'Poori himmat hai…': Rajnath Singh accepts Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's challenge to discuss China issue in Lok Sabha

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday accepted Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury challenge to discuss the China border dispute in the Lok Sabha.To a question from Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury whether he had the courage to discuss China issue in Lok Sabha, Singh while addressing the House said, "Poori himmat hai…China pe bhi...Mein charcha karne ke liye taiyaar hun aur seena chauda karke charcha karne ke liye taiyaar hun... (I have full courage…I am ready to discuss even on China and I am ready to discuss with my chest wide)."The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.Bilateral ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, which marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying to the Opposition over the India-China border situation in Ladakh while reiterating China has snatched Indian territory.“China has taken Indian land...thousands of square km...and ironically Indian Prime Minister said at a meeting with the Opposition that not an inch of Indian land was taken,” Gandhi had said at a rally in Kargil on the last day of his nine-day visit to Ladakh in August.Gandhi’s reference was to PM Modi’s comments in June 2020 at an all-party meeting following the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers in a clash with China’s People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. Modi told leaders of political parties that neither has anyone entered nor is anyone present in Indian territory and nor was any Indian post captured.Gandhi said this was an outright lie.With inputs from agencies