The Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control can be attributed to the “trouble” India has with its foreign policy, economy and the relationship with its neighbours in the last six years, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said today, sharpening his attack on the government.
“What is it about India’s situation that has made China act in such an aggressive way? What is it about this moment in time that has allowed the Chinese to have the confidence that they can move against a country like India?” Mr Gandhi said in a 3-minute, 38-second video in which he hit out at the Narendra Modi government.
“Since 2014, the PM’s constant blunders and indiscretions have fundamentally weakened India and left us vulnerable. Empty words don’t suffice in the world of geopolitics,” the Congress leader, who has relentlessly attacked the government over the face-off with China, wrote on Twitter.
“A country is protected by its foreign relationships, it is protected by its neighbourhood, it is protected by its economy, it is protected by the feeling and vision its people have. What has happened over the last 6 years…in all those areas India has been disturbed and disrupted,” Mr Gandhi said.
He said India’s relationship with other countries has become “transactional”. We have a transactional relationship with the US, and we have disturbed our relationship with the Russians. We have a transactional relationship with Europe,” he said.
“Earlier, Nepal was a friend.Bhutan was a friend, Sri Lanka was a friend. Our neighbourhood, other than Pakistan, was working with India and saw itself as being partnered with India. Today, Nepal is angry with us. If you go to Nepal and speak to the Nepali people, they are furious with what has happened,” Rahul Gandhi said. “Sri Lankans have given a port to the Chinese… So we’ve disrupted our foreign partners, we’ve disrupted our neighbourhood.”
Indian and Chinese troops have agreed to a mutual disengagement along the LAC in Ladakh. Each side has pulled back by two kilometres.
Rahul Gandhi has been tweeting regularly, criticising the government over the deadly face-off with China in the Galwan Valley area, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty and 76 were injured.
Speaking of the economy, the Congress MP from Wayanad said the government did not act despite his party urging it it to “inject money into the economy”.
“So today, you have a country which is economically in trouble, trouble as far as foreign policy is concerned, in trouble with its neighbours and that’s why the Chinese have decided that this is possibly this time to act. And that is why they have acted,” Rahul Gandhi said.
