Launching Indira Canteen, Rahul slams Modi for not evicting China from Bhutan
Bengaluru: Launching a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy, AICC vice-president, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday charged that the prime minister had made too many enemies in the neighbourhood while on the domestic front, “he’s busy dividing his countrymen.”
Mr Gandhi who was in the city for the launch of the eponymous Indira Canteens which provide subsidised food, questioned angrily what the PM had been doing in the three years since he assumed power? “He allows his partymen to beat up Dalits, kill minorities and he doesn’t say a word. He has created space in Jammu and Kashmir for Pakistan to misbehave,” the Congress leader remarked.
His tirade comes a day after PM Modi, in his Independence Day address, reached out to Kashmiris, saying abuses and bullets would not resolve their problems but embracing them would. “He (Modi) has created an environment in Jammu and Kashmir of hatred and anger, and the only people who benefit from violence and hatred are the Pakistanis,” Mr Gandhi said.
Everybody knows that Bhutan is a very good friend of India, said the Congress vice-president, adding, “They have stood by India since we got independence. India has a treaty with Bhutan, we have promised that we will protect them. In June, Chinese forces entered Bhutan, why are they still there?” he asked.
Pointing out that Russia was now selling weapons to Pakistan, Mr Gandhi asserted that all neighbouring countries except Pakistan and China were India's allies once, but this has changed with Mr Modi in power.
“The CAG has said that our defence forces don't have adequate ammunition. It's time the PM started doing what he's elected to do. It's time he answered questions that people are asking. We want to know what the PM is doing about giving jobs to youth, we want to know what he's doing about children who died in Gorakhpur and the millions of children dying elsewhere.
We want to hear what the PM is planning to do about Chinese forces sitting in Bhutan. It’s not enough to make empty speeches. It’s about time the PM starts acting like one,” he said.
