The Indian Embassy Weibo pages and its WeChat group have thousands of followers
Beijing:
Indian Embassy officials in China said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to chief ministers on June 18 and comments by the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry had been deleted from two Chinese social media accounts, including Weibo.
This decision comes in the context of the violent confrontation between the Indian and Chinese armies in the Galwan valley, in eastern Ladakh, in which 20 Indian soldiers died for the country, considerably aggravating the already unstable situation in the region.
Officials at the Embassy of India said that the transcript of remarks by MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had been removed from the Embassy of Sina Weibo account on June 18.
After that, Indian officials republished screenshots of Mr. Srivastava’s comments on June 19.
Sina Weibo, who is similar to Twitter in China, has millions of users and all embassies in Beijing, in addition to several world leaders, including PM Modi, have opened their accounts to interact with the Chinese people.
Comments from the MEA spokesperson have also been removed from the official WeChat account. A note on WeChat says: “This content cannot be displayed because it violates regulations.”
In his comments, Mr. Srivastava asked China to limit its activities on its side of the effective line of control and to take no unilateral steps to change it.
Prime Minister Modi’s remarks on June 18 on Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan shock also became inaccessible on WeChat. The page says “the content has been deleted by the author,” while embassy officials said they did not delete it.
Stressing that the sacrifice of Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh will not be in vain, Prime Minister Modi said that India wanted peace but was able to give an adequate response, if she was provoked.
The Weibo pages of the Indian Embassy and its WeChat group have thousands of followers.
While the Weibo page was opened earlier, the WeChat group started in January of this year.
PM Modi opened an account in Weibo when he visited here in 2015 and continued to use it to interact with the Chinese people. No message related to the recent military confrontation was published on its page.
On Monday evening, twenty Indian soldiers, including a colonel, died for India during clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.
Although China has recognized victims on its side, it did not specify the figures.
