Scrap billion-dollar-deal with Chinese automaker: Congress tells Maharashtra CM Uddhav

Congress, an ally in the Maharashtra government, on Friday asked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to scrap the billion-dollar-pact with China’s Great Wall Motors to start a vehicle manufacturing unit in the state.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the Maharashtra government and the automobile company was inked on Tuesday as reports of the violent clash leading to deaths of 20 Indian soldiers by Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh trickled in.

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“Respected Chief Minister Sahib, this agreement should be scrapped ASAP. We can not be filling the coffers of those who slaughter our soldiers,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said on Twitter in remarks targeted at the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

Tewari’s comments come at a time when there is great sense of anger against China after the bloody clash in Eastern Ladakh that shattered the five-decade old peace on the Line of Actual Control.

The government is also looking at ways to decrease non-essential imports from China and other countries and has also scrapped certain projects it had awarded to Chinese companies.

Read: All you need to know about Ghulam Rassul Galwan — The man after whom the Galwan river was named

China’s Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Corporation Limited is also building an underground tunnel for the Mumbai Metro Line-3.

The Centre has already made it clear that scrapping projects implemented by Chinese companies sanctioned by multi-lateral finance companies was not possible.

Congress, which has 44 legislators in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, is a partner in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government.