said commanders met in Moldo, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border dividing India’s Ladakh region from the Chinese held Aksai Chin.
The meeting lasted several hours, with the Indian side pushing China to withdraw its troops back to where they were in April, a second Indian government source said.
China, in previous rounds of talks, had asked India to stop all construction work in what it says is Chinese territory.
Soldiers fought with rocks, metal rods and wooden clubs at the Galwan Valley last Monday after a weeks-long stand-off.
China has not disclosed how many casualties it suffered, though an Indian minister has said around 40 Chinese soldiers may have been killed.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a briefing in Beijing on Monday that the two sides were in communication through diplomatic and military channels.
Many in India have called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government to show it will not be bullied, remembering their country’s humiliation in a brief border war against China in 1962.
Members of an Indian traders’ body made a bonfire of Chinese goods at a market in New Delhi, pushing for a nationwide boycott of products made in China.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents some 70 million traders, has asked federal and state governments to support a boycott of Chinese goods and cancel government contracts awarded to Chinese companies.
“The entire nation is filled with extreme anger and intensity to give a strong befitting response to China not only militarily but also economically,” CAIT National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal wrote in a letter to chief ministers of some Indian states.
Investment plans on hold
In prosperous Maharashtra, the government said it was putting three investment plans, including from Great Wall Motor Co, on hold.
“In the current environment we will wait for the federal government to announce a clear policy regarding these projects,” industries minister Subhash Desai said.
China is India’s second-biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $87 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2019, and a trade deficit of $53.57 billion in China’s favour, the widest India has with any country.
The editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper warned that the “nationalists of India need to cool down”.
“China’s GDP is five times that of India, military spending is three times,” Global Times editor Hu Xijin said in a post on Twitter.
The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.
Political dogfight erupts after Manmohan's Singh criticism of govt
A war of words erupted between the ruling BJP and the Congress over former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the death of 20 Indian soldiers by Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh's Galwan valley.
The Congress hit out at BJP national President J.P. Nadda saying they should stop compromising on national security and India's territorial integrity as it would be biggest disservice to the armed forces and asked not to buckle down.
The ward of words erupted between the Congress and the BJP after Manmohan Singh in a statement on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister saying "disinformation" on the Chinese transgression will be a "betrayal" to the sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers at the LAC and it was neither a "substitute for diplomacy" nor "decisive leadership".
Following Singh's statement, Nadda slammed the Congress for insulting the armed forces and also reminded it of questioning the valour of the forces by questioning the Balakor air strike in 2019 and Uri surgical strike in 2017.
Nadda took to twitter and wrote, "Dear Dr. Singh and Congress party, please stop insulting our forces repeatedly, questioning their valour. You did this post the air strikes and surgical strikes. Please understand the true meaning of national unity, especially in such times. It's never too late to improve."
Soon after Nadda's remarks, Congress national spokesperson and national media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala slammed the BJP chief and said, "Dear Nadda and the BJP, stop compromising on national security and India's territorial integrity.
"This would be the biggest disservice to our armed forces and our 20 martyrs. Don't buckle down, have the strength to rise to the occasion. We'll give the government every support," Surjewala said in a tweet.
Earlier in the day, after the former Prime Minister's statement, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi also said that 'hope government will accept his advice' in the interest of the country.
"Important advice by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. For the betterment of India, I hope the Prime Minister will accept it politely," he said in another tweet.
