Rahul fires fresh salvo at PM Modi over China border issue

NEW DELHI: Renewing attack on the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the China border row, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that PM Modi continued to lie and deceive the nation.

Speaking at a meeting of Congress MPS, Gandhi said that his party would not support anything that weakened national security or borders. The former party president also targeted the government over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, pointing out that when states and union territories needed help to control the spread of the infectious virus the government had simply walked away.

“The Prime Minister continues to lie about China, saying it is not a political issue. But the Congress can't be part of anything that weakens India and we have to be firm in our stand - national security is ensuring our position and boundaries cannot be weakened,” he said.

Gandhi has been tweeting regularly, often more than once a day, since China killed 20 Indian soldiers in a violent face-off in eastern Ladakh last month. He earlier claimed the Prime Minister had “surrendered Indian territory to Chinese aggression”.

The Congress has also repeatedly flagged concerns over Chinese intrusion, particularly since the Prime Minister was quoted as saying, “neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of post captured.” In his extensive speech, Gandhi also criticised the government over foreign policy decisions and said that “things are in such shambles that even our friends are turning against us”, in a reference to a border dispute with Nepal.

He also referred to the contentious PM CARES Fund, which was set up to tackle the novel coronavirus crisis but remains outside the auditing purview of the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India).

He further claimed that Chinese military companies had contributed to the fund, raking up an ongoing battle between the Congress and the BJP over funding from China.