Row as Rahul Gandhi slams Centre on China model, US ties

Row as Rahul Gandhi slams Centre on China model, US ties

Row as Rahul Gandhi slams Centre on China model, US ties ByHT Correspondent, New Delhi Feb 04, 2025 04:11 AM IST Share Via Copy Link Rahul Gandhi linked China's border aggression to the failure of Make in India, criticizing the BJP and calling for a stronger industrial system in India.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday attempted to link the apparent failure of the Make in India programme to Chinese aggression at the border, hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its record in spurring manufacturing and securing defence and alleging that Beijing’s belligerence was due to its larger and stronger industrial systems.

Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi speaks in the house during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on Monday. (Sansad Tv)

In his speech on the floor of the House, Gandhi also triggered a furore when he suggested that the Union government sent foreign minister S Jaishankar to the US to secure an invitation for the Prime Minister to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, prompting Jaishankar to accuse the Congress leader of speaking a “falsehood” that could damage the nation.

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“The PM has denied, but the army keeps on talking to the Chinese and the Chief of Staff has said the Chinese are inside our territory. People think wars are fought between armies and their weapons. But wars are fought between industrial systems. China has a far stronger industrial system,” Gandhi said amid furious protests from the ruling side.

“China is sitting inside our territory because Make in India has failed,” he added.

Gandhi’s comments on China and the US sparked massive protests and demands that he authenticate (or prove his allegations are genuine). Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla intervened to demand proof for the top Opposition leader’s claims.

In the nearly 45-minute speech, Gandhi also presented an alternative vision of what the President’s address could have focussed on – including expanding manufacturing, and making young people a part of the technological and energy revolution -- rather than being a “laundry list” of government achievements. He also conceded that successive governments, be it the United Progressive Alliance or the National Democratic Alliance, have not been able to tackle unemployment and give a clear cut answer to the youth.

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Speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, Gandhi said that China was 10 years ahead of India in the creation of electric motors, robots, batteries and optics.

“We can’t afford that the Chinese are at the forefront of the (production) revolution. Today, we have the Chinese sitting on 4,000 sq. km of our land. The PM has denied this and the army has contradicted the PM,” he said.

“If and when we fight a war with China, we will be fighting against Chinese batteries, optics and robots. For the future of our children, we have to build a production line,” Gandhi added.

Gandhi said he didn’t fully blame the PM, who was present in the House during the speech. “I am not even blaming the Prime Minister because it would not be fair to say that the Prime Minister did not try. I think the Prime Minister tried and conceptually ‘Make in India’ was a good idea but it is pretty clear that he failed,” Gandhi said.

“I am worried that India is going to give up this revolution to the Chinese once again,” he said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju challenged Gandhi. “How can you make fictitious allegations? Such things are not good for the country. You need to be serious,” he said. Birla also told Gandhi to authenticate his statement.

The comments came amid a thaw in bilateral ties between the two countries that have been locked in a stand-off for almost five years. The face-off that began in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control in early 2020, and a brutal clash in Galwan Valley in June of that year which killed 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops, took bilateral ties to their lowest point since the 1962 border war. Since India and China reached an understanding on disengagement of forces at the two remaining “friction points” of Demchok and Depsang on October 21 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met two days later in Russia, the two sides have revived several mechanisms to address their long-standing border dispute and to normalise relations.

In recent weeks, the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries have met on the margins of multilateral meetings and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval travelled to Beijing in December for a meeting of the Special Representatives on the border issue. Last month, India and China decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and agreed in principle to resume direct flights.

On January 13, army chief General Upendra Dwivedi had said a “degree of standoff” remained along LAC with China in the sensitive Ladakh sector following developments that took place after the border row erupted. He had said the two sides must reach a broader understanding on how to calm the situation down and restore the trust, describing the situation as “stable but sensitive.” He had ruled out any plans to cut troop levels along the disputed mountain frontier during the current winter.

Dwivedi’s comments had come two-and-a-half months after the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) resumed their patrolling activities in Depsang and Demchok in Ladakh after a gap of almost four-and-a-half years.

The disengagement in the two areas began on October 23, 2024, two days after India and China announced a breakthrough in negotiations to resolve their stand-off in Depsang and Demchok, the last two flashpoints in Ladakh where the two armies were eyeball-to-eyeball since April 2020.

In the past, the Congress and some of its allies had repeatedly demanded discussions in the House on the China issues. Gandhi had questioned the PM’s projection of masculine nationalism by questioning the PM’s silence on the China issue and even called it a foreign policy failure.