Former Finance minister P. Chidambaram on Monday asked the government in Rajya Sabha whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping discussed the border situation when they met at the G20 Summit in Bali, leading to objections and disruption from the Treasury benches. The Congress MP made the remarks after starting the discussion on Appropriation (No. 5), Bill, 2022 and Appropriation (No. 4) Bill, 2022 introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Citing an additional Rs 500 crore sought for border roads in supplementary demand for grants, Chidambaram said he had the right to raise the conditions at the border while clarifying that he did not want any sensitive information. “These are strategic and border roads in the Northeast,” he said. “We know who is the threat in the northern and eastern border. Has China conceded anything on Hot Springs? Have the Chinese agreed to discuss the friction points in the Doklam Junction and the Depsang Plains?” “You are creating more buffer zones. What does a buffer zone mean? According to our information, it will be a no-patrol area. Does it mean we are no longer patrolling where we used to,” Chidambaram asked, leading to disruptions from BJP MPs. The Congress leader asked the government about infrastructure being built by the Chinese on the other side and said he did not want to know about the matching infrastructure on the Indian side as it may be a defence secret. When Chidambaram began speaking about a video of Modi and Xi meeting in Bali, BJP member G V L Narasimha Rao objected and said the topic was not related to the discussion on the Bill. After being asked to take note of the rule in question by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, Chidambaram continued that according to a video of the meeting, Modi and Xi shook hands and Modi was the one who did the talking. “I just want to know, without going into the details, was the border situation discussed? Just, yes or no,” Chidambaram said, leading to another round of disruptions from the Treasury benches. Chidambaram’s statements came after the Opposition staged a walkout earlier in the day over their demand for a discussion on the recent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. Meanwhile, discussing the government’s demand for an additional Rs 3.25 lakh crore for this financial year, BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi noted that Rs 1.09 crore of that was meant for fertiliser subsidy alone. He appealed to states not to adopt the Old Pension Scheme and said they would be placing the burden on the next generation. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien alleged that the Centre was carrying out an “economic blockade of states”. Mentioning that it was his maiden speech, Aam Aadmi Party's Raghav Chadha said the demand for grants was in fact a “demand for subsidy”. He said when the AAP government in Delhi announced subsidies, it was accused of giving freebies. “Our revadi [freebie] is revadi, but their [Centre's] revadi is subsidy,” he said. Biju Janata Dal MP Prashanta Nanda asked the Union government to stop sending funds directly to implementing agencies, as it was leading to “parking of funds” and instead routing them through the state’s consolidated fund. YSRCP member V Vijaisai Reddy hit out against Chidambaram over his tenure as Finance minister and said financial problems faced by Andhra Pradesh today are a result of the bifurcation of the state by the then UPA government. He also said the NDA government had failed to act in time when it came to the issue of adequate funds for fuel, fertiliser and MGNREGA at the time of the Budget in February. The discussion on the Bill is set to resume on Tuesday.
