The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): The Congress on Monday accused the BJP of having close ties with China and posed several questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding detailed records of the minutes from the 12 high-level meetings between BJP members and Chinese officials since 2008.
Congress leader Pawan Khera raised these questions in a statement, questioning whether the BJP has “close ties” with China and what the outcomes of these meetings were. “Ever since June 2020, when the outgoing Prime Minister gave China a clean chit for its actions in Ladakh, the people of India have been asking why the BJP is so unwilling to stand up to China. Are the close links between the BJP and the Communist Party of China behind this?” Khera asked.
Khera highlighted that there have been at least 12 meetings since 2008 between BJP politicians and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, with most of these meetings taking place in China. “What happened at each of these meetings? Why have these two parties met so frequently? When the BJP cadre went to the Communist Party ‘School’, what were they taught? Why did BJP-RSS leaders meet with the CCP in the same month as the June 2017 border clashes at Doklam? Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai? We demand a complete record of the minutes of each one of the meetings,” Khera stated.
Detailing these meetings, Khera said that in October 2008, a 15-member CCP delegation visited the BJP central office, and Rajnath Singh stated that the BJP “has always favoured fostering positive ties with China.” In January 2009, a BJP-RSS team took a five-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai to meet with the CCP, including the CCP Politburo.
In January 2011, then-BJP president Nitin Gadkari went to China and met with Communist Party leaders on a “goodwill visit.” In November 2014, a 13-member BJP team visited China to learn from the CCP ‘Party School.’ Bhagat Singh Koshyari, then a BJP MP, met with the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
In February 2015, a CCP central committee minister met with Amit Shah at the BJP headquarters. In October 2015, BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe met with Chen Fengxiang, vice-minister of the International Department of the CCP central committee, in China.
“In June 2017, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav met Guo Yezhou of the CCP in Fuzhou, China. In May 2018, BJP leader Anirban Ganguly met with Guo Yezhou of the CCP in Shenzhen, China,” Khera stated. He added that in August 2018, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav again met with a CCP minister in Beijing, China.
In September 2018, CCP politburo member Huang Kunming met with BJP leader and then Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das to allegedly “develop new types of political party relations.” In August 2019, a BJP delegation led by BJP general secretary Arun Singh visited China. A BJP cadre study group held talks with Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the CCP Central Committee.
In September 2019, BJP president J P Nadda met with the Chinese ambassador. Khera’s statement suggests that the frequency and nature of these meetings raise questions about the relationship between the BJP and the CCP, especially in the context of ongoing tensions between India and China.