India on Saturday strongly rejected China's claim of sovereignty over Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, asserting that attempts by the Chinese side to "advance exaggerated and untenable" claims are not at all acceptable.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said China's claim over Galwan Valley was not in accordance with its own position in the past, noting that attempts of transgression by Chinese side were invariably met with appropriate response from the Indian troops.
"The position with regard to the Galwan Valley area has been historically clear. Attempts by the Chinese side to now advance exaggerated and untenable claims with regard to Line of Actual Control (LAC) there are not acceptable. They are not in accordance with China's own position in the past," he said.
The MEA spokesperson was responding to a question on the issue.
The Galwan Valley was the site of the violent clash between the two militaries on Monday evening in which a Colonel and 19 other Indian Army personnel were killed.
China's People's Liberation Army has not yet talked about the number of casualties it suffered during the cross border clash, the worst in 45 years.
Srivastava said Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the LAC in all sectors of the India-China border areas, including in the Galwan Valley.
"They abide by it scrupulously here, as they do elsewhere. The Indian side has never undertaken any actions across the LAC. In fact, they have been patrolling this area for a long time without any incident," he said.
Srivastava said the Chinese side attempted to transgress the LAC in other areas of the western sector of the India-China border areas since mid-May.
"These attempts were invariably met with an appropriate response from us," he said.
Srivastava said India expects that Chinese side will sincerely follow the understanding reached between the foreign ministers of two countries recently to ensure peace and tranquility in the border areas
Chinese social media sites delete Modi's speech, Srivastava's remarks
Meanwhile, Indian embassy officials in Beijing have said Narendra Modi's speech to chief ministers on June 18, as well as comments made by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been deleted from two Chinese social media accounts, including Weibo.
The officials also said the transcript of the remarks of the MEA spokesman Anurag Srivastava were found to have been removed from the Embassy's account of Sina Weibo on June 18, following which they re-published the screen shots of Srivastava's comments on June 19.
Sina Weibo which is similar to Twitter in China has millions of users and all embassies in Beijing besides several world leaders including Prime Minister Modi have opened their accounts to interact with the Chinese people.
The MEA spokesperson's remarks have also been removed from the official WeChat account. A note on WeChat says, 'unable to view this content because it violates regulations'.
In his comments, Srivastava had asked China to confine its activities to its side of the Line of Actual Control and that it must not take any unilateral action to alter it.
Prime Minister Modi's remarks of June 18 about the Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash has also become inaccessible on WeChat. The page says that the content has been deleted by the author, whereas the Embassy officials said they have not removed it.
