Congress flip-flop on Rahul Gandhi's meeting with Chinese envoy

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday did a flip-flop on its Vice President Rahul Gandhi's meeting with Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaohui in Delhi amidst the border standoff, but sought to do some damage control later by asking questions of the government over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hamburg last week.

Hitting back at the government, Gandhi said if it was so concerned about his July 8 meeting with the Chinese envoy how did three union ministers enjoy Chinese hospitality "while the border issue is on". Last week, around the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hamburg, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the "silence" of the Prime Minister on the border stand-off in Doklam, at the trijunction of India, China and Bhutan.

The embassy had said in its `Wechat' account: "On July 8, Ambassador Luo Zhaohui met with Rahul Gandhi, vice-president of the Congress party. The two sides exchanged views on the current China-India relations and other business. Counsellor Zhou Yuyun attended the meeting."

"It is my job to be informed on critical issues. I met the Chinese Ambassador, Ex-NSA, Congress leaders from NE & the Bhutanese Ambassador," Gandhi said.

"If the government is so concerned about me meeting an ambassador, they should explain why three ministers are availing Chinese hospitality while the border issue is on," he added.

"And for the record I am not the guy sitting on the swing while a thousand Chinese troops had physically entered India," Gandhi said.

In the afternoon statement Surjewala said: "Nobody should try to sensationalise such normal courtesy calls to term them as events like the 'sources' from the Home Ministry are trying to do."

"Rahul Gandhi as other opposition leaders are fully aware of our national interests and are concerned about the grave situation on the Indo-Chinese border as also the situation arising in Bhutan and Sikkim," he added.

"But I have some questions too. If so much of a brouhaha is being made about it then why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi actually cross Lake Alster and go to Grand Elysee Hotel to meet with the Chinese President, specially after the Chinese had made it known that a structured bilateral meeting is not possible because of the standoff."

"What was the Minister of Human Resources Prakash Javadekar doing in Beijing. What was the Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma doing on July 6 and 7 in Beijing and what was union Health Minister J.P. Nadda doing in China at the same time," Congress leader Manish Tiwari asked.