New Delhi, June 18: The Congress "strongly condemned" Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui's pitch on Monday for an India-China-Pakistan trilateral meeting under the SCO framework, and called on the government to do the same.

The party also said that all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan will have to be resolved bilaterally in terms of the spirit of the Shimla agreement.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: "We strongly condemn the statement of the Chinese ambassador. We expect the government of India to strongly condemn this unwarranted suggestion which has been made by the Chinese Ambassador.

"It seems that the Chinese ambassador is not cognizant about the India-Pakistan paradigm. We have maintained and continue to maitain that whatever issues or whatever outstanding issues there are with Pakistan have to be resolved in a bilateral format." 

"There is absolutely no place for any third party intervention in so far as India and Pakistan and its outstanding disputes are concerned.

"This has been the consistent position of governments across different administrations from 1972 onwards when the Shimla agreement was signed.

"There is absolutely no scope of any third party intervention and we stand by the spirit of the Shimla agreement as well as the resolution passed by the Indian Parliament in 1994 and 2013 respectively," he added.

On the Chinese Ambassador saying bilateral ties between India and China can't take the strain of another Doklam episode, Tewari said: "Doklam did not happen in Pakistani territory. The stand-off happened in Bhutanese territory. How is the statement even relevant to what transpired in Doklam."

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Mandya: Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy has accused Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy of collecting crores of rupees from various companies for the bypolls of three assembly constituencies of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Addressing press persons on Monday, he stated that the JD(S)-BJP alliance has poured large amounts of funds into the bypolls of three constituencies in the state. “We could not compete against them, money alone cannot make anyone win. People will bless owing to our pro-people programs,” he added.

He claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party through its ‘operation lotus’ has been attempting to poach Congress legislators since the formation of the government in 2023. He further said, “Kumaraswamy and BJP leaders keep saying that the government will fall, what other proof is required to determine that Operation lotus is being conducted.”

“Everyone is aware that operation lotus cannot run without money. They have lured our MLAs with money. However, our legislators have ignored such attempts. We will provide adequate proof about the amount of money and the legislators they tried to poach at the right time. Let them (BJP-JDS) prove allegations against us (Congress) first,” said the Minister responding to a reporter’s question.

Cheluvarayaswamy also refuted claims of scandal and cited them as ‘baseless.’ He further said, “Everything is under investigation. Ask them to prove their allegations first. It is just an illusion that the state government will fall owing to the scams.”

Get all the latest, breaking news from Karnataka in a single click. CLICK HERE to get all the latest news from Karnataka.