Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the remark by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi relating to the Indian Army chief and China was a “false allegation” and was irresponsible.

Singh said that the comment about the situation at the Line of Actual Control between India and China that Gandhi had attributed to the Army chief had not been made by him.

Gandhi had said on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had denied that the Chinese military was inside Indian territory “but for some reason, our Army keeps talking to Chinese about their entry into our territory and the Chief of Army Staff has said that the Chinese are inside our territory.”

The comment by the Congress leader during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address was in an apparent reference to the military stand-off between Indian and Chinese forces at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

“The Army chief’s remarks referred only to the disturbance of traditional patrolling by both sides,” Singh said on social media. “He also mentioned that these practices have been restored to their traditional pattern as part of the recent disengagement.”

The Union government has shared these details in Parliament, the defence minister added.

Singh added: “The words attributed to the Army chief by Shri Rahul Gandhi were never spoken by him at any time. It is a matter of deep regret that Shri Rahul Gandhi should indulge in irresponsible politics on matters of national interest.”

Army chief Upendra Dwivedi said on January 13 that patrolling and grazing in traditional areas had started in eastern Ladakh’s Demchok and Depsang, which were among the key points of contention during talks held to reduce border tensions.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on Tuesday that if at all there was any Indian territory that China was sitting on, it was the 38,000 sq km in the Aksai Chin region “as a result of the 1962 conflict” and 5,180 sq km illegally ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963.

“…Gandhi may consider introspecting about this phase of our history,” Singh added.

Border tensions between India and China escalated in June 2020 when a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. It led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. Beijing said that the clash left four of its soldiers dead.

Following this, both countries deployed thousands of troops along with heavy artillery in the region.

Since the Galwan clashes, China and India have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve their border standoff. In October, the two countries announced that they had reached a patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control, “leading to the disengagement” of the two militaries in eastern Ladakh.