New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday sided with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley even as he brushed aside China's warning which had asked India to "learn" from the 1962 war and said the former's statement was "self-explanatory" as India is now capable of having all self defence.
Arun Jaitley said, "India of 2017 is different from India of 1962. Those were different situations"
"Whatever our Defence Minister has said it is self-explanatory. It clearly indicates that India is now capable of having all ammunition," BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi said.
A day after China warned India over the ongoing border face-off with an oblique reference of the 1962 war that ended in an Indian defeat, defence minister Arun Jaitley retorted on Friday that the India of 2017 is not what it was 55 years ago.
"If they are trying to remind us, the situation in 1962 was different, the India of today is different," said Jaitley at an event in New Delhi on Friday, adding that it was "absolutely wrong" for China to try to claim a slice of Bhutanese land in violation of all agreements.
Jaitley further said that Bhutan has appropriately pointed out that China was trying to usurp its land. India is not entering into any other country's land as China is doing, Jaitley said.
Earlier, Bhutan issued a demarche to China on Thursday over the construction of a road towards its Army camp in Zomphlri area of Doklam and asked Beijing to restore status quo by stopping the work immediately.
On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry of Bhutan issued a statement underlining that the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the 1988 and 1998 agreements between Bhutan and China and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between these two countries. They urged a return to the status quo as before June 16.
