The BJP on Monday took a sharp swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after he repeatedly mentioned China during his 45-minute-long speech on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Parliament. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra sarcastically dubbed him “Rahul Jinping”, drawing a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I feel like addressing him as ‘Rahul Jinping’. He took China’s name 34 times… He must be praying that he gets to be Chinese in his next life,” Patra said.
He further countered Gandhi’s criticism of India’s manufacturing sector by pointing out that the trade deficit between India and China had increased 25 times during Congress’s rule from 2004-14.
Patra also dismissed Gandhi’s remarks on the banking sector, highlighting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had given loans to 51 crore people under the MUDRA scheme, while Congress had opposed financial innovations like UPI, which now facilitates 500 million transactions daily.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also took a dig at Gandhi, highlighting that he had mentioned China 34 times in his speech. Malviya shared a video compilation of all the instances where the Congress leader brought up China during his address, further amplifying the BJP’s attack on his remarks.
The BJP’s response came after Gandhi, in his speech, declared that China had a ten-year lead over India in manufacturing and warned that Beijing was “sitting on over 4,000 sq km” of Indian territory.
He alleged that the Indian Army had contradicted the government’s claim that no land had been lost to China, stating, “The Prime Minister has denied it, but the Army has contradicted him-China is sitting on 4,000 sq km of our territory”.
Gandhi also expressed concerns over India’s dependence on Chinese imports, warning that in the event of a conflict, India would be forced to rely on Chinese-made motors, batteries, and optics.
“If and when we fight a war with China, we will be fighting with Chinese electric motors, Chinese batteries, and Chinese optics, and we will be buying Chinese motors, Chinese optics, and Chinese batteries,” he said.
He further said that China was able to come into India due to the failure of PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.