Citing a report that claimed China was building two villages well within the territory of Bhutan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned what he termed as 'inaction' on the Prime Minister's behalf and said that India's lack of initiative in pushing back China had jeopardised its ally Bhutan.
The report from NDTV uses high-resolution satellite imagery to show that achina is building two interconnected villages less than 30 km from the Doklam Plateau where Indian and Chinese soldiers had a stand-off in 2017. Indian soldiers had physically blocked road construction by the Chinese soldiers at that time, the report stated.
"Modi Govt first surrendered our land and has now jeopardised our close neighbours by its inaction in pushing back China. If you don't stand up for yourself, how will you stand up for your friends?" the Congress leader tweeted.
Bhutan and China have been in border talks for over four decades and while the outcome of these has never been revealed, there has never been any international declaration by Thimpu handing over an inch of its territory to China.
"[This is] irrefutable evidence of ongoing construction and development activity in an area disputed by China and Bhutan...images show "multiple 'chalet-like' structures [which] are visible, with more under construction," the NDTV report quoted Damien Symon, a leading GEOINT researcher at Intel Lab, who first identified the sites in November last year, as saying.
Bhutan is a close ally of India and shares New Delhi's concerns on Chinese expansionist policy. A recent conflict between Indian and Chinese forces emerged in Ladakh, with India pressing for an early disengagement of troops in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh at the 14th round of military talks with China held on Wednesday.
Last week, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had termed Chinese renaming of places in Arunachal Pradesh as a ridiculous exercise, even as India strongly condemned China's attempts to build a bridge over Pangong lake, which it says has been illegally occupied for 60 years.