Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in his latest video blog on Thursday, once again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi by alleging that Mr. Modi was “100% focused on building his own image” and did not have a vision for the country that had allowed China to take advantage.
“India’s captured institutions are all busy doing this task. One man’s image is not a substitute for a national vision,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted along with a two-minute video.
The Congress leader said lack of vision had resulted in “Indians fighting Indians”.
Another front: On India, Bhutan and China
“We are fighting amongst each other. Just look at the politics. All day long; all day long; Indian is fighting Indian. And it is because there is no clear-cut vision going forward,” Mr. Gandhi said.
“His responsibility is to give the vision. It’s not there. I can tell you, guaranteed, it’s not there and that’s why China is in there today.”
The former Congress chief said India should deal with China by thinking big and developing an international vision.
“Psychologically, you have to deal with the Chinese from a position of strength. If you deal with them from a position of strength, you can work with them, you can get what you need and it can be actually done. But if they sense weakness then you had it...India has to have a global vision. India now has to become an idea. And it has to become a global idea. So the thing that is gonna protect India is actually thinking big.”.
Mr. Gandhi said India could either become a major global player or irrelevant depending on the path it chose.
“Of course, we have this border issue and we have to resolve this border issue. But we have to change our approach, we have to change how we think...That is why I’m aggravated. Because I can see that a huge opportunity is being lost. Why? Because we are not thinking long-term; because we are not thinking big and because we are disturbing our internal balance,” he said.
Chinese troops presence
Subequently, at a virtual press conference, senior party leader Ajay Maken asked the government to clarify on media reports about the presence of 40,000 Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), construction in the Depsang plains and Daulat Beg Oldi sector, among others.
“Modi Government has pushed our armed forces into moving back from the ITBP Administrative Base at Finger 4 to an area between Finger 2 and Finger 3. Whereas, China continues to occupy 8 kilometres inside our LAC, our territory, between Finger 4 to Finger 8 and about 3 thousand Chinese soldiers are present there. Why?” he asked. India should restore status quo ante that existed before May last, he added.
