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Rahul slams govt, Jaishankar hits back
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday the country’s troubled economy, foreign policy and neighbourhood had emboldened China to take an aggressive
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday the country’s troubled economy, foreign policy and neighbourhood had emboldened China to take an aggressive stand against India, prompting external affairs minister S Jaishankar to question the foreign policy decisions of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The former Congress president made the remarks in a video released on Twitter on the India-China border standoff, part of his efforts to share his thoughts on national issues through short videos.
“The question is why have Chinese chosen this particular time to move? Why have Chinese chosen to violate the LAC [Line of Actual Control] with India at this point in time? What is it about India situation that has made China act in such an aggressive way? What is it about this moment in time that has allowed Chinese to have the confidence they can move against a country like India?” he asked.
“To understand that you have to go into multiple spaces. Countries are protected not by one particular thing but by a confluence of forces, by a confluence of systems. 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 that its people have, the vision that its people have,” Gandhi said.
“And what has happened over the last six years is that in all those areas India has been disturbed and disrupted,” he added.
Jaishankar responded to Gandhi’s remarks in a string of 10 tweets, highlighting the foreign policy efforts of the government and its measures to improve India’s standing in the world community and the steps taken to improve infrastructure along the disputed border with China.
The minister also questioned several foreign policy decisions by the Congress-led UPA government, such as the inclusion of the Balochistan issue in a joint statement issued after a summit meeting with Pakistan at Sharm el-Sheikh in 2009, and its handling of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Gandhi has been critical of the government’s handling of the standoff with China, and asked it to come clean on alleged intrusions by Chinese forces in Ladakh and the disengagement process.
He attacked the government’s foreign policy and the “soured” relationship with neighbours such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, saying ties had become transactional.
“Our relationship with the outside world used to be with multiple countries. We had a...strategic partnership with America...That is very important. We had a relationship with Russia. We had a relationship with Europe. And these countries used to help us manoeuvre in the world,” he said.
“Today our relationship has become transactional. We have a transactional relationship with the US. We have disturbed our relationship with the Russians. We have a transactional relationship with Europe,” added Gandhi.
Earlier, other than Pakistan, the entire neighbourhood partnered with India, he said. “Today Nepal is angry with us. If you go to Nepal and you speak to the Nepali people they are furious with what has happened. Sri Lankans have given a port to the Chinese. Maldives is disturbed. Bhutan is disturbed. So we have disrupted our foreign partners, we’ve disrupted our neighbourhood,” Gandhi contended.
However, Jaishankar said India’s major partnerships are stronger and its international standing higher, as reflected by regular summits informal meetings with the US, Russia, Europe and Japan. “India engages China on more equal terms politically,” he said.
“We speak our mind more openly now. On #CPEC, on #BRI, on South China Sea, on UN-sanctioned terrorists, etc,” he tweeted.
The government has also addressed the “border infrastructure imbalance legacy”, he said. “Compare 2014-20 with 2008-14. Budget up by 280%, road building by 32%, bridges by 99% and tunnels by 6 times,” he added.
Turning to the neighbourhood, Jaishankar said the agreement on Hambantota port between Sri Lanka and China was concluded in 2008 and the issue should be taken up with “those who dealt with it”. India’s difficult ties with the Maldives, after New Delhi had “watched President [Mohamed] Nasheed being toppled in 2012, now stand transformed”, he added.
The land boundary issue with Bangladesh had been settled in 2015 by the NDA government, opening the way to more development and transit, and terrorists no longer find safe haven there, he said. Nepal, he added, was getting prime ministerial visits after 17 years and a swathe of developmental projects in power, fuel, housing, hospital and roads.
Bhutan finds India a “stronger security and development partner” and “unlike 2013, they don’t worry about their cooking gas”, Jaishankar said. In Afghanistan, India has completed projects such as Salma dam and the new Parliament building, expanded training and connectivity, he said.
“And #Pakistan (that you skipped) surely notes the difference between Balakot & Uri on the one hand, and Sharm-el-Sheikh, Havana & 26/11 on the other. Ask yourself,” Jaishankar said in the last of the 10 tweets.
The reference to Balakot and Uri pointed to the 2019 airstrike at a terrorist camp at Balakot in Pakistan after the Pulwama suicide bombing and the 2016 surgical strike at terrorist camps across the Line of Control after an attack on Indian soldiers in Uri. At the 2009 Sharm el-Sheikh summit, the Indian side had agreed to the inclusion of a reference to terrorism in Balochistan, which was later used by Pakistan to imply that India was fomenting unrest in the restive region.
Gandhi also criticised the government on the economy and unemployment.
“We have the worst economic growth in 50 years with no end in sight, absolute disaster. Unemployment is the highest in 40-50 years. So, our strengths have suddenly become our weaknesses,” he said.
Gandhi said the Congress had repeatedly asked the government to inject money into the economy and announce a financial package for small and medium businesses, but it refused to do so.
“We told them listen, for God’s sake inject money into the economy. Fire the economy and do it immediately, protect the small and medium businesses. They refused to do it,” he said.
He added, “So, today you have a country which is economically in trouble; in 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 the best time to act and that is why they have acted.”
Later, Gandhi tweeted: “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.”
