Beijing is ready to attack India in collaboration with its long-time ally, Pakistan, NDTV reports quoting an Indian opposition leader.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, also a former defence minister, made the statement in parliament on Wednesday, ignoring the government's advice to address the border dispute with China with restraint.
"India is today facing a big danger from China. I have been cautioning the central government for years. China has joined hands with Pakistan. It has made full preparation to attack India," the 77-year-old political leader from Uttar Pradesh was quoted to have said.
There has been confrontation between the Indian and Chinese armies that has extended beyond a month at the border in the mountainous state of Sikkim.
According to NDTV, Mulayam Singh Yadav also claimed in the Lok Sabha that China has buried nuclear weapons in Pakistan to target India, though he ceded that Indian intelligence agencies "would know better".
India's foreign secretary S Jaishankar reporteldy told a group of about 20 parliamentarians from different parties that though China is being "unusually aggressive" in its handling of the border dispute, politicians should "take a deep breath" and know that Delhi is using diplomatic channels to seek a resolution.
China has reiterated that Indian soldiers "illegally transgressed" the border on 16 June to stop Beijing's construction of a road on a plateau that it calls Donglang. Bhutan says the area - Dokalam - is actually a part of its kingdom; India has agreed with that claim and has said that it forewarned China that the road would be seen as "a serious security concern."
NDTV said the road would give China access to the Chicken's Strip - a thin strip of land that connects mainland India to its seven northeastern states.
Meanwhile, AFP reports: A top Indian diplomat said China is being unusually aggressive in a month-old border dispute with India that shows no sign of easing, media reports said Wednesday.
Beijing has made virtually daily warnings to its neighbour over the deadlock on a remote Himalayan plateau, where Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense face off.
Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar told lawmakers in a closed briefing on the dispute that India wanted a diplomatic settlement, the reports said.
“Jaishankar told us that China’s aggression and rhetoric on the recent standoff is unusual,” a member of the parliamentary panel at Tuesday’s briefing told Indian media.
“We will continue to engage with them through diplomatic channels,” the foreign ministry number two was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India news agency.
The dispute concerns land near where the boundaries of China, India and Bhutan meet. China has alleged that Indian troops are on its territory. Bhutan and India say the area—known as the Doklam plateau in India and Donglang to China—is Bhutanese.
Bhutan has no diplomatic relations with China and is closely allied to India, which says its troops approached a Chinese army unit that entered the zone on June 16 to build a road.
China has said it will hold talks with India only after Indian troops are withdrawn from the disputed territory.
China and India have a number of border disputes, although the section currently in question is generally regarded as stable.
The two fought a border war in 1962 in Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2014, hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops faced off on the de facto border known as the Line of Actual Control that runs along the northwest Indian region of Ladakh.
On Tuesday, an Indian junior home minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament that 73 new roads with “operational significance” were being constructed by India along the border, with 30 completed so far.
The latest dispute has triggered international concern, with the visiting Australian foreign minister urging the neighbours to resolve the row amicably.
“We don’t want to see any escalation of tensions that could lead to miscalculation and misjudgement,” Julie Bishop said Wednesday.
The US State Department has flagged concern while calling on the two nations to come up with “some sort of arrangement” for peace.
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