Congress fires salvo at PM Modi on BJP's alleged close links with China

New Delhi, May 20 (PTI) The Congress on Monday alleged that the BJP has close links with China and posed several questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a complete record of the minutes of the 12 top-level meetings between the ruling party members and the Chinese officials since 2008.

Congress leader Pawan Khera, in a statement, asked whether the BJP has "close ties" with China and what has been the outcome of the several meetings between the two sides.

"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.

He said there have been at least 12 meetings since 2008 where the Bharatiya Janata Party politicians have met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, most of them in China itself.

"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 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," the Congress leader said.

Giving details of the meetings, Khera said in October 2008, a 15-member CCP delegation visited the BJP central office. Rajnath Singh then said the BJP "has always favoured fostering positive ties with China".

In January 2009, he said 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 the Communist party leaders on a "goodwill visit" and claimed that 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, he said.

In February 2015, a CCP central committee minister met with Amit Shah at the BJP headquarters and 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, he said, adding 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, Khera said, claiming that it was to allegedly "develop new types of political party relations".

In August 2019, he claimed 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, he also said, adding that in September 2019, BJP president J P Nadda met with the Chinese ambassador. PTI