New Delhi, April 27: On a day that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi flayed the foreign policy record of the UPA government, calling it “non-existent”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his first intervention on the border simmer with China, calling for calm.

“We do not want to accentuate the situation,” he told journalists following a defence investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. “We do believe that it is possible to resolve this problem. It is a localised problem, and I think talks are on.”

Indian and Chinese troops have been in a “face-to-face” situation near Raki Nala in the eastern Ladakh sector for nearly a fortnight now, after a Chinese patrol pitched itself 19km inside territory claimed by India. Several diplomatic and military-level meetings have since taken place between the two sides to dissolve the stand-off, but to little effect.

“We do have a plan,” the Prime Minister told journalists, without elaborating. Discouraging public clamour and working low-profile on a diplomatic resolution is clearly part of that plan.

“This will not be helped by indulging in rhetoric,” a senior official said. “Diplomatic efforts at achieving a pullback are on even as we hold our ground at the military level.”

The army has sent troops into the Raki Nala area. At present, they are camped there in tents. Sources suggest that sending in additional soldiers as bulwark remains an “active option”.

The Prime Minister also described yesterday’s attack on Indian death-row prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail as a “very sad incident”. Sarabjit, who was assaulted by jail inmates, is in coma in Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital.

In another development, the Prime Minister rejected the Opposition’s demand for law minister Ashwani Kumar’s resignation following the CBI disclosure that he had seen its status report on the coal scam.

“There is no question of the law minister resigning. The matter is now in the court and it is sub-judice. It is not proper for me to do anything. But, there is no question of the law minister resigning,” Singh told reporters in reply to a question.

On the BJP’s charge that he was using the law minister as a shield to “safeguard” himself, Singh said: “I would not like to comment on this subject. It is a matter which is now before the court.”

Rejecting the BJP’s calls for his own resignation, he said: “This is not the first time in the past nine years, how many times... (they have demanded the resignation). But, I would like to appeal to the Opposition that they should let Parliament function. By not allowing Parliament to function, we are making mockery of our system of democracy. The whole world is laughing at us. Whatever the issues, these can be debated, discussed and decisions arrived at through proper dialogue at Parliament.”