Is BJP unwilling to face China owing to close links to Communist Party, asks Congress

In a statement released to media on Monday, Congress leader Pawan Khera, chairman of the party's media & publicity (communications department), has raised a series of questions on the Union government's policy toward China.

"Ever since June 2020, when the outgoing Prime Minister gave China a clean chit for its actions in Ladakh, the people of India have been asking why the BJP is so unwilling to stand up to China. Are the close links between the BJP and the Communist Party of China behind this?" the statement reads.

In March, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk had announced that the agitation to demand statehood for Ladakh would intensify and a 'border march' be held on 7 April in the eastern part of the Union territory to highlight ground realities, including alleged encroachments by China.

The march was eventually called off as the Union government mobilised a massive force that turned Ladakh into a "war zone", according to Wangchuk. "Why is the government so nervous? What does the government want to hide? The Modi government is only concerned about corporates and votes, not about the people and security of Ladakh," he was also quoted as saying.

In somewhat similar vein, Khera's statement points out that there have been at least 12 meetings between BJP politicians and Communist Party of China officials since 2008, most of them in China. "What happened at each of these meetings? Why have these two parties met so frequently?" he asks.

When BJP cadre went to the Communist Party "school," what were they taught? "Why did BJP-RSS leaders meet with the CCP in the same month as the June 2017 border clashes at Doklam? Yeh rishta kya kehlata hai (what does this relationship tell us)?"

The second part of the statement is a list of demands for a complete record of the minutes of each of the 12 aforementioned meetings beginning October 2008, when a 15-member CCP delegation visited the BJP central office. The present Union defence minister Rajnath Singh had then reportedly said the BJP "has always favoured fostering positive ties with China", according to Khera.

Khera lists each of the 12 meetings by date and those involved. For example, the statement mentions that "in January 2009, a BJP-RSS team took a 5-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai to meet with the Communist Party of China, including the CCP Politburo".

In November 2014, according to Khera, "a 13-member BJP team visited China to learn from the CCP 'party school'. Bhagat Singh Koshyari, then a BJP MP, met with the vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference".

Again in February 2015, CCP central committee minister reportedly met with Union home minister Amit Shah at the BJP headquarters. In September 2019, BJP president J.P. Nadda met the Chinese ambassador.