BJP on Friday constituted a five-member committee

Upping the ante on the perceived threat from China, the BJP on Friday constituted a five-member committee to “study and prepare a report” on “Chinese incursions” and “encroachments into India’s territory in Ladakh” even as it repeated the charge that “new National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon is known to follow a soft line on China and Pakistan”.

The RSS, especially its chief Mohan Bhagwat, has been talking about the “threat from China” in the past few months and has asked for “strengthening of India’s frontiers” and a “nationalistic foreign policy”. “There have been credible reports in the media quoting government agencies and sources that China has encroached into India’s territory in Ladakh,” said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, adding that an “official Chinese government website said it is their right to establish military bases overseas to conduct retaliatory attacks at potential enemies”.

The BJP, meanwhile, sought to step up the heat on the appointment of Menon. “My colleague Prakash Javadekar has already spoken about the Sharm el-Sheikh blunder (the joint Indo-Pakistan statement, on which the BJP had launched a sustained attack on the UPA government, and said that “Menon was to blame for it”). We do not advocate confrontation, yet we are surprised as to why there is a deliberate attempt to downplay the increasing belligerence of Chinese assertiveness. This low profile approach would seriously impinge upon our national security. There is additional cause for concern because the new National Security Adviser (Shivshankar) Menon is widely perceived to follow a very soft line on China and Pakistan,” said Prasad.