Indian Army soldiers unfurl tricolour at Galwan Valley on 1 January 2022

New Delhi: The opposition in India has a new critic — Chinese state-affiliated English newspaper, The Global Times.

An editorial published in the newspaper Wednesday accused the Indian opposition of turning “New Year sweets into bullets”.

“On the first day of 2022, Chinese and Indian soldiers exchanged greetings and sweets along the LAC. But the opposition in #India has taken the chance to hype this event, accusing the #Modi administration of “capitulating to #China”, The Global Times‘ official Twitter handle posted, while sharing the piece on social media.

The comment seems to have been triggered by a remark made by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who had rebuked the BJP-led central government for allowing the Indian Army to exchange sweets with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on the first day of the New Year.

On 2 January, the Ministry of Defence had said that sweets were exchanged between the Indian Army and the PLA in the Hot Springs, Demchok, Nathula, and Kongra La areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). A similar exercise was also carried out with the Pakistani Army along the Line of Control (LoC).

However, on the same day, Chinese state media Xinhua and state officials and dignitaries had shared a video on Twitter of the Chinese flag being unfurled in the Galwan Valley by the PLA.

The Galwan Valley had seen a massive face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in 2020, leading to casualties on both sides.

Reacting to these developments, Owaisi, in a series of tweets on 2 January, had alleged that the Modi government was “capitulating to Beijing’s bullying”.

“By exchanging sweets at areas where Chinese soldiers have come in and occupied our territory in Ladakh, what is the message Modiji (is) trying to send to Xi Jinping? In contrast, China is putting out belligerent videos from Galwan”, Owaisi said in the tweets.

Tagging the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the tweets, he added: “Why has the Chinese ambassador not been summoned so far? This government is incapable of defending Indian territory against Chinese aggression and is capitulating to Beijing’s bullying. Has India ever seen a weaker PM and a more scared government than this one?”

The Congress too had attacked the Prime Minister and the Indian government after the video of the Chinese flag being unfurled in Galwan surfaced.

“Mr Prime Minister, the entire country and the world want to know as to how the Chinese unfurled the Chinese flag in Galwan Valley and wrote in the Chinese language that they will not give an inch of land back”, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala had asked.

However, it was later reported that the Chinese flag was not unfurled on the Indian side.