The Congress has demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and withdraw the “clean chit” that the PM gave to China after a US defence report mentioned setting up of a village by Beijing in Arunachal Pradesh. 

A US defence report to the country’s Congress claimed that China had entered at least 4.5 km into Arunachal Pradesh. 

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must give answers on the matter. 

Khera said the Chinese intrusion has now been confirmed by the Pentagon to the US Congress in its annual report. 

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Khera said the prime minister and the home minister denied the transgressions and it has been 17 months since Modi gave a “clean chit” to China. 

“That clean chit is a dark chapter in our history because it was used by China across the world. China was emboldened by this clean chit, not just in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh but also in Uttarakhand, where PLA entered and destroyed our infrastructure,” Khera said while briefing the media. 

“This is a very serious issue. The prime minister must withdraw his clean chit given to China,” he said. 

Khera said, “We need answers, we need deadlines, we need dates and we need an apology for misleading the world that China has not entered our territory.” 

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A report of the United States’ department of defence has mentioned the 100-home Chinese village that was reportedly built by China “inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh”.  

The US defence report has been titled – “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China – 2021”. 

This report establishes the revelation made by US-based imaging company Planet Labs in January 2021, when it released a series of photographs, claiming that around 100 houses have been built along the river Tsari Chu in the upper Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh.  

“Sometime in 2020, the People’s Republic of China built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC,” the report said in a chapter relating to the India-China border standoff. 

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“These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China have been a source of consternation in the Indian government and media,” the report also said.  

The United States department of defence has further stated in its report that the India-China stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), since May 2020, gave the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “valuable real-world operational and tactical experience”.  

“Despite the ongoing diplomatic and military dialogues to reduce border tensions, the PRC has continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC,” the US defence report further said.