In US, Rahul Gandhi claims Chinese troops occupied land the size of Delhi in Ladakh: ‘A disaster’
Rahul Gandhi claimed that China occupied 4,000 square kilometers of Indian territory, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't handle China well.
Rahul Gandhi in US news: Rahul Gandhi of the Congress has once again raked up the India-China border issue, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't handle China well.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington DC in the US, on Tuesday (local time), Rahul Gandhi said, “If you call having Chinese troops in 4,000 square kilometres of our territory handling something well, then maybe we have got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi in Ladakh. I think that's a disaster."
Alleging that the media doesn’t like to write about the development, Rahul Gandhi added, “How would America react if a neighbour occupied 4000 square kilometres of your territory? Would any president be able to get away with saying that he's handled that well? So I don't think PM Modi handled China well at all. I think there's no reason Chinese troops should be sitting in our territory.”
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Making a similar allegation last year, the Congress leader had accused Prime Minister Modi of lying to the Opposition over the India-China border situation in Ladakh while reiterating China has snatched Indian territory.
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“China has taken Indian land...thousands of square km...and ironically Indian Prime Minister said at a meeting with the Opposition that not an inch of Indian land was taken,” Rahul Gandhi had said at a rally in Kargil on the last day of his nine-day visit to Ladakh.
Gandhi’s reference was to Modi’s comments in June 2020 at an all-party meeting following the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers in a clash with China’s People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. Modi told leaders of political parties that neither has anyone entered nor is anyone present in Indian territory and nor was any Indian post captured.
Rahul Gandhi promotes China, undermines India: BJP
On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi said India, the US, and other countries in the West are facing the problem of unemployment, while China is not, as it is dominating global production. He underscored the need to focus on manufacturing during an interaction with students at the University of Texas in Dallas.
The former Congress president also said there is no shortage of skills in India and the country could compete with China if it starts aligning itself for production.
Hitting back, Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said the world is aware of the roaring unemployment crisis in the youth in China. "Does the secret MOU make him deliberately insult India and glorify China?" Pradeep Bhandari said while referring to the grand old party's 2008 pact with the Communist Party of China (CPC) to put in place a mechanism that would help regular high-level exchanges between them.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday accused the Congress leader of promoting Beijing and undermining India.
“Rahul Gandhi promotes China in various ways. Undermining India, he tries to project China as the best nation. But, there is no democracy and no religious freedom for people in China. But, Gandhi doesn't talk about them,” Sarma told reporters at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi.
Huge increase in China's power: Rahul Gandhi
Speaking at the event on Tuesday, Gandhi said the world is changing. There's a huge increase in China's power.
“China is our neighbour. We have a relationship with the United States. So, we are right in the middle of all this geopolitical change. We need a long-term strategic vision; it shouldn’t be just one tactical move after another. It should be, ‘OK, this is how we are thinking about it for the long term. This is the basic foundation, and we’re going to follow this path’,” he said.
“From our perspective, the central elements of that vision must be democratic ideas—peace, nonviolence, cooperation, and harmony—values our freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi fought for. However, to do this properly, you need a very good sense of who you are and what your own nature is. That’s where I don’t agree with the current dispensation. When you imagine yourself to be something you are not, that’s when problems arise. India is a very plural country, an open country. India is not just one idea; India is multiple ideas. When you imagine yourself to be something you’re not, that’s when all your strategic problems begin,” Rahul Gandhi said.