Beijing: China would be forced to use a “military way” to end the standoff in the Sikkim sector if India “refuses to listen” to it, a Chinese expert has warned.

As the standoff at the Doklam area continued for the third week, the longest between the two countries, the official media and the think-tanks here have said that “war is possible if the conflict between India and China is not handled properly”.

“China is trying its best to use historical lessons to reason with India and show sincerity in peacefully solving the problem, but if India refuses to listen, then China would have no other choice than to use a military way of solving the problem,” Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the state-run Global Times.

Hu claimed that India is provoking China because it wanted to prove to the US that it could contain China while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the US.

But Hu said Trump was not like his predecessor Barack Obama.

“Obama believes India is important only because they share the same values, but Trump is very pragmatic, and he doesn’t treat India as a valuable ally because New Delhi is too weak to confront Beijing,” Hu opined.

Although India always treats China as its biggest rival, China does not think so as India lags far behind China, Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert, was quoted as saying by the daily.

“Experts also scoffed at India’s military threat after Indian Defense Minister Arun Jaitely asserted on Friday that the India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962,” said the report in the daily, known for its nationalist stance.

“The gap between the militaries of China and India today is even bigger than in 1962, and I hope India can keep calm for its own good,” Hu said.

Since the standoff on June 6, when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) destroyed bunkers of the India Army claiming the area belonged to China, Chinese media have carried several pieces warning India for escalating border tension and “reminding” the Indian Army about the 1962 war.

Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today accused the Modi government of being “insensitive” towards the most vulnerable sections of society by imposing “disability tax” on wheelchairs and Braille typewriters, and demanded its full rollback.

The GST on Braille typewriters and papers, carriages for the disabled and wheelchairs and other assistive devices have been fixed at rates varying between 5 to 18 per cent.

“GST on disability aids like wheelchairs and Braille typewriters, once again shows this government’s complete insensitivity towards our most vulnerable.

“Congress Party demands a full roll back of this ‘disability tax’ that will put millions of our disabled people through further hardship,” he said on Twitter.

The Congress party also put out a picture showing imposition of GST on wheelchairs and Braille paper.

“By hastily rolling out GST, Modi Govt has abandoned those who need its support the most. #GSTTamasha,” said a tweet put out by the party on its handle.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddramaiah in an attempt to support distressed farmers in Karnataka, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to waive farmers loans obtained from nationalized banks in the state.

In a letter to Prime Minister, Siddaramaiah said, the state government has already waived farmers loan taken from co-operatives and other financial institutions in Karnataka and the centre should take steps to waive farmers loan. Last month Karnataka chief minister announced a farm loan waiver of Rs 8165 crore and the announcement is reportedly benefit 2,227,506 farmers in the state.

(Agencies)

Beijing: The ongoing verbal spat between China and India today escalated as Beijing said the Indian Army’s action to stop Chinese troops from constructing a road in an area near Sikkim is a “betrayal” of the position taken by successive Indian governments and India must pull back its soldiers.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that the Sino-India border in the Sikkim sector is well demarcated.

“By entering into the Chinese territory and obstructing Chinese troops’ normal activities, India has violated the existing convention on the boundary and basic principle of international law and obstructed peace and stability of the boundary area,” Geng told reporters at a briefing.

“We require the Indian side to withdraw their troops to the Indian side of the boundary and create conditions for he restoration of peace and stability in the relevant areas.”

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Doka La area near the Bhutan trijunction for almost a month in what has been the longest such impasse between the two armies since 1962, when the two countries fought a brief war.

Sikkim, which became a part of India in May 1976, is the only state which has a demarcated border with China. The lines are based on a treaty signed with the Chinese in 1898. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng said India needs to observe the treaty and pull back its troops immediately. He dismissed Defence Minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks that India of 2017 is different from what it was in 1962, saying China too is different and will take “all necessary measures” to safeguard its territorial sovereignty.

“Former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru endorsed the 1890 Sino-British Treaty on Sikkim in a letter to the then Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1959. Successive Indian governments have also endorsed this,” he said.

“The India-China boundary in the Sikkim section is well demarcated. The action taken by India is a betrayal of the position taken by (successive) Indian governments,” he said.

“What has happened is very clear, the Sikkim section of the boundary has already been defined by the 1890 convention between Great Britain and China. Doklam belongs to China.”

Asked if there was a possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 Summit in Hamburg in Germany this week, Geng said he has “no information at the moment” about the arrangements for bilateral meetings between Xi and leaders of other countries.

He, however, said the line for diplomatic communication between India and China is “open and smooth”.

The standoff came to notice when China denied Indian pilgrims entry for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim. At first, Beijing said it stopped the Yatra due to damage to roads in Tibet after rains and landslides.

Later China signalled the matter was related to the standoff between the two armies near Sikkim. The Sikkim route to Mansarovar was opened in 2015, enabling pilgrims to travel the 1500-km long route from Nathu La to Kailash by buses.

Today, Geng said the other route to Tibet through Lipulek pass is open as it is located in the middlesection where there is no dispute over boundary between India and China.

On the Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement on Friday that the construction road by Chinese troops in the disputed Doka La area would represent a significant change of status quo with “serious” security implications for India, The Chinese foreign ministry official said they have “noted” the statement by India.

“It evaded the 1890 convention between Great Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet. But it is this convention which has confirmed the alignment of the boundary between the two sides at the Sikkim section. This convention has been recognised by successive Chinese and Indian governments and has been confirmed by the Indian governments in written form,” he said.

“Prime Minister Nehru has affirmed in his letters to the Premier Zhou Enlai that the convention must be observed. That is the basic principle of international law. It is an obligation must be fulfilled by the Indian side,” he said.

He also accused India of using Bhutan as a cover.

“In order to cover up the illegal entry of the Indian border troops, to distort the fact and even at the expense of Bhutan’s independence and sovereignty, they try to confuse right from wrong, that is futile,” Geng said.

“We have no objection to normal bilateral relations between India and Bhutan but firmly opposed to Indian side infringing up Chinese territory using Bhutan as an excuse. The Bhutan side does not know previously that the Indian troops entered into the Doklam area, which is not in line with what is claimed by the Indian side,” he said.

This is not the first time that such a transgression has happened at Doka La. The Chinese forces had in November 2008 destroyed some makeshift Indian army bunkers there.

Defence experts believe China wants to exert its dominance over the Chumbi Valley, which is a part of the southern reaches of Tibet. By claiming the Doka La area, Beijing wants to maximise its geographical advantage so that it can monitor all movements along the India-Bhutan border.

Since the standoff on June 6, when PLA bulldozers destroyed bunkers of the India Army claiming the area belonged to China, Chinese media have carried several peices warning India over escalating tension and “reminding” the Indian Army about the 1962 war.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and said it was high time they took ‘corrective action’ against the mob frenzy and lynching incidents across the country, which President Pranab Mukherjee had rightly flagged.

“It is high time the BJP government takes note of this widespread mob frenzy and lynching incidents, rightly flagged by the President of India and Congress president. Instead of falsification, lies and distortion, without any facts or numbers, the BJP would do better to take note of the anger which is engulfing the citizens of India against vigilantism by their own partymen,” said Congress chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

He said three years had passed since the BJP came to power at the Centre and “we have seen enough of platitudes, speeches and alibis, it is time for some corrective action”.

Hitting out at Shah, the Congress leader said even the president had shown the “mirror of truth” to the BJP on the growing incidents of “mob frenzy” which had become “irrational, uncontrollable” and had tacit protection and support of the government, yet the BJP chief had resorted to “falsehood and utter brazenness”.

Shah, he said, instead of listening to the “conscience keeper of the nation”, had “most shamelessly chosen to ignore the reality of a bizarre yet concerted ‘Lynching Movement’, which the government had overtly supported and encouraged in the last few months”.

Surjewala also asked Shah whether it was not a fact that more than 50 cases of lynching and mob justice had taken place in the country in the three years of the BJP rule.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about a new India. Is this the new India his party wants to create, where ruthless mobs take law in their own hands and hapless people are lynched and beaten to death?” he asked.

Surjewala alleged that the Sangh Parivar organisations “associated with the BJP”, including the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, had actively been “instrumental” in many of these dastardly acts. “Why has no action been taken against them?” he asked.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, recently at the Sabarmati Ashram, said vigilante justice in the name of Gau Raksha (cow protection) was completely unacceptable. He had made a similar statement in August 2016. But, nothing seems to have changed. “Why doesn’t the voice of Modi, who sheds crocodile tears occasionally (for public consumption) by invoking Gandhiji and Vinoba Bhave, never reach the vigilante, nor is the rule of law and Constitution upheld to punish them?,” he asked.

Surjewala said Nityanand Mahato, the media in-charge of the BJP’s Ramgarh unit in Jharkhand, was arrested by the police on Saturday over an incident of mob lynching of a man which was reported from Jharkhand last week.

Mahato, he alleged, had instigated the mob and added that a video of the incident not only showed that the BJP leader was present at the spot, but that he dragged the deceased, Alimuddin Ansari, out of his vehicle.

“As he (Mahato) kept watching, the mob thrashed Ansari mercilessly,” he alleged quoting the Jharkhand Police. “Will Shri Amit Shah blame the Congress-UPA for the merciless death of these individuals, in which his own partymen are involved?” the Congress spokesperson asked.

He claimed that such incidents of mob lynching had occurred in “every BJP-ruled state”. “Rumours are spread by the vested interests to mobilise the mobs, who then are encouraged to attack their targets with a state-aided licence to kill,” alleged the Congress spokesperson.

Surjewala said Modi and Amit Shah must have taken note of the nationwide protests launched by the citizens and civil society groups, which had once again “shaken the conscience” of the nation.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Goods and Services Tax launch will enhance buying power of consumers as over 80 per cent of the goods fall below the 18 per cent tax bracket, but SMEs need to work to remove technology glitches, say experts.

Tax professionals want the government to have empathy towards businesses in initial days of GST rollout to make the reform acceptable to all sectors of the economy. The biggest tax reform in independent India was rolled out at the stroke of the mid-night — the intervening night of June 30-July 1 — by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“With 80 per cent of the goods falling under 12 per cent and 18 per cent bracket leading to a fall in prices, GST will enhance the buying power of consumers without real increase in their income, which in turn will spur demand,” said Sachin Menon, KPMG (India) Partner and Head, Indirect Tax.

GST will remove plethora of taxes like excise, service tax and VAT and transform India into a uniform market for seamless movement of goods and services. In the initial few months of the GST launch, companies do expect significant challenges with respect to effective delivery by various realigned IT systems and continuous changes required in processes and systems on account of the law evolving each day.

“It is also highly expected that many sections of the industry may not be fully compliant with various requirements of GST law from Day 1 itself and would require a transitioning period of few months, post the go-live date,” said Rajeev Dimri, BMR and Associates LLP Leader (Indirect Tax).

Experts also say lack of clarity with respect to taxability of transactions with Jammu and Kashmir is leaving many companies unnerved. It would also be of utmost importance to carefully book all expenses and sales and map all the credits accurately in early days of GST for successful transition of all such credits.

“The launch of GST will truly unite the country as far as taxation of goods and services is concerned. We now hope that that the government moves to a considerate and empathetic implementation regime with a focus on making the reform acceptable to all sectors of the economy,” said M S Mani, Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP (Senior Director).

Menon said that with assumptions and presumptions on date of implementation out of the way, industry players, including the MSME sector, will need to iron out last-minute glitches to ensure smooth operations from the first day itself. According to Pratik Jain, PwC India Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax, once the regime settles in, “we can look forward to it spurring the economy by incentivising manufacturing and making business decisions independent of taxes”.

Archit Gupta, Cleartax.com CEO and founder, said, “Even though some sellers may be facing hardships at this crucial transition phase, we join hands with the government in helping them bridge the other side.”

(Agencies)