Actor and politician Kamal Haasan has launched a strongly-worded attack on the Central government about its handling of the Galwan valley issue. He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop trying to “emotionally manipulate people” over the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh, NDTV has reported.

India lost 20 of its army personnel, including a colonel, in the violent face-off on the night of June 15-16 in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. It was the biggest confrontation between the militaries of India and China after their 1967 clashes in NathuLa when India lost around 80 soldiers while the death toll on the Chinese side was over 300.

Following the face-off, PM Modi asserted that nobody had intruded into the Indian Territory or taken over any post. As the comment faced criticism, the prime minister’s office said, “Attempts are being made in some quarters to give a mischievous interpretation to remarks by the prime minister at the all-party meeting on Friday.”

Kamal Hasan On Indo – China Clash

Reacting to the statement, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Haasan asked the prime minister to stay away from emotionally manipulating people, said the report. In a statement, Haasan pointed out that the “mischief” lied in “continuing to emotionally manipulate people with such statements”. He requested the prime minister and his supporters to stop doing that.

Haasan further said, “Questions cannot be treated as anti-national. The right to ask questions is the base of democracy and we will continue asking till we hear the truth.” He also pointed out that the PM’s statement during the all-party meet had “contradicted statements of the Army and Ministry of External Affairs”.

In his statement, Haasan said that certain information could be classified. But, the government can “manage communication better than by just saying, ‘don’t doubt the army’ and ‘don’t be an anti-national’. We are beyond all that now. Let us have some transparency and accountability for a change.”

Haasan also questioned the success of the meeting that PM Modi had with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October 2019. Haasan said if the death of soldiers was the “result of the government’s diplomacy, either their strategy had failed miserably or they had failed to read the intentions of the Chinese correctly”.

He also demanded to know how Indian soldiers’ lives were being guarded and what was being done to “control China’s belligerence”.