Rahul Gandhi said that S. Jaishankar “does not understand the threat from China”. (File)
New Delhi:
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the NDA government at the centre, saying Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar “does not understand the threat posed by China,” adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that “no one has entered Indian territory” was a Invitation to the Chinese they can do it again.
Speaking to members of the Indian Journalists’ Association in London, the Wayanad MP also said that he supports India’s foreign policy and does not have a major disagreement with it on India’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“As for Indian foreign policy, I support and agree with Indian foreign policy. I don’t have much disagreement with that,” he said when asked a hypothetical question about whether China or Pakistan would invade India. Since India had not taken a position on the Russia-Ukraine war, it could also be ignored by the world, if there were an invasion of India.
Mr Gandhi said: “In terms of invasion, we have already been attacked. We have 2000 square kilometers of our territory in the hands of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Prime Minister himself has stated that nobody has invaded India, not a single inch of land has been taken and that has destroyed our negotiating position because our negotiators are being asked what it is about goes.”
“Your prime minister says no land was taken. So that’s one aspect of it. The other aspect that I keep saying is that India needs to be very, very careful about what the Chinese do at the border. The Chinese are acting hostilely, aggressively, and we have to be very, very careful, and I’ve said this over and over again, I don’t think the penny has dropped in the government. I think there is a risk as you say,” added Rahul Gandhi.
Regarding Congressional policy on China, Rahul Gandhi said that Congressional policy is not to allow anyone to enter Indian territory.
“The Congress Party’s policy towards China is very clear, we do not accept anyone entering our territory and pushing us around and bullying us. It doesn’t matter who they are, that’s not acceptable to us and what happened is that the Chinese entered our territory, killed our soldiers and the prime minister denied it,” he said.
“That’s the problem. The idea, we have a relationship with the United States and we have a partnership with them and we have a shredded democratic free idea. I think there is a compulsory idea on a planet and there is a democratic idea on a planet and I think a democratic planet needs to be strengthened. But you won’t strengthen the democratic idea unless you start thinking fundamentally about things like production. The huge inequality erupting in the West and in India is a threat to the idea of democracy. We have to think about it. For that we need to have a strategy and that’s not on the table,” he added.
When asked how India should deal with military threats, the Congress leader said: “You have to deal with military threats militarily. But you have to understand the nature of the threat and respond to the nature of the threat. I had a conversation with the foreign minister I think he doesn’t understand the threat The government doesn’t understand the real threat from China The Prime Minister’s statement that no one has entered our territory shows that he doesn’t understand the threat because the embassy China with that statement is you can do it again,” Rahul Gandhi added in an interaction at the Indian Journalists Association in London.
Earlier, S. Jaishankar lashed out at Rahul Gandhi, who has targeted the government over China’s aggression on the LAC in eastern Ladakh, saying that it is not the Congress leader but Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is directing the army to the line of the actual control countermeasure against the Chinese troop build-up and the opposition party should look honestly at what happened in 1962.
“When did this area actually come under Chinese control? They (Congress) must have some trouble understanding words beginning with ‘C’. I think they are intentionally misrepresenting the situation. The Chinese first came there in 1958 and the Chinese captured it in October 1962. Now you will blame the Modi government in 2023 for a bridge that the Chinese captured in 1962 , and you don’t have the honesty to say it happened there,” said Dr. Jaishankar in an interview with ANI.
“Rajiv Gandhi went to Beijing in 1988 … signed agreements in 1993 and 1996. I don’t think signing these agreements was wrong. This is not a political point I am making. I think these agreements were signed at the time because we needed it to stabilize the border. And they did it to stabilize the border,” said S Jaishankar.
When asked that Rahul Gandhi S considered Jaishankar insufficient. Jaishankar said that he is always open to listen. “I think he said that somewhere in a public meeting. It’s probably related to China. All I can say in my defense is that I was the longest-serving ambassador to China. I’ve dealt with many of these frontier issues for a very long time. I’m not claiming I’m necessarily the most knowledgeable person, but I would have a pretty good self-assessment from my understanding of what’s up there. If he has superior knowledge and wisdom about China, I would always be willing to listen. As I said, for me life is a learning process. If that’s a possibility, I’ve never closed my mind to anything, unlikely as that may be,” Jaishankar said.
The foreign minister stressed that the government could not reach an agreement if the demands of other countries were not reasonable.
Asked about the Congress party’s claim that the Modi government is defensive and reactive on the China issue, S. Jaishankar dismissed claims that the largest peacetime operation is currently taking place along the Chinese border.
“If I had to summarize this thing with China, please don’t buy this narrative that the government is somewhere on the defensive…somewhere we’re accommodating. I ask people if we were accommodating who sent the Indian Army to the US LAC (Line of Actual Control). Rahul Gandhi did not send them. Narendra Modi sent them. Today we have the largest peacekeeping operation in our history on the border with China. We keep troops there at enormous cost and expense. We’ve increased our border infrastructure spending five-fold in this government. Now tell me who is the defensive and accommodating person? Who is actually telling the truth? Who exactly represents things? Who is playing foot with the story?” added S. Jaishankar in an interview with ANI.
Asked about comments by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that S. Jaishankar didn’t know much about foreign policy and needed to learn a bit more, the foreign minister gave a veiled dig and said he was willing to listen to the Wayanad MP if he was “superior”. Knowledge and Wisdom” about China.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)
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