India under Narendra Modi can't be threatened: Ravi Shankar Prasad on China face-off

NEW DELHI: Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that “no one can threaten Narendra Modi government’’ in view of reports about Chinese President Xi Jinping asking the country’s armed forces to be prepared for war.

The Law Minister made this remark while addressing a press conference. During his press briefing, Prasad also slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for saying that the nationwide lockdown called by the Narendra Modi government has 'failed'. 

The Bihar BJP politician mentioned that the first state to announce a lockdown was Punjab followed by Rajasthan. In addition to this, he further reminded Rahul Gandhi that Maharashtra and Punjab were the first ones to extend the lockdown till May 31, even before the meeting of chief ministers with the Prime Minister.

Prasad questioned Rahul Gandhi that when you say lockdown is not the solution, "then don't you explain this to your chief ministers? Or don't they listen to you, or they don't give your opinions any weightage?" He further accused Gandhi of weakening India's fight against COVID-19 and deliberately twisting facts.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had on Tuesday ordered the military to scale up the battle preparedness, visualising the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country's sovereignty.

Xi, 66 who is also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the two-million-strong military with prospects of lifelong tenure in power, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Armed Police Force during the current parliament session being held here.

Xi ordered the military to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without mentioning any specific issues that posed a threat to the country.

His comments came in the backdrop of the continuing standoff between the militaries of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.

The nearly 3,500-km-long LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries. Indian Army Commanders` Conference kicked off in New Delhi on Wednesday wherein discussion over China frontier in Sikkim, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh would be done at great length. 

The conference was planned much before the tension with China in the eastern Ladakh region.

Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane is presiding over the conference. The top commanders of the force are attending the meeting and all security issues, including the Chinese aggression in Ladakh will come up for discussion during it, said a senior Indian Army officer.

The Army Commanders` Conference, an apex level biannual event that facilitates conceptual level deliberations culminating in important policy decisions scheduled for April 2020 and postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic, will now be organised in two phases.

The first phase of the conference began on Wednesday and would continue till May 29, 2020, and the second phase in the last week of June 2020.

The apex level leadership of the Indian Army will brainstorm on current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for the Indian Army.