Government must appoint committee to review events leading up to loss of Indian lives and territory in faceoff with China: Asaduddin Owaisi

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 19 (ANI): AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday demanded that the government of India must appoint an independent review committee that may look into the sequence of events leading up to the loss of Indian lives and territory in the wake of the recent faceoff between India and China in Galwan valley of Ladakh.
"The crisis has precipitated for over a month, in which time, 20 soldiers have been killed by the Chinese forces. The blame for this crisis lies solely with the political, strategic and military leadership headed by the Prime Minister. The government must appoint an independent review committee that may look into the sequence of events leading up to the loss of Indian lives and territory. The government must publish the committee's findings in a whitepaper and make it accessible to the public," Owaisi said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Modi.
"The whitepaper must provide clarity on several issues in the period between May 2014 and June 2020," he added.
The questions raised by Owaisi are:
-How much Indian territory is under Chinese occupation since May 2014?
-How many security personnel has India lost due to Chinese incursions or "faceoffs"?
-What is the status of territory at Naku La (Sikkim) where a "faceoff" was reported between Indian and Chinese forces on May 9?
-How many times have talks been held between the government of India and the government of China since PM Modi took office?
-How many incursions have been made into Indian territory by Chinese forces?
-Who is responsible for the loss of lives of 20 Indian army personnel in the recent face-off?
-If the Indian soldiers were reportedly armed in the most recent standoff, why did they not open fire following the killing of their Commanding officer by China?
-What were the intelligence inputs about Chinese movements that were ignored by the government?
-Has China communicated that India violated the bilateral border agreements by altering the constitutional status of Ladakh by making it a Union territory and abrogating Article 370?
Owaisi also blamed the government for not inviting AIMIM to the All-Party meeting held today on the India-China issue.
"It is disappointing to record that AIMIM was not invited to today's All-Party meeting on the China border issue which was to be chaired by you. It is absurd to limit the invitee political parties only to those with over 5 Lok Sabha MPs, parties with Union Cabinet Ministers and recognised national parties. This situation required the government to include every political party with a Member of Parliament," Owaisi said.
"It is essential to convene Parliament at the earliest so that opposition parties may seek accountability from the ruling party and the government is bound to answer queries of representatives regarding the occupation of Indian territory," he added.
Owaisi further demanded that the government should inform the public about the steps that will be taken in the next 15 days to avenge the death of Indian Army personnel and the attempts that will be taken to recover Indian territory.
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel rank officer, had lost their lives in a violent face-off that happened in the Galwan valley, as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in eastern Ladakh. (ANI)