London: Reiterating that the “Chinese are still in Doklam”, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday declined to reveal information discussed at the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs which looked into the Doklam standoff.
Responding to a question on the Doklam issue while interacting with Indian Journalists Association in London, Gandhi said, “Chinese troops are still in Doklam and have built massive infrastructure there. The Prime Minister went recently to China and didn’t discuss Doklam with them. The Prime Minister went there without agenda. Somebody comes here, slaps you on your face and you have a non-agenda discussion.”
On being asked if he could throw light on the Doklam report since he was part of the Parliamentary Committee and had an interaction with the Foreign Secretary, Gandhi said, “It is a tricky question because I can’t say. I am bound by Parliamentary privilege; can’t say what was in the report. But I can say that we had a conversation with the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary on Doklam. And what was said in that room, cannot be said outside.” The 19-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs is headed by Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor.
On Friday, Gandhi asserted that the Doklam standoff could have been avoided if the current government at the Centre-led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi dealt with the matter more diligently.
During an interaction at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, the Congress chief took a sardonic dig at the incumbent government and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dispensation claimed that China withdrew its forces from Doklam, but the “Chinese are still present” at the disputed site.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]