By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday continued to put the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the dock on the Chinese transgression issue by asking prickly questions. He alleged that the PM “fabricated a fake strongman image to come to power” that has become now India’s “biggest weakness”. He said there is need to understand China’s strategic and tactical thinking as Chinese transgression in Ladakh is not simply a border issue but to attack Modi’s “Chhapan Inch” ( Strong leader) image.
In another tweet in Hindi, Gandhi underlined that China doesn’t do anything without thinking about it strategically as they have mapped out the world and they are trying to shape the world.
“It is simply not 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 it strategically. In their mind, they have mapped out the world and they are trying to shape the world. That’s the scale of what they are doing. That’s what Gwadar is, that is what Belt and Road are. It is a restructuring of the planet.”
Shedding the light on Chinese thinking, he warned they (Chinese) want to do something with Pakistan in Kashmir.
“Now at the tactical level, they’re trying to improve their position. Whether it is Galwan, whether it’s Demchok or whether it is Pangong Lake. They’re disturbed by our highway, they want to make our highway redundant and if they are thinking on a larger scale, they want to do something with Pakistan in Kashmir.”
Asserting that the incursion is not a simple border issue, Congress leader said Chinese are attacking Modi’s image because he needs to protect his “Chhapan Inch” image for political survival.
“It is a border issue designed to put pressure on the Prime Minister of India. And they are thinking of putting pressure in a very particular way. And what they are doing, is that they are attacking his image. They understand that it, he has to protect the idea of “Chhapan Inch”.”
“And this the real idea, the Chinese are attacking. They are basically telling Mr Narendra Modi that if you do not do what we say, we will destroy the idea of Mr Narendra Modi as a strong leader,” he added.
Now the question is, how Mr Narendra Modi will react. Will he take them on? I do not care about my image. I’m going to take you on. Or will he succumb to them? Rahul Gandhi asked.
He further said Modi has succumbed to his as Chinese are sitting in the Indian territory.
“The worry I have is, the Chinese are sitting in our territory today and the Prime Minister has said publicly they are not, which to me tells me that he is worried about his image and defending his image.”
And if the PM allows the Chinese to understand that they can manipulate him because of his image, then he will no longer be worth anything for India, he averred.
PM fabricated a fake strongman image to come to power. It was his biggest strength.
It is now India’s biggest weakness. pic.twitter.com/ifAplkFpVv
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 20, 2020
Another Congress leader and party’s chief spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the BJP president J P Nadda for his attack on the Congress in connection with the Chinese issue. He exposed the BJP and RSS duplicity in connection with China.
In a series of tweets, Surjewala said it is tragic that Nadda is sounding more and more like a troll version of the Bhakts. He said Modi visited Beijing nine times and met Chinese President Ji Xi Jinping during the last six years.
Surjewala put several pointed questions to BJP president
- Why are you and PM scared of even naming China, much less addressing brazen Chinese transgressions?
- How do you propose to reclaim our territory and ensure status quo ante?
- Why don’t you answer on Chinese Funds for PM CARES Fund?
- Xiaomi: ₹10 Crore.• Huawei: ₹7 Crore.• One Plus: ₹1 Crore.• Oppo: ₹1 Crore.• TikTok: ₹30 Crore.• PayTM (Over 50% owned by Chinese): Stated to be ₹100 Crore.
- What is BJP’s connection to the Communist Party of China? What is the historical relationship between BJP and CCP spoken about by BJP President, Rajnath Singh during the visit of a CCP delegation on Jan 30th, 2007 & again with CCP Politburo members on Oct 17th, 2008?
- Why did BJP President, Nitin Gadkari go to China on a 5-day visit on Jan 19th, 2011 at the invite of the Communist Party of China?
- Why did BJP President Amit Shah send a delegation of MP’s/MLA’s in Nov 2014 to China for a week-long study in “Party School” of CCP?
- Why did Narendra Modi visit China on 4 separate occasions as CM of Gujarat and on 5 separate occasions as the PM, besides hosting the Chinese Premier on 3 occasions in India? Isn’t he the only PM to have had 18 meetings with the Chinese President in 6 yrs as the PM?
- Why did the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) go to China in Jan 2009 on an invite from the CCP? Why was a delegation of RSS invited by the CCP despite it not being a political party and what discussions were held on the sensitive state of Arunachal Pradesh as also Tibet?
- Will the BJP disclose the source, amounts received, name of donors (including Chinese) for “ Overseas Friends of BJP”(OF-BJP)?
- Why did the Modi Govt shelve the creation of 90,000 strong “Mountain Strike Corps” to be carved out as a countermeasure to Chinese build up on our borders?
- Why has China committed 2,264 transgressions on our territory since 2015 under Modi Govt (Year 2015-428, Yr 2016-296, Yr 2017-473, Yr 2018-404, Yr 2019-663)?