India to take "every step" to deal with Chinese incursion India said on Tuesday it would take "every possible step" to protect its interests amid a worsening dispute over a Chinese military incursion 18km into previously Indian-controlled territory along the disputed Himalayan border. "The current situation is not one of our creation," A.K. Antony, defence minister, said after officials accused the People's Liberation Army of setting up a fifth tent on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. PLA troops were also reported by Indian media to have put up a banner in English next to their camp saying the area was Chinese. IN India Mr Antony said India remained committed to a peaceful solution to the problem, but he added: "There should not be any doubt that the country remains unanimous in its commitment to take every possible step, at all levels, to safeguard our interests." India's Congress-led coalition government is coming under increasing pressure from opposition politicians to respond more robustly to the two-week-old military stand-off in the far north. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi party chief, called the government "weak, cowardly and incompetent" in parliament on Monday. The Chinese troops must be thrown out. If this leads to war, so be it," he said. Manmohan Singh, prime minister, has so far taken a low-key approach to the incident, insisting that it can be resolved by negotiation. We do have a plan. We do not want to accentuate the situation," he said at the weekend. It is a localised problem. Salman Khurshid, foreign minister, has dismissed as "absurd" the notion that the presence of 30 Chinese troops should be allowed to disrupt the friendship between the two countries. He has said he will proceed with a planned visit to Beijing on May 9 to prepare for a trip to India later in the month by Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier. Indian opposition leaders and some of its military and foreign policy analysts, however, say the government is being naive in dealing with a clear attempt by China to stake a new claim to a strategically important area where territories controlled by China, Pakistan and India all meet near the Karakoram Pass. "Clearly the Chinese have upped the ante and the Indian side is in a bit of a muddle," said Uday Bhaskar, a former naval commodore and Indian defence analyst. I think we are going to move up a couple of notches [in our response]. One of the more aggressive ripostes suggested has been for India to set up a camp inside territory regarded as being on the Chinese side. Another is for India to rethink its diplomatic recognition of Tibet as being part of China, or at the very least issue a formal protest about the incursion. China has barely mentioned the incident in public, denying that its soldiers have crossed the LAC. One theory put forward by Indian officials is that Beijing wants Indian forces to dismantle bunkers they have built on their side of the line in exchange for China withdrawing its patrol. Soldiers from each side have routinely carried out patrols in the mountainous desert along the border, but the pitching of tents on disputed land for more than a brief period is unusual. The establishment of the Chinese camp near Daulat Beg Oldi since April 15 has led to a rare "face-to-face" situation, as defined in bilateral agreements, with India setting up its own camp nearby and requesting an immediate return to the status quo. The area was one of the border zones engulfed in the brief war of 1962, when China launched a surprise offensive, shocking Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian prime minister, who counted China as a friend. Since then, the Chinese economy and the Chinese armed forces have grown far stronger than those of India.