Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday once again sharpened his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-China border face-off issue saying he fabricated a “fake” strongman image to come to power and now his biggest strength is “India’s biggest weakness”.
He also said that the Chinese are attacking the idea of a 56-inch image of the Prime Minister and trying to manipulate.
“The Prime Minister fabricated a fake strongman image to come to power. It was his biggest strength. It is now India’s biggest weakness,” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet attaching his second video of the series.
In his video, Rahul Gandhi said, it is not “simply” a border issue.
“The worry I have is that the Chinese are sitting in our territory today. Chinese don’t do anything without thinking about its strategies. In their mind, they have mapped out a world and they are trying to shape the world. That’s the scale of what they are doing, what is Gwadar is, and what is one belt and road is. It is the restructuring of the planet. So if you are thinking of the Chinese you have to understand that. That’s the level of their thinking,” he said.
Slamming the government furthers the Congress leader said now at the “tactical” level they (Chinese) are trying to improve their position whether its Galway, Demchok, or Pangong lake.
“The idea is to position themselves, they are disturbed by our highways, they are making our highways redundant. If they are thinking at a larger scale they want to do something with Pakistan in Kashmir.
“So it is not simply a border issue. It is a border issue designed to put pressure on the Prime Minister and they are thinking of putting pressure in a very particular way,” the Congress leader noted.
Hitting out at the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi said that what Chinese are doing is they are attacking Modi’s image.
“They understand in order for Modi to be an effective politician, to survive as a politician he has to protect the idea of 56 inches and this is the real idea of the Chinese attack,” he said.
“They (Chinese) are basically telling Modi that if you do not do what we say we will destroy the idea of Modi as a strong leader,” the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad said.
Firing salvos at the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi said, “Now the question is how will Modi react? Will he take them on? Will he take on the challenge and say absolutely not, I am the Prime Minister and I do not care about my image and I am going to take you on. Or will he succumb?”
He further said that the “worry that I have so far is that the Prime Minister has succumbed to pressure”.
“The worry I have that the Chinese are sitting in our territory today and the Prime Minister has said publicly that they are not,” he said.
“Which to me tells me that he is worried about his image and he is defending his image and if he allows the Chinese to understand that they can manipulate him because of his image the Indian Prime Minister will no longer be worth anyway for India,” he added.
On Friday, Rahul Gandhi released his first video and questioned the government’s foreign policy. He also slammed the Narendra Modi government over the face-off with China in Ladakh.
He also explained the reasons for China ‘selecting this time to intrude on our land and released a video on it.
He has been critical of the government over the handling of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) situation with China after the killing of 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer on June 15 in Ladakh’s Galway area by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He has questioned the government over its claim that China did not occupy or intrude into India.
