ITBP chief remark row: Tharoor flag China concerns, Cong questions Modi’s silence

Amid a political row over Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief Shatrujeet Kapur's purported remarks that the Army is successfully handling a “face-off (with China) in Arunachal Pradesh”, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said on Friday (October 23) that India has good reason to be frustrated with China.

“The way in which China has behaved on our borders, the way in which they’ve nibbled away at our territory, their overt support for Pakistan during the brief conflict (Operation Sindoor) between our two countries last year is worrying,” Tharoor said at the NDTV World Summit.

Tharoor flags China’s trade leverage

“China not only supplied a vast amount of weapons, which is their legal right to do, but also supplied real-time data while the conflict was going on from their satellite spot above our territory, which was actually a hostile act. These are all things we have to really worry about.”

Also read | ITBP Arunachal row: Face-offs on unmarked border not unusual, says China expert

Turning to trade ties with China, Tharoor described the situation as one of interdependence without trust. “On our own borders we have the problem of interdependence without trust. I can’t even say interdependence because our dependence on China is far greater than theirs on us and yet can we trust them?” he pointed out.

He said the Galwan clash was not an isolated incident, with China having repeatedly disrupted the understanding that had kept the border peaceful. “Galwan was not the only incident. There were other incidents in which China essentially unilaterally upended the understanding that had existed between the two countries of a tranquil border and this worries us.”

Tharoor also warned that India’s reliance on Chinese imports left it vulnerable to supply disruptions, citing restrictions on rare earths and tunnel-boring machines. He stressed the need for stable ties with China, warning against the use of trade as a weapon.

“We need, as far as possible, predictable relationships. Relationships which won't be weaponised, and trade dependencies which won't be weaponised against us.”

Congress targets Modi over China silence

The Congress, meanwhile, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the reported “face-offs” with the Chinese Army in Arunachal Pradesh, saying there has been a “deafening silence” on it from him and his establishment, while the “self-styled vishwaguru’s calibrated concessions” to China continue.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a media report which quoted ITBP DG Shatrujeet Kapur as saying that in the past few-days, a situation arose “where face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues”.

Also read | Back to cartographic tussle: China’s Ladakh claims cloud normalisation

In his post on X, Ramesh said, “While the self-styled Vishwaguru's calibrated concessions to China continue, the DG, ITBP, has lauded --and rightly so -- its performance in recent face-offs with the PLA in Arunachal Pradesh, on which there has been a deafening silence from the PM and his establishment.”

“Locals had reported that patrolling points had been lost once again, as in Ladakh. China continues to rename our towns in Arunachal Pradesh and is building a 60,000-MW dam that threatens our ecological and water security,” the Congress leader said.

He pointed out that India’s trade deficit with China zoomed even further to a record USD 112 billion in 2025-26, up from USD 99 billion the previous year. “This has simply crushed our MSMEs in many industries. Make in India has become Import from China. This staggering trade deficit is in itself a very significant threat to our economic security,” he added.