Left Parties Urge Modi to 'Make up His Mind' after PMO Issues Clarification on Galwan Valley Remarks

The Left parties on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the clarification issued by the PMO on his comments that no one entered Indian territory, demanding that he "make up his mind" before speaking and stop being "ambivalent" on serious issues.

The PMO on Saturday described as "mischievous interpretation" the criticism over Modi's remarks at an all-party meeting that no one has entered Indian territory or captured any military post while referring to the Galwan Valley clash in eastern Ladakh.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said the focus of Modi's remarks at the meeting on Friday was the events of June 15 at Galwan that led to the loss of lives of 20 Indian military personnel.

"Mr Modi should first make up his mind and then speak unless his attempt was to mislead all the political parties and weaken our position in diplomatic talks. What else did the PM say in the all-party meeting last evening which he did not mean? Can we trust anything that was said on an issue of such strategic importance if he changes his statements so quickly? Sacrifices of our soldiers should not be reduced to vote-bank politics, Mr Modi," tweeted CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Both the CPI(M) and the CPI said the clarification raised more questions than it answered and sought to know how such serious issues can be spoken of in such vague terms by the leader of the nation.

CPI general secretary D Raja said, "I just want to ask the PM how can he be so ambivalent on such a sensitive issue that clarification needs to be issued by his office? Yesterday, he said one thing at the all-party meeting and now issues a clarification which they claim is the correct version. It was a high-level meeting. How could he have been not clear at such a meeting? Which one should we believe? This only leads to further questioning."

On Friday, the Congress as well as a number of strategic affairs experts raised questions over Modi's remarks asking if there was no transgression by the Chinese military in Galwan Valley then where did Indian soldiers die. They also wondered whether Modi gave a clean chit to China over the standoff.